Day Ten

We woke up to a rather interesting combination of pure excitement for finally being able to get of the ship and extreme nausea of the rocking of the ship. Our beds moved side to side and taking a shower was quite the challenge with the soap constantly falling off the stand. As we walked through the hallways and down the stairs, we started to feel like the intoxicated passengers on the boat since we couldn’t walk in a straight line and could not estimate where the ground was underneath our feet.

As we tried to put food into our mouths with shaking hands during breakfast, our expedition leader announced over the intercom that it seemed highly unlikely to land in Greenland because of the thick ice conditions which would make a safe landing impossible. That meant that we wouldn’t be able to visit Greenland at all this whole trip.

This was probably one of the biggest let downs of the whole trip considering that we had spent two whole days at sea and were just dying to get out. But I guess that’s just how the Arctic is. It’s highly unpredictable since weather conditions can change faster than the snap of two fingers.

So we were back to our mindless fillers of time – card games, watching movies, and playing the piano.

But then we were in for a treat thanks to Dr. Gary Blickenstaff who knew one of the passengers who happened to be one of California’s State Assemblyman, Rick Gordon, who also actively works on legislation related to climate change. Seems almost perfect right?

So while we cruised off in the rocky waters, we had a nice cozy chat with Gordon who first told us about himself, how he got involved with the state affairs and also what he has been doing as an assemblyman for the past five years.

He told us about how California has been doing a great job so far promoting renewable energy, but still has a lot of work in spreading awareness to more of its civilians. We were able to ask a lot of questions that helped us understand more how the government actually works. It was incredibly interesting but we still wished that we would be able to get off the ship and touch Greenland.