May 7th, 2009

I woke up early this morning so I could call home before starting work.  The ship is still in Hawaii.  I don’t know if you know this, but, just like your house is on a street, and your street is in a city, the city is in a country, which is part of a continent which is land surrounded by ocean on our planet. 

The planet, which we call Earth, is round, like a ball, and it spins just like a ball spins.  On one side is the sun, and as the Earth spins only the part of the Earth facing the sun has daylight.  The part of the Earth facing away from the sun has nighttime.  As the Earth spins, the part of the planet that has day is always changing.  Because of this, the day in Hawaii starts later than other places.  So when I wake up early, it is already later in the day back home.  

After calling home, the scientists met in a room to start talking about the trip they would be going on.  They talked about the purpose of the trip.  The middle of the Earth is called the equator and they would be traveling to the equator in the Pacific Ocean.  That is where they will be getting their mud from.  The mud here is very special because of when and where it was made.  It tells a different story about the Earth history than other mud.  

After talking about why they were going to the equator, we broke into our different groups to learn about our jobs on the ship.  Some people would be looking at fossils in the mud we bring up, others would be looking at how much it weighed, and other people would be looking at the water from the mud.  I would be describing the mud, looking at its color, its texture, and what it is made of.  There were 6 other people doing the same thing, and we were split into two groups, one that would be working from noon to midnight, and one that would be working from midnight to noon (like me).

Tomorrow is our last day on land, and we will only be working for until noon.