Getting there

Somewhere over Canada between Chicago and Winnipeg.
The flight to Churchill is taking me through Chicago and Winnipeg. About half an hour after leaving Chicago, the landscape below has turned completely white, covered with snow. The plane’s captain just announced that the temperature in Winnepeg is -17 degrees. Good thing I put my heavy coat in my checked luggage.

As part of the Earthwatch expedition, we are partnered up with a school in order to video conference about our experience. My Earthwatch partner , Garry Oughtred, teaches science in Australia. He spent a month at the CNSC ( Churchill Northern Studies Center ) last October. In our video skype conversation yesterday he mentioned off-handedly that during his visit there was a terrible case of gastroenteritis and most visitors had spent several days in bed. It was so bad they called in the Canadian Department of Health. (Is there such a thing as Henry Hudson’s revenge? Reef research in the Bahamas is suddenly looking much more attractive.)

Winnipeg Airport:
Canadian immigration was a little skeptical about my reason for visiting. They decided to empty my luggage completely (every other passenger was waved through with a jolly “welcome to Winnipeg.”). It was only after it became clear that I really only had lots of winter clothes and some papers on climate change that they seemed willing to clear me for entry. They kept asking me just why I wanted to do this. When he pulled out my reading material Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and In Cold Blood the agent gave me a long cold stare over the top of his reading glasses. I think that was Canadian for "What the heck is wrong with you?" I was going to refer them to my blog, but decided not to and mumbled something about polar bears and northern lights instead. Luckily it worked, or I would be on my way back to NY.

Somewhere over Canada between Winnipeg and Churchill.
The plane keeps getting smaller and noisier as I am getting further north. The plane has about 8 rows of 3 seats each, with one full row across the back (like in a bus). Every now and then the captain would say something incomprehensible that sound like a NY subway announcement. All I got was "blah, blah blah.....Churchill......blah, blah..... landing....." I figured it was good news because nobody else seemed to react. The landscape is absolutely beautiful. For as far as the eye can see it looks like tundra and evergreen forest dotted with thousands of lakes and rivers, all covered by snow and ice.

Upon Arrival in Churchill
Collected my bags, which had luckily made in on the same plane and drove into town to pick up real winter gear at the Polar Inn. In a scene that could have been taken from Twin Peaks, the local hotel/gear rental place owner managed to confuse herself and charged five of us each a different price for the same exact gear, each time making extensive use of a calculator.
On the way to the CNSC, saw a severed caribou leg and a live polar fox by the side of the road. I realized I was not in Kansas anymore.