NOVEMBER 3RD, 2018

Welcome to the Whisker Printing blog for 2018! From the perspective of the Baltimore and Winnipeg group our day first began at 5am. We, students from Winnipeg and Baltimore first met at the Winnipeg airport. Soon after introductions were made, we checked our bags in and headed to the exclusive and fancy lounge, that was provided to us, thanks to the father of one of our fellow ISAMR members. After lounging around and having a fantastic breakfast it was finally time to go and catch our flight at 7am. To our surprise, the plane that we were meant to board wasn't there. As surprised as we were, we kept our cool and asked for information on where our plane was and what the situation was, imagine how we felt when we found out that the plane wasn’t even in Winnipeg. Yet, like the brave ISAMR members we are, we kept our heads up and waited for our plane that was delayed to 9am. Slowly 9am arrived, no plane in sight, again we were surprised but kept our heads up, our flight was then delayed to 1pm, the airline very kindly, gave us lunch vouchers. We all decided to go and get some lunch after a while and tried to manage our time wisely. In the time we had, a small group of us decided to do yoga and dance while we waited, to help us find the zen that we were slowly losing. 1’oclock slowly rolled around and still, the savior, known as our plane had not shown up. Again we politely asked for information on our flight and found out that our plane was here but had mechanical issues so they had sent another but that plane had mechanical issues as well and the airline was waiting for the next one to arrive. Julie, one of the Baltimore leaders had the brilliant idea to play a group game, a variation of charades, that lead to more bonding, lots of laughs and a lot of zen. Finally around 3’oclock, our savior, the plane, had arrived!! Everyone was filled with joy and were eager to get on the plane that would lead us to the place we were so anxious to see and the people we were so excited to meet. Finally the plane is ready for take off, and there we go, after 8hrs of waiting, we were off!!!!

Meanwhile, in Churchill, us Junior Rangers were ready to meet the Winnipeg and Baltimore students at 9:030 am, but the flight got delayed, many times. Finally, we got anxious so our leader got us together and we decided to head over to dog sledding to wait for our soon to be ISAMR friends at 4:00 pm. They we so delayed, we decided to go dog sledding and make a fire and eat dinner. Finally, the Winnipeg and Baltimore students arrived. We met each other at the dog yard. It was dark when they arrived at 6:30 pm. They started dog sledding and all the JCRs were playing games like ninja, tag, etc. Then after we were all done dog sledding, we all went together to the CNSC to check in and meet our roommates for the rest of the trip. We then quickly unpacked and went to the classroom where we had a lecture from Dr. Jane Waterman, even though, everyone was so tired. But, we learned about whisker printing, body condition, and other stuff that we were to put into action on the tundra buggy. We then went to sleep and dreamed about polar bears or not, if you were too tired.

Bridget (Kelvin High School) and Brindi (Junior Canadian Ranger of Churchill)