The First Few Days

Wow! What an exciting first few days!

When I flew to Ottawa from my very distant and remote Arctic hometown, I was pretty nervous about meeting everyone and being somewhere totally new, but once I landed and saw how nice and friendly everyone was, I was super excited to get on the ship and start our adventure!

First, we had a really cool tour of the Museum of Nature where we got to see all of the specimens that they have, and even met some of our educators who would be on expedition with us! I thought that the dinosaur bones were really cool, but I’m excited to help with eDNA testing and ROV piloting after learning what that was. After a day of team bonding and getting to know more about my fellow shipmates, we had a nice team dinner and a swim at the River House.

The next day we boarded the plane, and flew as a group to Saint John where we would board the Polar Prince, out floating home for the new 10 days! If I thought I was excited before, seeing the ship was a whole new level. It was so cool to be aboard and get familiar with the hangar, our dorms, and the kitchen.

Tomorrow will be our first day on land after sailing all night, and I can’t wait to see what we get up to!