And so the Countdown Begins

It's official. Now a full week into the second half of spring semester the coming home countdown has begun. Over the next 7 weeks there will be 5 more exams, 3 presentations, a term project and a few homeworks thrown in too. So there really seems like far too much to do an not too much time to do it.

The next week and a half will be devoted to getting as much work done as possible so that I can enjoy myself when mum and dad come over, now only 11 short days until they arrive in Oklahoma.

Also in the time I have to fit in a 21st birthday, a bridal shower, sell the car and finally get around to horse riding down at Lake Thunderbird, not better time to ride a horse for the first time than in cowboy country itself.

Still, even as the amazing year draws to an end I can't help but fell like it will have been just the right amount of time for me and that I am going to be very glad to get home. It also means that it is coming to the end of this blog. I'm considering starting a new one to document my final and masters year at university, but that's something for later.

I am also trying my hardest to sort out some work experience with a private weather forecasting company down in Oxfordshire, so hoping with all fingers crossed that I get it I might also have to fit in finding a place to live into the equation.

Whoever said that life was simple evidently didn't have many affairs to attend to. Phew!

I was out woth some friends the ther week when we came out of the bar and in the car park was this enormous truck, Pete and I were in awe at its size and how it could possibly necessary, scarily, David and Katie said they didn't even give it a second glance, a point which we brought up in our climate and renewable energy class......

...... Well I'll just let you see what you think to it.

Spring Break - a Californian Adventure

I have just got back from my spring break and feel the better for it, not that the relaxation will last for long, the hard work starts today and the slog will be on for the next couple of weeks with various presentations and exams coming up. But enough with that, lets tell you all about my week away and the adventures which I had along the way.

I flew out to San Diego on friday the 13th! It was a fine flight though and I was slightly distressed as the person sat next to me thought I was 16 and the man sat next to me was my dad not that we even looked anything alike! I got a taxi up to the hostel where I was staying at Ocean Beach and the taxi was paid for as promised by the hostel which I thought was pretty good. I was staying in a 4 bed room so Becky and I would be sharing with 2 other people. 3 of the nights we were in with some welsh people and the other 4 were with different people each time. I went out for a walk along the beach just at the end of the road to recover from the journey, with the 2 hour time difference it felt like I'd been up since 4am so I was shattered. Sitting on the beach there were pelicans flying over which was really wierd to see. I dipped my toes into the Pacific Ocean and it was freezing cold cold just like the North Sea when I'd been to Filey and Whitby. That night there was a free BBQ at the hostel so havign had that I soon aftr went to bed early having decided to go to Sea World the next day and worked out how to get there on the bus.

Pictures above are of Ocean Beach, the area that I was staying in, the youth hostel was just up the road from here a 2 minute walk.

On the first day I went to Sea World to see alsorts of different sea animals. I was a fairly hot day so I hadn't taken a jumper, but we stayed right until the end by which time i was cold and I made a mental note to myself that no matter how hot it was in the day I must take a jumper with me everywhere for the evenings.

During the day along with seeing the aquariums and a terrifying 60ft drop on a log flume and getting soaked on a rapids rides which Becky and I thought looked very tame before we got on it we also saw performing killer whales including Shamu, perfoming dolphins and sea lions. It was all really good fun. The dolphin show, Seamore and Clyde the sealions show with CJ the otter, and Shamu the Killer Whale in Shamu Rocks evening show

On the second day, Sunday, I took a bus up to the northern part of San Diego to Pacific Beach to have a relaxing day where I didn't particularly do much. I went to the shop in the morning and bought rolls for a picnic and a punnet of some of the best strawberries I've had in a very long time. In the day I read my book whilst sun bathing on the beach and swam in the Pacific Ocean and jumped lots of waves, it was cold at first but I soon got aclimatised to the water adn stayed in for about an hour happily by myself. Before I headed back I went to the end of the pier and even spotted some dolphins far off on the horizon.

Views of Pacific Beach from the beach and from the pier.

On Monday I got up early and got the Amtrack train up to Anaheim for this was the day that I went to DisneyLand. I had to queue in a really long queue but thankfully it went rather quickly and I was at the desk to get in in no time at all. The lady on the desk was really nice and gave me a big badge to wear as it was my first time visiting. I got more and more xcited as I entered the actual park an was bouncing around like a 5 year old on a sugar rush all day. I wanted to see everything and go on every ride possible. I managed to go on all of the bigger and better rides minus 1 because I ran out of time. I was not very happy at the price of food here but was at least prepared for it and luckily I'd told Becky to drink all the water in her bottle before entering and they never took the bottle off her so we kept filling up with water at drinking fountains all day, they were charing a fortune for bottled water. My favourite ride was definately Thunder Mountain, a wooden rollercoaster but I had lots of fun on all of the rides. I also had my ppicture taken with Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger, and Pluto and got hugs off them all. By far I think that DisneyLand was my favourite day, it lasted all day, involved seeing a commercial train system for the first time, and satisfied many of my childhood dreams.Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse, The Princess Castle, Me and Pluto, Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore and finally Tigger.

On tuesday I decided to go into downtown San Diego and have look around the actual city. There were some really pretty bulidings dispersed between the modern high risers. I stopped at the park next to the university for lunch then after lunch took a bus over the sea bridge onto Coronado Island to go and see the famous Coronado Hotel, the island was absolutely beautiful and the beach was perfect image of an idyllic white sandy beach. On the way back over to the main land there were some great views of the down town San Diego skyline.

The park by the university of California, The sea bridge between main land San Diego and Coronado island, A view of downtown San Diego from the sea bridge, and the Coronado Hotel from the beach.

Wednesday was another long journey on the train north to Los Angeles, sadly I didn't have as much time as I'd like there but I managed to get up to HollyWood Boulavard and see the Hollywood sign, the star filled street with all famous names on, the Kodak theatre and the Chinese theatre along with all the hand and foot prints and signitures of vaious screen actors outside on the pavement.

The Hollywood sign on the hills, Hoolywood Boulavard, I'm famous....well we can just pretend can't we?, a grand piano hanging in the stairwell of a shopping mall.

Thursday was my last day in San Diego and I couldn't come and not go to the world famous zoo so that's exactly what I did. It was absolutely huge and I saw lots and lots of animals, but my favourites will always be the meercats. I saw some animals that I'd never seen before and went on the skyride which passed over the whole zoo and saw just how big it was and could even see the skyline of down town as it was so high up. I won't bore you all with mass amounts of animal pictures even though I thought I was incredibly controlled and took relatively few, probably a good thing that my camera was filling up from all the weeks actvities.

A view of San Diego from the zoo skyride, On the skyride, A church which kept ringing its bells, One of many meercats and finally Gao Gao the Giant Panda.

On friday it was time to go home, as good a time as I had had, I was glad to leave for Norman as I was quite tired from constatly being on the go to new places adn I was missing my nice bathroom and bed, but what more can you expect when you stay in a youth hostel eh? You can tell the holiday is over because whilst the weather is not unpleasant it is rather cloudy, it is nice for it to be a bit cooler again though after the hot week I've just had, I felt like I was nearly melting some days.

KOCO5 Visit

On wednesday 11th March the 6 of us and Dean headed out to Oklahoma City to visit the KOCO5 television studios. We had been lucky enough to meet the head meteorologist on the channel at the National Weather Festival last semester and had finally got around to organising a visit.

We were shown around the studio and the new rooms and control room and Rick Mitchell was answered all of our questions and was interested to hear all about our experiences and how things differed weather wise in our countries and how much it's televised.

We then watched a live news cast and weather forecast being filmed in the studios and then watched the next one an hour later but from the control room which was really interesting. Whilst looking around the studios we got to play with the green screen for a bit and see what it was actually like to do the weather forcast when there is nothing but green behind you. The people in the control room were playing around and cutting around our heads so that all you could see was our heads floating on screen with the forecast in the back ground which was really funny. Dean wsa so tall and large that he took up most of the screen!

It was an excellent afternoon and I really enjoyed seeing how everything works. Icertainly won't be watching the forecast on tv in the same way any more.

Neglected

I realise that I haven't update my blog in a couple of weeks, but fear not I have only neglected it because there has been nothing much going on just the usual work load. I have a feeling that the reasonably relaxed half semester that I've just had is going to turn upside down and be a mad rush to the finish line in the second half, something which I think has been planned a bit backwards with the most part of storm season adn chasing opportunites occurring in the latter half.

Still I have only one more week to wait until spring break now and can't wait to head out to California, if only to be away from Norman. Due to all the street crime that's being going on in Mexico recently though I think that the trip to Tijuana might be off so I'll have to go to Mexico at another point in my life sadly, but there are still lots of adventures to be had.

One interesting point is that the temperature has really varied this week. On monday I was in jumpers and coats and it was 5C outside and by thursday it was 30C and was wearing skirts and flip flops. It it very dry and there have even been some forest fires in Oklahoma. In fact it hasn't rain since we last went on a storm chase on the 10th February so that will be a month on tuesday if we don't get it before.

That's all for now I'm afraid but give it another couple of weeks and I've something exciting and fun to tell you all about.