I am really running out of adjectives to describe Antarctica. I guess the best way to describe it is beyond your wildest dreams. I spent months watching every documentary that my library system had, along with every YouTubers’ videos, and read every book on the area I could get my hands on. Although I love surprises, I needed to know as much as possible about what I was going to see in order to prepare the students I teach for what I thought I might experience. Even armed with all of that knowledge, I am still in awe of what I see each day. The fact that this trip takes place over Thanksgiving is pretty fitting because I’ve spent the entire expedition filled with gratitude to the Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship program for allowing me to have this opportunity. I am also very grateful that I have such a supportive family that supported me in the months leading up to this, as well as the voyage itself. And then there’s my school- without my principal’s support in letting me go, the students being willing to experience new things in class, great friends of mine subbing for me while the students prepare for our quickly-approaching Christmas concert, and fantastic colleagues supporting the crazy ideas I come up with to involve the students in, none of this would be possible. That’s sometimes the weird thing about participating in programs like this – I get to do amazing things, but there are so many people doing work behind the scenes to help make it successful. This is why I work so hard to include everyone in the experience that I can. It’s my responsibility to make sure they all get a chance to be involved in each experience!
So, today we got to visit two more Antarctic landings. The first one involved our ship driving right up onto sea ice. We had what one of the naturalists called a ‘biblical moment,’ as we were walking on water. We got to snowshoe all the way around this sea ice. The views were unbelievable, and my Wisconsin was showing, as I had to take off both of my coats during this adventure. I pulled out my portable weather station (because I’m a weather nerd!!!), and it was reading that it was 60 degrees (after having it monitoring for over 10 minutes!). When I got back to a naturalist, I asked her about this, as it was snowing, and that doesn’t happen when it’s 60 degrees out. After she translated my Fahrenheit reading to what the rest of the world uses, she radioed the ship bridge and they said it was 2 degrees Celsius. I’m guessing my body heat after snowshoeing for the last hour was radiating enough heat for my weather station to pick that up. I know the weather station works, as I’ve used it back home and compared the readings. Crazy, huh?
After the first stop in Wilhelmina Bay, we moved on to Cuverville Island. As we transited, the Captain paused the journey for a bit as we watched a lot of killer whales swimming on all sides of the ship. For this moment, you’re stuck with a picture of my picture on my camera:
When we reached Cuverville Island, we got to hike around, with the option to climb the cliff for an outstanding view of the icebergs and penguin colonies. Cuverville Island is home to the biggest Gentoo Penguin colony, so we got to really watch the gentoos and their mating and nesting habits. The penguins made me laugh when they fight, as they use their wings to flap at each other. You can hear the sounds of that combined with the squawking of the disagreement. I made videos and sound recordings of that, and I can’t wait to share those with the students- they’re definitely going to laugh!
I did do the optional climb, and it was steep and slippery, but the view was breathtaking. There was a fog over half of the mountains, which created a very moody effect. It was so worth all the work to get up there.
After the climb, we got a zodiac cruise of the icebergs around our ship. On the cruise, we got to see a Weddell Seal. These icebergs on this cruise were my absolute favorite. Their shapes were all eroded in some way by water or wind, and it made every iceberg look like a delicate sculpture, despite the size of the icebergs being so massive!
We got to stop at the “Viking Zodiac” for hot chocolate! Checking out the icebergs with a nice cup of hot chocolate in my hands was such a fantastic moment!
After we got back to the ship, had our daily recap, and enjoyed our preview of tomorrow’s expedition plan, we went up to celebrate Thanksgiving prepared by the Swedish, Mexican, and Filipino cook staff (they all found it funny to share that with us). It was super fun to celebrate an American holiday in an international way.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with family and food! ❤️ I wore my dance mom shirt from Kay’s Academy of Dance as I thought of my family all day today.
Car Full of Harmony 
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