Hey Jenny, are you ready to smell the Arctic?

Well, here we are again! My favorite part so far? The smell. I missed the way it smells here so much. Almost like pine but with something different about it. It’s hard to describe, I guess you just have to experience it. Lucky me. 🙂

This year started slightly different than the previous two: Jenny and I are spending a week in Toolik for some training. But, I will come back to that. We spent our first night in Alaska in Anchorage. We lucked out with some gorgeous weather, although after a day of traveling we were way too tired to do much exploring. Plus, this is not my first or last time in Anchorage. We stayed at a small, cozy hotel with a large room that was perfect for the 13 hours of sleep Jenny got and my 6 hour marathon of Hatfield’s and McCoy’s. In the morning we had a lot of time to kill before our 3PM flight, so we did manage to leave the hotel and walk around a bit. We also checked out some shops and a section of the airport that has native art showcased. I personally am not the biggest fan of Anchorage, but one night in the city is not so bad.

After our Anchorage adventure, we took a plane ride to Deadhorse and had a 3 hour drive south to Toolik. There is a research station located here right on the lake. It is beautiful. I walk outside to a view of the Brooks mountain range, which is a nice perk. Sadly it was too foggy today for me to get any good pictures of the mountains, but I will try again tomorrow.  We spent the morning outside setting up one of our research sites and the afternoon building and programming some high-tech equipment in the lab. The work itself was not too challenging, but I am still exhausted. On the upside, after the long day we get to come in for an amazing meal. The food here is pretty great. We have 3 meals per day prepared by the kitchen, and everything so far has been awesome. Biscuits and gravy this morning, a Cuban sandwich for lunch, and beef shish-kabobs for dinner. It’s nice to have a hot meal at the end of the day that I didn’t have to stop working early to come cook. The refrigerator full of pop and shelves filled with candy aren’t so bad either. They are very conservative here at the camp though. For instance, they have to bring in water on trucks to supply us, and it costs them $1.00 per gallon. Because of this, I am only allowed 2 showers per week, and each shower can only last 2 minutes. For anyone who knows me or how I like to take showers, you know this is an issue. So, that makes me glad that I will only be here one week. I get spoiled in Barrow and Atqasuk with my daily hot shower… oh great, now I want a shower. 

 

So far, a very successful start to the summer. I am looking forward to getting up to Barrow and Atqasuk. Being here and not having seen my “home away from home” yet is making me even more anxious to get there. I was nervous for this year at first, but now that I am here everything seems just as it always does: perfect.