Aug 4 - Train Ride Day 1!

Today we woke in our Airbnb to a beautiful breakfast of muffins, donut holes, and scrambled eggs (cooked by Nathan). We were so happy to have a full night of sleep and take much-needed showers after a full day of air travel. After breakfast we thoroughly cleaned the house and packed up our bags while Julie and Carla went to ship our frozen food out to Churchill. After watching 10 minutes of the Olympics (from the Canadian POV) and watching team USA dominate, we headed out to the train station via Ubers and UHaul vans. At the train station, we unloaded all of our bags and food bins into the waiting area. We encountered a nasty surprise while checking our bags: all of our food bins were overweight by 20-30 pounds. We quickly did some math and duct-taping and got all of our bins to the right weight in the end.

We finally boarded our home for the next 2 days: a train! We somehow managed to bring all of our bags safely on board. We ate leftovers and Costco Caesar salad for lunch with the challenge of no silverware or plates (ex. using a paper cup to spread peanut butter). We got to crafting right away once Tessa whipped out the friendship bracelet string and we got bored of it within 20 minutes. I (Elena) did successfully make a water bottle keychain thank you very much. We then gathered for many card games in the café car where we discovered that Amelia was a god at spades and witnessed a minor stabbing from Tessa’s nail into Elena’s hand during slapjack. Carla checked in with us and we did some stretching together. We all gathered together in the café car to chat about the rest of the trip and set up a game of assassin. We have had 2 casualties so far (RIP Jonah and Vicki). We got off at Douphin (a small farming town) and stretched our legs in a short game of freeze tag featuring a minor faceplant from Carla (she is okay don’t worry). I (Jess) tried and failed to take a group picture of everyone in front of the train because I didn’t know how to use the self-timer setting. We loaded back on and found out we have a test tomorrow! A few of us did not read the fine print in the emails and failed to notice that we need to memorize 36 different arctic plants. After an intense study session of many lichens and mosses, we scrounged through the food bags for dinner. Strangest dinner award goes to Amelia who had an entire pork chop wrapped in a piece of sandwich bread (rated 7.5/10). We played some more card games and did a little extra studying before our next stop: a station in the middle of nowhere. We wandered around for a few minutes observing the sunset and climbing a display train car.

Atentamente,

Jess and Elena