After a long few days of flying, sleeping, eating and getting to know the interesting people that encompass the Polaris group, I have found a few moments to reflect on my trip so far. My travels started in Boston, in which we experienced a delay in our flight due to a thunder storm. We were nervous about making our connecting flight in Chicago but made it with time to spear. In Chicago all the United States participants met up and boarded the plane for Moscow. Once in Moscow we settled in and later in the day ventured off to the Red Square area. It was nice to see a part of Russian culture. We also ate lunch and dinner in our hotel, which consisted of beef or chicken with either rice or pasta and prune juice or tea for a drink. One of my favorite parts of traveling is trying the local cuisines. Today we had another 2 flights to Yakutsk and we passed 6 more time zones, it was amazing to see the sun set and rise in the same flight! From above we were also able to see below us three of the largest rivers in Russia, the Ob, Yenisey and Lena. We are staying in Yakutsk for a few days and then are off to our final destination in Cherskiy. Later this afternoon we are meeting to discuss plans for our research in Cherskiy and begin to inquire thoughts and ideas we have regarding the arctic! Until next time…
-Blaize