hello everyone! another long hiatus another long blogpost... cool... alright ill start this from my epic field trip with my girlfriend (around the end of june) to today (something very cool happened today...), and i have decided to theme it fourth of july because i really dont know what else to theme it as, lol. america!!!!!
sooo since around the summer of 8th grade to 9th grade, ive been a part of this university program in which me and a bunch of other kids in my grade from around my city go on a one week trip to somewhere in the country to learn about the geosciences :3... the first year i went, i went to the texas coast to learn about coastal processes, the next year i went to the american southwest to learn about canyons and stuff.... and this year i went to the PNW to learn about geological hazards!!!! like volcanoes!!!!! very cool...
rundown of the whole trip basically: (RAMBLING BEWARE)
soooo the first day mostly consisted of actually flying to the PNW. boy are my arms tired!! yuk yuk yuk.... anyways we ended up in portland (neo city) in the evening time and then loaded up the charter bus (sharter bus) and drove to vancouver (washington) to go to our first (and last because it was so late) stop of the day.... the cascades volcano observatory!!!! for non-volcano enthusiasts, the cascades are a mountain range going along the PNW coastline that are actually VOLCANOES (mount st. helens is part of the cascades!)!!! and we learned about how volcanologists observe and monitor volcanic activity so that there will be no disaster, basically :3 quite cool! and then we went to the hotel and went to sleep etc etc. but before that i got to spend a few minutes to cuddle with my gf in my hotel room :3 it was nice to recharge after a long day... sucks that i didnt get to room with her but at least the roomate that i ended up with was chill (his name is gavin and he has cool)
the next day we went to the mount st. helens visitor center, and i got some postcards !!! one for my family, and one for both of my pen pals! and there i learned more about the volcano. cool! then after that, we went to this place called the "north fork survivors center" i think? that place was incredibly interesting, and there i listened to stories about the victims and survivors (and survived objects) of the mount st. helens eruption. and i got more postcards there too! a lady working there was incredibly kind enough to mail them for me!! thank you :]] thennn after that we drove back to oregon and went down along the columbia river to more scenic spots, but they're not that notable so i wont talk about them :p then we checked into our hotel, and did an educational activity with dinner (it was hawaiian catering - and it was so good?!?!?! i ended up getting seconds, that seconds being a wholeass plate of rice with some of the soy sauce on it and it was soooo goood yummmmm) and then i had another cuddle sesh with my gf again :3... yea
the day afterwards we had brekkie (i eated pangcake and gatorade (boy breakfast)) and headed over to the foot of mount hood!!!! we stopped at the white river (no white or river???) to take some pictures, then we went over to a ski lodge on mount hood on the timberline (where the trees stop growing on a mountain!!) buuut the bus broke down before we got to the top so we had to transport the rest of the kids with the vans that the counselors were driving lol. so we ended up a bit off schedule :(! but it was worth it because i got to ride a ski lift for the first time AND had an epic snowball fight!!! but i got hit in the eyes with a snowball and took ice damage and blindness :( then afterwards we went to this place called warm springs, and it wasnt actually that warm... but still very pretty :3c then we went to the hotel and such! i got to spend lots of time with my girlfriend since we had lots of free time :D and then it was eep time.
THE next day we started the day by going to the newberry mountain caldera. a caldera is basically when a volcano erupts and its magma chamber is somewhat hollow, the rock above it can collapse and create a sort of "crater." the newberry caldera is very large and is filled with obsidian :D it was soo cool seeing the glassy obsidian throughought the hike (it made me think about there being an obsidian update or something to minecraft lol)...our next stop was originally going to be crater lake, but there was no way for us to go there since both entrances were closed off because of Circumstances. so we went to this place called diamond lake instead! i saw duckies :3 then we went to this suuuper cool and pretty geological feature (its called "clearwater" on google maps, i definitely want to go back there someday) which had this beautiful waterfall and omg it was just so nice. i heart nature. anyways after that we went to a red robins and the food was awright but there was so much food, i think everyone ended up overeating lol... never eating at a red robins again loll. anyways the hotel we checked into was super tiny and the meeting room was super tiny too, especially when there's like 60 people supposed to be in there, and i kinda freaked out a bit then :( we started on our final project (just about the stuff we've learned on the trip so far) and such and then went to eep.
the next day we spent most of the day on the coastline :D it was drizzly and also a little chilly, and very sandy... its so hard walking up sand dunes??! i have sand in my shoes forever now :( but at least i found crab shells on the first beach we went to :D the middle of the day is a blur but i do remember eating at a buffet for dinner (first time at a buffet...they had an ice cream machine!!!) and i got to pet 2 dogs at the same time :D then we checked into the hotel, blah blah blah... and then we walked to the beach and had beach time :D!!!! i got to have a long romantic walk with the wife... and roast smores with her.... it was cold but also nice because i had my hoodie and sweatpants on :3. idec that i have sand in my shoes forever now. this was easily the best day on the trip
second to last day.... in the first part of the day, we worked on our final projects for a bit, wrote thank-you cards to the counselor, and then went to the hatfield marine science center where we did some aquatic actibities such as looking at tide pool creatures and also building underwater robots :D and i got some socks for my gf :3. that was the most notable thing i did today, as most of it consisted of driving from the coast to portland :p oregon is such a pretty state to drive through... most of it is through forest so you just get to look at the trees and listen to music and chill :3 when we got to the hotel (it was the same one as the first day) we wrapped up our final projects, then presented them, and had sugar cookies and cupcakes :D it ended up dragging really late tho D:... i think we were dismissed to our hotel rooms at 12:30am LOL so i shrimply just showered to change into the next day's clothes, took a nap with the tv on, and then woke up at around 3:30am (SCARY!!!) so that i was downstairs in time. funny thing is, i went to sleep with american dad playing on adult swim and by the time i woke up regular show was playing lolll
final day... all of it was literally just traveling back home from oregon to texas. yay! but actually NOT yay because i had to say goodbye to my girlfriend :( but when i got home i got the best sleep in my life in my own bed ! yay. arc over
my aunt and my cousin came over for the 4th of july. cool. after they arrived me and my dad and my sibling and my cousin drove out to another town to buy some fireworks and sparklers, and then we blew em up in the evening. lol. then the next day we went ziplining and swam in the lake... cool.... i got a million diseases from the water :( then the next day we went bowling and such, also cool... then they went home because the Rains were coming. scary. arc over
today i went to ikea and got the alien plushy guy! his name is pongon :3 and my sibling got a cat astronaut guy (unnamed as of right now..) pictures shall be listed below
friends! end of arc
thank you for reading my blogpage! now scram!
