I recently returned from my winter fieldwork stint. More than a month spent in a remote location without access to electronic fetters-- cell phones, computers, television, internet. Gorgeous, ice-covered landscapes unencumbered by the presence of man. Heavy, regular snowfall. And, on rare nights, brilliant glimpses of the star-studded Milky Way, singing out from an inky sky far from the pollution of electric lights.
I always feel my best while doing fieldwork. I get plenty of exercise every day, I eat better (or at least more regularly), and I stay far away from my obsession with the trappings of modern society.
For these reasons, among others, I always find it difficult to come out of the field and back into the 'real world.' There is always a period of readjustment, which varies in length and intensity depending on the amount of time I've spent in the field and the differences between the environment I'm leaving and the place to which I'm returning.
This winter's reentry phase falls in the middle of the spectrum-- not the worst I've ever felt, but certainly not the easiest transition I've ever made. I miss the snow, the quiet solitude, my fellow fieldworkers, the work itself. I miss being in an environment where my love of science and intentions for graduate school are both respected and shared. I miss being someplace where my senses are assaulted with fresh air, the crisp wind, and the soft, muted colors reflected by blankets of snow, as opposed to blaring advertisements for Christmas sales and car insurance endlessly parroted across every form of media, every day.
I do not miss being cold all the time. I do not miss having to drive an hour or more for groceries, for rotten produce and cheap cheese and stale bread. And I certainly don't miss taking my chances with hazardous road conditions in areas where any sudden braking is instantly equated with sliding off the road and a subsequent long, cold wait for a tow truck (er... not that this ever happened to me, exactly, while I was there).
Now I just have to try to readjust to barn work and tutoring, to sunny, warm weather, to traffic and billboards and commercials and grocery stores and crowds of people.
And to the internet. That, at least, hasn't been difficult.
