Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 09/10/2012 - 17:11

Hi Mrs. Seff I'm one of the students in your homeroom and I have a question for you, was it hard to adjust to the different time zone and the cold temperatures in Barrow? Also, were you ever nervous to walk around outside because of the polar bears?

Lisa Seff

On 9/10/12 5:14 PM, webmaster@polartrec.com wrote:Hi Nina! The first 2 times I came to Alaska the time zones and light
differences made it just about impossible for me to sleep! This time
around, we haven't slept much due to our work (only 3-4 hours each night
at the most!) but when I've needed to sleep I'm out! Doesn't matter if
I'm laying down, sitting....and actually fell asleep momentarily
standing up in the boat galley last night! As far as the temperatures
that's been a surprise, the cold temperatures haven't bothered me much
at all...probably thanks to the great long underwear. Finally, the
polar bears. Hmmm, I wouldn't use the word nervous, but how about aware
and very careful! There were quite a few nights I worked late in the
lab, leaving around 2am in the dark and I will say that after peering
around from the top of the lab stairs I made a very fast dash across the
parking lot to our "hotel"! There have been 2 recent sitings of bears
in our facility, one was described as skinny and huge. Yesterday one
swam in from the ocean (so even during beach walks we had to keep a look
out!) and the wildlife scared it down the beach away from us, but you
never know when they're going to come back!
Take care-I look forward to seeing you next week!
safe seas!
Lisa
>