What we are actually doing up here in the middle of nowhere.

You may be wondering what we are actually doing up here in the middle of nowhere. I've been so busy that I haven't really had time to explain what is going on, but the good news for any of you that are curious is that our lab is hosting a PolarTrec teacher for the summer. He is a high school science teacher that is observing our research and communicating it to the public and to his high school students, in hopes of increasing interest and understanding of our work on carbon cycling in the Arctic. He keeps a blog that can be found here, and I thought I'd pass it along in case you want to get a better picture of what we're working on. Yay science!

First mosquito photo-bomb of the season!

Midnight today.

The light this time of night is amazing!

Arctic laundry.

Today I got to do laundry and take a shower, which was totally amazing! We're allowed to do laundry once every two weeks, and I find it rather ridiculous that I can do laundry more frequently in an arctic field camp than in Switzerland! But clean clothes are definitely amazing.

I love this time of night.

Science is pretty colors, part II.

Science is pretty colors!

I'm tired...

...so this picture is only from 10pm today. And, immediately after taking this photo, I was swarmed by all the mosquitos, ever. 

There's still ice on the lake!

A foggy Monday.

The view of camp this morning:

Anatomy of a field day.

Prep work all morning. 

Waiting for the pilot car north for 30 minutes, watching the clouds move across the tundra. I heart my job!

Following the pilot car. 

My sweet ride. I always wear pink when I drive the trucks, because it is more fun that way!

My field site. 

Waiting for the pilot car south for 45 minutes. I'm pretty sure I spent about as much times waiting for a pilot car as sampling at my sight. Good thing the tundra is beautiful and I could stare at it all day...

Working up samples in the lab. 

Gratuitous midnight photo. 

Some photos from the last few days.

First rainbow of the season, 21 June. 

The labs and Toolik Lake at 1am, 22 June. 

Brooks Range, midnight, 22 June. 

My weatherport, home sweet home. 

What is a name?

All of my life, I've run in to problems because my name, Sarah, is such a common name. In high school, there was another Sarah that looked similar enough to me that teachers would get us confused. In college, I lived in a house with 3 other girls, 2 of whom were named Sarah. In graduate school, there has always been at least one other Sarah in my research group at all times. Here at Toolik, the camp population is ~100, and there are 5 Sarahs. And 3 of us are Sarah Elizabeths, and we all work in the same lab. What are the odds?

What 2am looks like.

June 19th at 11pm at TFS looked like this...

Around camp at 11 pm.

View from my front door. 

Brooks Range. 

Toolik Lake, still covered in ice. 

Northbound on the Dalton Highway.

Flying to Fairbanks.

A celebration weekend.

This weekend we celebrated my parents' 30th anniversary and Father's Day! It was so nice to be here to join in the festivities!

Blue is my favorite color.

My dear friend Jessi sent me an email with this story last week:

...I went to the gym today and wore a sky blue tank top. After, I put it in the laundry hamper, and it was on top of everything. Jessi, Jr. came into the room and peered into the hamper (she often drops toys in there just for fun) and saw the blue shirt. "SARAH?" she shrieked questioningly. I told her what I always do when she says your name, "No, Sarah isn't here, she's in Zurich." This time babycakes dove head-first into the hamper to pull out the blue shirt. Holding it up to me she said again, "Sarah?" I started to laugh - apparently you wear a LOT of blue and she must associate that color with you which I thought was really funny. I had to break it to her that sadly that was Momma's shirt and not Sarah's, and that, alas, Sarah was still in Zurich...

Other than having the cockles of my heart warmed by the fact that babycakes remembers me and connects me with the color blue, it just about made me die laughing, because I truly have a blue problem (which others have remarked on as well). I am inescapably drawn to things that are blue; if there is something blue in the store, I automatically gravitate towards it, without even thinking. Which is probably how I have more than five blue jackets...

Anyways, I thought I'd go back and assess the evidence from our trip to see if I do really wear so much blue.

Day 1: (Navy) blue shirt. That almost doesn't count!

Day 2: Blue rain jacket.

Day 3: Blue rain jacket.

Day 4: Blue rain jacket.

Day 5: Blue rain jacket.

Day 6: Blue rain jacket. Again.

Day 7: Blue rain jacket.

Day 8: No picture, but it was pouring cats and dogs, so I definitely was wearing my trusty blue raincoat.

Day 9: Blue rain jacket.

Day 10: I may not have worn blue, but I have no picture to prove it.


Conclusion: I wear a lot of blue? Although, in my defense, it was cold and/or windy for much of the trip, which is why I basically lived in my blue raincoat. On the other hand, these pictures don't even show the blue shirts that I may or may not have been wearing under my blue rain jacket...