My name is Pia Yarnell and I live in New Hampshire. Next year I will be a Junior in high school. I am very excited to be here and am sure I will learn a lot in these next few weeks.

Sunday, June 17
Today, I flew from Manchester to Chicago and spent almost five hours in the Chicago airport. Just before boarding the next flight, from Chicago to Albuquerque, I met up with Leah, Katie, and Andrew. We flew in to Albuquerque and after meeting with the rest of the crew we ate dinner at a restaurant in the airport. The flights went smoothly and both myself and my luggage arrived early and at the same time. After dinner, we drove to Los Alamos and went to our hotel. I was very tired after the long day and fell asleep very quickly. I'm really lucky to be here and the rest of the group is awesome.

Monday, June 18
It was a very long day today. This morning we woke up early and went to where we could get passes into the Los Alamos laboratories. The altitude is over 7000 feet here and it will take a little getting used to. We were waiting to get our passes when Katie fainted. She was ok a few seconds later but was still rushed to the hospital by the fire department. After the rest of us got our passes we went back to the hotel to eat breakfast and then went to the Canyon school, a building which is part of the Los Alamos Nation Laboratories, where we will be spending a lot of time. We learned a lot about CCD photography and how to use a CCD camera. We ate lunch at Subway and then went to the Bradbury museum where we learned about the history of Los Alamos. We then went back to the Canyon school where we learned about the telescopes we will be using. After dinner at a Greek restaurant, we drove up to Fenton Hill. We scoped out the land and watched the RAPTOR telescopes open and close for a while before it got dark. Then we set up the telescopes and learned more about how they work. We were able to see many cool things in the sky, from the craters on the moon, to star clusters.

Tuesday, June 19
We slept in late this morning and after breakfast, we went to the Canyon school and learned about our project for the next week; following an asteroid and finding out its orbit. Then, after lunch we went back to the Canyon school to learn about the geocentric models of the solar system and the history of calendars. After dinner we went to Bradbury museum for a talk about how the universe and galaxies were formed on the way up to Fenton Hill, we saw a small group of elk. When we finished setting up our telescopes, we sketched a picture of the area around our asteroid and watched the International Space Station move across the sky.

Wednesday, June 20
This morning we got up about seven thirty which was very difficult after staying up so late last night. We walked over to the Canyon school and met Carol, a geologist. We all drove around this area and learned about the history of the land. It was very interesting. We searched for fossils and picked up a few pieces of pumice along the way. In the evening we went back to the Canyon school where we ate dinner and learned about the heliocentric model of the solar system. So far this trip has been very educational and I have had a lot of fun at the same time.

Thursday, June 21
This morning we went for a walk in Bandelier National Monument. Very fun and luckily there was a cool breeze. In the afternoon we walked around Los Alamos and bought some Frisbees before going back to the Canyon school and figuring out our information for our first view of Metis 9 (our asteroid).

Saturday, June 23
Today we got up around 12. It was very strange to eat lunch just after waking up. After eating we went to the Canyon school to watch a movie about astronomy and get a lecture from Frank. We went to Don's house and played charades before dinner.

Sunday, June 24
Tsankawi hike today, very hot. We went to Canyon school and learned about the lives of stars from Frank. After dinner we went to the Hill for our final two observations of 9 Metis.

Monday, June 25
This afternoon (when we woke up) John went over our asteroid data with us. It was a lot of math but in the end it all finally made sense. We ate dinner at Scott's house.

Tuesday, June 26
Today we got up early and drove a long way to the VLA (VERY large array). It was huge and we got to walk up into one of the satellites. Very interesting. Its part of the very long baseline array, witch spreads out over the whole United States. The movie "Contact" was filmed there, which we saw at Don's house a few days ago. It was surprisingly a very good movie.

Wednesday, June 27
Today we drove down to Santa Fe and drove around. We went to a square where we ate lunch and looked at all the Native American jewelry being sold there. We then drove back to Los Alamos and went to the Canyon school to start talking about our presentation this Friday.

Thursday, June 28
Today we went to THE BLACK HOLE!!! It was very exciting. For those who donbwang/t know what it is, it's one of the most amazing stores in the world. The owner, Ed has a motto that everything that goes into the labs here have to come out in some way shape or form. And these objects find their way to The Black Hole. A huge dark room is filled with books, pieces of bomb shells, stamps, flags, and thousands of metal gadgets of witch origin I have not the faintest idea. Ed worked in the labs here for many years and now he spends all his time advocating against nuclear bombs and war. This after noon we did laundry again and went to the canyon school to practice and work on our presentation for Friday. Later tonight we will be going to Bradbury museum for another lecture, this time on dark matter ...

Friday, June 29
Last night we painted a large rock with our names and wrote Earthwatch on it. Everyone covers it in paint so often it has at least an inch of paint on it. We then "Borrowed" some for sale signs and bought some forks and stuck them in one of Scott's friend's lawn. It was very sneaky. We slept in and then worked on our project, finalizing it. In the evening we presented our project, it went very well. I met a good friend of my grandmothers. He lives out here and saw a note in the local paper about us. In the evening we went up to Pajarito Ski area. There was a band playing and Andrew and I almost hiked up to the top. It was getting dark though so we turned back. We went back to Fenton Hill again but there wasn't much to do since it was cloudy. When we got back (around 1:30) Leah and I found that our toilet was mysteriously and for no reason going crazy and water was spilling all over the floor.

Saturday, June 3
Today we went back up to Fenton hill and set up an antenna and talked to random people over the radio. It was very cool. We talked to people from California, Washington, Colorado, Minnesota, Mississippi, Texas, and many other states. We found people by saying: CQ CQ this is W5PDO With a special event in Northern New Mexico QRZ. This told our area, and that we would talk to anyone and it asked them to talk to us. Mostly we told them what Earthwatch was and what the weather was like. We fly out tomorrow so it will be a very long day. Unfortunately the rock we painted has already been coated over again. This has been a great trip and I'm lucky to have participated.