Day 89 - Experiencing the Weather

Today I was near Swanage, Dorset for the Experiencing the Weather field course/trip. Wow! There's too much to say, but I'll give a brief overview.

On friday night, we had dinner, a briefing, and played a weather trivia game. My team won that by a landslide, thanks in part to a lot of questions related to American, Italian, and African weather (one of my teammates was from Italy, and another was a professor who studies climate in Africa). On Saturday, we broke into groups and did several different activities related to meteorological measurements, analysis, and forecasting. Later in the day we got to give presentations. That of course was one of my favorite parts. And of course, my group threw some enternatinment into our presentation.

It was a wonderful opportunity to get to know more of the grad students in the meteorology department. On Saturday night, everyone went to a local pub (as we also did on Friday night). That night was one of the best since I've been in England. One of the highlights included a discussion with several other students, all from different countries, about why America is so bad. I think I learned a lot more about why some people around the world dislike America, and I think they learned a lot about our side of the issues, which they sure didn't get from the BBC or the media in their own countries.

posted by Matt @ 11:57 PM