Bright Lights, Big City, and... Rocks!

Looks like I'm going on a Spring Break excursion to Las Vegas, Nevada!! I applied to UNLV for their master's program in Geoscience, and while I haven't officially been accepted yet, my chances are looking pretty good. So, I'll be going to Las Vegas for a few days to meet with professors, check out the school, and spend some time with my family that lives there. I just need to book a plane ticket and take care of some other details, and I'll be on my way.

I'm not what one would call a party-girl (or anything close, for that matter). So it's funny that this is my second Spring Break trip to Las Vegas that also happens to fall over St. Patrick's Day. Now, Vegas is a pretty crazy city to begin with, but add in St. Patrick's Day, and the craziness exponentially increases! What usually is a 20-minute commute for my Aunt turned into a stressful 2-hour stop-and-go ride on St. Pattie's last year. In the evening, Fremont Street was bustling with people decked-out in green attire consuming green beverages. Definitely a site to see!

So why is this fairly sheltered suburban girl looking at a school in Sin City? It looks like they've got a pretty solid geology program at UNLV and there's a lot of cool geology within a reasonable driving range. One of my pictures that I posted here is from Red Rock Canyon, which is a great park with some awesome geology in it. There's also plenty of water issues (desert metropolis?!), in which this future hydrology student will surely find some interest. I'm really excited for my first of (hopefully) three school visits. I'm a huge planner, so not knowing what's going on next year is definitely a big source of stress in my life right now. Going on this trip brings me one step closer to being able to formulate some of those decisions.