Antarctic Field Course - Study Abroad

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Justin's Journal

Please use the links below to view a specific date further down the page. December - 2003 Sat. 13 Sun. 14 Mon. 15 Tue. 16 Wed. 17 Thu. 18 Fri. 19 Sat. 20 Sun. 21 Mon. 22 Tue. 23 Wed. 24 Thu. 25 Fri. 26 Sat. 27 Sun. 28 Mon. 29 Tue. 30 Wed. 31 January - 2004 Thu. 1 Fri. 2 Sat. 3 Sun. 4 Mon. 5

Photos credited to Justin. Click an image to enlarge, hover over an image for a description.

Saturday, December 13th, 2003:

Once in Miami, we all got burger king for lunch. I walked around the entire Miami airport terminal exploring along side with Mark and Mike who were my roommates the entire trip. I had a nice two hour talk with April outside the airport, all she wanted to do all day was lay in the grass. I would have liked to have taken a swim in the ocean.

Mr. John Hesse was all about the basketball game between Michigan State and Kentucky at ford field. It was the biggest crowd for a college basketball game ever. I enjoyed his excitement. Most of us sat there at Chilies and watched the game. Unfortunately we lost the game. Once we got to the gate Kannan and I watched CNN for a while. The big story was on Keiko the killer whale (Orca) that was in the movie "Free Willie" that had recently died. We knew that this would be a huge topic of conversation over the next few weeks. There were over a hundred girls clapping and cheering and chanting and singing. Little did we know at the time that they would be on our nine hour flight to Buenos Aries, and they would keep us all awake the entire time with their singing and clapping.

Sat next to William on the flight from Miami to Buenos Aries. Had a great time! Of course, I grabbed his window seat! Which was to his advantage because he ended up flirting the whole time with some girl who he met at the check in desk in at the airport in Miami. She was from New Zealand. Amy Elizabeth was her name. She ended up sitting on his lap for the entire flight. It turned out that she was the world champion in roller skating; with a dance routine, not just racing. She was a pretty girl who had a very nice accent and carried herself with great confidence.

It was funny because the Argentine girls were also flirting with him. I couldn't help but laugh. The story was that apparently in their culture when they turn fifteen, they either have a big party back home, or go abroad to America. During this trip they had gone to Walt Disney World. I do not quite remember which movies they showed on the flight from Miami to Buenos Aries. Even if we wanted to watch either of the movies we would not have been able to because of all the traffic of those girls constantly walking around back and forth in the middle of the walkway. For nine hours I do not think that anybody in our entire group slept.

There was a nice older American couple who were both business professors at a big ten school, University of Illinois I believe it was. This intrigued William because he was an accounting major. The next morning we had a nice small breakfast, shortly before we landed.

Sunday, December 14th, 2003:

It was interesting to see the change within four airports (Five Airports) from homeland security to virtually no security. In Detroit, they took my shoes off. In Buenos Aires, the security guard wasn't even looking at the x-ray machine; in fact he had his back to it. We rode the people mover tram to the plane and boarded.

There was one more town that we had flown into before we got to Ushuaia. It was a desolate desert wasteland. Initially many of us were under the impression that we were finally in Ushuaia and were greatly disappointed. Then we were all relived when we took off.

After landing in Ushuaia we got our bags. We arrived there after half past one in the afternoon. As we were loading up the bus, we all had one of those moments. The kind of moment when you see the mountains and realize what it was we had all actually come down there to do. It was a moment of commonality for all of us that we had just endured together over the past day of traveling. It was also a realization that our journey had come to a brief pause, and at the same time just begun. Switching planes three times, going through five airports. We had all realized at that same moment in time that in that single direction that we all faced was the bottom of the earth, the end of the civilized world as we knew it.

We rode together into town on the bus shortly after two in the afternoon. The tour guide told us that Ushuaia was a town of around 50,000 people, just like our MSU community in East Lansing. Once we got to the hotel Cap Polonio we got settled in our rooms. We had a brief group meeting at around three in the afternoon, and then we all went out to eat lunch. During the meeting the faculty warned us that everything would close by five in the afternoon. I sat with Karalea, Callista. I split my pizza with Callista and shared a bottle of white wine with April. Later on in the afternoon I went to Tanta Sara's with Mike, Brad, and Mark. Alyssa happened to be there reading. We ordered a liter of beer. The waiter who misunderstood the boys who wanted a pitcher brought four glasses. We spilled it all over the table and floor and argued over Bush politics. Little did we know that as we debated, it had turned out that during our travels across the world to Ushuaia, Saddam Hussein had been caught in a hole.

That evening we all went out to dinner at the meat place with the wheel. I was with Amanda, Jaclyn, Brad, Ben, April, Mike, Caroline, and Jen. I had the crab meat. It was great. After our meal was over we met up with everyone else which included William, Bethany, Callista, and Stacy and went back to Tanta Sara's where we all bonded. William, April and I all got acquainted with our waiter whose name happened to be Martine. All of that was only day one!

Monday, December 15th, 2003:

They addressed the ozone wars, chemical emissions as one of the primary the causes of ozone reduction, and why ozone reduction is not as big a deal in the artic. The importance of land vs. ice and how the mixing heat rises with the polar vortex having fast moving steam which pushes the currents.

They covered the role of important organisms in marine food web like krill, squid, and plankton. As well as the role of important organisms in terrestrial eco systems such as insects birds, and plant life.

They mentioned biological adaptation, organic matter, and ways in which organisms have evolved to withstand Antarctic conditions. They also covered how introduced species are altering components of the Antarctic system including how they arrive in Antarctic waters. They also addressed technology and research such as satellites, remote sensing global positioning systems (GPS), and automatic weather stations using animals as vectors.

They also included advantages like remote access, large spatial coverage and extreme conditions. As well as disadvantages like hauling equipment. Proxies of change, the facts that are needed to decipher proxy records, time series, spatial coverage of proxy data and an example of proxy analysis by de la mare in 1997.

Then they mentioned climate change; rate of warming in the Antarctic compared to rest of world. Thinning of sea ice cover, glacier melting, retreat and breakup causing increases in sea level. Warming of ground temperatures and changes to keystone species. Human Impacts were covered including the difference between direct vs. indirect impacts, limitations of the tourist industry as well as dangers to tourists, protection of environment and cultural heritage.

After the lecture we went to two museums for an assignment (Please see sheet).

The named of the first museum was Museo Yamana. I had fun at the first museum learning more about the first continent of Gondwanda and the migration routes of the early settlers along the ice and land bridges. The breaking of the continents and the Europeans who introduced species, disease, and oppression to the indigenous people here in South America.

The second museum was Museo Del Fin Del Mundeo. At the second museum I enjoyed learning that it used to be both the bank and the governors mansion. It was interesting to learn about all the ship wreaked boats. It was very important for us to see the bones of the seals, especially their skulls, and teeth. There were a lot of birds on display as well with many penguins. I really liked Brad's observations. He compared my spiked hair style to the feathers on the Rockhopper penguin. This soon became an ongoing joke every day for the rest of the trip. I learned more about introduced species like the beaver. Before we left, I bought some postcards from the museum gift shop.

After we finished going to both museums, we had lunch at X burger. I was with Brad, Kannan, and April. I had a cheeseburger. Brad and Kannan were very excited to be eating there. I think it was already their second time, they had eaten dinner there and it eventually became Kannan's favorite spot to eat in Ushuaia. Another large group of us was already there who had yet to go to the second museum.

After lunch the four of us all hiked up the hill to the top of the residential area and saw the most beautiful view of the town. Later that evening we had a review for the exam. Then we had dinner.

Tuesday, December 16th, 2003:

He talked about how a system has two key properties which are elements and the interconnection between them. He covered system integrity which included ocean systems, system formation and perspective as well as the Antarctic food web. He also taught us about the earth system and the Venn diagram.

He mentioned system science and gave an example of climate change with charts on the northern hemisphere temperature anomalies. One of the most interesting facts that I learned was about the greenhouse effect and how it is a good thing because it holds heat in. He also went over the five biospheric principals.

Then we were all briefed on our assignment for the museum. We switched hotels from hotel Cap Polonio to the hotel Albatross. We packed up our stuff, dropped it off in the lobby and checked into our rooms. I went out got some film, and got my watch fixed at a watch store across from our hotel.

We enjoyed lunch in a restaurant by the water next to a shipwreck. In our group were Mike, Mark, Cathy, Stacy, Amanda, and Kannan. I had the barbecue chicken. Mike had been winning big at the casino so he treated us all to lunch. Thank you Mike Flowers for a wonderful lunch.

Then we all went out to another Museum which used to be a prison. There was a cat freely roaming about the prison. I enjoyed the statues of the guard and prisoners in the museum it seemed to bring life and reality to a rather cold environment. I learned a lot about previous expeditions to Antarctica, and saw graphic pictures of the whaling industry. I also learned about prison life, punishment, and torment techniques all around the world in places like India, Cuba and the United States. The prison bathhouses seemed to be quite nice in Japan. However, bathrooms in the prison that we were in were horrible. I could barely stand to go in them. The conditions were quite harsh. It was very depressing. However, there was an extensive library.

After I finished walking through the museum, I caught up with some of the boys from our group in the prison gym which had ironically been converted into a bar. They were flirting with the bartenders, I found it quite amusing and joked that we should all call our parents and tell them we were in an Argentine jail (Which was not a lie).

I left the museum with William. We had a nice conversation as we walked. We came across two girls with a puppy and took pictures with them. Then we went Christmas shopping. I bought two Argentine flags. One as a gift and the other one was for myself to take home. I also bought small penguin stuffed animals for my fellow group members to show my excitement for our group participation and unity. I wanted to establish further fellowship with them. I also bought penguins for all four of the faculty members to show my appreciation for every thing that they were doing for us.

Later, we had a group meeting. It was a good briefing on what to expect over the next week of events on our expedition in Antarctica. Many of our small groups met shortly afterwards.

Later that day, Callista, Brad and I Callista Brad and I went shopping for school supplies. Then we went to the grocery store, picked up some lunch meat, cheese and French bread. Then we hiked up to the top of the smaller tree line on one of the bigger hills of Ushuaia.

We constantly took pictures along the way. On the way up we came across some domesticated horses and I learned that Callista had a strong passion for horses. She seemed to be very knowledgeable in that area. After taking pictures with the horses we continued our hike to the top of the hill. All three of us sat on a rock where we had a beautiful view of the town and watched the sunset over the beautiful Patagonian Mountains of Chile while we enjoyed our dinner. I ventured up further to the summit of the hill because I wanted to get a better view and take more pictures.

Later we returned to the hotel. While Callista, Brad and I were off on our adventure the rest of the group was off getting dinner so unfortunately we could not spend the evening with them. After we returned to the hotel, Mark and I went back out into town for a short while to go shopping for supplies on the boat. Then I spent time with Brad and Kannan in their room while we all wrote in our journals.

Some time passed when April, Jen, Amanda and Karalea later returned with Dustin and Dave from being out on the town around two thirty or three in the morning while Brad and I were sitting in the lobby talking, and working on our journals. After we all caught up and discussed our evenings they all went to bed. Not more than two minutes later, Martine showed up looking for April and I. He wanted to take our whole group out for a night on the town in Ushuaia, but we had to leave for Antarctica the next day. I was up until 4:30AM typing on my Journal and working on other things then I went to bed.

Wednesday, December 17th 2003:

He started out with the defined boundaries of Antarctica including the southern oceans and seas as well as the ice formations. He described atmospheric circulation, and explained land masses, the sun, and what happens when the hot air rises up; the high pressure system vs. low pressure system.

Then he talked about the hydrosphere which included oceans and the great ocean conveyer belt. He also talked about the temperature gradient and salient gradient. He addressed the cryosphere and the frozen ground thermal of below 0 degrees Celsius as well as what happened when B19 Broke off. He went on to cover the lithosphere and the mountain ranges. As well as the biosphere with breeding cycles, whales, bird life and penguins. He covered the Sociosphere, Icebreakers and the pack ice. The research being conducted and the tourist industry.

He mentioned the paleo history of the Antarctic System and earth's mantle. He spoke about the earth's core which included the inner core, outer core, connection current, mantle, plates, and the electro magnetic radiation which surrounds the earth. He told us why compasses work, and how the earth draws radiation from the sun. He mentioned the continental drift and plate tectonics. When he spoke about the earth's core he mentioned the subduction zone & hot spots including volcanoes and the continental crust.

He also talked about the oceans crust, the mid ocean ridge, magma, the lithosphere, and the mantle. He also covered the collision zone, the folded mountains, strike slip, the breakup of Gondwanda, and the geological time scales which included major events like volcanic eruptions, mountains being formed, meteorites smashing into the earth, the opening of sea passages and radiation.

After that we had free time for a short while. During our free time we all hiked to a hill by the prison museum, where we had to jump across a river to get to it. I had gone with William, Mike and April. I bought a couple bottles of wine, some cheese, salami, and crackers for us to snack on while we enjoyed the view and the fresh air. As the afternoon past on, we all gazed upon the view of the town, port, mountains, hills, and river which was very nice.

The four of us went on to have a nice lunch then went back to the hotel Albatross to prepare for boarding the boat. Later in the afternoon, I had picked up some more film and some cigars. While we were at the hotel waiting to depart, I had called my mother and asked her to say a prayer for all of us including my father who was also abroad at the time in Japan on business.

Shortly after we walked down the docks with our luggage taking pictures and began our embarkation on our cruise from Ushuaia, Argentina. We then boarded the Orlova and got settled in. The first person that I met was Naturalist Brandon Harvey who was one of the Zodiac drivers. He is from Victoria, Canada and specializes in Killer Whales (Orca). I also met the Doctor Stephen Grainger. He and his fiancé are from Perth, Australia. He took me up to the ships hospital and gave me some meds for Mark Purdy who had been feeling sick. I gave Purdy his meds along with some juice and water, then tucked him in.

We had an introduction to our expedition staff. Then there was a lifeboat muster and safety briefing followed by a lifeboat drill. The captain had a welcome reception in the forward lounge which was immediately followed by the captains welcome dinner. The Orlova is almost 70 meters long. She sails at a cruising speed of 12-14 knots and can go up to 15 knots. She has a crew of 53 and can hold up to 124 passengers. I had a wonderful dinner with Dr. Tweedie, the Hollister's, and Biologist Kara Weller who was one of our Zodiac drivers and happened to be an Australian Biologist who Dr. Tweedie knew. It was a great meal.

When we departed Ushuaia we left the dock at ten after nine because Naturalist Matt Pope who was the other Zodiac driver who specializes in whales was three hours late because he was held up in the airports coming from British Colombia (Victoria, Canada). I had my send off cigar. I stayed in the back as I usually do when I leave port. I was out there from nine pm until one am. Many of the people who were on the tour came up to me. I was in one place the whole time (In the back of the boat). I suppose my being there at the back of the boat with my send off cigar along with my charming personality intrigued some people.

I enjoyed standing up in the strong wind currents along with April, Kannan, Karalea, Bethany, Jen, and Amanda. We all leaned into and against the wind as I had never done before, the winds were that strong.

I met Jeremy and his family. Jeremy is a physiology student at the University of Chicago. He was probably the only other tourist on the boat that was close to our age. His father is a physician. I met everyone from computer programmers to nuclear physicists. The nuclear physicist was German. While speaking to him I thought of Kannan who is also studying nuclear physiology. Many of the people on the boat were single with a passion for traveling; much like me. I saw the southern hemisphere stars that I have never before seen in my life. I met a girl named Marry Catherine from Washington State who sat out there with me talking. I later went to bed at two am with my first ultra violet sun burn. That evening as we set sail, I realized that I had actually grown affection for the small town of Ushuaia. In fact, I had fallen in love with her and her people. I gazed upon all the spots that I had been, both throughout town and hiking in the hills and the tree line. I realized that I would actually miss the town of Ushuaia, and already looked forward to coming back to port.

Thursday, December 18th 2003:

I hate the polar vortex; it felt like it was possessed and by demons. I wanted to get off the boat. For a while it was cursed with very rough waves. I could hear the cranking, squeaking, tapping, rumbling and shifting of the hull. There was water going above our cabin window. When I went outside from time to time to get a breath of fresh air and attempt to gather myself as well as my bearings I could see the waves crashing over the bow. It was a constant feeling that the boat would give way and sink. The bow was continuously going under the surface of the water. Initially, I did not take any medicine for motion sickness before we left, so it was very hard for me to sleep during the night. Everyone else did, and they were passed out while I was either in the lounge drinking water and chewing on ice cubes or up on deck in the front of the boat staring into the horizon of the drake passage!

It was very dark outside the setting felt like something out of a Jules Vern 20,000 leagues under the sea novel with the dark clouds and winds along with the waves constantly crashing about. I even found myself trying to stand under the door frame like in an earthquake, in a desperate attempt for stability but it didn't work. One nice reassurance I had was the petrels and the albatross flying around the boat guiding us along the way like they were our God sent angels.

I threw up four bags of puke then went to the lounge and passed out. I slept all day long. Once I awoke I spoke with the doctor and he gave me some medicine. During my hibernation I missed breakfast lunch and dinner.

There are five Japanese people on board who are all single (Six including myself). One of them shared the lounge with me sleeping on the couches along with the older Italian boy who is in high school. None of us wanted to go back to our rooms and have to deal with the rocking of the boat and worrying about falling off the top bunk.

I had literally slept all day long in the lounge. During that time people were coming and going about. Conversing, drinking coffee in the morning and tea at tea time in the afternoon. There were passengers were reading books from the library, playing board games, and enjoying each others company. Some of my fellow teammates were catching up on their journals with their lap tops. People were coming and going to and from meals like breakfast lunch, tea time, and dinner. We were at sea in the Drake Passage with gale force winds, bring it on Drake! I was told that it was so bad that the all of the lectures were canceled for the day.

Friday, December 19, 2003:

Had lunch with the young couple that was from France (They turned out to be American French and French American). I enjoyed the explorer which was a meat dish. Ironically that day they had a French theme in the dinning room. Later on after lunch I went on deck, enjoyed the view. Our second lecture was given by wildlife biologist Delphine Aures on seabirds, seals, and killer whales of Antarctica. This particular lecture included penguins. I enjoyed it very much. It was extremely valuable to what I was studying. There are over 250 species of sea birds. They feed on krill, and Salp. The Suti Albatross is grey. They fly for thousands of miles. Giant Petrels have two bills; the upper bill emits salt. The snow petrel is all white except for the bill and feet. The storm petrel is small.

Summer is breeding time for the birds. Most sea birds don't breed until the ages of 9-12 years old. They stay faithful, to their partners, and produce only one egg every one to two years. They live to be about 55 years of age.

Penguins have a two month incubation period. The males help with the incubation of the egg while the female is out feeding. During the rearing stage the chick is left alone while the parents are at sea looking for food for the chick (4-9 months old).

Then I took a shower in the small bathroom. Other students were joking about the usefulness of the hand rail and curtain while cruising the drake. Then I went to dinner. Our third boat lecture was given by biologist Kara Weller on the Food Web. It was very helpful as well. She first spoke about Moss and Algae. She spoke about the importance of the sea ice which provides a habitat. Phytoplankton is at the base of food chain. The Zoe plankton eats the phytoplankton.

She focused on krill which is heavier than sea water therefore they can and do sink. Over seventy species south of the convergence feed on fish and krill. Often time's krill moves in swarms of 30,000 per sq meter. This concentration colors the sea red. They surface at night so they aren't hunted by predators. During the day they sink to 1,000 meters. They shrink in size during the winter. Krill is eaten by baleen whales which do not have teeth.

There are over 200 species of Antarctic fish like cod, ice fish, dragon fish, and plunder fish just to name a few. They usually take up to 8 years to mature and mate. The squid is related to the octopus. There is over 40 million tons of squid consumed by predators per year. Baleen whales have baleen plates, no teeth. She talked about the five species of Rorcal Whales. Both Blue whales and Humpback whales eat krill and squid. She also mentioned the Sei whale, Fin whale, and Minke whale.

When she covered birds, she mentioned that all sea birds have glands above the eyes to get rid of salt. She covered the Adelie, Chinstrap, Gentoo, Emperor, King, and Rockhopper penguin. All penguins feed on krill, fish and squid. They have counter shading camouflage. They have a black back for water illusion and a white belly to blend in with the light from above for water creatures below.

She mentioned seals like the Crabeater, Weddell, Ross, and Leopard seal. She covered six tooth whales. The Sperm whale can dive in under the water for over two hours at over 3,000 meters deep. The Killer whale or Orca is the king at the top of the food chain. She also went over sea spiders, star fish, and brittle stars.

The Antarctic food chain with has Orca and Leopard seals at the top, baleen whales, tooth whales, dolphins, fish, krill and squid, and phytoplankton at the bottom. I think that I will use much of the materials from today's lectures in my penguin presentation, paper and poster. Our expedition leader Olle Carlsson gave us a briefing on the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO) Conservation Guidelines, and a briefing on Zodiac safety in the forward lounge.

After that I went out on deck to the bow, of the boat at the very front! The waves were still very heavy. It was awesome standing there with the boat rising up as it rode the wave and then coming down crashing against the smaller waves down below!

Later everyone went to bed. I stayed up in my room along with Bethany, Callista, Mark, and Mike. We had a great conversation. At around three in the morning Bethany went to bed. The four of us stayed awake talking because we were so excited about landing on Antarctica that morning. As we were talking Callista looked out the window and sighted our first iceberg at half past three in the morning!

Mark, Mike, Callista, and I quickly threw our jackets on and ran outside to the bow of the boat and watched as we passed each ice burg after another. We took lots of pictures and made our first penguin observation. There was a group of roughly fifteen penguins resting with their backs up on a giant ice burg.

It was very cold outside Mike was only dressed in his Quark robe and slippers. So we decided to go up to the bridge and share our enthusiasm with the Russian crew who were the only two or three other people on the entire ship who were awake. They were keeping all of us safe as we sailed along the way dodging ice burgs this way and that.

This was one of the funniest moments for me on the entire trip watching Mike in his Quark robe and slippers point to the control panel and ask the Russian sailors if he could steer the ship. "That." As he pointed both of the sailors looked puzzled. "Can I drive that?" He pointed again. They looked at him baffled, struggling to understand him because neither of them spoke a word of English. "Can I drive the ship?" He asked confidently as he pretended to steer the ship with the motion of his hands in the air. Neither of them said a word but both of them gave a friendly smirk, one even managed a smile.

I have to commend him for at least having the nerve to ask. This is something that even I didn't do. They went back to ignoring us in a friendly kind of way as they continued to concentrate on keep us out of harms reach with the ice bergs. I thought to myself they must go through this every two weeks when new tourists board the boat. On that note it was time for us all to go to bed because in a couple of hours we would be embarking on one of the greatest adventures of all of our lives. We would be landing in Antarctica.

Saturday, December 20th:

I was both nervous and excited because I was about to achieve a life long dream from my childhood. I was in the embarking on a new adventure exploring places that I had never been before, and may not return to. Places that most people have never been to and places many people will never go to.

It was so much fun being on that first boat. Bethany was on it with me. We rode past ice burgs along with smaller sea ice on the way in. It was bumpy due to the waves and the speed of the boat which made it even more adventurous.

Once we landed, I immediately took out the Michigan State University flag that I had hung in my room for the last four years while up at school and I took a picture with William Rule opposite of me holding the other side. It was a victorious moment, and feeling of pride and accomplishment for both of us. We had been in Michigan State University Residence Hall Association student government together the year before. He had proudly represented his hall; Armstrong, and I had represented mine; Campbell. We had already accomplished a lot together and had looked forward to this moment for over a year.

We all hiked up the first hill to our first penguin rockery with lots of nests. Everyone began taking pictures. We came across another rockery with more nests which was very close to the beach. I was frustrated because every time that I tried to distance myself from the rest from the rest of the tourists so that I could make observations they would walk right up making noise as they walked scaring the penguins away. We all walked up a larger hill, then down it again passing another group of penguins nesting on a large rock. It was there that I encountered my first seal. I took some pictures along the way there were some penguin carcasses on the beach which was evidence of seals feeding. We finally came across the beach on the other side of the island where there were lots of Elephant seals sleeping, burping and farting together. Doctor Tweedie gave many of us a wonderful explanation about their breeding and feeding habits. We all learned about the roles of the king of the beach; beach masters, assistant beach masters as well as the sneaky fuckers. I took some great pictures.

At the second beach on the way back, I was able to get up close to the penguins and take some nice up close pictures. I found that when I laid down on the ground they would come closer because I wasn't as big and intimidating. I got some great pictures that way. I wanted to stay as long as possible so I waited until the second to last boat left. We were all in awe of everything. Lunch was served back on the ship.

Our afternoon expedition was on Greenwich Island in Yankee Harbor (Southwest side of Greenwich Island) where there were thousands of Gentoo penguins nesting. The second landing was after lunch a little bit later in the afternoon. It was very cloudy. Once again I was frustrated with the tourists invading my space and interfering with my penguin observations, disturbing their natural behavior in their natural setting. I stayed by the major penguin rockery which was quite large and stretched down the beach by the side of the mountain. I met with Cathy and Bethany as a group to try to get some ideas and direction for our observations. I helped Bethany as we watched the penguin's behavior around the nests. We watched them steal stones from each others nests and observed the hostile behavior namely pecking which accompanied that. Then I went to the beach and watched them coming out of the water and drying off. Later, I just sat in between the beach and the nest and watched the penguins go back and fourth to and from the nest and the beach. I sat peacefully as I watched them tobogganing on their stomachs from time to time. Once again I laid down all three times and as a result the penguins came closer and I was able to make better observations.

Then I got up and went over to the other penguin rockery to take some pictures. William and I took a picture with the Michigan State flag and a seal in front of us. Then we boarded the zodiacs, cruised back to the ship where Dinner was served.

We had dinner and then went out to the third landing site of the day. Our evening expedition was on Half Moon Island. It is a mile and a half long island in the shape of a crescent which is between Greenwich and Livingston Islands. There was and Argentine base Camara on the island. There are over 3,000 pairs of Chinstrap penguins (Over 6,000 Chinstrap penguins) which inhabit the island. Initially, I was frustrated because I needed to know what to do specifically for my observations and felt like I didn't have much direction. April helped me out and we began to count penguins going in and coming out of the water. Later on during our observations Kannan and Ben sat on a rock and joined us. After we preformed our observations for our data collection we hiked up a hill and saw the beautiful view with ice bugs floating in the sea in background.

We all took a picture with the State flag and went back down to the boats. I found out later that the human impacts team got to go for another additional adventure on a boat ride to a station. On the way back in we rode by a beautiful ice burg that was in a most unique shape and took pictures.

Later that evening our entire group got together and celebrated. We crammed all twenty students into my room. I had brought two huge bottles of Champaign on board that I had bought and we all had a toast to the first Michigan State and Stanford expedition to Antarctica! It was the first time on our trip that our entire group of students had all partied together. Jeremy, from the University of Chicago later came in and joined us. After that we all went to the ships bar where the faculty joined us and we mingled with the rest of the people on the boat and danced. It was truly a wonderful time. William and I enjoyed spending time with Mr. John Hesse.

Sunday, December 21, 2003:

After April and I concluded our observations William and I went exploring. Once again we had a great heart to heart talk. We took another picture with the MSU flag and began to head back with the others. On the way back we both fell through the ice and fell into some shallow water. We were all wet and cold but it was funny and the Dr. Tweedie and the Hollister's who were heading in our direction then knew not to take that particular route that we had just taken. Once we were back on the ship we all had lunch.

Our afternoon expedition was at Whalers bay, Port Foster. It is the largest of the three islands in the south Shetlands. It is shaped like a ring, and is nine miles in diameter. It is also the active center of volcano. We went through Neptune's Bellows which has a narrow entrance to get to Port Foster which is the caldera of the volcano. The most recent eruptions were in 1956, 1967, 1969, and 1970.

Whaling began at Whalers bay in 1920. It was somewhat depressing being on deception island because of the all of the whaling and sealing that had gone on there. Millions and millions of Whales, seals, and even penguins had been slaughtered for their fat thrown into the boilers. It was deserted and had a ghost town feeling to it as though it was quickly abandoned and many things were left unfinished before they left.

Seeing the boilers up close and actually going in them was both unsettling and surreal. It reminded me of when I stood in front of the ovens at the German concentration camp that I visited outside of Munich, Germany. While we were inside the boilers our expedition leader Ollie Carlson and Biologist Kara Weller sang a song together which was so beautiful and seemed like it was a Swedish chant, or prayer of some kind.

I walked to the airplane hanger and saw the plane wreck of the plane that historian Charles Swithinbank had flown at one time. Over by that site some of us took a picture with the flag. I walked back taking more pictures of Whalers bay. After naturalist Brandon Harvey and Hotel Manager Josef Puschl were finished digging I went swimming in the cold Antarctic ocean with my wetsuit, snorkel, and flippers. Then we all dove into the hot springs to warm up. I stayed in there the rest of the afternoon. When we all got out it was freezing cold. They referred to it as a polar plunge.

Later that evening we were given a lecture by wildlife biologist Delphine Aures on Penguins, the flightless birds. All penguins are black and white they have a black back and a white front. The Rockhopper penguins can climb over 200 meters. When walking across the ice they toboggan which is when they slide on their bellies.

Around the nest they keep outside of pecking distance, which means they are not within reach. However when they go out to feed they maintain more of a collectivist teamwork approach. Penguins walk for miles for food. They drink fresh water. They create a snow path from the nest to the beach and even make footprints in the rocks and snow.

Penguin's hormones are so great that even the males incubate the eggs while the female is off feeding. The food is regurgitated for the chick. In terms of penguin waste the red is representative of krill. Greenish yellow resembles Fish, and white also indicates fish. As far as regurgitation; the colors are florescent bright green & yellow. The information from this lecture was vital to the work that I was conducting on the feeding ecology of penguins. After she was finished she took the time to answer all of my questions.

Monday, December 22, 2003:

At Jougal Point we saw a lot of giant whale bones. I even took a nice picture with John Hesse by some of the whale bones. I even picked one of them up; it was the biggest bone that I had ever held in my life. I hiked up a hill over by a mountain referred to as snow white and the seven dwarfs because it had one large peak, and seven smaller peaks. It was a beautiful view. Then I spent some time over by Dustin and Karalea enjoying the view with April and Carrie.

We got back on the ship and before lunch I saw two groups of three whales at around 12:20pm. Stacy dropped her field journal into the water on our way to lunch, I felt bad for her. After lunch I was whale watching on deck for hours with the whale team. I bought all the girls who where out there in the cold all afternoon long some hot tea.

Apparently, geologist Sally Gilles gave a great lecture on where the polar bears are and the shifting of the continents. Unfortunately, that was one of the very few lectures that I missed because I was outside helping the whale group conduct observations.

Later that evening we had an Antarctic barbecue for dinner on deck. It was wonderful. Even watching them prepare the meal outside while we were whale watching was exciting. They made every kind of meat possible which included chicken, steak, lamb, shish kabob, hot dog, and sausage. After dinner we all danced, it was a lot of fun, everyone was entertained.

Our afternoon expedition was a scenic ship cruise through the Lemaire channel. The Lemaire channel runs northeast to southwest. It is a seven mile passage which is one mile across at its widest and ˝ mile at it's narrowest. Our exit was blocked by ice burgs. So we had to back up turn around and go through the French Passage to get to the site of our evening expedition which was on Peterman Island. It was the furthest south that we would travel on the entire trip.

On the final landing of the day I hiked up to the two major Adelie penguin nests along with the rest of the tourists. As usual it was over crowded, so I ventured out further. This took longer and the snow was deeper, but it was worth it. While over there I spent time with the Doctor Stephen Grainger from Perth, and April. We all watched a huge piece of ice break off an ice berg and then saw the ice berg tip over. It was very powerful.

Later I walked along the penguin path back to the beach, where the landing site was. On the way back down I saw another cross. It was similar to the first cross that I saw on Deception Island at the whaling station. Later that evening we had a successful passage through Lemaire channel. I watched the sun set with one of the Japanese women. It turned out that she was 31 years old and is a banker back in Tokyo, Japan. Then we all hung out with Mariano who was the bar tender on our boat. He is a great guy who is from Buenos Aries and studying business. It was fun all night mixing English, Japanese, and Spanish together as one language. Later, everyone went to bed and Mariano and I stayed up and went out on deck where we took pictures of the sun rise at five in the morning. Then I went up to the bridge to bond with the Russian sailors for a while who were smoking English cigarettes. Then I went to bed.

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2003:

I took pictures with William Rule and John Hesse on the peak of the mountain. Then we all sled down the hill it was quite fun. While we were waiting for the zodiacs I tackled Ben and Brad in the snow. Bethany and I got into a snow fight and wrestled around, she white washed me it was great. A group of us took a picture with Kannan's Michigan State flag.

The wait for the Zodiac was a long one. The young man from Italy told us that they went whale watching and one actually came within a meter of his boat. He had the most excited look on his face. That was one of those things where you don't really believe or understand it until you actually see it and experience it first hand with your own eyes.

Eventually we all got into the zodiacs and went whale watching on a scenic cruse by the glacier in Paradise Bay. Initially we saw them surfacing from a distance. Then one great big giant Minke whale came right up to the side of our boat, and even went under the boat. I got some great pictures of it. It was the coolest thing I have ever seen. Then we all got to play on an ice burg. We saw some bird's nests on the cliff and went back to the ship and had lunch.

Our afternoon expedition was on Cuverville Island in the Errera channel between the Arctowski peninsula and the northern side of Rongw Island off the west coast of Graham Land. Cuverville Island is filled with over 4,818 pairs of Gentoo Penguins. It is also home to the Southern Giant Petrels.

Cuverville Island was our final landing and our farewell to Antarctica. I walked past some of the penguin rockeries took some great penguin pictures and came back where I sat on an ice burg with Purdy and joked around. Then I conducted my final round of data collection and observations. As we walked back to the zodiacs, I pulled out the Michigan State University flag for the final time on our first Antarctic expedition. It was quite an honor to have historian Charles Swithinbank across from me holding the other side. He is a piece of living history, a living legend. I personally think that he should be knighted on behalf of all of his Antarctic expeditions that he has done for England and the world. He is truly a pioneer among explorers.

For the final time I stayed on the beach for as long as I could, and I departed on the second to last boat. We passed by ice burgs as we usually did coming to and from the Orlova. One of them had a seal resting on it.

When returned to the ship, naturalist and zodiac driver Brandon Harvey gave us a very in depth lecture on Killer whales. He told us the difference between resident vs. transient. Transient whales have a loose social structure and they eat warm blooded prey. Apparently you can tell their sex and race by the dorsal fin. They consume over 250 pounds of meat a day. Echolocation is very important. Sounds are produced through the blow hole (Like sonar). They pick up sound in the saw bone.

They reach sexual maturity at 13-15 years of age. The females do go through menopause. Each female produces about 4-6 calves in their lifetime. The caves are born starting at six feet, weigh over 200 pounds, and drink breast milk. They gain 2-4 pounds per hour while nursing. They perform breaching for fun and to get rid of lice and other parasites. They also breach when they are feeding they use it as a form of communication in order to inform others of the location of seals. They also communicate with a petrol slap with petrol fin, and tail flip. Killer whales are very dedicated emotionally. They sleep together with their fins next to each other and the caves in the middle. They come up to the surface together in order to breath while they are sleeping. Half of the brain is sleeping while the other half is concentrating on breathing and swimming.

After Brandon's lecture we had a recap and debriefing on our four days that we had just spent in Antarctica. Our Bailey Head landing for was the first ever for the Orlova! This was truly monumental. We were also told that we had the best weather in over three seasons. After our recap and debriefing dinner was served in the dining room.

Historian Charles Swithinbank delivered a lecture on how thick the ice is. They were able to measure the density of the rock by the ice tips and thickness. He mentioned how they struggled with the burden of extra weight of the radar equipment on the plane. They discovered the hole in the ozone by measuring the thickness of the ice and finding drastic changes. Although the highest mountain in Antarctica is 16,000 feet, they had to fly as low as thirty feet above the ground because of such horrible weather conditions.

Wednesday, December 24th, 2003:

In the morning our expedition leader Olle Carlson gave a lecture on Otto Nordenskjold's Swedish Expedition which lasted from 1901 to 1903. Their ship went down, but they found fossils on mount flora.

Then Biologist Kara Weller gave us a nice lecture on the seals of Antarctica. All seals are mammals and have either fur or blubber. Walrus are only in the Arctic. Seals usually dive over 100 meters and during the dive their heart beats slower. Pups are born 1 year after mating. Seals use vocal threats. There are between 20-70 million crabeater seals found the pack ice. Many Crabeater seals have scars from being attacked by leopard seals.

The male Elephant seals have a long nose. Only three people are known to have died from seals.

After those two lectures we ate lunch and then historian Charles Swithinbank spoke in depth of his rough experience of living on a whaling ship along with the dogs. He told us about how they had to dig tunnels with their supply boxes, and they did not see mountains for a year. Then we had dinner. After dinner I put on my full gear including my ski goggles and I went out on deck and endured the strong winds of the Drake at the bow of the boat. I took some great pictures, but I had to hold on for my life. Later that evening I watched a movie in the forward lounge with Jen, and Jeremy. We watched "Pirates of the Caribbean." Watching it while cursing the Drake Passage was neat because it felt like we were literally in the move because we were on a boat just like the pirates!

Thursday, December 25th, 2003:

He also covered the Sei whale, Minke whale, and sperm whale. Whaling is carried out mainly for their fat which is used for soap, and candles. The harpoons that are used have a grenade attached to it. Immediately after his two lectures he showed us a movie called "Around Cape Horn" which was filmed in 1929.

After we were finished we had lunch. I was somewhat depressed from the whaling lecture but then our assistant expedition leader Mike Murphy (Who I nicknamed Sharky) gave us a fun upbeat lecture on roughy toughy divers of the polar seas. It was about his lifelong experiences with deep sea diving on oil rigs, salvaging, and giving underwater tours in the polar region. This certain lecture reminded me of the movie "The Abyss" starring Ed Harris and Marry Elizabeth Master Antonio.

Then we finally reached Cape Horn and the Beagle Channel. We all went outside to have a look. Later on the Captain gave us a farewell reception followed by the Captains Christmas farewell dinner. I had dinner with April, Bethany, Callista, Brad, and Carrie. It was the most wonderful meal.

After dinner we all exchanged gifts. I gave each member of our faculty a baby penguin stuffed animal as a reminder of our adventure and to show my appreciation for all that they had done for us. Then the entire ship celebrated Christmas together in the ships bar. Our assistant expedition leader Mike Murphy (Sharky) bought me a drink. Then the Italians all bought me drinks, we all bonded nicely. Later, everyone danced on the deck in the back of the ship. We stayed up almost all night together. It was one of the best nights of the trip. At the end of the evening after everyone had gone to bed, I did my usual routine where I go up to the bridge and spent some time with the Russian crew. Then I went to bed.

Friday, December 26th, 2003:

I wandered around town with Callista, Mike and Mark. We were all emotionally exhausted from leaving the boat. The first thing that we all did once we left the docks was buy a Pepsi. Then we went to an internet café where they checked their email. As we walked through town we ran into many of the people who were on our cruise. It was different to seen them in a civilized setting in an actual town. Ironically, the three of us went back down to the docks by the water and just sat there for a while in reflection. I think that we did this because we were all so used to being constantly near the water for the past week that we could not stand to be away from it. We thought about and discussed the past couple of weeks that we just had together.

During that day April, Callista, Karalea and Doctor Tweedie all hiked up the Mountain/Glacier scouting in preparation for the next day's project and data collection for April and Karalea's senior thesis. During that time Purdy and I wrote in our journals for a while with the TV on. Then we took a siesta along with the rest of the country.

Later on in the evening after we all woke up from our siestas and the rest of the country woke up we all went to the store and went grocery shopping for the upcoming week. We especially had to get lunch for the next day in the field at the glacier mountain where we would be all day collecting data and making measurements for April and Karalea. That evening we went to dinner, had ice cream and began to prepare for our presentations and the final exam.

Saturday, December 27th, 2003:

During our outing in the field we took field notes and learned about the Alpine cushion plant which has five leaves, grows in the wind and does not decompose. We also learned about tundra. We learned about various other kinds of moss, and learned in depth about how the entire forest was genetically all the same tree.

Shortly after our lessons and field note taking we gathered into our small groups. I was on the varsity team lead by Dr. Tweedie along with Mike, Bethany, Stacy, Purdy, Callista, Karalea, and Dustin. I referred to it as the varsity team because in order to go where we had gone it required a certain amount of skill in order to maintain our pace and group harmony. We ate lunch in the woods, and began our hike up the mountain. Throughout the day stepping and landing on the cushion plants helped us all maintain our balance.

We climbed to an elevation of around roughly 750 meters. It was very high up. In order to get all the way up there we had to venture through some very dense and thick bushes, and trees. I was very impressed with the speed and constant pace that Dr. Tweedie maintained.

Once we reached our destination at the top of the tree line of Ushuaia we gathered our data in the field together. I worked with Bethany and Stacy to help measure the growth of the trees. After we were finished we descended to a lower elevation where Callista and I held the measuring tape as a marker while the others took their measurements. While we were both standing around, we were entertained by none other than Purdy, who was climbing trees and beating sticks around against branches. He used this scientific approach in order to break them in half so they could be used as samples to count the rings and estimate the ages of the trees in that particular section of the forest.

Upon completing our tasks for the day, the varsity team returned back to where we started and joined up with the junior varsity team. I stayed back with some of the others and helped finish up the final measurements and data collection for the project.

We had another great lecture by Bob Hollister on the differences between weather vs. climate. The weather conditions are monitored daily, they are instantaneous. Scientist's record and measure temperature, humidity, precipitation, and sky conditions like wind pressure. Climate is measured in averages in time scales like monthly and yearly.

He went on to cover the three subsystems that drive global climate. First he went over the Radiative energy flow system (The Sun) functions to create pole-equator-pole temperature differences which drive winds and ocean currents. Then he covered the Circulation Systems (Wind and Ocean Currents). The circulation system includes easterlies (Winds from the east), westerlies (Winds from the west), northeast trade winds, and southeast trade winds. Ocean circulation includes the California current, the Gulf stream, the Japanese current, the Abrador current, the Canary current, the north equatorial current, the equatorial current, the south equatorial current, the Bengvels current, the Humboldt current, the west wind drift, and the north Atlantic drift. The Hydrolic System includes condensation in the clouds, water storage in the ice and snow, and precipitation.

He talked about general controls of climate. He mentioned latitude, and distribution of land and water. He also addressed proximity to warm and cold ocean currents, elevation, general circulation, incoming solar radiation, and precipitation.

He discussed precipitation and rain shadow in the mountains. The effects on local and regional precipitation, the cause of atmospheric circulation, pressure gradient forces, the Coriolis force effect, the greenhouse effect, geologists and fossil fuels, past climate variability, and the average surface temperature.

We had another lecture on by Dr. Tweedie on climatology, the climate of the southern ocean and Antarctica, oceanography of the southern ocean, and climate change of the Antarctic. They covered the boundaries of the Antarctic System, circulation and wind in the atmosphere. They also covered Katabolic Winds and how they flow downhill and are driven by gradient and are the strongest at the coast.

He covered temperature, precipitation, ice sheet profile, ice shelf profile, valley glacier profile, snow, ice flow, grounded ice sheets in the bed rock, and floating ice shelves in the ocean.

The section on oceanography covered the world's oceans, and the great ocean conveyer belt. In terms of Antarctic Ocean currents he mentioned the sub-Antarctic surface water, warm deep water-high temperature and high salinity, Antarctic surface water-low temperature low salinity, Antarctic bottom water-low temperature high salinity, and mentioned that the convergence is not static. The Trans Atlantic currents were mentioned. The climate change section was about recent rapid changes, land station temperature trends, long term meteorological station data, Faraday station data (Representative of the Antarctic Peninsula).

He discussed crucial changes in penguin populations like the colonization of Adelie penguins which require access to winter sea ice. Their populations have been declining for around 644 years.

He mentioned how candidate mechanisms for RRR warming changing oceanographic circulation, changing atmospheric circulation, and how local greenhouse warming is amplified by sea-ice process.

Dr. Hollister gave us a lecture on Lichens; a symbiosis between fungi and Algae. During this lecture he also went over the basics of moss. That evening we reviewed the first exam, and had the review session for the final exam.

Sunday, December 28th, 2003:

He mentioned the Antarctic energy pyramid including top carnivores, carnivores, herbivores, primary producers. He covered the pelagic food web with Algae, Phytoplankton which is free-floating, ice Algae, and (Benthic Algae). Zooplankton is free floating in open water. Their movements are determined by water motion. The primary consumers of algae are krill, cape pod, and Salp which is A Sexual. By consuming algae and fecal pellets Salp contributes to C-sink.

He went over how Antarctic Krill is a keystone species with around 85 species altogether. They are shrimp like and use hairs and legs to gather food. They feed on micro organisms on the ice like ice algae and photo plankton. They live 5-10 years, at around 100 meters in depth, and need light to survive.

Apparently, in terms of fish there are 120-200 species of fish in Antarctica. Among them are the Silver fish, and the famous Patagonian tooth fish or Chilean Sea bass which was mentioned in many other lectures and is protected by law. He mentioned the jet propulsion of the squid and how they eat fish and crustaceans.

He briefly covered Antarctic birds like the Adelie and Emperor penguins, and the Wandering Albatross which eats squid, fish, and crustaceans. He also mentioned seals like the Crabeater, Weddle, and Leopard Seals.

He went over the definitive difference between killer whales which have teeth & are at the top of food chain, and baleen whales which do not have teeth and feed on krill. Finally, during summer months although the Antarctic oceans are cold, they are the most productive in the world. For our second lecture of the day John Hesse gave us a great lecture on toxic chemicals in the Aquatic System. This was one of our favorite lectures of the entire course! He first went over the dirty dozen which include Aldrin, Furans, Chlordane, Heptachlor, DDT, Hexachlorobenzene, Dieldrin, Mirex, Dioxins, PCB's, Endrin, and Toxaphene.

He told us about persistent organic pollutants (POP's), and how Mercury and PCB's are found at same time. PCB's are banned in United States. He mentioned the properties of Halogenated compounds and resistance to chemical degradation and chronic toxicity. They are foreign to natural biochemical processes and have a high bioaccumulation potential.

He went over some of the PCB effects on humans like infant neurological development, learning disabilities, endocrine/hormone disruptor mechanisms, breast cancer, disruption in menstrual cycles, and extended time to pregnancy and thyroid system disorders.

Some ways to reduce exposure are to eat smaller, younger fish and do not eat the skin and fat, remove the fish oil. He also told us about global transport of toxic chemicals in the aquatic system through rain and how they affect other animals like seals and polar bears.

Later on in the day after lunch we had a guest speaker who was an IAATO inspector and friend of the faculty who they had just ran into in the streets of Ushuaia. It was a lecture on IAATO, which was interesting. He and his wife were nice people. Some of the things that stuck out the most to me were the reasons why we must monitor, the treaty obligations, performances of some of the bases and countries, feedback to management, and stewardship of the environment. The most striking facts to me was that McMurdo has over 150 people, costs over $250 million dollars to maintain, and amount the amount of sewage buried there.

After our full day of lectures we all went to dinner, came back to the hotel studied for the final exam, worked on our presentations, and journals.

Monday, December 29th, 2003:

After Doctor Tweedie's lecture we had a review for the final exam. We covered everything. Some the items that they focused on were components of Antarctic System including marine life, climate, and atmosphere. The topic of tourism and how it started in 1940's, really took off during the 1980's.

They went over the importance of Antarctica to world system and gave examples like sea level and ocean currents. They mentioned the influence of introduced species like cats, humans, mice, rats, dogs, trout, reindeer, plants, viruses, food, and food viruses. They also covered contaminants, the Polar Vortex, foods people eat, and where the industries are being developed.

We went grocery shopping for so that we could have food for lunch for the next days hike in the Argentine National park. Later in the evening we got dinner, prepared for our presentations, wrote in our journals and of course studied for the exam. It was nice to have the review session for the final exam. We had more direction and were able to focus and really zero in on the specific material that we needed to know for the final. For the most part we were all pretty confident with the majority of the content from the first exam (Mid-Term), because we had just lived through all of it through our personal first hand experiences and knowledge gained over the past three weeks.

Tuesday, December 30th, 2003:

I felt that we were all moving at an overwhelming fast pace, at times that we required rest. As a consequence, were all becoming emotionally run down and even getting physically sick. I was worried about morale and the overall harmony of the group.

Part of me was mad that we weren't experiencing more Argentine culture. Everything was science, science, science; everywhere we went was an assignment. We were required at all times to be alert, for you never knew if something would be on the exam. For once, I wanted to just absorb the overall view and experience without having to worry about making observations.

I was craving human contact and personal interaction. I wanted to establish cross cultural interpersonal communication with real Argentinean people. I no longer wanted to be a tourist in town. I was sick of eating in restaurants. All I wanted was an authentic home cooked Argentine meal with rituals, rites and tradition. I desperately wanted to fit in and learn about new culture.

I was distraught because I felt like we were not getting that culture. I wanted nothing more than to be where we were at the time, but I could not enjoy it knowing that I had a final exam, presentation to prepare for as well as a journal lingering.

As a result, that day I was on my own. I went into seclusion. I stayed at the very front right behind the guide, where it was, and always is, guaranteed to be the quietest. During the hike I thought a lot. It reminded me of the time in Tennessee when I went hiking in the Smoky Mountains National Park. At that time I was told by one of my mentors at the time Eric Shanburn to view the hike as a spiritual journey. So that is what I did today. I viewed the hike not only as a spiritual journey, but also as a test. A test of strength, endurance, patience, maturity, leadership, and sanity. Throughout the walk I was in constant reflection and silent prayer. Continual reflection not just of my entire life, but also of our overall life evolving expedition to Antarctica over the last three weeks. In remembering my very first sweat lodge not more than two months earlier, I prayed not for strength (Because along with the granting of the gift of strength, comes challenges, hurdles, obstacles, and tests of that strength), but for guidance and direction.

During lunch I again went into seclusion. As I gazed upon the Patagonian Mountains in Chili I went into meditation. As I cleared my head, I began to find the way and right guidance towards that direction.

After lunch the terrain became more steep and difficult to climb. We came to a beautiful body of water where we all just sat there and skipped rocks. Dr. Hollister had come across some new species of plants that he had never actually seen before, or had the chance to study up close. I enjoyed his enthusiasm and the look of boyish fascination on his face. He and his wife Elise had pointed them out to me and took pictures. I believe one of them was a type of Venus fly trap. It was a wonderful experience.

Later that evening the presentations began. Once again I stayed up all night preparing for my presentation, learning power point, and studying for the final exam. I came across many road bumps like my computer letting me down.

Wednesday, December 31st, 2003:

In retrospect, I am really glad that I went with the Socratic Method by asking the students, my colleague's questions. Initially, I was not going to do it because I did not want to take up too much time and put people in an awkward position. However, I decided to go for it because there were questions that I was confident that they could handle. Most people like Callista seemed to enjoy it, because it was unique. I even got a nice little comment from her about how many of them saw the teacher in me.

Special thanks to Cathy who helped me with my graphs and also helped me study for the first exam. I would also like to thank Ben and Stacy who downloaded over seventy pictures for me to look at and evaluate for me to use for my power point presentation. Thank you Mike, you gave me a crash course showing me how to use the bells and whistles of power point. Bethany, you advised me on my particular portion of our project and gave me guidance throughout the entire process.

April, you have been wonderful this whole trip. You gave me direction for my penguin observation and helped me the whole way throughout the whole project. I have enjoyed your wisdom throughout the trip. If not for you at times, I would not have been able to breath, you have been my oxygen. I could not have done much of this if not for you.

I pulled an all nighter preparing for the presentation and the final exam just as I did with the first exam. It took me a while to take the exam. The key is to write everything off the top of your head down on a separate sheet of paper immediately when you sit down, before you even take a first look or glance at the exam. Once again, thank you April and Jen who helped me study all afternoon at Tanta Sara's for the final exam it helped out tremendously.

Right after the exam, I ran upstairs, took a shower, and met up with everyone else. We had dinner and celebrated New Years Eve at the Hotel Albatross. Apparently, from what I was told our dinner was fifty US dollars a plate. I was impressed; however the meals on the ship were exquisite. There was a wonderful diversity of vegetables, fruit, and meat laid out for our appetizers. During dinner there was a couple dancing the tango. It was very elegant and sensual. I was taken by the beauty of the dance. I had a lamb dinner. Kannan is a vegetarian; therefore he did not eat much of his dinner. At a result, I ate his, and mine too.

That evening I sat at the far left end of the table to the left of Cathy, who sat next to William, who sat next to Carrie, who sat next to Bethany, across from her was Grandpa John Hesse. Across from me was Kannan, to his left was Ben who I discovered during the course of the meal came from the countryside and was raised on a farm. Next to Ben was Stacy, next to Stacy was Brad and next to him was Grandpa John. Dr. Tweedie's table was very jovial! I enjoyed watching them relish in the moment. Sitting with them at their table was David, Dustin, Karalea, April, Jaclyn, Amanda, Jen, Mike, Alyssa, and finally Dr. and Mrs. Hollister.

At 12:00AM the New Year had been ushered in Ushuaia at the bottom and end of the civilized world two hours prior to the east coast of the United States of America. Many people called home. It was then that we all began to dance the night away. We all danced together for hours. I had a nice conversation with Dr. Craig Tweedie in which I expressed my thanks and understanding for his level of discipline. Most of the students often times throughout the trip misinterpreted him and thought that he was constantly being hard on us. I told him that I had come to realize that our work ethic in the United States is different from the rest of the world.

I conveyed to him that as a Japanese American being raised in a bicultural household who had been to Japan and also been exposed to many other cultures around the world through my travels that I realized his international perspective and viewpoint as well. I realized that the reason for his persistence on us throughout the trip, especially during the questioning period of our presentations was to better us. He was actually enhancing the quality of our work by forcing us to think.

He was consistent with us and this in turn was preparing us for what lies ahead in the real world as most of us will go on to graduate school and eventually become doctorial students. He already knew what that was like because he had already been down that road. Still to this day with his job he is traveling around the world going to conferences with fellow colleagues and doctors who are trying to further their own research and careers constantly trying to prove and disprove each others theories with sharp condescending questions and follow ups and redirection. I expressed to him that I appreciated his level of commitment to us.

We all continued to dance. I danced with an old Argentine woman who was old enough to be my grandmother. Then I danced with a couple of the waitresses. I must say that Stacy was the best dance partner that I had.

After we all returned to the Hotel Cap Polonio, I went back out with the waiters and waitresses from the restaurant in our hotel. I wanted to spend time with the local people and develop some Argentine cultural experiences. There are roughly three major dance clubs in town and we were at the best one of the three. It was the club to be at in town that evening on the Argentine island of Ushuaia. It was the hot spot. It was a restaurant by day and a dance club by night. We had all gone there before for lunch that day when Mike treated us prior to going to the third museum.

Thursday, January 1st, 2004:

I went to dinner with April, William, and Callista at the second Tanta Sara's where Wills little Argentine girlfriend worked. Of course she was there and apparently asked about him prior to our arrival. Jaclyn, Amanda, Jen, Stacy, Brad and Carrie were already there, sitting at a table behind us waiting for dinner. It was funny because we got there second, got our food first, and were out of there before them. Later that evening I spent some more time with April, Will, Purdy, and Mike; we went down to the docks and watched the sunset. We began to watch some of the movie Old School then I went out with April to Starbucks (Tanta Sara's) where we met up with Martine.

After Martine got off work, the three of us we went out to a bar along the docks by the water where we ran into Mike who had met a group of Argentine friends with both guys and gals. Then we all migrated together to the Tropicana club where the young ladies were quite friendly with me. As we entered, the birds were chirping. When we left at six in the morning the sun was up, the tourists were getting on their buses, and we went to a pub where all the locals spill into at the end of the night. From the outside it appeared to be a white house, we even had to knock to get in. Eventually it filled up and we left a little after 8am and went to bed.

Friday, January 2nd, 2004:

We only had one evening in Buenos Aries. At our hotel in Buenos Aries I roomed along with Brad and Purdy. After we all freshened up and most of us all went out to together dinner. In our group was Mike, Jaclyn, Amanda, April, and Bethany. Cathy, Callista, Purdy, Jen, Stacy, Brad and Carrie all went with us but sat at another table. Unfortunately, because we were sitting at separate tables after dinner we all got separated. When we got to the restaurant all of the faculty was already sitting there eating dinner. For dinner, I shared a nice pasta with white sauce with Bethany. Mike (As usual) had a giant steak. He was just pouring the salt on.

After dinner and desert, April, Bethany, Mike, Jaclyn, Amanda and I went out to a club where we saw a nice lounge singer. Their idea of happy hour in Argentina is at 12:00am. You pay half price for drinks and they bring you two of whatever you order. Later on we went out to another club and danced.

Mike and I took Jaclyn and Amanda home in a cab, and then went back out to the first club that we were at which was booming. They really are serous when they say that the night life in Argentina does not begin until 2:00am. I guess that is why the entire hemisphere closes down all of its business, banks, and restaurants, takes a siesta everyday at 5pm in the middle of the afternoon, and then reopens the country at 8pm. They don't even eat dinner until 10pm or 11pm at night!

I don't know where William, Ben and Kannan went for dinner or after words but I met up with Purdy, William and Jen when Mike and I got back from the club and we all went back out again.

It was unfortunate that we could not have spent more time in Buenos Aries. I would have liked to have gone sight seeing around the city admiring statues and national landmarks. On the other hand, it was a very sad city. They were in an economic depression with groups of homeless children pushing shopping carts roaming the streets with nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat. It reminded me of the poverty of Hong Kong that I had witnessed first hand as a young child and the thousands of large families living on small overcrowded boats all tied together in rows.

Saturday, January 3rd, 2004:

It was a nine hour flight. They showed two movies. The first movie was great. It was called "Out of Time" staring Denzel Washington. The second movie was "Radio" with Cuba Gooding Jr., and Ed Harris. I sat next to a single woman who read the entire flight. We got to Miami Airport at three in the morning. We retrieved our bags, went through customs said good by to Alyssa who was flying back home to California to go back to school at Stanford University. We took separate cabs to the Ramada Hotel. I rode in the cab along with John Hesse, and Purdy. I roomed in the hotel with Brad, and Purdy, just like in Buenos Aries the night before.

Sunday, January 4th, 2004:

They took us all over the National Park. We stopped several times along the side of the road at least twice to make some initial observations, and then we walked along two boardwalks where we saw a diversity of birds, plants and fifteen gators. I learned that over 90% of the water provided in southern Florida comes from the Everglades. The Everglades is very low in nutrients. The sugar cane industry has taken much of that land and water. It was so much fun being in the swamp.

Once again I was on the varsity team where we were up to our waists in the swamp. I took the flag out for one final time on our expedition so I could have a picture of us in the Florida Everglades National Park with the Michigan State University school flag. It was me on one side and Purdy holding the other side.

I could not believe the diversity of the trip. We went from being in an Antarctic climate first then the Argentine National Park in Ushuaia on the border of Chile, all the way up to the being waste deep in water in the swamps of the Florida Everglades National Park! By the end of the day we were at the southern most point of the continental United States of America. As I looked south I remembered that the night before we had flown over Cuba. I took a moment and gazed south and thought of Antarctica, Ushuaia, Buenos Aries and all the adventures that we had gone on over the past three weeks. I thought about how far we had all traveled together. How the trip had forever changed us. We had all evolved. We were better people as a result of the experience.

For dinner all of us went to a Chinese buffet, we celebrated Stacy's birthday. We came back to the hotel and watched the Sugar Bowl National Championship game. LSU won and has to now share the title of National Champions along with University of Southern California; who beat the University of Michigan in the Rose bowl.

Monday, January 5th, 2004:

As usual, because we are a big group, it took us a while for us all to get checked in while we were competing with the rest of the crowd in the holiday rush to get back home. We all said our farewells to Cathy, who had to catch her flight back home to Chicago. Then we checked our bags, and stood in the immense line for security.

We waited by the gated for a while and finally boarded. Most people were watching movies, TV programs, or looking at pictures from the trip together on their laptop computers. Others played games, or slept. I spent some time typing on my journal.

We left Miami after eight in the morning. On the plane I sat across from Dustin and next two the Hollister's. I read John Hesse's letters from his son, which was very emotional. I was very touched emotionally in a positive way. From the letters and what John said about his son, it seemed like I have a lot in common with his son.

I had a very nice conversation with the Hollister's on the plane ride home back to Detroit. We were all looking forward to coming home, and shared that nobody would ever be able to take away the experiences and the memories that we had made together.

We also spoke about my background where I was from, my parent's history. I learned a little about them too. They were married by his oldest brother. His middle brother was the best man in their wedding, and their honeymoon was up north in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in Isle Royal.

When we finally landed we had a final send off meeting. As we were walking away from the gate William and I could not get over the fact that we had just been to Antarctica. On the way down the escalator to the baggage claim I told Mr. John Hesse "thank you for helping me to accomplish a lifetime goal, and realize a dream that I had since my childhood."

We got in after eleven in the morning. We then met up with all of our families. I met April's mother and her boyfriend Eugene who she had spoke about the entire trip. I told him what an honor it was to meet him.

On the car ride home I began to share my knowledge from my pilgrimage. I told them that it was the most beautiful place in the world and in order to get there you must earn your way through a rite of passage; the Drake Passage which are the roughest waters in the world. I explained why that was. I shared that everyone should try to make the trip sometime in their lifetime because they have a responsibility to see it all first hand and learn about it all and share the knowledge. I spread my knowledge of everything that I had learned over the last few weeks about seals, penguin, whales, and the environment and told them that "I am a better man because of it." This expedition was the greatest adventure that I have ever undertaken!