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Day 1 — What a diverse crowd!
Location: Ottawa, Ontario
Last night we did "icebreaker" activities (fitting term, n'est ce pas?) on the
lawn outside a Carleton University residence to allow 110 people from all over the world
to start to gel into a cohesive expeditionary group.
| ...even those who've flown halfway around the world to get here are too excited to sleep... |
There are participants and resource people here from northern Russia, China, India, Germany, Tasmania, Sweden and England as well as a goodly number from the United States and Canada.
Many have been sponsored by their home communities, some are here on scholarships, others have raised money to join this expedition to learn first hand about climate change and international cooperation. One of the must-do activities is a visit to Parliament Hill, where even the Canadians learned something new. For example there's a bas-relief sculpture of voyageurs in a canoe carved into the mezzanine façade outside the Prime Minister's office.
This being the largest youth initiative that is part of Canada's contribution to International
Polar Year 2007-08, it makes sense that we launch this 2007 Arctic Expedition in fine
style at the Canadian Museum of Nature facility in Gatineau, where the head office
of Students on Ice is located. We get a fabulous behind-the-scenes tour of some of
the science underpinning our Arctic explorations from museum personnel and then, at
the formal press launch, Inuit drum dancers set the cross-cultural tone of this junket.
It's all a bit much for some: on one of our bus rides, I sat behind a teen named Trevor
from Postville in Labrador. He came second in a contest to join Students on Ice and didn't
know until two days ago that the winner had bowed out. "The farthest I've been away
from home is Goose Bay," he says, with a I-haven't-the-foggiest-idea-of-where-I-am
grin. It's hot and we've had a packed agenda — even those who've flown halfway around
the world to get here are too excited to sleep when we finally make our way back to
residence.
Posted by James Raffan on Friday, August 3rd, 2007
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