The 6 month review

I'm currently writing this blog from the pub. Unorthodox and risky, yes. But it demonstrates nicely how comfortable I am here. I swanned into the pub this evening on my own, calmly took my usual seat and switched on the TV to watch the Champions League football, before going to the bar, ordering a drink, with the barmaid already knowing my name for this evening's tab. That's how you know that you're welcome. Or that you go to the pub too often.

I am now ~6 months into my stay across the pond. 192 days ago I embarked on the most exciting thing I have done in my life. Last week this milestone was brought to my attention at our regular Thursday night Pub Quiz fixture. As my friends sat on the opposite side of a long table facing me, I questioned if this was an interview. "Yes Stacy, this is your 6 month friend review" they replied. Cue massive sentimentality and deep reflective thinking, and hence the reason for this blog edition.

When I asked my friends for their evaluation of me, I was very happy to hear positive responses. "Excellent drinking buddy" and "Good person to bake bad cookies with" were some of the comments. This raises some important points. Firstly I have been fortunate enough to make some fabulous friends over here. Way back in September I ended up being brave enough to join the other Geologists for lunch, and then brave enough to turn up for the Pub Quiz at the Grad Student pub. Two excellent leaps of faith. For some reason I made a good enough impression that they kept me around. Or maybe they couldn't really get rid of me. Either way, I'd like to think people round here quite like the loud English lass.

Now I have mentioned the pub a few times already, and as with any good geologist, it is an integral part of my life. Not necessarily important for getting hammered as was the case back in 1st year of undergrad, but more as a vehicle for hanging out with great people. On Trivia Thursdays or football Saturdays /Sunday /(Tuesdays /Wednesdays /Thursdays when European footy is on) I will likely at Bitters or the Duke of Duckworth. Defining quotes from my time in the pub that come to mind are: 
1) my friend saying "She's not shouting, that's just how she is" when I was asking the Trivia hosts a question, and 
2) myself saying very loudly in a very English accent "Don't be silly!" when Wayne Rooney attempted to gain a penalty in and undifferentiated United game.

One of my favourite events of my time here though has to be last week, when I officially became a Newfoundlander. I was "Screeched In", an age old tradition and ceremony to welcome honorary Newfoundlanders. I had somewhat bided my time doing this; everyone else who turned up in September had already done it. But that just meant that all attention was on me this time! A geology night out turned into an impromptu Screech In. And boy am I glad that's what happened. As the photos demonstrate...

I had to eat some form of reconstituted meat...

I had to kiss a frozen cod...

I had to do a shot of Screech (Newfoundland Rum)...

I had to recite the phrase "Deed I is me old cock, and long may your big jib draw!" 
and then I was officially called a Newfoundlander!

Just some of the fabulous people that have helped me along the way.

Away from the drink related things, I want to say that I am very happy that all this is happening in Newfoundland. Culturally its so similar to the UK thanks to its Irish connection, so not much of an adjustment has had to be made. There are things I miss about home indeed (other than the family and friends of course). The way they pronounce the word aluminium. The fact that tomato paste comes in a tube. The rugby being shown on TV. But I have enjoyed adjusting to my new life. St John's is a great place to do it. Downtown is colourful and awesome even in the miserable fog and rain. The snow has overgrown its novelty factor by the slushiness it leaves behind, but it still makes me excited when there's been a fresh fall overnight. The sight of Signal Hill across the harbour will never fail to make me smile. The rocky landscape reminds me very much of the Scottish Highlands. When the weather gets nicer I will get out and explore this wonderful island some more.

One of my favourite spots Downtown; The War Memorial, Jelly-bean coloured houses behind, opposite the Harbourside Park.

 Very much like East Sands in St Andrews, I will never tire of this view.

On top of that my Master's work is pretty awesome too. I'm going to be using a new cool analytical technique to look at rocks that no one has looked at for years, trying to solve some very important questions. I have a world leader as my supervisor. The guy who invented the LA-ICP-MS is two offices down from me. I've had the chance to travel to California. Twice. All for the sake of Geology.

All in all, as cheesy as it sounds, my life is pretty awesome right now. I've had my share of setbacks in the past so its about time something went right. I find myself truly lucky for everything I have experienced in the last 6 months, and long may it continue. Apologies for this being a somewhat self-appraising post, but I should be happy about what I have. Believe me I don't take it for granted. I hope you'll forgive this long, reflective and slushy post. The next time something really cool happens, I will do an awesome write up I promise!

Holidays at home

After returning from the desert I only had a couple of days left before I flew back to the UK. I was immediately thrown back into Newfoundland culture when I went to see the Mummer's Parade. Despite my constant questioning it was never exactly explained to me what it was about. It just seemed to involve various people (Mummers) wearing weird clothes, covering their faces, often wearing bras on the outside of their clothing walking through town carrying sticks with bottle tops attached to them...Having just read the Wiki page, it makes a little more sense: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummers_Play#Newfoundland_Mummers

This was then followed by drinking copious amounts of wine with friends and learning about the wonderful board game "The Settlers of Catan."

We caught it in Bannerman Park outside The Colonial Building. It was very strange...

But a whole lot of fun to watch!

I subsequently departed Newfoundland, leaving a couple centimetres of snow behind. Flying a little over 1000m east to come the same distance and then an ocean's worth back to Heathrow I finally arrived in good ol' dreary England. Greeted by my father and driven back up North we chatted about the finer points of living in Canada, evidenced by stopping at the motorway services and getting a coffee at Starbuck's, me explaining that it's normally Tim Horton's if you want a latte in St John's.

No sooner than I was back in Skelmersdale I had organised my week to catch up with as many people as possible. I never thought I would say it, but boy have I missed travelling by train! Travelling to Liverpool, Manchester and Wigan before Xmas I barely had chance to "relax", not that seeing some of my best friends was a chore though!

Before I knew it it was Xmas and the traditional do at the Phillips household. 3 different roasted meats in 3 days is something we should never stop doing. My niece had recently turned 1 and therefore could participate in Xmas more than last year. Suffice to say she got spoilt rotten, and who was I to miss out, getting her a fantastic moose teddy bear all the way from across the ocean.

I thought it was about time I used a few birthday and Xmas presents. Excellent breakfast.

The best we could manage of a Xmas family photo.

Next stop on the list was New Year's in Edinburgh. For the last couple years we've done house party Hogmanay in Edinburgh, but our usual host was on the other side of the world. Someone stepped up and another fantastic tradition continued. I had a fabulous turn of the year (from what I can remember...) and I realised again how much I want to live in Edinburgh at some point in my life.

Me and my girls after getting very excited about Jackie Bird.

Princes Street gardens looking fabulous and festive as usual.

Utilising the train network again there was one more person that I couldn't bear not seeing if we were on the same landmass again. Off to Birmingham for the first time (well since getting caught in a football riot outside West Brom's stadium) I met up with Em and Ross, enjoying lunch at the Handmade Burger Co. on the canal. A lovely day wandering round the surprisingly scenic Birmingham city centre.

After a few more days at home with the family I was then off to my first Geology conference in Bristol. Armed with my research-proposal-come-poster I lugged my huge suitcase down to the south-west. With little time to explore Bristol I enjoyed a quick sarnie outside Bristol Cathedral, then headed to the first session, wandering past the Bristol Earth Science department that also looks like a cathedral.

The second day poster session happened to coincide with my birthday, leading to one of the more nerve-wracking yet subdued birthdays of recent times. My poster went down well with the few that cared for mineral isotope geochemistry, leaving me to enjoy the evening at my leisure. Ending up going for Thai food I had a lovely day overall, culminating in 3 very brainy geologists singing "Happy Birthday" to me in the rain.

I would love to go back to Bristol at some point and have a proper touristy look round.

Immediately after the conference I headed to Heathrow to fly back to Canada. I think my journey back home deserves a post of itself, so watch this space for a typical Stacy travel story. All in all, I had a fabulous time at home, sharing the holidays with family and friends, as well as getting my geek on. Not knowing when I'll be back in the UK next is an unsettling feeling, as I now have a bit more perspective on how amazing my people and my home country really is.

Desert Adventures II - The Mojave Desert

This post fills in the gaps in the middle from the previous one, that is what I actually got up to on the field work bit of my trip. Myself, John & Johnnie met up with the 4th member of our intrepid team, Calvin. Calvin was John's Master's advisor back in the day and he has been working on the rocks of the Mojave desert for the last 40 years or so. He was to act as our guide to all things desert related. 

We set off from Vegas on our way towards Needles, California where we were staying. I was in the rugged little 4-wheel-drive Jeep with Calvin. Driving south I got a geological travelogue of every single mountain range and valley we passed. And don't mistake my tone here, it was fabulous to be told the information and stories of the landscape from the  guy with a photographic memory. 

We made good time on the road and we stopped for an early lunch before actually getting our nose to any rocks. We stopped at the Hi Sahara Oasis, a fabulous truck stop along the original Route 66. The first culinary delight of the trip was a falafel pita that, despite not containing any tahini much to Calvin's dismay, was scrumptious.

The Hi Sahara Oasis. A true oasis in the desert this is the only place within 100 miles on the interstate. 

The wind whips up a wee sand storm as a lonely truck stops to refuel.

Next we headed for the rocks. The main focus of my study is to look at the Sweetwater Wash pluton, which is part of the Old Woman-Piute range Mountains. I'll be digging out extremely small minerals of monazite from the granites, shooting some lasers at them and measuring their chemical components. From that I can tell lots about how the formed and when these big lumps of molten rock cooled. 

Anyways we came off the main highways and continued along bumpy desert roads. The roads were actually in pretty good condition despite just being linear trails through the cacti. Doesn't mean my back didn't hurt at the end of it though. We drove for about an hour up Carbonate Gulch, much more preferable a dry stream than Rattlesnake Canyon, despite there not actually being any Carbonate rocks anywhere nearby. Work then consisted of getting out of the cars, having a gander at the rocks and Calvin providing us with wisdom as to where is best to sample. Then John would hit the bejesus out of the granite with his sledgehammer and I would collect. Bag and tag, move onto the next outcrop.

The Old Woman Mountains in the midday sun.

"That is a nice boulder." And actually it is. It's granite with bits of Fenner Gneiss trapped in it.

Part of the Sweetwater Wash Pluton. Johnnie went off for a wander to the
left and found an old mine shaft.

Sunset over the Ship Mountains to the south.
Our wee Jeep in the late afternoon glow.

We made it to Needles and settled into our hotel. Dinner was at Juicy's River Cafe next door, where we would also enjoy our breakfasts the following days. I had a Baja Burger, somehow named so due to the addition of an avocado. Yummy but greasy southern fare. How different my weight would be now had we camped on this trip.

Following day we headed to the beautifully named Painted Rock pluton, a Pride Rock-esque monolith sticking out of the desert. Despite almost getting stuck by persevering down the desert track we made it safely in and we all got a bit snap happy. I especially was enjoying learning about the ecology of the desert from Calvin, and thus documented most of the plants we came across. I did also see some Teddy Bear Cholla and some Joshua Trees but for some reason didn't take any photos...

Cottontop Cactus

Cholla (they hurt)

Why Chollas hurt

(Drunken) Yucca

Ray Flower

Juniper tree that made me crave gin.

There's a stupid amount of cholla photos because they were the most abundant cacti.

Forging on we went to the other side of the Sweetwater Wash pluton and hiked in about an hour to sample on this side. It was pretty cool having Calvin there because he did his Master's mapping these rocks so he knew exactly where everything was and where we were going. We made our way to the "famous" SW-1 site that provided the samples for some of the breakthroughs in accessory mineral geochemistry during the 80's. Having read about it so much in class it was cool to go there. We hiked back to the cars walking down the dry Sweetwater Wash itself and were treated to a lovely sunset that photos don't do justice to. 

Dinner this evening was a "chicken fried steak" at the Wagon Wheel restaurant. I ordered it as I was intrigued as to what it actually was. There was no chicken involved. Just a thin bread crumbed steak with some lovely sauce and some chips. More typical southern fare.

Painted Rock pluton. The massiveness of the desert
was particularly evident from here

Piute mountain sediments, the same ones that are in the Grand Canyon, but here older Cambrian rocks are thrust on top of them.

We kept finding little presents all over the road. We then found the culprit, likely a member of the Lazy Daisy Ranch nearby.

The sunset over the Old Woman Mountains.

Our last day involved one more sample collection, this time from the North Piute pluton. A quick drive towards the Great White contact and a quick whack at the rocks. After that John was keen to drive north into the Mojave National Preserve for some extraordinary scenery and a wide variety of geological features. The Granite Mountains were spectacular in their 100% outcrop. The Kelso Sand dunes formed as the winds blow down from the mountains. And then the Kelso depot, now a ghost town but it used to be an important stop on the railroad and telegraph station.

The Great White contact. North PIute granite below in contact with the
Fenner Gneiss at the roof of the pluton.

Me halfway up the Kelso Dunes, 45 sq. miles of migrating aeolian sand deposits, the highest point being 650 ft. We were aiming for the top but walking it at 12 noon wasn't the best way to achieve this goal.

Kelso Depot. Very different to the Scottish town of Kelso.

Lunch at the Mad Greek Cafe in Baker was a huge yummy lamb souvlaki. I did have my reservations though when I saw a load of birds angrily flapping around outside, reminding me of the Greek legend of Prometheus who got his eyes pecked out by birds...Anyways we continued to drive north and it started to look more like a proper arid desert. Vegetation became sparse and dried up lakes became the norm. Huge alluvial fans coming off the mountains made it look more like the photos of Death Valley that I had studied during my undergrad. We weren't actually that far away from Death Valley.

We arrived at our destination, the China Ranch Date Farm. Located on the Old Spanish Trail it has produced dates since around the 1920's, importing date trees from Iraq and growing them using the sparse water that is found deep beneath the 100's of metres of lake sediments. We had date milkshakes, which to be honest had no taste of dates but lovely nonetheless, and I purchased some Date Bread for the Pot Luck Xmas dinner I was attending 9 hours after I landed back in St John's.

The Kingston Peak formation that we studied for a
mapping project as 4th years in St Andrews.

42 Flag in a proper looking desert.

The China Ranch Date Farm with lots of lovely little bits of memorabilia.

Dates growing on the trees covered in some very colourful cloth.

We saw a coyote atop the sediments. We think he was waiting for the farm to knock off for the night to treat himself to some dates.

One more stop on our whirlwind tour of the Mojave. Just past the wee town of Shoshone John took me to a wonderful road outcrop where the MUN field school goes in the Spring. Reminiscent of the Multicoloured Rock Stop in the Scottish Highlands, it's another beautiful set of rocks to sketch in the notebook.

The sun set and now we had an epic drive back to Needles. Driving through some dense Joshua tree forests we discovered that they look rather alien and creepy at night. We stopped briefly to look up and admire the stars. I've never been anywhere where you appreciate the fact that the stars are arranged in the belt of the Milky Way. Having been listening to talk of the Mayan Apocalypse on the radio, I suddenly felt very very small.

The fabulous desert experience was topped by a trip to Valenzuela's. This tiny Mexican restaurant is a favourite of Calvin and John's and Calvin was very disappointed that he had left before we went there. Set in a residential area this small building still had an external outhouse-style toilet for the customers. The food was incredible and the hospitality fantastic. I was particularly impressed by the home-made taco shells, something I hadn't come across before. I fought to finish my food, as I didn't want to waste such a beautiful meal.

A volcaniclastic wonderland, beautiful in the late afternoon light.

Another gorgeous sunset.

And there I ended my second Californian adventure. Beautiful sights that I may never see again. Lots of photographs that attempted to capture the incredible views although few of them depict what I'll have in my memories. A wonderful week full of scenery, food and geology. What more could you want?

Desert Adventures I - The sights of Las Vegas

Being a geologist is pretty awesome. There are rocks everywhere in the world. You find a reason to study them and you can find yourself off in some rather exotic places. Now I'm a (newly converted) granite person and it just so happens that there's some pretty awesome granites in California. In September I had chance to see some of them in the Sierra Nevada towards the north of the state. My Master's project is looking at some similar ones to the south in the Mojave Desert. So off to I went to the desert in the relatively cool month of December.

My advisor was at a conference in San Francisco the week before I went out so I flew into Las Vegas, we met there and then drove down towards my field site. This allowed for plenty of time for sightseeing and to take in Vegas. And boy is there a lot to take in. The biggest thing that got me was the scale of the place, or rather the lack of a sense of scale.  Vegas is surrounded by mountains on all sides, but you can't really tell how big they are. They could be 200m or 2000m. The only skyscrapers in the city are the casinos. The rest of the city is 1-2 storey buildings. So when you're walking along The Strip and you can see the casino you want to head for, you may think it's only a block away. But 1 block is more like 6 blocks. It takes a long time to walk around. And then the casinos themselves are enormous when you go inside. It's rather easy to get lost, especially if you're just walking aimlessly around like I was.

Excalibur Hotel & Casino. I think Grand Theft Auto did a fab job recreating this.

The Luxor with it's Pyramid, Sphinx and  Obelisk. Naturally I had Dad's flag with me. The irritating thing about getting a photo of this hotel is the ugly monorail that runs right in front of the Sphinx.

Street corner in front of the Excalibur, New York New York to the left MGM Grand off to the right. The scale of these places made getting a decent photo very difficult. This is a stitch of 6 photos.

Taken from Caesar's Palace towards the Eiffel Tower Restaurant and Bally's.

I got to my hotel and dropped my stuff off and then headed straight for The Strip. I had a couple of hours before John flew in so I wanted to keep my sightseeing simple. We were staying at a place 15 minutes walk down Flamingo, which runs perpendicular to The Strip. I rocked up and was greeted by the wonderfully coloured Flamingo casino and the ever so grand Caesar's Palace casino. Walking past all the posh shops I appeared on the street outside the Bellagio, just in time for the famous fountain display. It's the same thing that's in the scene at the end of Ocean's Eleven, and as this is one of my favourite films I was very excited. It didn't matter that I saw it in the middle of the day. It was set to "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Xmas" and despite Vegas looking exactly the same as it does the rest of the year, it didn't take anything away from the wonderfulness of the display.

Bellagio fountains. There was a plaque explaining how they use the water sustainably, despite being in a desert where water resources are poor.

I walked from here southwards down The Strip, taking in the weird and wonderful sights of Sin City. There were lots of characters dressed up on the streets inviting you for photos, such as Mario & Luigi, Iron Man, and a Britney Spears impersonator who was a little outdated. I walked around 2 miles through town and made it to Mandalay Bay, the fabulous  golden hotel near the start of The Strip. My plan was then to walk a little further to the Welcome to Las Vegas sign. I knew it was down the road a bit more but as I continued to walk the hotels, casinos and gift shops stopped, and a few particularly creepy motels remained. At that point I chickened out and turned round, citing that I had to get back to the hotel.

Diverted into the MGM Grand due to walkway repairs I naturally got lost in its vastness. The Pacquiao Marquez fight was on that night so the place was buzzing. I came across the MGM lion in a boxing ring wearing a stetson. Of course.

Mandalay Bay in all its glory.

Another natural phenomenon in Vegas, a Harley Davidson restaurant with a bike coming out of it. There was also a Planet Hollywood and TWO Hard Rock Cafes.

I met up with John and his son and we drove round LV during the evening. We headed to Downtown where all the original casinos were. Just missed a photo down Glitter Gulch but this'll do nicely.

Not happy with the disappointment of not finding the sign we drove there for a snap. I would've got one standing in front of it but there were several wedding parties out and I didn't want to interrupt. I'm thinking I should've now...

Now I'm going to skip forward a couple days to describe the return trip to Las Vegas. On the way back we decided to drop in on Lake Mead to see the Hoover Dam. What a disappointment. Driving through the snaky roads to the actual dam road you couldn't see anything of, well very much. The sides of the road were high so you couldn't see any water either side. You could walk around the sight for a small fortune, or get a lift on one of the many helicopters that were doing tours. If you didn't want to get to the dam itself, you had to go through a Homeland Security check. As we had all of our luggage this would've have been a particular hassle. Fed up with the paranoia and stupidity of the situation we found the one car park where you can see anything worthwhile for free. I jumped out with the flag and got some photos in gale force winds and we drove onwards and upwards. At least I briefly popped into Arizona!

Lake Mead on the Colorado River. The white "bath tub line" on the rocks shows how much the water level has dropped some 140ft since it's maximum in 1983.

We headed back to our hotel and then to do some non-casino related LV sightseeing. (The only gambling I did was a wee flutter on some quarter machines where I won some non-redeemable "smile tokens".) We went to the Atomic Testing Museum, where we learnt the history of the Nevada Test Site. It was super interesting and really informative. I would highly recommend for anyone to go. DO NOT bother with the Area 51 exhibition however. What a waste of time that was. Stupid conspiracy theories lit by neon green lights. Urgh.

Next was The Mob Museum. We had tried to go on the first night, however we were informed that the FBI were having their Xmas party in the courtroom, which is the best bit of the exhibition. So eagerly we returned and it was worth the wait. A fantastic 3 storeys full of Mob memorabilia, both from Las Vegas and throughout the US. Could easily spend 3-4 hours there it's so interesting. And they've got a replica Tommy gun you can shoot! The Courtroom exhibition showed videos from the Kefauver Trials in the actual courtroom they used to put away all the mobster's in the 50's. Another must see attraction in Vegas.

The finishing touch to the trip was dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. I had never been to one before so I was mega excited. And quite rightly. Great food, great cocktails, great music. Overall, a bloody great trip.

Happily drinking my Southern Rock cocktail, washing down a brilliant Pulled Pork sandwich. And I got to keep/buy the glass!