San Francisco, do you understand?

You do! You totally understand!! (that reference is just for you, Jessie)

Point is, I just got home from a wonderful transition weekend in San Francisco. I have a bunch of distant family there, and a few friends, and I was already out west, so what better excuse for a trip up there?


I spent the last half a year in a town in the middle of nowhere Arizona and in rural West Virginia, so I really appreciated being in a big and bustling city. I'm sure I would absolutely love spending time in the parks around the bay area, but the city was what I needed right then. Mostly because one of my biggest hobbies is figuring out public transportation in new places I visit.

My experience with Muni was smooth and super fun!

I spent most of my time wandering around to different neighborhoods and being a huge tourist. I met up with a friend and went to Golden Gate Park for the day, and then at the end we caught the last light of a gorgeous sunset on the ocean. I hadn't realized how much I'd missed the water until that moment.

A beautiful walk through the park

On my last night, Will (whose apartment I was staying at) took us up to Twin Peaks for the best view of San Francisco. We stood on this bluff and could see the fog rolling in (and feel it), and we could point to all of the neighborhoods we'd visited during my stay. 

The camera doesn't do it justice-- the view was spectacular.

I can see myself living in San Francisco someday... that city has it all.

So long, it's been good to know ya

I've got to be drifting along.

Those lyrics have been in my head in my last few days at Prescott, maybe so I could make leaving less of a big deal. But that didn't really work, because leaving still mattered. Even now, sitting at home in DC, I still have not completely realized that I'm not going back to Arizona after winter break. All my stuff is gone, shipped in many, many boxes. Seeing my room that empty was very strange, because I had managed to collect and paste my walls with excessive amounts of shit over my few months.

I did have a wonderful last few days though, thanks to my housemates and close friends. We went out to a late Chinese lunch on our last day together (sandwiched by breakfast and dinner out...), had a fancy sushi party, and dressed up as elves, and made this video:

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/zm0Rlq7w2VfQJkGK2346

Hopefully I'll be back to visit, but until that time comes I'll be missing these people like crazy!

What an incredible semester.

took me long enough...

but I finally went ROCK CLIMBING! Given that everyone at Prescott only talks about rock climbing and uses terminology that causes my mind to wander and me to look vacantly at walls, I spent practically the whole semester without ever going. I'll just blame it on not having equipment. 

But then last week, the Women's Rock class had a free-for-all day and so I joined them on a jaunt to Boulderlands at Granite Mountain. I was absolutely terrified because I was the only one who had never gone before and I thought that I was going to make a huge fool out of myself. Luckily all the girls were super encouraging and taught me everything I needed to climb my first face! And I only climbed that one... my legs were too shaky after it. But I will climb more! I think I've caught the bug... what a rush!

Snow days

Funny thing about Arizona is that you get a 2 hour delay with a dusting of snow. I'm not complaining, but sheeesh that sure is different from Maine. Rumor has it that we sold all of our snow plows to Flagstaff, so that could explain Prescott's lack of preparedness when it comes to winter storms.

Butte Creek that runs behind my house and through campus

Anyway, we got dumped on a bunch this weekend (for Arizona), and so I spent a few quality hours in the snow. Cuz if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Referring to how I do not want it to be snowing while I am supposed to be spending a semester in the sunny desert!! 

On Saturday there was a huge snowball fight on campus. My friends and I heard about it and crept out and made bunches of snowballs and snuck around buildings trying to ambush people. Then we found out that it was actually an organized game of snowball capture the flag. Awkward. Eventually it did morph into a snowball fight... it was hard to avoid. 

I also went for a nice walk with dearest housemates Noah and Yonah, snow dog!

Good days in the snow, but my fingers are crossed that it will all melt and be perfectly sunny for my last week here.

two weeks of the semester left...

So I'm going to blog about things that I'll miss about life in Prescott.


1. Drying my laundry outside after Thanksgiving because it was 70 degrees and I could do that

2. Ponderosa pines (Pinus ponderosa) 

At the Grand Canyon

3. Taking trips for class. I get to do this at COA too, but not this coming winter. 

Here is the dinner crew on our overnight to the Grand Canyon in September

4. My housemates and all the wonderful people I've met here. 

After finishing a hike at fossil creek.

5. The big sky and gorgeous desert landscapes. 

Agua Fria National Monument

That's enough for now-- I could go on for a while. I cannot believe that the semester is almost over. It feels like just a couple weeks ago when I was filled with apprehension about coming to this new place. Now it's home for me. It will be a tough next two weeks. I have to finish up my semester work, figure out packing up my ridiculous amount of stuff that I've accumulated, explore as much as possible, spend time with my friends, eat more Mexican food, and soak up LOTS of sunshine before I'm back in dark ol' Maine.

School of rocks

There is a mountain of rocks a block away from my house, and it took me till last week to climb up there. How embarassing! I went back this evening for sunset with a friend and we explored the huge boulders and secret caves until the sun was gone. 

While we were up there I heard two gunshots. I thought nothing of it-- this is Arizona! But turns out there was a domestic shooting two blocks from my house. The school was on lockdown for a bit and we were just sitting in my house freaking out... but all is well! 

This is my house ^ straight up.                                                 This is where the shooting was  ^

Aaaaand this ^ is one of the views from School of Rocks!          

Just tootin' my horn

Today Nicole brought me to a thrift store where I bought THESE:

that happen to go along with this gem of a hat:

I'm probably going to wear these overalls all week, in case you were wondering.

Nerdin'

Nerdin' is one of my favorite pastimes. The classes that I've been taking this semester seem especially conducive to nerdin', because they involve extensive plant I.D., tree aging, GPS, and maps. It's been a tough call to determine which of my classes is nerdier. 

But then my Maps and Wilderness Navigation class took a trip to Flagstaff (I had pics but sadly my camera is M.I.A.) and we went to the USGS Space Center, and then had a library archive tour.  Our nerdy little hearts were so happy to learn from George the Geologist while he told us about the lengthy process of mapping the Grand Canyon-- he spent months surveying and tracing the complex geologic features. This is the dragon map that he made:

Probably the coolest thing I've learned in Maps and Nav is that non-GPS folks are referred to as 'muggles' by the GPS/ geocacher community. You have to be careful to hide your GPS while in public for two reasons. One is that you will look too nerdy (my textbook actually told me this), and Two is that you can't let the muggles see you when you are using your GPS and trying to find a geocache.

We all look super nerdy trying to use our GPS units, but we try to embrace it.

But probably unsurprisingly, my favorite things to nerd about are herps.

The tail end (pun intended) of lizard season was a couple of weeks ago, so I was lucky to find a few of these scaly guys sunning outside of my house. I had yet to touch one, so I ran back and forth in my PJs trying to grab one, and finally trapped a larger one in a box and scared it enough so that it stopped moving. I felt bad for a sec, but holding a real live lizard was way too cool. In my herpetology class last spring we only had gross preserved specimens to study. This is a million times better:

While continuing nerdin' on this lizard, I looked it up in my herps of AZ book. It's a Ornate Tree Lizard!

And see that spot of blue on the side? That's how you can tell that it's a male. Nerd-tastic.

Over the hills and far away

My dad came out to visit me for a few days, so we took a lil road trip. We headed over Mingus Mountain on a long road full of switchbacks to the small town of Jerome. Elevation 5,246, founded in 1876. Because I know you wanted to know!

Here's the crazy road:

And a necessary dorky picture:

The town of Jerome itself is quirky and touristy at the same time. It's an old mining town, and all of the buildings are basically clinging to the hill.

I was a fan of this staircase: 

But I think the main draw of this town was the view. You can just see it through the buildings in this picture... there is some gorgeous geology in the background! It looked like the layering in the Grand Canyon.

After we had our fill of wandering the artsy streets, drove down to the old copper mine. Apparently it is the largest wooden headframe still standing, and its purpose was to haul ore up from the mine. 

Here is a view down the mine, all 1,900 feet! I spit down it and it was the coolest.

Then we played around on the old mining equipment:

Jerome... we give it the AC stamp of approval!

Winter Wonderland... in AZ

What better way to spend a Saturday morning than driving on crazy back roads in trucks blasting country music, marveling at the snow-dusted mountains, and throwing many snowballs (all instead of doing field work)?

Pros and cons: Airport edition

I travel on planes pretty often, so you would assume that I am pro at airports and catching flights. You would be very wrong in this assumption. I seem to be incapable of having a smooth airport/plane experience. Either I get picked for extra screening, or I sprint around the airport with my frame backpack and act frazzled. Or there was that one time that I got on the wrong flight. Turns out I was waiting at the wrong gate, and there were two flights to Bangor at 9 pm that night. Why I so stupid??

This weekend I was traveling back to Prescott from DC and stupidly had a half an hour layover in ATL (never do this!!). The airport is huge and I had to sprint through two terminals only to easily get on my flight and wait around while other late people just strolled in. Then I almost missed my shuttle and got stranded in Phoenix.

But I still love flying because you get views like this:

And you get to be places that you love:

With the gimps that you've been missing:

It was a wonderful weekend with camp friends in DC, and we even squeezed in a trip to the Cove. Now it's back to school. I'll put on my teenage mutant ninja turtle hat and go to class now.

Happy Halloweeeen!

Mepps

My housemate Noah bought some stylin' hats at the D.A.V. a while ago. And for some background, the D.A.V. is this magical thrift store where you can find whatever you are looking for for under a dollar, depending on the mood of the lady who rings you up. I've figured out the trick though. When I wear my hair down I get major discounts (Major Discounts!), so I guess she's a curly hair fan. Anyway, the point is that Noah and I have matching hats and this has spawned a couple of fantastic twin days! The first one happened by accident, except for the hats.

The second one was planned out way in advance.

We don't know what 'Mepps' means. It is the great mystery.

And now a word from our sponsors!

General Studies

General Response

Major Beetle Kill

Major Impact

The Ruth Fire

I finally found it! It being 'My Spot', and 'found' meaning I had to go there for my Fire Ecology class anyway. I hadn't been actively looking for a spot, but now that I have found It, my spot it shall be! I'm envisioning it as my place to draw, daydream, reflect, learn, and relax in the sunshine. Oh! I haven't even shown you what it looks like. Here:

Just a barren hillside, I know what you're thinking.


Look a little closer:

Nothing like mullein to make me feel at home.

Juniper sap!

It's quite beautiful and calm. The hill sort of reminds me of the Bald, which is maybe why I like it so much. Ponderosa pines are surrounding the fire site which is a bonus because I think they are my favorite tree species. And there are signs that a possible hobo has been camping at the top of the hill... so that's exciting.
Next time I'll bring my binocs to do some birding.
Stay tuned for the actual latin names of the species pictured-- I'll learn them in class tomorrow!

General Management Plan!

Sometimes I get bored in class. Especially classes that are four hours long, like my block course in Park and Wilderness Management. I occupied myself by writing down all of the "Major" and "General"-isms that were said by people in my class. This is an entertaining game that I learned from How I Met Your Mother. Of course, it was picked up at camp and we couldn't get through a staff meeting without endless salutes. And once you start something, it is hard to stop! We created a monster!

So here is a summary of what I learned over block:
General Feeling
General Land Office
General Idea
General Trend
General Question
General Plans
General Stuff To Bring
General Yahoo Behavior
General Public
Major Conservation Group
Major Barn Was Burning
Major Form
Major Points
Major Concentration
Major Battle
Major Thoroughfare
Major Hike
Major Undertaking
Major Management Thing
Major Lookout Point
Major Conclusions

Imagine saluting to all these higher-ups! I will obviously continue writing these down in class. And post the best ones.

Guessing Game!

Just for shits and giggles, guess what tree is shown in each pic! 
Clue: they're all Arizona trees

1

2

3

To be a white-throated swift...

This morning I had a moment. One of those moments where you can't help but smile, you want to laugh out loud, yell and jump around. But instead you just sit and soak it in and feel content and ecstatic. 
My mom and I were at the Grand Canyon for the past day, and we walked out to the semi-secret overlook, Shoshone Point, at 7 this morning. While my mom was jogging, I sat at the edge of the canyon in the sunshine and all of a sudden I was surrounded by dozens of white-throated swifts. They swooped and soared within feet of my head, so close that I could hear the sound of their wings. The sun was rising, the birds were twirling through the canyon... I can't think of a more perfect beginning to a day.

Mom + sunset at Shoshone Point

I have a new favorite spot and a new favorite bird now, until I have another moment. 

















I've now been to the Grand Canyon twice this week, and I want to go back right now! And go to every other park in the southwest. Hopefully in the next 3 months I'll get to at least a couple more. I feel so lucky to be living in Arizona right now, and taking classes that show me spectacular vistas so that I can take pictas (shout-out to Vista 2 monongo!).

Here is one of my classmates exhibiting the most exhilarating way to look at the canyon... upside down!

I need a time-turner...

...because I just spent way too long reading Harry Potter facts. BUT. I learned SO MUCH. As fun as it is to research white-nose syndrome in bats, I would much rather discover that Diagon Alley is actually a diagonal street. Diagon Alley = diagonally! AAAH!! Knockturn Alley = nocturnally!
http://hpotterfacts.tumblr.com/


In other news, J.K. Rowling took an online quiz and was sorted in Hufflepuff House. I'm a Huff!


In actual real life news, I didn't know what to blog about so my default was Harry Potter. I suppose it is slightly relevant, because exactly one year ago I was having a Harry Potter themed birthday party. In fact, I had the MOST Harry Potter birthday. Ha!

As for Prescott news, I have a week left of my block course-- it's gone by super fast. Pretty soon I'll be moving in to my actual house! As fun as couch crashing has been, I'm excited to have a space to myself. 
I've taken up a hobby-- collecting dead cicadas and painting their heads with glitter nail polish! So many Ke$ha cicadas. But not even the enormous western Ke$ha cicadas can top the original, seen here in Jessie's equally Ke$ha-ed hand.

I will try to actually come up with something to blog about next time. Until then, be on the lookout for a Ke$ha in a mailbox near you!