Field Trip

I wasn’t gonna believe what happened this morning. 

My Monday schedule is pretty simple… I only have a Physical Geography lab from 9:30am to 12:35pm, that’s it. I woke up at 7:30am and had a regular breakfast. I took the 8:16 bus to get to school by 9 o’clock, which is what I usually do on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Why didn’t I take a later bus? I really don’t know! I didn’t just get confused, at least at the beginning: in fact, I saw some friends on the bus, and I told them I was going to the Geo lab… Yet when we arrived to Santa Barbara City College, I completely forgot about it. For some reason, having taken the bus that I usually take on T/TH, I followed my T/TH schedule! 

So when I arrived to school I went straight to the Math Lab and sat in my tutoring spot from 9:00-10:30am, which is what I usually do on those two days. I was sitting there, waiting for students to show up and ask for help, and I was surprised that no students came… but it wasn’t until my tutoring session was over that I realized that the reason why they didn't is because I am not scheduled to tutor today. I felt so dumb! I should have been in my Geo lab, and by then I was one hour late! As I was walking across campus, it hit me: today our first field trip was scheduled. The instructor recommended us all to come early, as our bus would have left promptly at 9:35. That’s why I took the 8:16 bus! Darn it!

I immediately emailed my professor explaining my mistake. Luckily, the same lab happens to be offered in the afternoon as well, so in the end I did not miss the field trip. While this wasn't optimal because it ruined my plans for the afternoon— which consisted in working on a business idea with a friend— it really did work out great! I mean, what are the chances that the same lab is offered in the afternoon, and I have no other classes at that time? 

The field trip was pretty interesting. We first drove up to the top of the Mesa, not far from SBCC. From there, we had a beautiful view of the four Channel Islands and the Santa Monica mountain range, which are all on the same line because they are actually all the same mountain range, which sometimes happens to get low enough to be covered with water… 

Then we learned how to use a compass to figure out our exact position on a map, and we used a GPS to find our coordinates. Did you know that the GPS system in your Google Maps app is actually not a GPS? GPS systems do not need any internet connections, they work by exchanging signals with three different satellites through a process called triangulation. Google Maps uses similar techniques but the internet connection is faster!

Finally, we went down to the beach and learned about estuaries, watersheds, ecosystems, and the origin of folded rock. 

I enjoyed my time because I met many new people during the trip and it was 85 degrees (30 celsius) and sunny all day, which is just amazing considered it is still winter. 

It wasn’t a bad day after all!

I hope you had a great start of Week 4 too!

A Presto,

- Fede