Well, this is my last blog. It is currently morning on the tundra and most of us are in the common area working on our blogs. We just finished packing up and will ride out on the Tundra Buggy back to Churchill after lunch.

The bear came back again last night. They were just strolling around and sniffing the lodge. It was nice to see the bears again because I doubt that we will see them on the way to Churchill, although it is possible. Once again, we took some great pictures. You might remember that Sean and I were trying to figure out a way to post our best photos online. Well, the group has decided to upload some pictures to photobucket.com and they will be able to be accessed by the group there. I am not sure how photobucket works, but if anybody reading this would like to see some of the pictures, just email me at leists@gmail.com and I’ll send along a few pictures.

During our stay here in the tundra, we have participated in three videoconferences with schools from around the USA. We were supposed to talk with a fourth group, but a difficulty occurred and they were unable to connect with us. However, because we did not want to deprive students from knowledge, some of the group created an old-fashioned-type video answering their questions. It is an absolutely hilarious video, and if you would like to watch it, I will be posting it on this blog in the future.

Today is our last day in the Tundra Buggy Lodge. Everybody here is sad that we are leaving each other, but happy that we now know how to make a difference in this world. The most depressing thought going around is that we will most likely not see each other in a very long time, but we are trying to set up a reunion. Also, with the magic of Facebook and cell phones, staying in touch should not be too hard. Our network of Ambassadors will allow us to stick together and fight climate change as the family we have become, despite the great distances between us.

It is sad that this is our family’s last day on the tundra. The experiences that we have gone through and the challenges that we have faced have brought us together in a way that will never be forgotten by anybody on this expedition. The bitter cold, the wild bears, the northern lights, and the sense of belonging will be missed by all. And though we will part ways tomorrow morning, we all know that out on the tundra, in the middle of nowhere in a place completely separated from the rest of society, will be a place we will always call home.


P.S. If this blog series, or the blog series of other Artic Ambassadors, has inspired you to be more energy-efficient or environmentally concerned, please, email me and I will send you some global warming facts and some simple, easy ways that you can reduce your carbon footprint. Then, forward my response to everyone you know who might care. Spread the word to the rest of the world, because the world as we know it might not be here much longer if we don’t. It is up to us to save it. Are you in?

You probably noticed that I did not post a blog yesterday. Well, that would be because my group made a presentation about several topics concerning polar bears and we were exempt from blogging. However, because I do not want mass riots in the streets of Louisville from lack of Sam Leist, I will continue with my blog series.
The most amazing moment of the trip occurred last night.

We were in the middle of a presentation about the science behind global warming when Robert, the president of Polar Bear International, stuck in his head and said, “bear alert.” Chaos followed. We all flew out of our seats and ran out to Buggy One, the original Tundra Buggy, where the bears were gathered around. What we saw was completely amazing. It was the same mother and two cubs we’d seen before, and they were standing up on their hind legs and putting their paws against our home. We were literally, oh, two or three feet from the world’s largest land predator. As un-manly as this may sound, they were adorable. The cubs were so curious and were sniffing around and bumping into each other and their mother. They were all digging in the rocks underneath the kitchen buggy, smelling the dumped water that had the scent of the kitchen. We took some absolutely breathtaking pictures.

Guess what? It turns out that the bears decided to sleep outside the lodge. I could see them through my bunk window at night! The next morning, they decided to visit us after breakfast and the chaos continued. We were so excited to finally see polar bears up close and personal, instead of 100 feet from the Tundra Buggy. They are so gigantic and vicious, yet carry a kind of grace with them that just radiates power and control.

Today we flew around the tundra on helicopters. This was definitely one of the coolest things I have ever done. We drove out on the Tundra Buggy to a secure landing spot for the choppers and waited while we watched the bears, which were still at the lodge, in the distance. Suddenly, a fleet of helicopters (it was actually five helicopters, but the word “fleet” makes it sound really dramatic) appeared and landed next to the buggy. We boarded the copters in groups of three and six and got a bird’s eye view of miles and miles around. I was able to get a great picture of me in a pilot’s headset with the sky in the background. We landed after about half an hour and, under the supervision of shotgun-wielding pilots (to ward off bears), explored a collapsed polar bear den. After convincing the pilots to pose as if they were shooting a rampaging bear, we flew off back to the lodge, which has become home.

Today was a truly amazing day, and I know that none of us wants it to end. It is depressing that we will all be home on Thursday, but we are making the most of the time we have left together. Seeing the bears today and flying in the helicopters have brought us even closer to one another, and this connection will never be broken, even after we leave for our own homes.

This is the end of my fourth blog, but it is not the last. Make sure to check out what I believe is my final blog tomorrow….wait! The bears have come back in mid-blog. Aww, they are so cute. One of the cubs has rolled on his back and is fooling around with something. Wait a minute, what is the cub playing with? Is that a sheet of plastic? THIS IS WHAT WE ARE TRYING TO PREVENT!!!!! Why the heck is a wild creature playing with harmful human trash? RECYCLE!!!

P.S. Yes, the bears really did come in during the writing of this blog. And yes, they are really playing with garbage. Think about that.

Last night brought a memory that no one in our little family will forget. All of us were heading to our bunks for the night when we noticed that the northern lights were out again. What we experienced was completely indescribable. We all walked outside onto the walkway that connects the common area and the girls’ bunkhouse and stared up into the starry sky, only to be greeted by waves of green flowing through the sky like a river. It was, oh, about 20 degrees with wind chill and none of us had our parkas. So, mimicking the penguins, we all made a circle of freezing arctic ambassadors to keep warm as we watched nature’s most incredible lightshow. Depending on each other for warmth in the freezing arctic winds, we all reached a stage of understanding with each other that I have never experienced. Having to depend on our friends for protection against something as bitter and vile as the arctic winds brought us together in a way that will never be forgotten by anyone on this expedition.
Today we traveled out in the Tundra Buggy again and saw the same mother and her two cubs. As we were returning to the lodge we noticed the bears crossing a river. It was really cool to see them wading around in the water and trudging across the tundra. It was a little disappointing that we were not able to get very close to them, but the pictures and videos we took were some of the best yet. Jules, one of the Australian ambassadors, and I also took a Steve Irwin-style video of Donald, the Churchill ambassador, who fell asleep on the Tundra Buggy. We will try to upload this video of one of the most dangerous Canadian residents to the web.
We spent two or three hours yesterday and today preparing for our four videoconferences with schools from around the country. Of course, it took us about two hours longer than it should have to come up with a good system of how to handle questions, but we eventually got the job done. Anyway, we spent most of today listening to guests speak about native life in Churchill, about the start of the Tundra Buggy Lodge. Our guests today were aboriginals who spoke to us about their life in the tundra and how they made their living as trappers. We discussed the concept of how trapping and hunting is more beneficial than harmful to the environment and wildlife
This has been our second complete day on the tundra, and it was just as exciting as day one when we first saw the polar bears. None of us want this experience to end. So ends my third blog; be sure to check out the video posted yesterday about our adventures so far!

10/4/08

I ended my last blog saying that I was heading out to search for the northern lights. Well, I found them! I was under the covers in my bunk when I happened to look out the window and noticed that it was way too bright outside for that time of night. A quick look up in the sky told me all I needed to know. I jumped out of my bunk, pulled on my boots and parka, and ran outside for a better view of the lights. I was soon joined by one of the Australian ambassadors, Amy, and two of the adult facilitators, Stacy and Debbie. I was finally seeing the northern lights, which has been one of my dreams since I was little! Although the sky was little cloudy, we still saw some amazing green and purple auroras swimming around in the night sky.
Today was also a landmark for this trip. We saw our first polar bear! Actually, we saw three: a mother and her two cubs. At first we were only able to see them from a distance using binoculars, but we were soon able to get closer on the Tundra Buggy and take some absolutely fantastic pictures. My favorite one so far has one of the cubs peering out of the bushes directly at the camera. It was sometimes hard to get a picture from a distance because a lot of our digital cameras, including mine, only have a 4 or 5 times zoom. However, being the creative Artic Ambassadors we are, we soon fixed the problem by holding up our cameras to a binocular lens. Of course, a couple of people had really nice zoom cameras (the attachment on one of them was about a foot long), so we took some great pictures. Sean, the Pittsburg Ambassador, and I are trying to figure out a way to get all of our pictures together and post them online. I will keep you guys up to date on that project so you can see our little family of polar bears.
We spent about 2 ½ hours driving around on the Tundra Buggy today. I’m hoping that Kathy will let me drive it, although she might value her life over my driving skills. Still, they took us seriously when we told them we wanted to drive it, so if anyone in Louisville, Kentucky sees a massive white vehicle that looks like it could knock down the Great Wall of China driving down Bardstown Rd, you’ll know I’m back in town. Anyway, we all had the time of our lives today. We were disappointed when a polar bear did not materialize outside the Tundra Buggy windows yesterday, so seeing three bears today has made the atmosphere here really cheerful and happy, despite the freezing cold.
So ends our first complete day out on the tundra, and everyone is excited to see what tomorrow will bring. I personally hope that we will have a bear get up on two legs and peer into the Buggy, which has happened before, and I know that everybody here wants the same thing. “Hey” again to the folks back home and, for anybody in Kentucky who understands what this means, “TIGER PRIDE!!”

We finally arrived in Churchill, Canada! After two flight cancellations and six hours stuck in Minneapolis (not fun), I nearly fainted with relief when I saw Kathy, Stacy, and Jules waiting for me at the Winnipeg airport. After a few hours of sleep on the amazing hotel beds, the group and I flew up to Churchill the next morning and entered the “polar bear capital of the world.” Upon seeing a local elder riding around on an ATV, I realized that it was quite a bit different here than back home in Kentucky. Churchill is a small town of only around 900 people, and no, before someone asks, nobody here says “eh” after every sentence. All sixteen of the Artic Ambassadors, including myself, were given really nice multi-hundred dollar custom-made parkas that make me feel like I am in Australia instead of Canada; so, the cold and wind have hardly bothered us at all. Everyone is absolutely thrilled to be able to take part in this program, and we cannot wait to see a polar bear. We did not have any polar bear sightings today, but we know that they are in the area and are expected to see them tomorrow. We spent a couple of hours exploring Churchill; visiting the Parks Canada Museum, a destroyed warehouse where a scientist preformed polar bear research, Gypsies Restaurant, and of course, D-20. In Churchill, polar bears will literally just stroll into town terrifying the local population. They have this complex called D-20, the polar bear jail, where they put captured polar bears that became a little too friendly with the locals until it is safe to release them back into the wild. I was disappointed to learn that the “conservation officer” has never wrestled with a polar bear, but as his job sometimes requires him to get in a helicopter and tranquilize a runaway polar bear, I thought he seemed like a pretty cool guy. We eventually set off on a Tundra Buggy, which is somewhere between a tank and a super-sized hummer, to our camp out in the tundra. The camp is basically a series of Tundra Buggies that have been connected to form a train. It sits very far off the ground, due to its huge tires, and gives us the luxuries of bunks, a kitchen, storage areas, and a common area. I have never seen or been anywhere like here on the tundra. It really is absolutely amazing that we have all been given this fantastic opportunity and looking out the window here is like looking out into another planet. Well, that’s it for my first blog, so “hey” to all the folks back home from the middle of nowhere. I’m going to put up the laptop and head outside to look for the northern lights…