Adventure Begins at 3am

That's correct my friends.  Yours truly was up before the sun showering and generally preparing for adventure.  Or as much adventure as a day full of airports and trains can provide.

My first two flights, from Chicago to Minneapolis and Minneapolis to Winnipeg, were pretty uneventful (read as, I slept the whole way), but my passage through the customs line in Winnipeg was nerve wracking.  The conversation between the customs official (CO) and me (M) went something like this...

CO: Why are you coming to Canada?

M: Vacation (which is what I was told to say be Earthwatch).

CO: No.

M: Pleasure?

CO: No!

M: Personal Business??

CO: No! Where are you going?

M: Churchill, Manitoba.

CO: Nobody comes here on vacation in the winter.  What exactly will you be doing?

After about another three minutes of interrogation, I was able to convince her that my purposes were neither illegal nor inherently nefarious, and I was able to enter the country.  I just want to help take ice samples and count polar bears.  Maybe she found the Orca on my school sweatshirt intimidating?  Who knows?

My flight on the Canadian airline CalmAir was just that. I landed in Thompson, Manitoba about three hours before the train station opened.  I had a delightfully chatty cabby who dropped me off at the mall, where I ate dinner and bought something to watch on the train, and picked me up later to take me to the train station.  Everyone in Thompson was very polite and helpful. I was obviously not a local.  Pulling three rolling bags through the mall generally signals that you are from out of town. People in the mall would ask me where I was headed and then look generally concerned when I said Churchill.  Apparently, even Canadians think Churchill is a ridiculously cold place to go. This could be a sign.

When traveling, do you ever have those moments of epiphany?  Everything about what you're doing and where you're going comes into crystal clear focus, and you think to yourself...WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO!?! When a large beaded Canadian you from a town where a warm day is in the negative teens, says that Churchill is too cold, you know you're in for it.

Panic-attack aside, I wrote this on the train.  We were about a couple hours away from Churchill.  The train was comfy and nearly empty. I met some other Earthwatch fellows and volunteers, and everyone seems very nice (we'll see if that holds up after 10 days in the tundra).  I also made a friend from France, Lody, he truly is going to Churchill on vacation. He's come to see the Northern Lights.

Welcome to the Adventure!

Dear Family, Friends, and fellow adventure enthusiasts:

Only 9 days until this warm weather Oklahoma gal heads off to the frozen North! I am a mix of excitement, anticipation, and shivers at the thought of what awaits. I have a feeling that Churchill is going to make Boston and Chicago feel like island get-a-ways.

For those of you who are in need of all the details, I will be joining a field research team in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. The team is studying climate change in the Arctic. I am the recipient of an Earthwatch Live from the Field Fellowship. Earthwatch matches volunteers to research teams around the world. I applied for a teachers fellowship that allows me to communicate via email, blog, and web video with my students in Chicago. My hope is that my students will realize that they too can travel the world to find answers to their burning questions.

I'll be using this blog as my journal. It will be written on an adult reading level. I also have a blog through Earthwatch that will be written on a Kinder and first grade level. Check it out!
I will most likely post all of my pictures and video to that site.

The adventure awaits!
Megan