The Countdown Has Begun

I leave in 10 days, practically 9 now. The countdown has begun.

Now it's time for all of the last minute stuff, including packing. Mom and I are both feeling the pressure. We went shopping today...and only got maybe half of the things on my shopping list...and added lots of new items to the list, of course. We have a laundry bin full of things to be brought, or to potentially be brought.

I have lots of scanning to do, so I don't need to bring the heavy binders full of all my notes for semester abroad and on volcanoes in general. I'm doing lots of research still. And then I need to scan those notes onto my computer.

I have bookings to make. I have reading to do. I have packing to do. None of which alone are too difficult. But all of them together is a terrifyingly HUGE list of things to be accomplished. And this week, I'm hanging out with an old neighbor of mine, so she isn't home alone. I'm so excited for that...but at times it seems impossible for me to be able to accomplish everything!

Thankfully, I at least feel like I'm actually learning stuff while reading. And I'm actually managing to accomplish things, however slowly that may be.

So, some interesting things about the volcanoes I'll be studying...

• The typical eruption style of Vesuvius is the Plinian style, which is named after Pliny the Younger, who wrote about the first recorded eruption of Vesuvius. The Plinian eruption style is a voluminous eruption of large clouds of "fire-broken", or pyroclastic, material in a column shape that usually collapse into a flow, like a river,  of the same material. 
• When Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, the eruption that makes Vesuvius famous, there were two pyroclastic flows. The first was when the column of ash, rock, and gas, or the pyroclastic material, originally collapsed. Then, it actually destroyed the town of Herculaneum, before the second flow destroyed the famous city of Pompeii. 

Sadly, that is all I feel up to sharing at this particular moment, and that is some of the most interesting stuff I have learned so far. But I will keep posting and sharing more interesting tidbits that I learn!

In the meantime, thank you for reading and finding my blog interesting! Keep safe! And wish me luck with getting ready in time for my flight to Paris on September 5th!