Parson's Quarry is an active limestone quarry where Devonian shale had been deposited on top of Silurian limestone. Basically, the three of us were digging around in the 400 million year-old Birdsong Shale.

Our task was to find Brachiopods, which look pretty much like shells, and a few other little pre-historic guys. This was not a hard job, because where the shale was dumped (the owners have no use for this waste rock!) was fullll of fossils. All we had to do was look down! I was impressed by the abundance and beauty of these fossils... I had never seen anything quite like it!

When I first started geology classes last semester, it would be a stretch to say that I liked it. (My old entries about lab could vouch for that!) But now I really love it, and have even declared it as a minor. By taking Honors Historical Geology, I have had a great opportunity to expand my interest in and knowledge of the subject by going on this small but exciting field trip. In how many other classes do you get to spend more than six hours of quality time with your professor and lab instructor? Okay, so for the car ride I may have been asleep a large portion of the way, but still - the chance was there!

This Friday I met with my advisor to figure out what exactly I am going to be taking in the fall. Whoa, school's almost over? But I was just getting used to this!! It really does go by fast if you don't think about it too much... I was lucky that I knew my major would be English when I started school, but now I know that my concentration will be in linguistics and my minors will be geology and Japanese. All I have to do is register as soon as possible...the best I can hope for is to continue my interest in all of these subjects and not totally flake out!