Alaskan Update - Silence

Sound Station

Okay, I guess I'm over due for a good update on my job in Alaska.

My loneliness was short-lived in January.  About a week after I landed back in Kenai, I received a late Christmas present: A new co-worker.  I was hesitant at first, but she did grow on me.  Hard for someone not to when you are with them 24/7.  Regardless, we got a lot of work done, I stayed motivated, and it brought back out the fun side of me, which was nice.  3 weeks later she left though and I once again find myself mostly alone.

Mt. Redoubt at Sunrise

Research as been... well, going as well as it can.  The PhD student I work for is perpetually late, unorganized, stressed, irritable, and lazy.  Not to mention the fact he hates living and working in Alaska.  He's clearly lacking some mad Vitamin D in his life.  It's frustrating since I specifically picked this job so I could work with a PhD student and work one-on-one at that level of research.  Really get my hands dirty and see a well created project.  Well, I was quite wrong.  This project has mostly taught me how not to run a project.  Which is valuable in itself, but still quite frustrating.

Great gray owl - Rare on the refuge. :)

The PhD student also doesn't particularly enjoy the research he is conducting, which makes it all the more discouraging when I'm making no money and am 4000 miles away from friends, family, and snowboarding so I can help him.  It makes my time here feel rather pointless and unimportant.

Chugach Mtn range while snowmachining

Outside of the research, I am absolutely loving it here.  I could easily see myself spending the summer here on a different project.  I'm even planning on looking into UAF for graduate school.  The last 3 weeks have been filled with a number of hikes and adventures with my co-worker, Chelsy.  A lot of very beautiful areas of which I can only imagine what they look like in summer, when the wildflowers bloom and everything still becomes alive.

I do a lot of listening here.  It's half of my job, to listen.  And we ALL already know winter is quiet.  Especially when it's snowing.  There's this silence that makes your ears ring.  But what I didn't realize was how silent some days can be.

View from Hideout Trail

It's like ALL the senses get paralyzed.  I didn't notice until we had a "spring" day earlier this week.  The last 2 or 3 weeks have been bitter cold.  About -20F.  It's finally warmed up to about 20 or 25F.  And before I continue, I want to put that temperature change into perspective: That's a 40 degree temperature change.  So for all you east coasters, imagine it being 30F and then it being 70F.  It's a big jump, and it feels it.

So that spring day we had early this week, the temperatures hovered right around freezing.  It must have been about 34.  Definitely above freezing, since snow was actually melting.  But, for the first time all winter, all my senses were alive.  There was that wet warm spring smell to the air.  And with snow melting and falling off trees, and birds flying around, my eyes were moving to watch everything.  And then there was the sound of water and birds and a different crunch of the snow.

Epitome of silence.

It was empowering, somehow.  A very different feeling from the stillness of winter.  No sights.  No smells.  No tastes.  No Sounds.  Just a silent winter.  It gets to you, for sure.  Most of my winter experience are on a ski slope.  Constant stimulation of the senses.  It's just different here.

So the next question everyone keeps asking me is what's next?  Well, I'm in the constant battle with myself to tackle the GREs and start contacting potential advisors for graduate school.  I'm working 2 jobs right now, adding up to about 65 hours a week, so that's been mostly curbed for now.  So graduate school eventually, and until then, I've had an irresistible offer made to me for a seasonal position in eastern Tennessee.  Not my dream job, but logistically, it's perfect.  And close to the Smokies, which I've never to!  I'm waiting till the middle of nest week to decide, but as of now, that's my plan. My next adventure with my new jeep. <3

[ <3 ]  Silence might be the loudest noise I've ever battled.