Elise's Birthday Weekend! Part I (San Antonio+McKinney Falls State Park)

I had a fantastic birthday weekend!

We started off fresh and early the morning of the 28th.  While meeting up with the carpool (around 6:30am), my colleagues surprised me with a wonderful card and cake!  Ellie made me a maple cake, made from real Canadian maple syrup, decorated like the Canada flag!  All the interns also signed a nice card for me, which jokingly had Barak and Michelle Obama on the front.  It was pretty funny.

Happy Birthday to me!

"Uh, thanks?"

Hurrah!  Then it was on for the car ride.  We all agreed that it would be beneficial to stop in some small hick town for gas, in part due to the cost, and in part due to the experience.  The gas station we stopped at sold low-quality cowboy hats and Texas-pride baseball caps, such as the camo-patterned cap which is rendered ineffective by having a bright "TEXAS" and cow skull embroidered largely on the front.  They also sell individual pickles here, so that's weird.

This stop got me pumped.  I was excited to be here, excited to be in Texas, doing Texan things and going to Texan places.  I was stoked that we were going to the heart of Texan pride:  The Alamo.

I didn't know what to expect from the Alamo.  I assumed it would be a small, crummy fort in the middle of nowhere.  I was entirely unaware that the city of San Antonio was built around the site.  I was also unaware that there would be beautiful, well-kept gardens within the walls.

The fortress was built in 1744, as a Roman Catholic Mission compound

Monument to lives lost at the Alamo

The fortress was passed from Spanish to Mexican possession after the Mexican War of Independence in 1821.  

Texans gained control of the Alamo in 1835, during the beginning of the Texan Revolution.  During this intervals, Texans had driven out all Mexicans out of what was "Mexican Texas".

Only 189 Texans were stationed at the Alamo when 1,500 Mexicans laid a 13 day siege to the fortress in Feb-Mar 1836.

During an assault lead by President General Antonio López de Santa Anna, all of the Texan defenders were killed. There were approximately 600 Mexican fatalities.  

The defeat rallied the Texan army, leading to an surprise attack launched at Santa Anna.  The soldiers were heard crying, "Remember the Alamo!" during the Battle of San Jacinto.  The battle lasted 18 minutes, with Sam Houston leading the victory, ultimately securing Texan independance.

In one of the courtyards, an older gentleman told us the story of the Alamo, and the history of the formation of Texas.
I learned a lot that day.

I bought a t-shirt at the gift shop since they didn't charge any entry fee.  Afterwards, we walked along a canal to find a restaurant for lunch.  They have a gorgeous river!  It really caught me by surprise.

We ended up at a Mexican restaurant called "Ritas on the River", which specialized in margaritas.  Some of the servers had the slogan on their shirts, "Margaritas so good, you won't remember the Alamo!".   They had a mariachi band.  Ellie had to be a terrible person and tell them it was my birthday.

"Noooo.... Whhhhyyyyy?"
Photo courtesy to Tim

We set off to drive again, but instead of heading straight to Austin, we take a detour to McKinney Falls State Park!

During the Cretaceous, a lot of the land now known as Texas was submerged under a shallow sea

Limestone precipitated in this time interval, creating the bedrock present in this park.

A nearby volcano ejected debris into the sea, depositing soft volcanics along with the limestone

Because the volcanics were softer than the limestone, they eroded away more quickly allowing for river channels to undercut the limestone banks

While I may look pensive, I am really just lamenting my lack of swimsuit.
Photo courtesy to Ellie

Group shot!  From left to right:  Steven, Ellie, Zack, Me, Kaitlyn, Tim, Alyssa, Stefan, Molly
Photo courtesy to a kind stranger

Hurrah!  To be continued.

Houston Natural History Museum

On Saturday June 7th all the intern students who had arriven (8/12 of us!) decided to do a day trip into downtown Houston.

Our residence and workplaces are in the Clear Lake area, which is part of the Greater Houston Area to the southwest of the downtown core.  It is approximately a 40 minute drive into Houston, (with no transport services) making trips an exciting experience!  Carpooling is advantageous, as four interns have vehicles.

We all bought tickets to the Scotland vs. U.S. rugby match (why not?  New experiences!), and decided that beforehand we would visit the Natural History Museum and go for dinner.  Dinner was at a Mexican restaurant, and by heavens, Mexican food is understandably amazing in Texas.

The museum delighted us geology students with its paleontology and mineral exhibits.

"But first, let me take a selfie."
With Stephan and Tim

There was a special exhibit on gemstone carving.  There is definitely a masterful display of skill in these pieces. 

Almost all the stones carved were agates.  Agates are a microcrystalline variety of quartz which have been used in artwork and jewellery around the world for millennia.

Agates have a hardness of 7 on Moh's scale, making them considerably harder to carve than soapstone or marble.
Diamond bit tools are required.

There is an exhibit specifically devote to Petroleum Geology.  I was rather excited to go through that.
The exhibit featured various remote sensing and geophysical exploration methods, as well as different aspects of drilling procedures.

Dinosaurs!  Not quite the Drumheller museum, but still pretty fantastic!

"Okay guys, look scientific"
The polished petrified wood slices were really fantastic.  The amount of variety in colour was incredible.  Some were black and white, others had vivid reds and yellows.

A lot of the fossils were stunning.   I wish I could decorate my place with these!

The amount of detail in these fossils is very impressive.

This ichthyosaur was pregnant at the time of death.
You can see some of the remnants of her progeny.

Quetzalcoatlus is a genus of Pterosaur, which contains the largest known flying animals.  They have a 10m wing span.
I could ride this into battle.

This is the tallest amethyst cathedral I have ever seen.
For scale, I am 5'7".

Stibnite is one of my favourite minerals, and I have never previously seen a specimen larger than one of these blades.
Stibnite is a sulphide, and is the most common ore mineral for antimony, (Sb2S3)

"The Dragon" - Native gold.
This is easily the one of the most impressive mineral specimens I have ever seen.
Photo credit to Stefan.

I didn't take too many photos of the mineral exhibit, because honestly, everything in there was fantastic and I couldn't prioritize.  My camera was also running out of battery.

We went to the rugby match, which was exciting!  Scotland won, 24-6!  God save the Queen!  Tim, Stefan and I beamed with Commonwealth pride.

Happily sitting in the nosebleeds. 

All in all, it was a great day with great people.  I hope we get to do more fun outings in the future.

The Lunar and Planetary Institute

This is the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI).  They are a part of the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), providing support services to NASA.

You can learn a lot about the organization at their website: http://www.lpi.usra.edu

I also highly recommend following them on Facebook, as they are constantly posting interesting astronomical events, as well as the latest photos and research updates from across the planetary science community.

Half of the interns are stationed here, and half of are at the Johnson Space Centre (JSC).  I am one of the LPI interns, and I think our building is significantly prettier.

Main lobby at the visitor's entrance

The walls are all decorated with all kinds of maps and lunar/planetary images.  It is really beautiful and facinating.

Pretty stairway near visitor's entrance

Maps of creators on Mars

Moon maps along hallway

Research posters along hallway

Entrance to Lecture Hall (Why is Venus smaller than the other planets? Injustice!)

Typical scientist lounge - A plethora of comfy couches, academic posters, and a white board

My work space is the library, a concept which I consider to be academic heaven.  The library itself happens to be one of the most beautiful parts of the Institute.

Entrance to library

This display changes on a weekly basis - This week its for us!

I don't even know why this telescope is here, but it's awesome!  There are smaller telescopes which are available for borrowing

The books on these shelves are all educational materials for grade school programs

This section contains general science textbooks, while the rest of the library is devoted to space and geoscience related topics.  There is also a very extensive collection of lunar and planetary maps.

Some of the shelves are decorated with Lego and other models

The librarian said that everyone at LPI placed at least one piece on this Lego Curiosity, making it a collaborative team project.  I think that is pretty neat, and fits with the spirit of the success of the Curiosity mission.

My first day of work involved learning as much as I can about Venus' topology.  I pulled up a detailed map and a model of Venus for visual reference as I read the book.  Sitting across from me is my colleague, Molly.

Shelves of models beside our desks

Unfortunately, you can't get a good picture of the deer outside due to the reflectance of the windows, but they get very close!

I love that my desk is right beside a window; I've seen quite a lot of wildlife so far.  In fact, I'm actually really, really amazed by all the wildlife I've seen.  On a few days, we saw pairs of does grazing, and lying down just outside our windows.  On one day, a herd of six bucks with their antlers coming in walked past. We've also seen turkey vultures, egrets, red cardinals, scores of dragon flies and large yellow butterflies. The librarian says that in the summer, we'll start seeing bunnies too.  

I can't believe how lucky I am to be able to work in such an amazing place. I genuinely look forward to going into work every morning.  I also have a fantastic advisor, Dr. Allan Treiman, who is an absolute pleasure to work with.  I will write more about our project in a later post.

Thank you to everyone who helped me get here!

Johnson Space Center Tour

This is exciting.

I mean really exciting.

It's the JOHNSON SPACE CENTER!

ERMAGERD! JERHRNSERN SPERCE CERNTER!

*Ahem*

So, a lovely lady from the Universities Space Research Association drove me and a few others to the center for our tour.  Since we didn't have our badges yet, we needed her to get us on to the site and help us through the badge process.  Timothy (a gent from Leeds!  Remember that place?) and I were given special badges as "Foreign Nationals", indicating that we require an escort with us at all times on the premises, lest I be arrested for being Canadian.   This was the third time that my fingerprints have been taken over the course of this trip.  I'm not sure why this was necessary, given that on my extremely long visa application I clearly indicated that I'm not a spy. ("Are you coming to the United States for the purposes of espionage Y/N?"  along with other classics such as, "Are you involved with human trafficking Y/N?" and "Have you ever funded terrorist activities Y/N?")

I'm glamorous

After going through the security clearances, we were able to get back in the vehicle and drive to the building of our tour.  The NASA grounds are highly expansive- you pretty much need a vehicle to drive between buildings.

We waited in the lobby for our guides to arrive.  One of the USRA ladies took pictures of us posing next to a life-sized signed cutout of Buzz Aldrin on the moon. (I will post this as soon as I can.)

Our tour consisted of two parts:  The Lunar Tour and the Stardust Lab.

The Lunar Tour was first.  We learned that samples from space are often kept in pristine condition by reducing the amount of potential interaction with other substances.  We were required to dress up in bunny suits to keep dust and air born particles at a minimum in the facility.  We even waited in a small chamber for the air to purify before being admitted to the Lunar room.  The curator lady informed us that we were in a "Class 1000" room, meaning that there were <1000 particles per cubic meter of air.  For scale, average air is on the order of ~1,000,000 particles per cubic meter.

And we saw moon rocks!  Rocks!  From the moon!  The moon!

Among specimens, we saw a volcanic breccia, vesicular basalts and rocks that had been partially flash melted from meteor impact. The left rock on the upper photo shows some interesting impact pits.  Our guide informed us that these features can be used as "proof" that the rocks did indeed come from the moon, because they are not found anywhere on Earth, and have not been able to be replicated in a lab.

We also saw the Genesis Rock, which is dated at 4.2 billion years old, making it older than oldest known crustal rock on earth, the Acasta Gneiss, at 4.02 billion.   In Historical Geology class in 2011, I held a piece of the Acasta Gneiss and thought to myself, "This is the oldest rock I will ever see,".  There is something very special about being proven wrong, and experiencing things that continuously push the limits of what I thought possible.

The Stardust lab is where the analysis of space particles takes place.  We weren't able to go into this lab, (which is Class 10!) but we were able to look in through a window, and see some samples of the aerogel used to capture the particles.  I remember images of the aerogel was going around Facebook awhile back, so I was thrilled to see it in person.

Arrival in Houston

Hello!  I'm not dead.  In fact, I have arrived safely in Houston, Texas!

Upon debarking the plane, I turned left and did a little dance to see a NASA gift shop right there.  The first thing I see at my new destination.  I took this as a good omen.

I did not plan my arrive too well.  I saw a Camden food Co, thought, "Oh wow!  I should eat something!  No wait!  I should get my luggage first!"  Upon receiving my luggage, I thought, "I should get a taxi straight away!"  Only to arrive at my residence with no food and no grocery store within walking distance.  Clever girl.

I was actually quite impressed during the taxi ride, despite traversing the outskirts of Houston suburbs instead of through the downtown core.  I had never seen an interstate highway before, so the 12 lane monstrosity that we cruised down broke my mind.  The interstate intersections(?) were aerial labyrinths of overhead passe spiraling and cutting across one another.  It honestly looked like something from a science-fiction film from my perspective.  I found it amusing how the Shell and McDonald's signs were at least 40 feet up in order to be seen from the highway.

Upon arrival, the taxi driver courteously lent me his phone to call the building manager, given that I had arriven after hours.  I promptly filled out some forms and was handed my keys.  All good.  My apartment was an empty mess.  Less good.   I resolved to do a sweep, and buy a shower curtain and toilet paper as soon as possible.

My fantastically generous roommate, Allie, was away the evening of my arrival, but she left a note on the counter saying that I could make myself a cheese sandwich if I needed.  I gratefully did just that.

I used my free time that evening to tour the gated apartment grounds.  I'm delighted to report that our accommodations have an outdoors pool, hot tub, volleyball court, picnic tables and BBQ.  I suspect we'll have a pool party in the near future (perhaps for my birthday?).  The common room is also equipped with a t.v. and a piano.  Perhaps I'll make use of my evenings and learn to play, or at least finally be able to work through, "Un Comptine d'un autre été" completely- a task I had abandoned since the piano in Boddington Hall back in England.

It's time for a new adventure.