Today was our last day of field work. All of our sites are picked up and we have collected all the data we came here to get. Given all the technology and lack thereof we were working with on the island, we had surprising few set backs. As our work winds down, we've been tagging along with other REU group here as they drive around and do 'real geology'- as in look at outcrops and test the water at hot springs. We've seen a ton of hot springs all over the island, culminating in seeing the biggest one, the Boiling Lake, on Wednesday. It's not quite Yellowstone, but then at Yellowstone you're not allowed to walk anywhere you want and put your hand in a sulfur vent to see if it's hot (it was). The end of our boiling lake also included an awesome swim during a pouring rain in a 10 foot wide, 50 foot deep gorge which had about the cleanest water I've ever seen. Photos of all that are up on facebook.
A funny reoccuring theme in my life recently has been people proving stereotypes right. Like hearing the Wellesley girl sterotype from Shannon and Jesse (the MIT girl) and relaying it to my girlfriend, expecting her to defend her school, only to have her go, 'eh, they're pretty much right on'. I've always been careful about not falling victim to believing them, but then again, I'm also gullible, so I tend to lose that battle. There are of course, those instances though where I'm like, well, I suppose that label exists for a reason. One of those instances was after the boiling lake hike. Starting up the trail as we were ending our hike around 3pm was a large group of people, several wearing OU plastic ponchos, who turned out to be OU alums. Among them were a couple teenage girls wearing skirts and flip flops, an older couple in collered shirts and white shoes, and a five year old. I naturally stopped one of them, a middle-aged dude, to introduce myself as being from Norman. We had a short conversation which ended with me asking if they were going to see the gorge, about 5 minutes up the trail. He responded they were probably going to go up to see Boiling Lake. Boiling lake was 3 hours one way up a muddy, very steep trail. No friggin way. None of them was carrying water. As I walked away shaking my head I passed one of them walking with his head down going "we're gonna get soaked, oh man, we're gonna be soaked.... look at them [seeing us, fresh out of swimming in the gorge], they're soaked..." and an older woman taking about a minute to go 10 feet because she was trying not to step in any puddles and get her white sandles wet.
Gees, way to prove every stereotype about my home state true. Oklahoma, I salute you.
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