The final entry.... !

Last time everybody were gathered together was today at breakfast at Gypsy’s. After saying goodbye and thanks to the chief and his staff at Gypsy’s, we went to the airport. We waited for about an hour, in which we said goodbye to Robert, Richard, JB and LJ – and little baby Mckay who stayed in Churchill.
I was so tired and spent the flight sleeping, just like Patrick and Tamara. I don’t know how we did, but we actually managed to lie comfortable (all three of us) in only three seats!.. Because Patrick was the last person to wake up, we used a sharpy to draw a moustache on him (or only half of it because he turned his face while we were drawing on him..).
We got back to Winnipeg and Four Points. Some of the bags was missing, because there had been to much luggage and they had had to leave some of it in Churchill. And of course my bag is one of the missing ones. This is the second time this happens to me on this trip and it has never happened to me before..!

Staying at the Four Point Hotel is so sad, when everybody is not here. I can’t believe it is already over. It feels like we have experienced all this in only one day and at the same time it feels like we have known eachother for three months! But I guess that just tells something about how much fun we have had.

On this trip I have met so many awesome persons both adults and sub-adults. I have met people, who were so passionatet about the land, the animals and their culture, which has made a big impact on me. Especially hearing the trappers talk about their way of living and how it gets more and more difficult to be a trapper made a big impression on me.
I have learned so much about the environment and the conflicts because of the global warming. I have learned about people, the way they think and how to inspire and affect them through presentations and conversations.
As Joseph said today: “every time you meet new people you change”. I have met so many new people and changed a lot…

Finally I just want to say thanks (or thaaaank yooou ;) ) to everybody who were involved in this trip and everybody who participated. It has been awesome, and I will definitly never forget the experiences I have had and the people I have got to know. Hopefully I will see them all again soon!


Mikkeline

Today was our ”free day” or ”fun day”. We did not have to anything speciel - no presentations or things like that, which was really nice. We left the Lodge an got in to a nice hotel in Churchill.
During the week (or probabaly more likely the last two days) most of us had written a poem, because tonight was the ”poetry-night”.
After dinner we went to Carolyn and Roberts place. Everybody read their poems. Some of them were really beatifull and others were funny. Joseph had made a song – or melody, which was really beatiful.
My poem is in danish, so after I had read it, I translated.


My poem (it doesn’t have a name...)

Trods det hele er fladt, åbent og stort
var min første tanke ”det ligner lort”,
men 4 dage har jeg nu på tundraen brugt
og efterhånden vænnet mig til (den til tider) slemme lugt.

Danmark er herr på lejren blevet godt repræsenter’t
alle pigerne vil have Mikkel til dessert.
”Du er lækker” siger Tamara
- og det er vist mere end hvad Mikkel kan klare?

Ikke at kunne vågne til Roberts fantastiske røst
bliver ikke til megen trøst
når vi allerede om 2 dage
alle, hver især, må drage alene tilbage.

Today was one of the best days! Shortly after breakfast, we went with helicopters to the maternaty dens, which was just awesome!
The flight to the maternaty dens was probably the best part of the trip, but walking on the tundra was also really nice. Though we have been on the tundra for four days, we actually haven’t walked on it till today. I realized that when we stood on the ground - for the first time in 4 days... All the time during our stay in the Lodge, we have been about 2 meters above the ground in either the Lodge or the Buggy. Therefore I was very surprised, when I found out how soft and bouncy the tundra actually is.. It was just like a trampolin! Because it was so bouncy, it was really funny just tumbling around or lie down on the tundra.
The maternaty den we went in to was actually surprisingly small! I could rarely turn around inside the den, when I had to get out again, and had to crawl on my knees all the time. Because of that, it was easy to tell who had and who hadn’t been in the den. Those who had, had all dirty knees..
The flight with the helicopter back was even better than the first. I started out sitting in the back, like i did on the way to the den, but then we had to go down (it was actually a little disturbing), because of some problems with the engine or something (to be honest I never really understood what was why we went down). As we were on the ground, Patrick and I changed places, so I got to sit in the front!!! It was sooo nice! I’m never gonna forget it! The rest of the flight went well and the next time we went down was at the Buggy.
When we had gotten back to the Lodge, I could still feel the excitement in my stomich, and the only way to get it out was by screaming. I persuaded Tamara and Shelby to scream with my, It felt really nice and I felt nicely relieved after letting all the excitement out..
After Lunch we had to do a mission statement for the group. It lead to some interesting debates and discussions, but not to an actual statement, so we ended up changing the subject to: future action plans.

Here are some of my ”action plans” that I am going to do when i get home:
- Do 4 presentations at the Scandinavian Animalpark
- Do a television interview (TV2 østjylland)
- Do a newspaper interview
- Do some presentations at my school and to class
- Write an articel to a magazine/newspaper
- Write an articel to the annual magazine at our school
- Do some presentations at elementary schools (7th – 9th grade i think)

After dinner, we finished and presented the project from yesterday. We had to make a model of a community in the Arctic (or sub-arctic, I actually don’t really remember..). After that (yes we have done a lot today!), we went back to our mission statement, trying to finish it. This time we actually managed to make one that everybody liked and could relate to.
Right now we are watching a photo-presentation with Richard and some of the photos he has taken. The pictures are really amazing!!

Ok, today we didn’t really do much – or actually we did, it just don’t feels that way. I think it’s because we didn’t leave the Lodge.
As yesterday, Robert woke us all up by singing around 6.30. Thanks again Robert, I’ll look forward till tomorrow...
This morning we did the rest of the presentations from yesterday, and after that Robert did a presentation about presentation skills.
Because we were about to do a video-conference with three classes at a school in Manitoba at one o’clock, we spent the morning practice answering the questions they were gonna ask. Personally, I was really nervous, because I was about to do a video-conference in english...! We practiced till lunch and after that we did the conference. In the beginning, when the others were answering the questions, I was really nervous, but tried not to be. The conference went well though, and I was just happy that it was over!
After that we did some more presentations and had dinner.
Well, I guess there isn’t really much to say about today... But tomorrow! It’s gonna be awesome! We are to go with a chopper to one of the maternity dens, which is one of the things on this camp that I have been looking forward to the most!

... Lige lidt til jer i Danmark..
Efter vi havde spist aftensmad, havde vi en længere pause. De fleste opholdt sig i lobby-buggyen hvor computerne er. Jeg kan ikke helt huske hvordan jeg endte med at spille den sang, men i hvert fald så satte jeg ”lækker” med Nik og Jay på. Det viste sig at de fleste faktisk synes den var ganske god - de blev i hvert fald ved med at spille den igen og igen – højt! Flere og flere begyndte at danse rundt i buggyen, hvilket fik den til at hoppe helt vildt. Det var lidt underligt/sjovt/lidt surealistisk at befinde sig midt ude på tundran, i Nord-canada, i en hoppende buggy-lodge og høre Nik og Jay...

Today we got to have a long lie (compared to the other days). We did not have to get up until 7 am. More precisely breakfast was at 7.00, but since the bunk-buggy is right next to the dining room/kitchen, it doesn’t take more than a minute to get there (if not less). However, that doesn’t mean we got to sleep till 7, because apparently Robert like to sing in the morning. He went through our buggy aroung 6.30, singing loudly. So thank you Robert!
Well, we went out on the Tundra in the Buggy again, and because the mother and her two cubs were still there, we drove close to them and stopped. After taking some pictures, we all made our presentations, which we had prepared the night before. Ours was some kind of a game-show, where the others had to answer some questions and so on. It went really well.
Actually we haven’t really been doing anything else than driving around in the buggy and doing the presentations today. Right now we are back in the Lodge and have just prepared a videoconference, which we are going to do with a class somewhere in Manitoba tomorrow.

One thing though, that I learned today. People look drunk when they tries to walk in the buggy while it is moving.. and that it is really difficult to walk in the buggy when it is moving, without looking drunk..
We had some nice laughs when someone was swaying around on the buggy’s floor.

Today we had to get up really early – at 6.20! Like yesterday we went to Gypsy’s and got breakfast. We went back to the hotel, got our baggage on to a bus, drove to the Buggy-parking lot and got into one of them.
The Buggies are really big (two times the normal width of a normal bus and longer than normal a normal bus as well). The fastest they can go is 42 km/h! However that does not mean we go 42 km/h, actually i only think we go around 10 km/h... and when the Buggy is moving, it is really bouncy and bumpy – kind of like riding a camel. At least that’s what comes to my mind when we are driving – or bouncing around...
Around lunchtime we saw our first polar bear! Everybody was really excited and shot a lot of pictures. After lunch, which we had at the place with the polar bear, we went to the lodge and got our baggage out of the Buggy and into the Lodge. After that, we went back to the Buggy and bounced back to, and around, the polar bear for a couple of hours.. (it was sleeping all the time though).
At dinner a mother and her two cubs came to the Lodge. I thought they were much more interesting than the sleeping bear we had seen out on the Tundra, because they these were actually moving!..
After dinner, we prepared a presentation (earlier in the day we had been divided into groups), which we have to do tomorrow, and later Kevin Burke came and told us some stories about his experiences with polar bears. I really liked his stories, they were awesome!
Right now, I’m sitting in my bunk - and through my window I can see the northern light. It is really beatiful!

Highlights of today:
- Bouncing across the Tundra in the Buggy
- To see a real polar bear (though it was sleeping and did not really move)
- When Rashaad was singing to his Ipod while the entire Buggy turned silent and everybody was listening
- When I found out, that I did not have to do the hunny-bucket-thing (tømme toilettet, der fungerer ligesom et das...). I was so released..
- Unpacking in the girls-buggy with all the other girls. Incredible how much fun 9 girls can have,,,
- When a mother and her two cubs visited the Lodge during dinner.
- Listening to Kevin Burke telling about his experiences with polar bears
- Being able to see the northern light from my bed!

Today has been a really long (and cold) day. We got up at 6 am and went for breakfast at 6.30 at Gypsies, which was really nice. I was the only person who had taken on my skiing pants. So when we went for breaktfast, I was worried that I was wearing to much clothe. Later it turned out though, that I wasn’t even wearing enough... Though there is no snow in Churchill, it is actually pretty cold. I think it is because of the wind.
Well, after breakfast we went to different places around Churchill in a bus (en rigtig amerikansk skolebus – rigtig hyggeligt...). Most of the places we just stayed inside the bus while Kelsey was explaining, but sometimes we got out. Among others we got out at one of the beaches along Hudson Bay. There we went for a little walk and saw some of the places were the polar bears had been resting (det mindede lidt om en efterårsgåtur ved vesterhavet pga. vinden, vandet, bevoksningen (og temperaturen..)). Most of the places we stopped, we only stayed for 5 minutes. Mostly we had to move on as soon as everybody had gotten out of the bus and then we drove for like 500 m. before stopping again. Everytime we stopped everybody hurried out to take pictures, so it kind of went like this: stop, out, flash flash flash, back into the bus, drive 500 m, stop..... and so on. I almost started to feel like a Japanese tourist!..
The rest of the day was pretty much like that. We saw the Churchill Northern Studies Centre, had lunch in the bus and saw the National Park-building. It was all very interesting. Everytime I got out of the bus, I kind of woke up, because everytime I was sitting in the bus, I was slowly starting to fall asleep (like some of the others).

One thing I learned today: flying in a propeller airplane is something completely different than flying in a normal airplane.
When we left for Churchill this morning, it was in a small propeller airplane and when we took off, the sides were shaking and the plane was swaing. It was actually pretty scary...
The flight took two and a half hour, and as soon as the seat belt sign went off, everybody just started changing places. There was a high activity in the plane during the flight, computers, Ipods and, not to mention, cameras were used all the time during the flight.
Because it was Joseph’s first flight, we had a lot of fun wathcing the changing expressions on his face. Because he made it, I made him a bracelet as a memory of his first flight.
Churchill airport is properly one of, if not the, smallest airport I have ever seen.
We got our luggage and went to the hotel. The rooms are really nice – like small apartments with two floors, kitchen and everything! Perfect to hang out in, which I pretty much did with Joesph and Patrick while the others went for a walk in Churchill.
We watched OC – or actually we just watched some of it, because then we left for the grossery store to buy cheese and nachos. We made them in the microwave – it was awesome (eller bare nice som vi nok ville sige i Danmark, har fundet ud af hvor meget de hodler af udtrykket ”awesome” herovre...) and they tastet really nice!..
It was really nice just to hang out in the room..

Though we have had an eventful day. After eating breakfast (nice breakfast by the way) we listened to three presentations. One about the global warming and its impacts, a photopresentation of the arctic and then a presentation about the indigenous people of Manitoba, Canada, which i liked very much.
Before leaving the hotel, my bags arrived. It was very nice, because I then wont have to be content with the toiletbag, containing a big t-shirt for sleeping and a toothbrush, that i got from Canada Air as compensation.
We had lunch in a very nice sculpture park and after that we went to the zoo.
After spending some time at the polar bear, we spent some time walking around looking at the animals. Though it was nice, I look very much forward to go to Churcill tomorrow and see a real polar bear – or a polar bear in its real environment.

Mikkeline

When I finally arrived in Winnipeg, I had almost been travelling for 17 hours. On the way I lost my luggage and some papers. Losing the papers ment, that I had to get back through the system, wich turned out to be quiet difficult. The airportstaff (especially) suddenly gets a lot less nicer when you are trying to do the opposite of what they want you to. Luckily there was a really nice baggage-agent...

On the flight to Toronto, I was told by the steward that my luggage had not made the plane, and that I should go to the baggage agent when I got to Toronto.
The baggage agent turned out to be really nice. He helped me fill the forms, so Mikkel (a danish zookeeper, who is going to teach at the camp) and I could get on.

When we finally had gone through the security control (after standing in line for half an hour), I discovered that I had forgotten my papers at the baggage agency. I asked a woman, who past my on to a man etc. I ended up at a information stand, where the man at the beginning seemed pretty pessimistic about if it was possible for me to get them back.

In short.. I ended up taking the tour all the way through the system backwards. It went good untill I was stopped by a security man, who was not very kind.

As I had almost given up about getting the papers back, the baggage agent came – with my papers! He told me that he had ment to bring them to the gate, so I would have gotten them. Before trying to find a quick way through the security control for the second time within half an hour, I thanked him and told him about this camp.

Anyway.. We got on the plane and arrived in Winnipeg at 17.30 (00.30 danish time), where we were being welcomed by Carolyn and Karrie.
After checking in to the hotel, I finally got the chance to meet the others.


Mikkeline