Hello from…snowy Minnesota? Leaving Miami only to get delayed by snowstorms in Chicago was a bit of a depressing feeling. Clearly I am going to school in the half of the country.

The past week was GREAT. Attending the State of the Arctic conference was a perfect way to start off this field season. Presenting our research from last year was a great experience, and the opportunities to network were really valuable and gave me a lot of ideas for improving my project this summer. Above all it made me so excited to start again! 4 days of brand new research and new questions made me really want to leave for Cherskiy tomorrow and get started. Do I really need to finish this school year?

To introduce myself, I’m Erin from St. Olaf College in Minnesota. Last year as one of the members of the Stream Team (aka the Dream Team), my project looked at the nutrient limitation of small streams and the potential for them to act as active processors of DOC. This year I will be continuing that project with some new questions and methods. Working with Travis, we are trying to understand how much nutrient uptake and carbon processing is occurring in streams, how this interacts with the physical hydrology of the stream (Travis’s territory) and how much this might change as discharge increases or decreases with climate change.

As for interesting tidbits about me, I love to sing (please tell me someone plays guitar!), nordic ski, and play sand volleyball and frisbee. I am a coffee addict, really  like to cook, and love eating grapefruits, which are unfortunately in short supply in Cherskiy. I spent last fall semester in India, and as a consequence adore spicy food and all things Bollywood.

Reconnecting with all you lovely Polaris people was wonderful – I can’t wait to see you again, and best of luck with all the interesting things you are setting out to do. To the new Polaris students – I am excited to meet all of you! You are setting out on a crazy adventure and we are so excited to see it all again with you!