It feels as if the last month or so has really run together, like a frenzied blur of non-stop activity. Now, the day is here where we journey around most of the globe and across the world’s largest country to experience arctic Siberia. I can’t wait to meet everyone involved in the POLARIS Project and hear all about the fascinating research that is taking place in this unique locale.

I’ve been back working in Alaska since April and kind of figured I could just hop a skiff across the Bering Sea and go the water route to Cherskiy, but no dice. Going the long route allows us to experience two administrative capitals of Russia, so I think our four day journey will be worth it! Any fellow coffee addicts out there?

I’ve been fascinated with Russia and Siberia in particular since reading a few of Alexandr Solzhenitsyn’s novels in high school, and researching the Soviet Union in college. It’s amazing and humbling to be able to take part in this project and explore both culturally and scientifically.

I wish 3pm Alaska time had worked better with my field work schedule to make it to the online seminars, so I don’t feel like i’ve been all that connected as of yet. I hope I can hit the ground running and get to know the project and the amazing aquatic and terrestrial research going on at Northeast Science Station, and share our work on forest fire ecology in the boreal forest. What a better place to study the boreal forest than in Siberia, home to the world’s largest tracts of the biome.

Flying to JFK from Gainesville, Florida via Fairbanks, Alaska I know i’ll be tired but oh so ready for this adventure to begin. Here’s to it!