whoops getting lazy about posting..

so after our amazing and adventurous break, it was nice to get back to a dry, warm house. definitely a great break. we came back though to be thrown straight into preparations to go back to Volcano. This time we were going to be working with some guys at Hawai'i Volcano Observatory, which is part of USGS, and based in the national park. About two weeks ago, there was a decent earthquake near Kilauea Caldera, so they were interested to find out a little more about what was going on under the ground. For 3 days, we did a leveling survey, covering miles of lava flows, to determine how much deformation of the lava had occurred since the last survey last year. The guys figured that the elevation change measured by surveying would probably greater than years past, indicating that new magma was filling up chambers below, and causing the tremors that were felt. While the work was tedious and we were out in the field from basically 730 am to 5pm, it was cool to be a part of the project, and we hope the data'll yield some interesting results.
After that, we dove into our next class 'Biogeochemistry of the Hawaiian Islands', which is taught by the husband of the professor of the first class. Well actually, they're technically not married because they've 'never found the time' with their busy schedules. Their two daughters are the two little girls living out here with us.
We ended the week with a bang by having ourselves a good ole hoedown in the garage. It was Katie's 21st bday, and she likes country music, so we obviously had to celebrate. Everyone, and i mean even the profs and kids, got dressed up. It's pretty funny improvising with not a lot of appropriate clothes... all the more fun though. A lot of us actually have cowboy hats though because we live near this huge ranch, actually it's the biggest in the US apparently.



On Saturday night, a few of us went to see Jake Shimabukuro, a world-renowned ukulele player, play at the local theatre. Man does he play with passion!
This week, we've basically just been going out in the field in the morning and coming back to work on assigments in the afternoon. We're eating more often in the boarding school dining hall, and let me say, the food is definitely starting to get a little old. oh well..
That's basically it for now.. I'm actually working on packing up my bags because 3 of us are moving out of the house and into the little cottage next door. That way, we can be a little noisier when the little kids are asleep :)