A scientific expedition goes full-steam ahead at all times. Scientists are running experiments in the lab and deploying instruments and collecting water samples at all hours. Students attend – and give – daily presentations, and work on projects offered by scientists onboard to get them involved first-hand in Arctic research. And I run around trying to be everywhere at once so I can tell all of you about all the awesomeness on. So on Sunday, we had a couple special treats. We spent a little time in the afternoon with some icebreaker games (get it? icebreaker) provided by Florence, a student onboard. (She has a million of them in her back pocket.) The result of this experiment? Excessive bouts of laughter.
“Telephone” mixed with “Charades:” Without talking, Drew has to get Sasha to guess the phrase (in this case, the phrase was “climate model”). Without finding out the real answer, Sasha has to do the same for Vladimir, then continuing on to Masha, Mathieu, and finally Alena, who then has to say what she thinks the answer is. And let the hilarity ensue.
And here is a yummy Sunday treat. Ice cream! For “tea” (meaning our afternoon snack), we got an enormous helping of ice cream, and of course, what I’m sure you all would assume naturally goes with ice cream – a huge piece of sausage wrapped with bread. It was like a jumbo version of the “mini-cocktail franks wrapped in crescent rolls” appetizer that my brothers would always help my mom make for family events. But I don’t think we ever thought of combining it with ice cream.
What protocol do you take when someone on board of the ship is ill?
Hi Jonathan, there is a little clinic onboard, so if you’re sick, you can go see a doctor – however, you would need to take someone who speaks Russian with you, otherwise, you might not be able to tell the doctor what is wrong with you. But everyone was told to bring all kinds of medicine with them, for headaches, stomach aches, etc. If something is life-threateningly serious, I think that the ship would either head to the nearest port, or even get a helicopter in, depending on the location.
Hey, Lindsay. Your Arctic expedition seems intriguing and very rewarding as you can help solve the mysteries regarding climate change and study the atmosphere, but it’s nice that you guys can enjoy a break here and there! Your mention of food made me curious though, how do you deal with waste on the ship? And do you guys have the food supply to last a very long time or is food brought to the ship regularly (from other ships or helicopters maybe)?
– Student from Law Enforcement Officers’ Memorial High School (Ms. Gilbert’s Physics class)
Dear Audrey, you’re right, this is all super intriguing! I’m learning so much and I still can’t believe I got to come to such an amazing place. We don’t have any food supplies delivered, we brought everything we need with us for the 5 weeks. Of course, for longer expeditions, they may have to stop at a port as you said to refuel and get supplies. As for waste, that is a great question. There is an incinerator onboard for waste, and then we will be bringing our plastic water bottles and other recycling off the ship to be recycled.