Yesterday the internet died. Normally, it struggles along its merry way. Last night it decided it didn't want to do that though.
But today its back at full force. Better than we have had it the entire time here, actually. In fact, I have a record of three pages open at once and that was while uploading pictures to the blog. And nothing crashed. I am very, very impressed.
I don't mind that much. Really. Last summer I was in the middle of the desert and I didn't even bother trying to make a phone call home, nor did I take my computer. There was just no point. Whether what I have this summer is an improvement is very much in the eye of the beholder.
But today and yesterday were awesome. No, I take that back. Awesome doesn't do them justice.
See, yesterday we started working in the rhino barn for the first time. And got to start telling people about what we've been learning in the past few days about Ashfall. I love paleontology, but there is very little that I enjoy more about the field than using it to teach people about science. Ashfall is the perfect place for that. There are specimens that let me tell you about geology (volcanoes, water systems, and stratigraphy), health, animal behavior, populations of animals, chemistry, fossilization... you name the field, I can probably make it relevant. I also love field work and prep work though. And Ashfall lets me combine the three, even if the field work involves a shady building out of the sun and wind and rain. The fossils are in the ground. We can let it count.
I'm also enjoying getting to know my fellow interns. Ellen and I, being the only two girls, are roommates.... cabinmates? Something like that. This is Ellen. I've been very lovingly teasing her about her size and her increasing ability to carry buckets of matrix to where we are dumping it. The buckets are light because ash doesn't compact like clay does (and thus the fossils are still 3D, rather than flattened like they are in clay. For an example, look at the Green River formation, but most fossils tend to be a little squished), but they are bulky and awkward. Yes, the picture is fuzzy. The problem is that the ash is still very fine when it is scraped away from the rock. That means that it has the potential to mess up my camera. When I am in the rhino barn, therefore, I keep my camera in a plastic bag. I'm working on a better system. Maybe having two bags would keep the ash off of one, and I could take the outer one off to take a picture. I'm not sure. But for now, this is what I came up with.
Today was also exciting though, because I got to work in the prep lab here. I've been doing prep work for several years back home, and I honestly do enjoy it. But here, it is even better, because there is a window that opens and I can explain to people what I'm doing while I'm working. If anything, this makes me slow down on what I'm working on, which is better for the fossil anyway. Some people don't like having the window there, but for me it is exciting. You see, one thing that encouraged me to be a paleontologist was when the old building of my local museum had a little lab with a window open to the public. In comparison to ones that I have seen in my travels, I know that that little lab wasn't much. But it was educating people about paleontology. Now I'm on the other side of the window doing the same thing for someone else. As they say, things came full circle. 
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