It’s an unofficial maritime tradition. The idea is that when you’re on a long expedition, you start with lots of excitement, anticipation and momentum. Then you get into the routine of being busy with your work, and being “on the go” all the time. So, an “Equator Party” (even when you are nowhere near the actual equator of the Earth), symbolically celebrates the mark of being half-way through, and is meant to reinvigorate momentum for the second “hemisphere.” We actually celebrated our “equator” a day off of the actual middle point, in order to also celebrate the 100th anniversary of the discovery by Russian explorer Vilkitskiy of Severnaya Zemiya (a set of islands north of Asia at about 100°E longitude). So we’re now headed back west! We all gathered in the canteen (aka, the dining hall) for a special meal, and a short acknowledgement by our Chief Scientist Vladimir Ivanov. He reminded us that we are following in the footsteps of great explorers, and “standing on the shoulders of giants” to learn even more about the Earth. And with the next generation of scientists onboard, we should expect even more in the future.
- An impromptu reunion of current and past students of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, including Summer School Director Vladimir Alexeev and scientist Irina Repina and Arseniy Artamonov – I’m told that this photo would have a very different gender ratio 20 years ago!
- We have had to adjust our route a bit due to ice conditions, but we made it to about 80°N and 155°E, and are headed back west. Find us on the map! (You can see a bigger map on the “Expedition Route” page of the website)
Hi my name is Alexis Levros and I am from L.E.O.M.H.S I was wandering for your equator party the food that you eat is it different such as are there things you can’t eat up there that you are use to eating back at home?
Hi Alexis, the food here has been good, and they feed us well. A lot of it is very traditional Russian dishes, so we have a lot of meat and pasta or potatoes (or a vegetarian option), and soup comes with every main meal. There have been some meals that I don’t normally eat, like liver and beef tongue, and for the equator party we even had caviar, but they always take good care of us with the food, and it’s interesting to try foods from a different place.