Sunday, October 9, 2005

7:33 PM

Well today was an intense day. Of course, today we all loaded onto the plane and arrived in Winnipeg. But, it wasn't as easy as it sounds. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone staying in Churchill because after a week of living all together you really start to get to know people and now, we have to leave. So, after some sad goodbyes the rest of us who weren't staying in Churchill, jumped on our plane and flew into Winnipeg. When we arrived we got our luggage then it was my time to leave because most people are staying the night in Winnipeg to catch a flight tommorow morning. Anyways, I wasn't so I had to say even more sad goodbyes and went home.
Let me just say this. Being with everyone at the PBI leadership camp has been an experience of a lifetime. I will never all the interesting people I met and became friends with in Churchill.
Special thanks to everyone who gave me this opportunity. Robert and Carolyn for all their hard work and for creating such a great program, Lisa-Joy for choosing me to go up to Churchill as well as for being a great teacher and friend, John and JB for helping us out at the lodge, and for putting up with all of us running around because we hadn't been on the ground for 3 days, Also thanks for all the restaurants and hotels who kindly took our group in. All the people at Tundra Buggy, thanks for giving us the opportunity to be out on the buggies and really experience the tundra. Another thanks goes out to everyone else who assisted the group along the way and anyone who I forgot by accident. Finally, thanks to everyone in the group for being such great teachers and friends (spirit fingers forever :P ), I've learnt so many new things and had so many new experiences that I don't think I will ever forget a moment of our adventures together. Bye

Sunday, October 9, 2005

3:12 PM

Well, as usual my journal entry is one day late. But yesterday was a great way to wrap up the week. We got an early start out on the tundra buggy lodge, packed up our things and cleaned up the lodge. Then we went out in the tundra buggy, along with all of our luggage and did some more exploring around the tundra. Later in the afternoon we arrived back at the Tundra buggy launch and loaded onto a bus and drove back into churchill. We then checked into our hotel and took some time to relax. In the evening we went and had a great dinner, then all of the students did a little presentation for Robert and Caroline as a thanks for all the great things they've done for us this whole time. It was a great way to spend our last night all together and we had a good time.

Saturday, October 8, 2005

10:35 PM

alright, so yesterday was an exciting day. First of all, each of us wrote a quick "speech" and read it for the group, using our best presentation skills. Then each person got a chance to say what they thought they had done well and what they could improve. Each person then got some other helpful pointers from the audience about what they could change or what they could do to help their presentation be better. I thought this helped everyone a lot and thought it was quite a good idea. Also, later in the day we got an opportunity to actually drive the tundra buggy, it was so exciting. When I started to drive I realised it was way different than driving a car, even when you feel like your driving right on the track, you actually end up going to the right so you have to go more left than you would in a regular vehicle. Anyways, enough with my driving techniques, yesterday was another great day full of fun.

Friday, October 7, 2005

6:52 AM

Well now, yesterday started off with some presentations on three chapters from our Impacts Of a Warming Arctic books. everyone presented in groups of three and did a skit, or, in my groups case, an arctic game show with hosts Bob Barker, Alex Trebec and Donald trump. Ok, really it was Christina, Telecia and I but we still wore name tags that said we were other people.
So, being out on the tundra, and getting up early to do my journal entries, i've realised there's another very pretty thing out here that isn't an animal. It's the sunrise. Most of our days out here have been sunny so the sunrise starts with a reddish colour fading to yellow then green, and a time goes it turns more purple and bluish, until the sun finally rises and is so bright you can feel the heat from it. It's so pretty to sit and watch, especially since there are many little frozen lakes and ponds, which reflect the colours and light up the ground as well. Also, since it's the tundra, it's so flat that there's nothing in the way to block your view at any time. It's great.
So, yesterday, m snap shot of the day probably had to do with some more polar bears. while out on the tundra, we saw a pretty large bear with a radio collar on, which sparked a big discussion, but I think someone said there are only thirty collared bears out of a population of nine hundred. So we were pretty lucky to get a chance to see what a bear looked like with one of these collars on. Then, after in the evening, during dinner we watched the bear that has been hanging around camp (we've named him homer) spar with another bear that just arrived in the area (his decided name will be flanders). It was pretty neat, then one of the bears came and stood up for a few seconds against the side of the car, and there i was, four feet from a polar bear, lookng it in the eye. Very kool experience. no sign of the mother and cubs yet today, yesterday after noon, when we arrived back at camp they had left, so we hope to see them back shortly. That's all for now, bye.

Thursday, October 6, 2005

7:18 AM

Alright, so my journal entry is a day late, but with so much stuff happening all the time and 13 other people who need to journal, you can't always get a chance to do your journal entry every night. Anyways, yesterday was another fun day out on the tundra. We started our day at 7am. While we were getting ready for breakfast, a polar bear came right up to the lodge and was standing up against the side of it. It felt so weird to be looking at a polar bear that was, at the most, four feet from me. It was, for lack of better words, so cool!!

Also, every day the same polar bear has been around. Early in the morning he lays by the large pond, then as the day progresses he moves closer to the lodge and lays in the grassy area outside of the lounge and dining buggy's. This is where he spends most of his day, and yesterday he slept there with his head laying on a rock like it was a pillow. The only thing he really moves away from this area for, is when the mother bear and her two cubs come along. Usually he will get up as soon as they come close and he will back off a little from the area, but yesterday, I guess the mother didn't think he had moved enough, so she took a run at him and got him moving a little quicker in the other direction.
After breakfast, everyone loaded onto the tundra buggy and we started off into our day. We explored the tundra for a while and saw a willow ptarmigan and more artic hare. We then stopped in an area called Gordon Point to discuss two chapters from the book "impacts of a warming arctic". After discussion's and a hot soup lunch we started moving to our next area. Along the way, we came up beside an arctic fox, who was running right next to the tundra buggy trail. We took some pictures and kept up with this little guy beside us for quite a while. Eventually though, I guess the fox had had enough of us and went off in the other direction. We kept moving and went to our next spot, here we discussed some effects of glaciers, and how, because of isostatic rebound, the land in this area is still rising. We also discussed two more chapters in our books and then ventured back to the tundra buggy lodge for dinner, and so ended our day out on the tundra. Also, if anyone is interested in seeing the polar bears in the area, there is a live camera attached to part of the lodge that views the area outside the lodge and you can view the polar bears moving around. the website for this is www.polarbearcam.com it's a great way to see the polar bears from home and is live all fall during the polar bear migration.

Wednesday, October 5, 2005

7:30 AM

This journal entry is really for yesterday, because I didn't get a chance to write one last night. but moving on..It's very hard for me to pick out my "snap shot of the day" because there were so many exhillirating moments, it's hard to pick just one. There fore, one of my many snap shots of the day was going to the maternal dens by helicopter. I have never been in a helicoptor so just flying around was so much fun. From that height you could see the churchill river and ll the hundreds of little ponds created as some permafrost melts, and then seeing the larger ones where a few smaller ones have joined together. It was very neat. Then, when we arrived at the denning site the texture of the ground was interesting. All the mosses and lichen's growing on the ground made it feel like you were walking on a big squishy mattress. I was also amazed when I got a chance to crawl into one of the abandoned dens and saw how small it was inside. I couldn't believe a huge pregnant polar bear with extra fat on it could fit into this little space and then give birth to two more bears! We also arrived at camp, where there was already a polar bear there to greet us.. Later, as we were eating dinner, a mother came along with two cubs and chased off the bear that hadd already been here. The miraculous thing with these cubs, was that they looked very warm and happy and even being out in the dark in the wind and cold temperatures.
Another thing I thought was how the mother looked so thoughtful of her cubs. When she was laying down she let them lay on her and crawl over her while she was trying to relax. The whole family looked so warm a fuzzy laying together. It almost made me want to go give them a hug, but most likelly as soon as i touched the ground she'd want to eat me and wouldn't look quite so warm and cuddly anymore. But, I still enjoyed watching their little family group while we had dinner and hope that we see them again, as well as other polar bears. that's all i have for now. bye.

Monday, October 3, 2005

11:55 PM

My snap shot of the day was just exploring the whole town. We met Kelsey who was a wonderful tour guide of the town and showed us the whole town and a lot of different aspects of it. The most exciting moment of the day came while we were touring the dump which is now closed and as we were entering the area we saw our first bear!!! even though this bear was among the garbage it was still a beautiful creature. I just got a great feeling when i saw it and hope we get to see many more in the future! other places we visited including the Parks Canada Building, D-20 which is also known as the polar bear jail where polar bears that are caught in town are held for certain amounts of time, the research center, and we went by and saw an old research center where polar bears used to be tested ofr various things, but now this center has been closed for many years. anyways, i could go on talking for ages about how great everything is here and how many exciting things happen everyday. so i'm done for now!!! bye everyone!!

Monday, October 3, 2005

11:48 PM

alright, so i know this entry is a day late, but with so many exciting moments it's hard to take time to just sit down and type. so yesterday was sunday and we arrived in churchill. One of the first fun moments of the day was going on the plane and leaving Winnipeg with big trees around in the sun and wind, then after only a two hour plane ride we came down out of the cloud's and we were suddenly in the tundra, the change was just so fast, it was wonderful. once we were off the plane and had gotten our luggage we all got to our hotels and had a moment to relax. All of our hotel rooms were very nice and just driving through churchill from the airport to our hotel got me very interested and I had a lot of questions about the town, buildings, and people who live there. Once we were all settled into our hotel rooms Adelia took us on a personal walking tour of her town. one place we visited was the Community Center which I really enjoyed. Within this building were so many things like a hospital, indoor playground, movie store, movie theatre and the list goes on. Also, even within this center you could see the strong sense of community in churchill, the whole center was decorated with things like black and white photo's of elders from the area, paintings and drawings done by children, work from different artists and all of these things made the center have a very comfortable atmosphere. So this is basically my snap shot of the day, just coming into churchill and seeing that even in the cold and snow the town is really a comfortable, warm, friendly place.

Saturday, October 1, 2005

5:04 PM

My snap shot of the day was going to see the bears on broadway display. I live near Winnipeg so I had caught glimpses of some of the bears while driving, but had never taken time to stop and look at each bear.Today, as we walked along looking at each bear, I felt so lucky to be with such an amazing group of people on the start of such a great adventure. We were out viewing these bears that were such incredible works of art by themselves, but then to actually be with the amazing photographer Robert Tailor, and Clarence Tillenius who was an astounding painter who's works included two of the bears included in the Bears on Broadway display. It was an amazing day with more fun events than I could explain in a day. I'm looking forward to getting to churchill and am sure there will be more interesting and exciting moments to come.