All aboard
After 5 days of traveling we’ve finally reached our home. We took a small propeller plane to Cherskiy, which was a new sort of traveling experience for us – we piled our luggage in the front and secured it with nets. We flew low enough that we could watch the landscape change from marshy wetlands in Lena floodplain to hilly, dry tundra. We flew over several mountain ranges and had our first view of thermokarst lakes and polygonal ground. As we came into Cherskiy, our landing wheels came down and looked like they would brush the surface of the Kolyma, but we safely made the gravel runway and landed at the creatively painted Cherskiy airport. We were met by the Zimovs and Davydovs and conveyed by bus to the Northeast Science Station. There we had our first glimpse of our home for the next 3 weeks. Though a barge may sound like an odd place to live, we already love it. The cozy dining room (complete with maps on the wall) is perfect for planning our future research.
One of the barge bedrooms
After settling in, the faculty sent us out for our first taste of Siberian mosquitoes, or rather their first taste of us. Have no fear, we were well received. The welcoming committee was large enough to chase us back to the barge to pick-up nets shirts and repellent. But our dismay was not enough to dampen our enthusiasm for the beauty of the Siberian landscape. It’s truly amazing – you wouldn’t expect such lush green scenery, and the wildflowers are especially beautiful. A few of us encountered the wreckage of a crashed plane (don’t worry – not ours) while some others explored the station and larch forest.
Big, slow skeeters
We returned to the barge before dinner to begin our meetings with the faculty. In groups of two we “speed dated” with each professor and discussed research interests and project goals for this summer. We can honestly say we have a lot to think about, but that only makes us more excited for what is to come. We finished off our evening with a delicious dinner, made even sweeter by the fact that it was the professors’ night on dish duty!
All in all, we can already tell that we love our new home. We may never come back.
Erin, Blaize, and Moira!
Comments(8)-
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Zack Denfeld says
July 7, 2009 at 7:51 pmThanks for the updates guys! The descriptions of the landscape are particularly intriguing. I agree that the landscape has a profound impact on one’s mental space, and sometimes words capture that better than images, although I am looking forward to pictures from the barge. I am interested to see how the ecosystems on land and water change your brain. I really only noticed the calm that slowly changing New England forests in autumn brought me after l lived in India, where the passage of seasons is less visible. How does summer feel there?
Good luck on your research!
andy says
July 8, 2009 at 3:25 amSummer feels cool and buggy to most of us. We will be updating as much as possible as we settle into a routine. We hope to keep the pictures rolling out especially. Thanks for the comments.
Nancy Cedar says
July 7, 2009 at 8:02 pmPolaris Group! We love hearing your posts which provide a wonderful taste of what you are experiencing. Keep them coming!
Helen says
July 8, 2009 at 6:09 amThat is a lot of freaking mosquitoes. Ugh.
Matt Ruppel says
July 10, 2009 at 8:37 amI do miss that barge…but not the mosquitoes. and whats with the new ramp onto the barge? no more rope tied to a tree?
andy says
July 10, 2009 at 4:30 pmThe walkway is a big improvement for sure.