This is me.
Hi! My name is Christine and I have absolutely no plans of being an astrophysicist.
Great, huh? The Durfee foundation is paying for me to be here and half the time I don't know what is going on! But if the plan is for me to learn then it's working, because I have learned more about physics in the first three days than I ever have in my whole eleven years of schooling.
This is me.
Okay, Here are my initial impressions of this whole Earthwatch experience:
Day one: I had a nice flight and everyone arrived more or less on time. No one is exactly as I imagined them to be, but we all got along really well, although for the first few hours nobody spoke. Owen threw up his Mexican food. How exciting.
Day two: Owen feels better, and we're all talking. By the middle of the day it's as if we've all been friends for years. Today I learned how to smile and nod a lot. I didn't understand anything and everyone seemed to know what neutrinos were except for me. I guess I've just been sheltered. Ed Fennimore's lecture was pretty cool though, and Galen explained neutrinos to me. Holly and I stayed up singing and playing the guitar. It was fun.
Day three: We had to take a test. I can't believe that I just got out of school and now I'm already sitting through lectures and testing. I made a 97. Woo hoo!! We went to Fenton Hill for the first time tonight and we were all so tired. Afterward at about 4:00 in the morning we left a birthday surprise for Galen. He's 50; maybe he's the real authority on light years around here.
Day four: Galen got his surprise. Today we met Harrison Schmidt. hmm... people living on the moon...
I don't buy it. I'm sure it could happen, I just don't like the idea. It's seems like we would have taken care of earth better instead of having to turn to the moon and Mars for their resources. Whatever. This sounds so science fiction.
We had dinner at the Gisler home. Their
house makes me happy. They have a hammer dulcimer. Neat. We sang
Beatle's songs and ate tacos and lit the second Los Alamos Fire in
the form of Galen's flaming birthday cakes. 
We
then went to Fenton Hill where I actually began to comprehend
something, so I was excited. I was also feeling poetic. Here's my
neat bongo-playing/espresso-drinking/finger-snapping
masterpiece.
A night at Fenton Hill
It moves tears in me
chills.
That thrill of knowing-
God,
Creator
The eternal,
as opposed to the vapor of
human existence.
Infinity.
forever.
The ever-expanding universe.
Expanding beyond what is already too vast to comprehend.
Holes punched in a black sky
Like cutouts in a Chinese lantern.
Maybe the light the world needs
peeks out from these openings.
And so we wish on a star.
We pray for mankind.
We think- 'maybe the answer lies
in the light just beyond'
Just beyond the black paper.
The source of the light.
The light of the world.
God.
Creator.
And once again I am moved to tears.
I feel so priveledged just to be here. Looking up at the night sky evokes such a sense of wonder and awe in my heart for our Creator. An excerpt from my journal says, in prayer, "For your love is greater than even the vastness of the universe....greater than the stars. Imagine- the infinitesimal heavens- Love that is greater and much deeper and more eternal than that..."
Day
five: We slept in and mostly sat around
working on the web page. That night we had a lecture by Bob Reedy on
the exploration of Mars. I was most impressed by the crater that
looked like a smiley face, but everything else sounded like
Scandinvian gibberish. I spent my time drawing cartoons of Bob,
lovingly dubbed "cowboy Bob" due to his belt buckle and wranglers.
That night Holly and I had a sudden influx of energy and a case of
the munchies. So, we walked in the rain to the conoco by our hotel
and bought some provisions. I think our next door neighbor got
annoyed. I can't imagine why... doesn't everyone appreciate Holly and
Christine's rendition of "Pie Jesu" set to an african drum rhythm at
midnight?
Day six: This morning we dragged ourselves out of bed and rode to the Tsankawi ruins at Bandelier for a hike. After lunch Owen entertained us once again by running around with a flowered kerchief on his head on LANL property. Everyday is an adventure. I really enjoyed Galen's lecture on Galaxies and Cosmology. His take on the Big Bang was really eye-opening. It makes me want to take physics next year just because of my new found knowledge. That night we had a ROTSE demonstration during which I mostly laid on the pavement taking on the larger questions of life with Holly, JW, and Owen. Then we spent all night at Fenton Hill. We saw Jupiter and it's four large moons and Saturn, rings and all, which was really cool. As we drove home the sun was coming up. We had been awake for almost 24 hours. When I get home my sleeping pattern will be totally screwed up.
Day seven: Don's lecture on radio astronomy was pretty neat, but most of us were too sleepy to comprehend anything. That night was the party at the Gisler's. It was a lot of fun. We sang, had yummy food, and watched "Contact," which was filmed largely at the Very Large Array, which we will see next week. It was really cool.
Day eight: Holly, JW and I woke up early to go to church with Don. It was pretty neat, but we paid for it the rest of the day in our lack of sleep. That afternoon we hiked at Bandelier national monument, and it was so cool because we saw a bear! We stayed up late that night at Fenton Hill, but after looking at all the Messier objects we three church goers fell asleep on the pad. On the way home we had a van sing along to "Free Falling" at the top of our lungs at 4:00 a.m. Ah, the life of an astrophysicist!
Day nine: I got a full eight hours of sleep! We had a lecture on the solar system and a pretty interesting lecture on Northern Lights. That night Holly, Owen, and I walked to Furr's and got ice cream which neither Holly nor I finished. I don't know what was wrong- I can always finish Ben and Jerry's
Day ten: Our geological tour got cancelled. So, we spent a lot of time at Fenton Hill getting sunburned and setting up radio equipment. We ate lunch at Spike's, which is apparently some big landmark for earthwatchers. That night we had a lecture on the lodestar project during which I made a pro's and con's list of whether or not to take physics next year at school.
Day eleven: We had a long drive to the Very Large Array in Socorro. Holly and I wrote silly stories and sang the whole way. The VLA was very cool. We got to climb up inside one of the antennae. I liked it a lot. We had dinner at this cute place in Socorro and then had another long drive home. Owen tied JW to his seat while JW was asleep.
Day twelve: Three days left. That's all. I wanted to make the most of every moment. We had a picnic in White Rock and- finally- the neutrino lecture with Todd Haines. I'm still not much closer to understanding neutrinos.
WHEN I heard the learn'd astronomer;When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.
Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), from Leaves of Grass