Welcome to New Jersey

Today I got my car inspected after getting my license and plates last week. This was the last step in transferring everything to New Jersey. =(

At one point I was kinda afraid it was going to run away ;)  

Field trips

So recently I've been going on a lot of field trips and in the process getting to see a lot of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In two weeks, I'll be going on a field trip to Connecticut, which I'm pretty excited about since I've never been. Last Friday I went on a field trip to Northern New Jersey, which also happens to be the poison ivy capital of the world.  

But it was also very pretty there. 

I am starting a blog!

So I have been contemplating creating a blog for a very long time and have finally decided to start. What convinced me was the cool book that my Aunt Barbara made from her food blog, Feast Everyday. I thought hmmm...I love scrapbooking, so this would be a great way to do that, and let my family and friends know what I am up to, since I know I'm not always the best about volunteering information. 


So although I intend to keep up this blog, it will have a hiatus here in the next three weeks as I am beginning my summer adventures! On May 19th I'm flying to Amsterdam with my roommate Cat, and we are going to travel in Europe for about a week and a half. We are not sure where yet since Cat is very sensitive about Mr. Eyjafjallajokull (You would be too if you were trapped in Europe). Then I am going to visit my friend Felix in Nuremberg while Cat goes to Kenya. Then June 4th I'll be flying to Tanzania where I'll be for a month doing fieldwork for my master's thesis. 


I'll be scoping out some rocks in Olduvai Gorge and collecting sample to analyze back at Rutgers. I'll get to do some fun stuff too. I told my advisor that I could not leave Africa without seeing a wild giraffe, so we are going on a little safari at the end to check out some modern spring environments and see some animals along the way. 


So over the next few weeks, I will be frantically trying to get everything ready to go and finishing up my first year of grad school, which is just crazy talk. So is the fact that I have been 24 for more than a week. 

Here are a few pictures from Rutgers Day. The geology department had a booth where we taught people about different aspects of geology. It was actually a lot of fun. Everybody from the department was there, which you rarely get everyone in one place unless there is a class involved, and it was an absolutely perfect day.