Forgotten Memories and Mumbles

Wednesday, May 30th

I have been cleaning and mopping to prepare for Craig and the rest of our group, its a good workout. I blog in between. I am looking forward to seeing them, we pick them up in an hour and are going to eat at Pepe's. Craig is an inspiring scientist and a brilliant team leader, so I'm sure we will work hard and learn a lot while he's here. I was told that because the grand opening for the new labs is this year, the place will be jam packed, and that there is barely going to be enough room for all the people. I don't mind, but damn it if anyone is going to get in the way between me and my chow! Hehe. My waterbottle has smelled like whale ever since I ate it. I've washed it once, but the oil gets everywhere. The lab smelled for a few hours.

My camera battery is slain and no longer charges :( I have a plan, though; I will buy a new elph digital that is small and easy to carry, along with a new battery for the bigger camera. Perry's precious Nicole (his laptop) gave him a critical error and he had to trouble shoot it. The IT guys here seem to have taken to him, and he is now one the the computer geek clan. On the upside, I am enjoying myself no matter what. This experience is awesome! I have been listening to my iPod and all the music Michi gave me a lot. It keeps me in good spirits, along with the people I am up here with.

I forgot to add some of the things we did on my blog previously, but since I am a little sleep deprived and don't usually know what time it is, I have forgotten what day and when we all did them. Anyway, before I forget even more I will post it!

Hmm...let's see...we went out to the field site on the "Cake Eater" road. There was nothing but white. We did see a couple of locals on their dog sled, but other than that it's just white. I felt like Neo in the Matrix. It's hard to get your berings in that environment, so I have been looking at a lot of maps to memorize where I'll be just in case. Santonu and Dave told me that in a few weeks I won't even recognize the place. The ice melts quickly and a new landscape slowly emerges to reveal itself. Dave is crazy! He went out with no jacket and in his chanclas (sorry for mispelling the slang guys!). The wind cuts into you out here. I will need to make sure I wear enough layers beneath my clothes. My jacket is awesome though THANK YOU GORE TEX.

I am look forward to working in the field, but more importantly to learning more and practicing the science. I'm sure I will have a greater appreciation for experimental design and field work. I have been messing around on the ukelele a bit, but overall I haven't spent much time on it. I will have to find more information on it too. I have been drawing a bit, but I usually do that on my own when no one is around so I don't have to show my work. I wish I had brought some literature to read, like some poetry, stories and my plant physiology book. I want to learn more about this area and hopefully I can develop my own project out here. I am surrounded by some brilliant minds I would love to pick, including the ones I work with.

Siku aasiie Abviq (ice and bowhead whale)

Siku

Note: All of the pictures on the ice and snow were taken between the hours of 9:30 and 11:15 pm!

Last night after dinner (about 9:30 pm) we all geared up and hiked out to the coast...and just kept on walking into the white abyss. It was odd to be walking literally on the ocean. At first I was a little worried, but I became more comfortable as I was engrossed in the landscape. Alex had no worries and couldn't waid to get on the ice. We followed the snow machine trail closely and kept a wary eye toward the horizon to watch for polar bears. It was eerily peaceful, and I am thoroughly enjoying being out of my comfort zone in an unfamiliar extreme environment. I put too many clothes on though, and had to pull off a few layers. I didn't want to leave the ocean, but we had too. We saw huge pressure ridges and a few smaller cracks in the ice. Some places my foot sank about foot down and was covered in slushy slurry ice. I wasn't cold, though.

The coast is difficult to walk on, your feet sink into the pebbles and sand every step. Finely polished pieces of driftwood from other places in the world were scattered along the beach. Who knows what kind or where it came from; there are no trees for hundreds of miles around here.

We got back up on the coastline and had a 30 minute snowball fight. Alex was a natural at pelting people and seems to know the secret to making a remarkable snowball. Anyway, after that we went further up the coast and climbed up a lookout tower to view the sea and town.
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Today I finally ate the whale that was given to me. Lewis Bower, who is Inupiat Eskimo showed us how to eat the whale we received the other day. He is also a whaler and has a skin boat of his own. He told us how difficult it is to hunt them. Bowhead whales have excellent vision and can hear their families 5000 km across the ocean, so it is no simple task. I was absolutely fascinated with his stories. He told us that you must always be prepared, because it is quite dangerous and the whales are so in tune with their surroundings that it is very difficult to find and catch one. Lewis said that he and his crew had a whale rushing towards them head on, and that they couldn't just run to the boat or to their hunting equipment because the whale would hear. They all had to move only when the whale breached to breath, so that it would only hear itself as the water was pushed out of the blowhole. Once it is close enough, it is harpooned, and once killed a whole crew has to rope it and drag it back in. The ice is also very dangerous, especially during sikugvik ("ice breaking time"). He said there are many different kinds of ice, and that it can break when you are on it. In 1995 the whole town lost 99 snow machines and most of their hunting equipment when the ice shelf broke. They would have lost over 100 people if it hadn't been for the helicopters and search and rescue crew.

I was honored by the time I tasted the food and felt like I was taking part in an ageless ceremony that has been an integral thread in the lives of the people here. Their very survival depended on these creatures. Lewis told us that every part of the whale was used. Even the flippers are eaten as a source of fiber, and it is commonly utilized here as a pacifier for kids. The meat on it is hard and fibrous. He said 30-40 years ago they would use the oil that they now throw away for cooking, fires and lanterns. "You will never get us to grow corn or farm." He said, "this alone is what generations of my people have survived on." I realized when he said it that its damn near impossible up here to farm anyway. The only way to sustain the energy needed to survive up here anyway would be to eat it.

The community caught a total of 11 whales this year. There are two seasons, spring (ending around now) and fall. The spring season is called traditional whaling and follows tradition that has been followed by Inupiat Eskimos for generations. A small crew on a skin boat with harpoons will team up with other crews. Victorious captains proudly fly a flag above their vessel. The whale is divided among the community. The middle of the whale is cut entirely around the circumference of the whale and it is enough to feed to entire town! The "waistline" down is given to the captain, who divides it as he sees fit. The other parts are distributed among the community. Friends were given larger portions, especially if they didn't have a fruitful season. Lewis told us that no one was turned down, if anybody asked they received.

He was able to tell the approximate size of the whale just by looking at the blubber and cutting into it. The size of the pores and sound it makes as you cut into it are the indicators of approximate size. He said young whales are soft and taste just like King Crab. You could just set your knife on the meat of a young whale and it would cut right through. I thought it tasted like crab too. I ate a few pieces of the epidermis and blubber, I tried some kidney, small intestine and some of the actual whale meat. The meat is dark, and quite tender. I thought the kidneys were quite good too, and they are considered a delicacy here. The meat was a little fishy, but good. I actually liked the epidermis and blubber, it was oily and good. It was quite similar to crab.

Tuesday

I am still quite tired. My colleages and I went to the gym at about 9:30 pm. The facilities here are very nice, there's a large variety of activities there including weights, ping pong, billiards, air hockey, basketball, and so on. My favorite, though is a wooden board with holes drilled into it. There are two wooden pegs that you can take out and put into the many holes on the board. Its a great arm workout, I just let my feet hang and climb it moving the pegs with my arms. There is also a little area where I can practice campusing (no legs-just arms). I hope I don't lose my climbing muscles while I'm here. There was so much to do that we all tried a little bit of everything, like a bunch of 3 year olds with no attention span.

Two hours and 3 ping pong games later we headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest. However, after my shower and some light reading it was already 1:15am, and I had to wake up and be in the lab by 9:00. Breakfast is served from 6:30 - 8:15am, and if you don't make it you don't eat (not that I'll starve or anything).

I am still adjusting to the constant daylight here. My body doesn't know what time it is, so even after the gym at 11:30 pm, it felt like mid morning here. You can just keep going and going. I have noticed the impacts, though. I've had trouble thinking of words and perfoming my best. I have set my watch to go off every day at 7am, 2pm, and 9pm so that I know what time of day it is. I have to force myself to go lay down and go to sleep.

Today we continued to mold the lab into a workable area and unpack equipment. We took an inventory and made a list of things that Craig has to bring up, which is a lot. We are all working to get everything ready before he gets here. I hear that the day after he arrives we will take the snow machines out to the field site and do some work. We are going to clean some stuff up and dig a lot of holes in the ground, I do not yet know why, but am intrigued. The snow and ice continue to melt and break at a rapid rate. I hope we are able to take the snow machines out before its all gone and the ice is too thin. Everyone in the lab will be working hard from here on out, so I am looking forward to that.

I made the calendar for the lab, and it seems we will be partying quite a bit, Adrian, Dave, me and Perry will all have our birthdays up here in Barrow. It will be nice to be out of the 100 degree heat of El Paso summers.

Barrow Experience

To my blog readers: First and foremost, I would like to apologize for the boring and elementary style of my last blog. Let it be known that I am tired and somewhat delirious (I was giggling for no reason a while ago)! It is very likely that I will not be able to complete sentences properly or even use big words. Hopefully as time goes on this will evolve into a more exciting piece of "literature". Now then, on with the blog:::





First I will catch you up with the events that transpired yesterday after arriving:

Dave helped us load our luggage and equipment into the extended cab beat up pickup that was caked in mud. We met Alice, a very nice native who works at the station as well. We all got in and drove to the research station to drop our luggage off up a road along the coast. The entire ocean as far as the eye can see is covered in ice. Everything here is totally flat, with the exception of pressure ridges formed by the ice on the water.

Every now and again along the coast we saw boats perched upon platforms. The natives make them out of wood and cover them with seal skin and seal oil. Each boat is manned by a crew of about 10 people or more, and they are used for a special purpose, whaling. Some of the boats had a colorful flag proudly displayed from a pole, indicating a victorious and fruitful journey. As we continued down the muddy road, the town looked gloomy and sullen. Peoples homes were surrounded by old scrap metal, vehicles and some even had dead geese hanging from the porches. The homes are simply designed, square with windows and covered in siding. Dave was smiling when he pointed out the liquid waste area and dump on the way to the station. "It looks bad, but its not that bad...you'll see" he said.

We pulled up to the station to find a small building that said "dormitory style" on it. It wasn't impressive, but I was happy to see it and I didn't care how much I had to rough it. Alice asked us to come in and fill out paper work before we went to our rooms so that she could go. We walked into the reasearch station and proceeded down a long hall that was covered in pictures of scientists and posters about ongoing research. My stomach fluttered at the thought of working in the field and doing some scientific work.

We went into Alice's office tired and exhasted, but I was revived by what I heard on the radio. It was an Inupiat man saying a prayer, "God thank you for the blessing you gave us, we will return it....thank you for sending us all back safely..." then he said many words in their native tongue, of which I only understood that they were powerful important words. Then many people on the radio were cheering. It is whaling season, a very special and precious time to the people here. The whales are sacred to them, and they have survived for ages eating whale and seal. Only the Inupiat people are allowed to hunt them, and they are not allowed to sell any of their catch, so it is distributed among the community. It is an honor if you are able to help them tow it in. Alice told us that they caught two bow whales. They weigh about a ton per foot! She said they were distributing the whale at a local's home, and that we should go. I was tingling with excitment and rushed to my room to throw my stuff in.

After we all got in our rooms and had the luggage unloaded, we packed back into the truck and drove to town. We arrived a small two story house, and the road was packed with cars. We walked up to the garage where there was a pile of dead geese, and a huge piece of baleen covered in tough hair. The air smelled like fish. We were warmly greeted by several Inupiat people. "Welcome to Barrow, please come in, we're glad you are here at this special time" We were guided into the garage and there was a line of people. One woman told us how to eat the cooked epidermis and blubber, apparantly it is to your liking; you can use lea and perrins or whatever you like to season it. An old Inupiat woman handed me a bag with pieces of whale in it, an I proceeded down the chow line. A young boy handed me a glass filled with a sweet smelling drink. "What is it made of?" I asked. He looked annoyed, "I don't know, I just drink it," and then he smiled at me. I laughed and drank some, it was delicious and tasted like spiced pear. I looked in my bag and also saw a homemade doughnut and other assorted whale parts like the intestine and what not. After that, we went to eat at a Mexican restaurant of all places!

The place is called Pepe's, and the logo contained an igloo with a Burro tied to the outside of it. I ordered prime rib since I didn't know how the food was, and I will have a whole three months to try it out. After eating, my eyelids grew heavy, but we all decided to check out the gravel pits and Point Barrow. We walked back to the truck and headed out to the end of the town.

We jumped out of the truck and were struck by bitter cold and white. There were a couple of dumpsters, one said "Blubber and Carcasses ONLY" on it. We noticed some bones and baleen strewn across the ice-covered shoreline. The area we went to is at the very end of the town and is a strip of land extending into the sea, called Point Barrow. This area is where the most bears are spotted. We hacked around a bit and encountered two native women who were speeding down the road in their pickup. They said they drove the road everyday for entertainment and welcomed us to Barrow. We stick out like sore thumbs here, and everyone knows you are a tourist or scientist, but they are all nice. We went back to the hotel at about 10:00. I was in shock, it was so bright outside, it felt like 11:00 am! Anyway, I took a hot bath and went to bed.

Today:

Today we got up at a leasurely hour and went into the lab. After a good night rest, I am still completely exhausted. We each have a computer at our workstation and we cleaned the place up. I found a kite in one of the drawers and put it together. The wind was perfect! My praying mantis kite hovered proudly over the research station :) I have been blogging since then. Sorry, folks, I know it isn't as exciting.

We are arriving to Barrow at a very special time, which the natives call SIKUGVIK, which is Inupiat for "Ice Breaking Time". The Arctic ice shelf is beginning to crack and break, and the snow is beginning to melt. Another researcher we met today said that we would experience winter, spring and summer in the span of about 2 weeks. We are going to take the snowmobile out later this week before all of the snow melts.

This is a picture of my workstation -------->

I am enjoying the time here and am remaining as open as I can to experience it. I am tired and fatigued, but the people I work with are all great, and I am revived by their energy and whole experience. The people and Inupiats are some of the nicest I have met and are very warm and friendly. I find that although this place may look gloomy, the life and spirit that flows through the town in its people is warm and alive. I am going to enjoy Barrow.

The Journey

Well, at last I have arrived in Barrow. My travel was long and tiring, but I was able to have fun in the process. I began my journey in El Paso, scrambling to attain and achieve last minute items, some to no avail. I think I have reached my limits in terms of procrastination. We flew to Las Vegas, where at first glance off the plane was a lot of slot machines. My travel companions (Perry, Santonu and Alex) and I traversed through the airport and encountered an oxygen bar, lots of shops, and annoying salesmen. We hitched our next plane and flew to Seattle, where we ate plenty of food and slept on some benches. We awoke to find that our flight was switched to another gate and had to run clear across the airport to make our plane just in time. Our destination was Anchorage, with a 6 hour layover.

Anchorage is beautiful, it is surrounded by lots of trees and tall majestic mountains dusted in snow that hug the ocean. The awesome peaks could be seen from the plane pushing through the blanket of clouds than enveloped them. We went to a festival and met lots of really friendly locals with their wares. I tried some buffalo, caribou and reindeer sausage, which made me even more hungry, so we went to eat at a restaurant. The crab was delicious and fresh, and the beer was brewed in Alaska.
Next stop: Barrow The flight to Barrow is only 2 and a half hours, and the plane is small, the front of the plane carried luggage and cargo, and the back of it was full of passengers. The flight was not packed, so I got to spread out on the seat next to me as well. Perry and I met two guys that were also going to Barrow, one of them was a native named Cyrus and had his little boy with him. He worked on construction building the very structure I would be staying at, and said that he made very good money there, also the natives receive money from the oil company. The other one was a Korean guy whose mother owns a restaurant in Barrow. He was very talkative and gave us some pointers:
Many of the arctic foxes have rabies, so run!
It's flat and cold and windy, so dress warm.
Bring sunglasses, because the sun NEVER goes down in the summer.
He also informed us that some of the kids are hooligans, and are into meth because there is nothing else they know. :( Anyway, by the time we finished talking our plane was arriving in Deadhorse near Prudhoe Bay. We landed, let people off, two more came on, and took off. 40 minutes later we were in Barrow. I was a little wary, the airport is right next to the ice covered arctic ocean, and we were comming in at full speed. The landing was bumpy, and the plane shook as we hit the ground, where we abruptly stopped. The airport consisted of a few warehouse like buildings and we had to walk off the plane. I was excited and overwhelmed. I stepped off the plane to see nothing but WHITE EVERYWHERE. Also, the town doesn't look all that impressive, there are no paved roads and everything is mucky. I stepped into the "airport" to find a small house-sized building filled with a few people. The baggage claim was a small slide-like platform of brushed steel that some local guy threw the luggage down on one by one. We had to move other peoples' bags out of the way so it wouldn't pile up. I was happy to see our other colleague Dave there. He arrived earlier that day. So ends my traveling adventure and this blog and so begins my time in Barrow, land of the midnight sun.