I’ve been to Home Depot so many times now, I think I could work there…

June 11th, 2010

So much has happened in the past week that it's hard to remember.  But let me take a jog down memory lane and see what I find...

I got into San Jose, CA and almost immediately began feeling like an idiot.  This was because I had mistakenly told Mairi, the grad student in charge of my project who had graciously volunteered to pick me up from the airport, that my flight got in at 2 pm when it actually got in at 4 pm.  Oops! She was very nice and it luckily hadn't inconvenienced her too much so it ended up okay.  Talking with her on the car ride to Stanford, I found out that we had a lot in common.  Not only did we both go to Rice, but she also had doubts about going to grad school, whether or not she should get her PhD, and what kind of career and life she wants.  It's been very helpful and encouraging to talk to someone who has a mentality that's similar to mine.  She had arrranged for me to stay in her roommate's room for the 4 days before we had to drive out to Nevada to start setting up the project.  I settled into my room and we had pizza that night with some of her friends. 

The next day was when it began... supply shopping.  With the help of the friendly Home Depot staff, we found out what "nut drivers" are and then literally bought out the whole store. We must have spent a solid hour and a half in there and spent about $500...and we still weren't done.  We went to 2 more hardware stores after that! I had no idea how expensive it is to do a project like this.  Monday we went to the Geophysics building and I met Dr. Klemperer.  He is British, which I wasn't expecting, and seems very nice, which I was hoping for.  Mairi informs me however (and I already got this vibe) that he can be very intimidating. I also laid to claim to one of the four identical desks in a room with no windows.  I definitely got the best one, though.  Sorry, Daniel. 

On Tuesday night we went to a reception in San Francisco for a conference on the Himalayas that Dr. Klemperer invited us to.  I was expecting an ugly hotel convention center with a bunch of people standing around shmoosing.  Instead, it was at an amazing science museum that had a rainforest and an aquarium. We walked around looking at the exhibits and sampling the food, talked to some professors, and even though I wore painfully impractical shoes, it was a really fun night. 

Yesterday, Mairi and I made the 9 hour drive out to Elko, NV.  She drove the whole way since I am not allowed to drive until I turn 21 :( I felt bad but apparently she is used to making long drives.  We stopped halfway to talk to a Dr. Viasse (?) at the University of Nevada in Reno.  He gave us some dvds of data from 6 seismic stations near the Ruby Mountains that I will be using to study the anisotropy in the region.  He also inspired us both to learn a c-shell language, Pearl in particular...I'll get right on that.  When we finally got into Elko we found out the motel had lost our reservation and thanks to the mining convention in town this weekend, most places were full.  The lady who lost our rez felt bad I guess because she called around town until she found us a room and then drove us to it so we didn't get lost (it was honestly 3 blocks away).  In the end the motel was fine and we ate a late dinner at (a contestant for) one of the top 100 Chinese Restaurants in the Country!!!  

Anyway, today we received the seismometers that were shipped from PASSCAL and of course had to check out the Home Depe in Elko.  We looked into buying all the fence posts, barbed wire and sand needed but decided we should wait for some more muscle to arrive before we do that.  After running errands all morning, we settled in to our quite nice arrangements at the Great Basin College, ate some Velveeta Shell's & Cheese, and watched Rush Hour.  Tomorrow, a couple things to do but the real work doesn't start until everyone else arrives on Monday.  I'm excited and nervous for the real work to begin.  We are installing the stations in teams of 2-3 so I will definitely get to learn everything about the installation process.  The Ruby Mountains are beautiful but pretttty snow-covered...might need to purchase a sweatshirt.   

-K