2nd Year in Geology and Mid Semester Break

Start of 2nd year

2nd Year in UWA is quite exciting isnt it? As for the introduction lectures, you are always told that this unit and that unit is difficult. Bottomline, Be Prepared to Work Hard!.

Each week passes faster and faster due to the amount of things to do. Give you a sample of what is my timetable like.

Get up -> Do some work -> Get ready for uni -> Travel to uni -> Go for classes/lectures -> Travel back home -> Prepare dinner -> Work -> Facebook -> Sleep.

And the process repeats again and again.

Mid Semester Break

In 1st year, we always look forward to a well deserved break. But when you get to that, you will be surely disappointed. Assignments after assignments after assignments. What is so different about 2nd year? Well, you will not enjoy your mid semester break as you need to prepare for your mid semester exams the following week. How fun is that?

Ok, perhaps not for my case. I have this assignment which can only be done in uni. I would need to look at thin section of rocks and that can only be seen under a petrological microscope. So, most of my days for the mid sem break is spent in uni, trying to finish my work.

Oh well, we are now back to the same routine. 2.5 months before the end of the semester. Looking forward to my winter break.

Lets go lets go!

Time to add some life to the blog

It is getting a drag here. Everybody else has finished their exams but there are some who have not finished yet. You feel the drag of just wanting the exam to come and gone so that you can do other things. The days are getting longer and you are getting more and more irritated.

Just hang in there and it will be all over very soon.

Countdown to end of 1st year in 48 hours.

*smashes rock at the exam table, resulting in a horrific explosion* no.. that is not even possible at all. :)

And All is silent

On that Friday, I handed in the poster that took us 2 months to finish.

However, we have to pay for it ourselves. $88 for an assignment?

Handed it at the box and say, "phew, that is over"

"But wait, I still have loads of stuff to do"

-First Exam-

EART1108 Geographical Perspectives 31/10/09 9am

=.= I do not really understand why we have exams on a Saturday.

And all is silent because, you cant do anything about it.

We are getting there, arent we?

Just came back from a group meeting. I am only glad that the project is now going into a direction where we have something to write about.

Im just flatout. Sleep is good for the soul. Amen to that.

Update for the sake of updating

Ok, it is not that tedious but so many things have happened over the weeks. I cant seem to keep track of what is going on.

And you know what, UWA has one more week left before study break. After study break, we have exams. After exams, we can go home. But.... it is really too fast. I just want next week to not end at all so that I can finish my assignments and work and understand what I have learnt.

*looks at thy rock*

PPPPLLLLEEAAASSEEE tell me who you are so that I can pass my geology practical exam. Or else, I will smash you with my hammer.

O.O

Things have been breaking apart since I came back from the trip.

1. My chair -> one of the legs just broke off. But I still can support myself on it.

2. The wardrobe in general -> Handles are getting lose.

Not sure why though but I guess my stuff shows the durability of the things around here. LOL

Reflections of the Albany Field Trip

I just came back from a 5 day field trip in Albany. This trip was part of the unit I was taking and I really enjoyed the experience. It was hard and the workload from this is intense. Day after day, we travel around to different places to look at the different rock outcrops. These outcrops do have a story to tell about the history of the place. For example, the Stirling Ranges has the rock age of 2,000 million years old. But the geology and the lithology of the place does not suggest that there were biological lifeforms. More information is needed to support that hypothesis. We could only spend 1 morning at the place due to time constrain and a tight programme.

I remember one of the church members (who is a retired geochemist) told me that as you study geology, you must be prepared to work alone most of the time. Only then, I do know what does that mean. You go around, looking at outcrops and record your observations. These observations are true as they become the data that would support your future hypotheses of the area. If you have people working with you and they jump into interpretations. By hearing their conversations leads to a distortation in your understanding of the lithology of the place.

Part of the error lies within me as I did felt inadequately prepared for the trip. My understanding of geology is limited and I do have limitations in my observations as well. The only thing I could do is to perhaps train on my observations to record as much detail as I can. (Details such as grain size, grain orientation, minerals present (due to cleavage or twinnings), clast or matrix supported rock, differentiate between mafic and felsic streams, bearings of joints/lines of weaknesses and so on..) It is quite a handful to have record as much data as possible but I wish I could have taken some samples back for further examination.

I do notice a sharp contrast with a PhD student and a first year undergraduate student. The PhD student works alot faster than us as they have the experience. Even if we carry the same gear as them, they are able to use the instruments more competantly than us. I too realise that even we think we are professionals in this area, there will be others who are better than us. From that lesson, I understand the mentality of having a teachable spirit and a humble heart. I just hope that I did not give that impression that I had a closed up mind. My lecturer said that if we have a fixated mind to a particular hypothesis, we are not studying science at all.

So much to do but we do need to start somewhere. Novice first, professionals later.