Round 2

Yesterday Brandon and I traveled for almost 12 hours. One stop plane ride to Guadalajara. Taxi to Bus Station. Bus to Colima, our final destination. On the bus ride we drove around the enormous volcano which we will be studying and it was degassing a little bit! The volcano is 14,000 ft in elevation. We live with 3 other students; Katharine, Kristina, and Sebastian from Belgium, Germany and Switzerland respectively. Brandon and I share a room, two twin beds and a little bathroom. Brandon is feeling a bit out of place because he has never been outside of the U.S. or Canada. It reminds me a lot of Brazil.

Last night we dropped our bags off, got some dinner at some street cafe. I had a delicious gringa and a horchata. Afterwards, we went ice skating, yes ice skating. Despite the hot and humid weather, Mexicans celebrate the winter holidays along with all the festivities and activities.

Today we started our work and are starting to find our way around town. The other students all leave town this next week. And our advisor is at a conference in Costa Rica until the end of the month...So we have to learn how to run all the equipment, perform all the duties (which are many), learn the city and learn the language in a weeks time. Don't worry though, there is a Wal-Mart.

We do a lot of laboratory work and data analysis for Nick (our advisor). We also go on field trips once a week which usually last 2-5 days on the volcano. The data analysis consists of analyzing seismic data, thermal data, remote sensing data, and image data. There are seismic receivers all over the region and we have a few permanent cameras which take pictures of the volcano every 15 seconds. Once Nick returns we will be assigned a personal project, which I am most excited about.