Monday, October 13, 2008

3:57 PM

Today was a full day! When we woke up this morning we found the young male polar bear outside the lodge. It is so neat! We had a great breakfast, and after that we prepped for our videoconference with a high school in Pittsburg. We spent a lot of time crafting our answers to their questions and made sure that our passion to find solutions to these challenges will help those kids want to join us! It was a very open discussion, and it went great. The school was the same school that had a previous ambassador last week, Parker. After the broadcast, we had lunch with the trappers who came in and had a talk with us. JB and his wife and son came out to the lodge today. Makai is sooo cute!!!

The trappers, Jim, Betty and Parker gave an inspiring presentation to tell us about how we need to respect the land, they always have. Up here, each family has a registered piece of land they can trap during the season. We were all able to pass around the furs they brought, which varied from beaver, fox, wolverine, wolf, martins, and other small animals from the area. My views on hunting/trapping haven't changed much, but I think the people who came in to talk to us today have a respect for the land that is hard to come across in Iowa. I'm hoping to speak with the DNR and conservation boards back in my community about what we can do to express our views towards nature, animals, etc.

We have been working intensely on our projects and our days seem to be packed full, even though we're trapped inside, we're still busy as bees â º

Monday, October 13, 2008

9:00 AM

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Today started out with a wonderful wake up call by Robert! But the good news is what followed was a new young male polar bear!!! We had never seen him before, he probably came to the camp today with the smell of food. Which was eggs and sausage!! YUM!! Anyways, I will never forget the feeling I've been getting when a polar bear is spotted, it really is an indescribable rush all over. After that we went through presentations here at camp by Matt Myers, Robert Buchanan, Michael Goodyear, and Tim Foresman. They were on how to give a presentation, ringed seals, and how what we are doing relates to other economic problems in today's society. All of the speeches were able to teach us so much relating to when we get back, and how we can affect others.

The most exciting part of today was seeing the sunset, which was breathtaking! I have some lovely pictures as you can see. And of course, after the skies were clear, and we saw Northern LIGHTS!!! They really were amazing, in all different colors like green, purple, and red! They were so cool and I tried to take pictures, but had little to no success!! Today was a very informative day and I can't wait to ride in the helicopter Tuesday! Thanks so much! Later!

Friday, October 10, 2008

8:47 PM

After a safe arrival in Winnipeg on Thursday, we got to stay in a lovely hotel and I met all of the fellow ambassadors, most of them are from the United States, except two are from Canada! We sat in and listened to Robert Taylor last night after a fabulous dinner, he showed us how to take good pictures up north! We divided into our groups, (I'm in group A)
Today was our first day out of the hotel!! We headed to Churchill this morning and got to see the amazing sunrise! First we got to see where they take polar bears that end up in town before they release them to the wild, which was neat! We visited a 1960's research center where an experiment went bad, but it was a super neat but yet, creepy place! We ate at a lovely restaurant and visited Churchill's post office, visitor center, and city center (which had a library, school, hockey arena, and indoor playground) Churchill has a completely different lifestyle from day to day activities from us in America, I really couldn't believe it! My favorite part of the day, besides the polar bears was visiting Hudson Bay. I'm not sure why I enjoyed it so much in the freezing cold, but something about it seemed awesome! I think that in school, I had just seen it as a place where Hudson died, and just another body of water on the map. But getting the feeling of power from the enormous waves, and the experience with everyone around me made it wonderful! The polar bear watching was also a highlight. We got to see them in the wild, which is completely different then the zoos. My camera didn't work the best â ¹, it just didn't have a very good zoom, but I got it good enough!! Right now we're at the lodge, it is a little chilly up here, but nothing colder than winters in Iowa! (It's about 35 F) I'm so excited for this week, and can't believe I'm experiencing all of it! I've met so many different people, including finally Mr. & Mrs. Buchanan, who are great! This is really an eye-opening experience, and I'm waiting for those northern lights! Thanks so much, and I'll chat with you later!!