...Oh my!

I'm nearing the end of my trip around the UK.

Salisbury

After London I headed to Salisbury to spend the better part of two days. I absolutely loved the town. I saw Stonehenge, although oddly enough my first impression was that's really not THAT big. This is of course an idiotic thought, especially when one considers that a third of the stones are underground. Salisbury cathedral was incredible, and I visited multiple times. I visited the Magna Carta twice and climbed the cathedral's tower. The guide for our climb started with a general overview of the architecture of the cathedral, which included a description of the Jurassic limestone it was built from. She then pointed out fossils in said limestone. How awesome is the Church of England? Ha.


(The west facade of Salisbury Cathedral.)

On my way to the Salisbury train station I ran into Alex. Yeah. Thousands of miles from home, quite a distance from the conference we were both attending, and I run into my ex-boyfriend. He looked at me in shock as I said, "Hey asshole, how's it going?" and went on my way. Luckily he was soon forgotten as I continued my travels.

Conferring in Bristol

Bristol was okay. Not my favorite city of the trip, but that probably had a lot to do with the location of my hotel. The conference itself was great. I got there half expecting to give up on paleontology as a career, but right off the bat I had a great conversation with a paleontologist I know. He was so nice (and helpful) that I walked to my first seminar with my eyes brimming with tears. It was mostly uphill from there - lots of great conversation with potential graduate advisors. I think I have a better handle on grad programs for next year.

Attenborough and Me


(No, I'm not a frog.)

By far the highlight of my time in Bristol was seeing David Attenborough speak. I've long been a fan of his, and to be honest I was a little worried that my admiration for him would be shattered by seeing him in person. Too often TV hosts are just talking heads. Not so with Sir David; he is every bit as brilliant as he might seem, perhaps even more so. He was also humble, kind, and genuine. His lecture was brilliant (on Alfred Russel Wallace and birds of paradise, two of my favorite things ever) but where he really shined was in the Q&A section. One of his first questions was about whether governments should intervene and stop population growth. My only thought was that that was such an annoying, inappropriate question for the lecture we'd just seen, but before I'd even formed a cogent thought, Attenborough said:

"Since I started making television programs, the population of the world has increased three times. It's an extraordinary notion. Now can it increase four times? Can it increase five times? The earth is a finite size, so a point will eventually come when we run out of food, when we run out of space, and when we will have destroyed most of the natural world. Ought we to do something about it before that happens? There are people who will say that it is not right to dictate to anybody how many children they should have, and I understand that point of view. But the one hopeful sign that I see is that I know of no instance where women have education, literacy, and the medical ability to control the numbers of their children where the birthrate has not fallen. And thus it seems to me that if we wish the numbers of human beings not to go on increasing indefinitely, one of the first ways to go about that is to spread prosperity and education universally."

How eloquent. Afterward I walked to the front of the lecture hall to find him sitting at a table signing autographs. I stood on line and had him sign my ticket, and exchanged a few words with him.

Me: "I'm sorry this is all I have for you to sign, but I've come a long way - from the U.S."
Attenborough: "The United States, did you say? Extraordinary."
Me: "Yes. And I won't lie: I want your job!"
Attenborough: "Ohhahahaha."

Wow. I made David Attenborough guffaw. Highlight of my life. Seriously, I'm not sure that can be topped.

Watch the lecture in its entirety: [link]

Scotland Rocks

From Bristol I flew up to Glasgow. After a long story I won't bore anyone with (it does involve Barney the dinosaur, though), I met up with my tour group and we headed up to Fort William by bus. A few members of the group had gone up the night before, so we all met at the train station and boarded a steam locomotive to Mallaig. I ended up sitting across from a paleontologist from Utah and we spent most of our ride discussing wildlife management, the wolf reintroduction in Yellowstone, and Ken Salazer. Oh boy, do I ever have a one-track mind? After a quick lunch the group (bus included) boarded the ferry to Skye, where we went on our first fossil-hunting expedition.

There's a hole in the bottom of the peat

This is a long story, but it explains 1) How I ended up in a hole up to my waist covered in sheep poo, 2) How I ended up barefoot and in shorts on a rainy day on the Isle of Skye at the end of September, and 3) Why a Scotsman thinks I'm dumber than a sheep.

What can I say about that first field trip? It was everything a trek through the Scottish bogs should be. Fortunately I was prepared (oooh, foreshadowing). I had borrowed a pair of wellies from our tour guide and I have a set of rain gear, both a jacket and pants. Underneath that I had a pair of zip-off pants (see to admire their awesomeness). Other than that, I had my LowePro backpack with my camera and tripod.

I was warm and dry in my fancy gear, and had a grand old time squishing around in the bog.

The day was incredibly overcast, with the clouds so low they brushed the tops of the crags around us. The ground was saturated, and I commented that I loved the sound the peat made as I stepped on it. Famous last words, right?

I was walking along innocently enough when I stepped on a mound of grass that, unbeknownst to me, was hovering over a pool of water/mud/sheep poo. With very little time to contemplate what was happening, I tipped forward and ended up in a hole up to my waist. Completely covered in water/mud/sheep poo. So much for staying dry! I'm pretty sure I was laughing before I'd even sunk all the way into the hole. Of course, for comedic effect, the bog made a lovely slurping noise as it tried to suck me in.

I'd just taken a few shots, so I was holding my tripod with camera attached. I apparently held it above my head as I fell, much to the amazement of standers-by. One must do what one has to do to protect one's gear, I suppose.

One woman immediately ran over, and I had her pull my backpack off and take my tripod so I could heave myself out of said hole. Amazingly, my rain pants kept me pretty dry, although my wellies were soaked through and I had a band of water/mud/sheep poo around my waist. I was able to zip off the wet legs of the pants I had on under my rain gear, so on the whole I wasn't too wet. Hiking over hills in wet wellies is awful though.


(The view just before I fell in a hole.)

We got to a beach, where I promptly found a fantastic fossil that was virtually impossible to extract from the boulder it was in. After taking a few photos and sniffling a bit, I turned around and trudged back to our vehicles. I immediately pulled off the wellies and wrung out my socks, then peeled off the wet/muddy/sheep-pooey rain pants, leaving me barefoot and in shorts - and MUCH warmer.

Our van driver for the day (the roads were too narrow for our big bus) was a local sheep farmer. On the drive back I looked at a herd of sheep and wondered aloud, "I wonder how many sheep get sucked into these bogs every year."

The driver looked in the rearview mirror and exclaimed, "Oh no, they don't go near it! THEY know better!"

So apparently I'm dumber than a sheep.

Fossils and the Highlands, then on to Edinburgh

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, in the sense that I didn't fall into any more holes. Lots of whisky and wonderful fossils. I found a fossil that was good enough that the National Museum of Scotland will be adding it to their collection, which makes me happy. I met fantastic people, one of whom I ended up rooming with in Edinburgh. It was great to have people to explore Edinburgh with.

Edinburgh is a gorgeous city. There really isn't a bad view to be had. I've loved wandering around. And while I'd like to spend more time here, it feel like forever since I haven't had to live out of a suitcase. I miss my little budgie and my silly terriers, and I’ve never been so excited to do laundry. It will be good to be home again.


Highlights that didn't fit elsewhere in this ridiculously long narrative

- Officials at Westminster Abbey tried to give me an audio tour in Italian.
- I overslept one day in Scotland, only to be awakened by our tour guide ten minutes after I was supposed to meet the bus. Someone (and those who know me know how miraculous this is) I managed to get myself and my bags out the door and on the bus in five minutes. The act of oversleeping was hereby referred to as “nestling” (which is only funny if you know my last name ).
- On the way to the Palace of the Holyrood I mistook a stylized thistle (a symbol of Scotland, see: Order of the Thistle) for a pineapple (a symbol of…something that isn’t Scotland). Of course, being the absolute idiot that I am, I didn't figure it out on my own and then have a little chuckle. Oh no. I loudly said, “IS THAT A PINEAPPLE?” This naturally led to the establishment of the Order of the Pineapple. The requirements to join are quite stringent, and I’m pretty sure the ceremony to join will require lots of whisky.