I just came back from one of the most wonderful weeks I’ve had since I started school here in Chicout. We were working at the Simoncouche Bio Station since Monday, with my “Field Biology Studies” class. The place is breathtaking, there’s a beautiful lake surrounded by a boreal forest that I got the chance to get deep into. The first two days we got on the Zodiac boats, did some lake recognizing, checked the local fish species, got a sunburn and learned about zooplancton vertical distribution. Then on Wednesday we started the plant ecology phase.

Walking in the boreal forest is surreal, being in a place you’re almost sure no human being was before, in the middle of nowhere. You just pack water and food, arm yourself with a GPS and a compass and go exploring, crossing your fingers so you won’t get lost. Most of the time I was there I was just amazed by the fact that somewhere in the middle of my crazy life I managed to move all the way to another country and now I’m studying its plant diversity. Then again I had a fantastic work team and an absolutely cool teacher to guide us.

Now we have a report to write after we perform dendrochronology studies on the samples we took from 50 trees, to determine the age of the target population. OK, I’m saying a lot of scientific yadda yadda. I’m just very excited, very proud and absolutely grateful for having the chance to see this beautiful place in all its splendor. Not to mention that I’m tired, but a good kind of tired… And kinda wishing I were still there, at Simoncouche.