Today was a long, sad day. We spent the morning packing, cleaning and swimming in the Panteleikha one last time. Right after lunch we loaded up the bus and said good-bye to the Station. It was hard leaving behind the four returning students and all the people at the Northeast Science Station that made our stay so fantastic. Last night we had a great dinner full of toasts and gifts. One of the toasts was in song form. Both Erin’s and my families commemorate events by changing the words to other songs. Here are the lyrics from our toast last night.
To the tune of Proud Mary by Creedance Clearwater Revival.
We left our homes for the summer
Heading to the land of no night just day
Loading up on bug shirts, boots and peanut butter
Heading to the north for a month long stay
Mahalia keep on crooning
Oh that jelly keep on spooning
And we’re rolling, rolling, rolling on a river
We settled into life in Cherskiy
Playing Settlers by night, doing research all day
And we never got one minute of sleeping
Cause John’s damn snoring kept ups up all night
Drinking Zatecky Gus
Eating biscuits, canned cow and moose
And we’re rolling, rolling, rolling on a river
Heading north to the tundra
Expecting just to stay for one long day
Stranded in the fish shack
Crowded, sweaty, smelly
Congealed into our speggy-wedge that fateful ay
“And What” said dearest Vanya
Drinking beer sitting in the banya
And we’re rolling, rolling, rolling on a river
Heading back to the US
We never imagined we’d reach this day
Ready to eat veggies
And wear some clean clothes
But memories of this month with never fade
Big thanks to the station and PIs
For a month that surely opened our eyes
And we’re rolling, rolling, rolling on a river
As I am writing this, it is dark outside. For the first time in a month it is actually night time. We have completed one flight, just three more flights and 16 more time zones to go through. Although it was a sad day, travel went smoothly. We arrived safely tonight in Yakutsk (it is a lot easier with ten fewer people and bags). We hope that the rest of our trip; to Moscow tomorrow and the US on Monday go as smoothly.
The one upshot of having many long flights is that it gives us students the opportunity to work on our presentations. On Sunday, we will each present the preliminary findings from our research projects this summer. Although we all had a general understanding of what each other was studying, I am excited to hear in depth about all the work that was accomplished this month.
