First week of internship
I arrived in Blacksburg Tuesday night, by way of the San Jose, Washington Dulles, and Roanoke airports. A friendly stranger gave me a ride to Blacksburg when I missed the bus due to two flat tires delaying the plane to Roanoke, which I thought was very nice. It is so different here from the Bay Area, but it's been exciting to see farm animals, ten-minute thunderstorms in the middle of the day, and fireflies! I'm still trying to find my way around, and my roommate has been kind enough to drop me off at school. I'm going to miss her when summer school is over. It takes her five minutes to drive here from the apartment, but with my trusty sense of direction it took me about an hour to walk back yesterday.
As for the actual work I'm supposed to be doing, Dr. Hole gave me a bunch of papers to read yesterday, and I've been trying to get through them. The project proposal describes the Salton Trough region and how seismic refraction and reflection will be used to study the rupturing of a continent. My job will be to look at 3 sets of past data (2 of which are questionable/unlocated as of now) to see what improvements can be made in the future, I think. A 280-km line along the Salton Trough has been proposed, and shots will likely be taken next year. Some of the reference papers I have to read are by people I have heard of, including my igneous petrology professor from last quarter! Hopefully I will be able to finish reading the references cited in the proposal, OFR's, and scanned pages of an old thesis today or this weekend.
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Haha, thanks for the advice!
Haha, thanks for the advice! I was actually able to borrow a bike from my roommate's friend, so it worked out pretty well. I was planning on buying one from Hokie Spokes, and I felt really bad calling them to cancel, but they were so nice! Saving a hundred bucks is always good though.
I mostly get confused around the apartment complex area because the roads are weird, but the school is not bad. My building is right in front of the parking lot and across from a duck pond! Also, it's "the ugliest building on campus" according to Dr. Hole, so it's very unique and recognizable.
Good point about the papers - I will definitely try to look for more contrasting interpretations of similar data. The different perspectives could be interesting.
Ooooh. The duck pond!! I
Ooooh. The duck pond!! I used to ride my bike past there nearly every day on my bike rides. It's a really nice trail if you ever like to bike for fun!
Also, the huckleberry trail is great, and it goes the 7 or so miles out to the mall where walmart and target is. It doesn't take much more than an hour and a half from campus if you ever need to get there and can't get a ride. It makes for a good weekend-day ride.
The huckleberry trail sounds
Here is a map of it.
Thanks, will do!
Ooo, castles? Then are the
Ooo, castles? Then are the professors dragons with the students being men/women in distress? Hmm.
In a more serious vein I found the background reading to be an interesting part of my internship. A lot of the papers discuss similar trends or anomalies and can come to very different conclusions based on the same sets of data. Part of the fun of science I suppose!
You can also pick up a bike
You can also pick up a bike at Walmart or Target for less than $100 if it's worth it to you.
Also, isn't it really annoying getting around there when all of the school building look the same? haha. I remember getting confused really easily while walking through campus last summer. They all look like castles!!!
The Salton Trough is a very
The Salton Trough is a very interesting region, where the (passive/active-we're still not quite sure!) spreading of the Gulf of California is transitioning into the San Andreas system. Looking at the structure of this area will answer some important questions about how deformation is partitioned between different plate boundary settings. Cool project, keep us updated!
Also, easy solution to the 1 hour walk problem, see if anyone in your dept. is willing to loan a bike, or pick up a cheapie one for the summer. Having a bike kept me sane during my internship.