by Gabriela Schaepman-Strub

Kytalyk, July 5, 2013

Yesterday evening we sat together with Lena, the cook, ordering food and all other essentials such as toilet paper. For planning future food supply, she wanted to know when people will arrive and leave from the site. We wrote a small shopping list, now hanging at the wall behind the eating table, in sight for those longing to get off the site …

Overview of living facilities: Big house on the right, kitchen in the back of the image. (Photo: A. Erb, July 2012).

Living and working room in the big hut (Photo: A. Erb, July 2012).

One week has passed for the UZH group already, another two to go for me, another five for Maitane and Inge, it seems ages ago that we arrived to the field site… These passed days were rather intense for me – let alone for the two PhD students who are out here for the first time with all new impressions. Will be important to slow down a bit now and get into a daily working rhythm, passing some free time in the evening and weekends rather than coming late to lunch and solving problems that accumulated throughout the day after dinner. Up to now we only had a few free minutes before falling asleep at midnight.

One week: also a good time to review scientific progress: For both our projects the sites and plots are selected, the towers setup and running (yes, indeed THE day of first data records today!), plant species determined in one third of the diversity plots, work accomplished according to our schedules. All small problems solved, no big ones so far, neither work-wise nor socially. And tomorrow there will be a bania to relax and get us clean again!

Map from the Kytalyk area with location of the facilities indicated (Map: Google Earth).