Buddhism and the Life of Dogs

A puppy in Laos

          Today we had a sad accident happen while driving on the chaotic roads of Laos.  We were in our van on our way to a village on the Mekong River when our driver was unable to avoid hitting a cute little puppy who was playing in the street.  It was not our driver's fault as the puppy was in the middle of a very busy road and we would have driven some of the many motorbikes off the road if we had swerved any more than we did, but it was still very sad.


          I can't help but compare two of the Buddhist countries I've visited - Laos and Bhutan.  Buddhists say that they cherish all living things, be it a human or an ant, but after we hit the puppy here in Laos, nobody said anything or seemed to have a thought about stopping to see if we could help the injured animal - in fact, when I turned around to see what happened (I didn't see the puppy in front of the car), all I saw were other dogs surrounding it to see what they could do.  In Bhutan however, if the same thing had happened, I'm sure that we would have stopped - probably every car on the road would have briefly stopped - to see how we could help the puppy, or to offer it prayers and solemn respect if it was already dead.  I wonder if the communism in Laos is the cause of this difference, or if there are just two different types of Buddhism.


          My family has spent a lot of time talking about the puppy and our dog who recently died, Mukluk.  We've posthumously named the puppy Sparky.

Bhutanese puppy (he likes french fries)

The Temples of Siem Reap, Cambodia

After a fun evening in Phnom Penh, we’ve been in Siem Reap where we have been touring around looking at ancient temples. There are many ancient temples in this area of Cambodia, and they are all very big and complex. The temples were constructed about 1,000 years ago. The biggest temple is Angkor Wat, and it is said to be the largest religious building ever built. The temples are the remnants of a huge society of people that used to live in that area, a civilization called the Khmer. The capitol city of Angkor was estimated to have a population of one million people at its peak in the 12th century and was the largest city in the world at that time.  Many of the temples have large moats that were part of an elaborate aqueduct system that provided water to the cities. The temples are made of sandstone, which is very heavy and comes from mountains over 25 miles away, so somehow the Khmer people transported the stone that distance from the mountains (over 5 million tons just for the one temple Angkor Wat), but how they did it is still a mystery. The walls of the temples are meticulously placed together without the use of mortar, and if a worker messed up on the design or engraved something in the wrong place, the wall would have to be torn down and started over. The Khmer must have had very good mathematicians to have built such massive, beautiful structures.

It is a great mystery why after just three hundred years, Angkor was completely abandoned by its people, and its many temples were left to ruin. There were hundreds of thousands of people living in these cities and temples, yet they all left. The scientists who researched this question think that it was a combination of invaders and climate change that drove the population out – armies from Thailand attacked the city and may have done enough damage to the aqueducts to make the cities vulnerable to drought and flooding cycles which made them unlivable. I can’t imagine what change could have taken place to make so many people abandon their homes, and it’s equally hard to try and think about that happening to a modern city, like New York City, but Angkor must have been like the New York City of its time.

A few monks have been living in the temple of Angkor Wat during the past several centuries, but other than that the temples have remained completely abandoned. It was really interesting to see how much of the temples still remain standing after all of these years of exposure to the tropical environment of Cambodia. My favorite temple that we visited was one where the jungle has completely reclaimed the temple site – it actually has trees growing on top of its walls.

A History Lesson - Life in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge

This is a serious entry; two days ago I met a man whose life story I cannot stop thinking about.

On the 26th, after a nice Christmas break. We flew from Hoi An to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Our flight from Ho Chi Minh City was delayed and then canceled because of a mechanical problem, so instead of arriving at 1:00pm as planned, we arrived five hours late. Because we didn’t arrive on time, our tour for that day, which was to focus on the sad history of the Khmer Rouge, had to be cancelled.  But, during the hour or so drive from the airport to our hotel, our driver, who lived through the worst of the atrocities, had time to tell us all about his life and experiences in Cambodia during the time of the Khmer Rouge.

 Our driver was about three years old in 1975 when the Khmer Rouge came and took over the capital. Everyone was driven out of their houses, and forced to move to farms in the country side. The capital, Phnom Penh, had around three-million people living in it before the Khmer Rouge drove them out, and after just several days, there were only about 75 people left in the city. The Khmer Rouge wanted everyone who was educated, and who could thereby think for themselves, dead. Anyone who was educated, like doctors, teachers, government workers, lawyers, and even people who lived in big houses were killed. In some places in Cambodia it was so bad that even people who wore glasses were killed because it was thought that only educated people had glasses.

All families were separated into different groups because the Khmer Rouge wanted to teach the kids that they didn’t have any specific parents, but they were a family as a whole. They did this so the kid soldiers would not feel anything – even if they were told to kill their own parents, which happened. The children were split up into groups, ages 0-5 were put into children shelters where they would be taught that they didn’t have any parents or family. They were brainwashed from an early age so that they would obey. Children ages 6-10 were sent out to the rice patties to work, and children ages 11-16 were made to be soldiers. If any of the parents of the children tried to contact them, they would be killed.

Our driver was put into a children’s home for the first couple of years. He was separated from the rest of his family. When he was 5 he was put out on the fields to work. He had to work 10 hours a day harvesting rice. He was not allowed to go inside, and the only shelter he was given was a tree, where he had to sleep with the rest of the children and older people who worked the fields. He had to live out there for almost two whole years, and he told me that he was barely given enough to eat, and that many people died of starvation.

When the Khmer Rouge was finally defeated by Vietnamese soldiers over three years later, in 1979, our driver's mother had seen him working in the fields over the years and recognized his face, and so she was able to find him. He didn’t know she was his mother because he was taught that he didn’t have any parents, so the only way he knew it was her was because she had a picture of their family. And, because of that picture, they were eventually able to locate three of his four siblings. However, to this day he has not been able to find his father and brother. He searched for them for many, many years, and told me that still now, thirty years later he still looks sometimes. But he has not found them.

            

            I’m not sure whether or not I would have been able to survive such harsh conditions at such a young age. My family has videos of when I was 6 and 7 and I can’t imagine myself working in the fields for ten hours a day when I was that young. I can’t even imagine what it must have been like waking up every day at 4am to go work on the fields. It’s amazing to think that this didn’t happen that long ago either. It was only roughly 30 years ago, when my parents were my age. It is amazing, humbling to see how much the people have changed, and I am not sure if I could have bound back like they have. One question I can’t get out of my head though is: why. Why would anyone want to do that to other people?

I don’t understand.

A Christmas Dress in Hoi An

A busy marketplace in Hoi An, Vietnam

          After spending several action-packed days in Hanoi, we left and took an airplane to Hoi An, Vietnam, which is south of Hanoi and on the coast. We spent about 2 days in Hoi An, one of which was Christmas. Hoi An is a great little village - way smaller than Hanoi, and it was nice to take a break from all of the heavy traffic. Hoi An is known for their tailors, and making clothes to order, so while we were there my mom and I had some clothes made for us. My mom got a skirt, and I got two dresses. We were going to get my sister something, but we didn’t have enough time. At the tailors, first you pick out what type of clothes you want: jackets, shirts, pants, skirts, dresses, and then you tell them what fabric you want. At the tailor we went to, they had tons of different fabrics, ranging from silk to cotton, and everything in between. There are also more plain fabrics that are only one color, and fabrics that have more unusual designs. Once you have your style, fabric, and design; they would take your measurements and quickly get to work. It only took them about a day and a half to finish the dresses and skirt, which was good, because we only had 2 days!  I'm excited to have two new dresses, and the first ones ever made just for me.

A fitting at the tailor  (No, I'm not naked, just no peeking at my new dress!)

          While we were in Hoi An we went out in the town to eat one night, and as soon as we sat down these three guys walk in with crazy suits on. One of them had really puffy shoulders, and then a long tail on their jacket, and another had had of his suit checkered, and the other half strips, in bright colors. It was really funny to see, I guess not all people go to the tailors to get fancy things.

Not everyone makes good choices in Hoi An

The not-so-busy streets of Hoi An

Lots of new fruits to try at the market!

This sweet mommy-dog let this kitten nurse with her!

And sit with her when the kitten was full

Dinner at Andrew's Home in Vietnam

Andrew's host-Mom's amazing dinner

My brother Andrew has been living in Vietnam for roughly four months now. He attends high school at School Year Abroad where he goes to classes with other American students and teachers, while living with a Vietnamese family where he is learning about their culture and how to speak Vietnamese. He lives with a host dad, mom, and sister. The first real night I was in Hanoi, my family and I got to spend the evening at their house. Andrew’s host Mom made dinner for us, and let me tell you, she is an amazing cook! We had a whole assortment of things, ranging from spring rolls to bamboo shoots, and it was all delicious. My brother is so lucky to be living with her, and being able to have such amazing food everyday. His host family is also very nice and generous. They were very good hosts and always made sure we had enough to eat, and that we were happy.

Andrew's three dads - godfather, host and real!

A private dinner concert

  

Andrew’s host father also had a live band to come and perform traditional Vietnamese songs for us. My mom, dad, sister, brother, and I weren’t the only ones that came to dinner. My godfather, Aaron, and his girlfriend were also invited to come (luckily, they just happened to be visiting Hanoi from their home in Qatar at the same time we were). We haven’t all been together in almost ten years, so we were all very happy to see each other again. Andrew’s head of school came to dinner with us too, so it was one big party! I was having so much fun, but a thing you should know is that there is a big time difference from Santa Barbara, California - where I live - and Hanoi, Vietnam. I believe that Hanoi is fifteen hours ahead, so when we were eating dinner around 8pm in Hanoi it was 5am in Santa Barbara, so my sister and I were very tired. Once we got back to our hotel in the city, I was fast asleep before my head hit the pillow, and my stomach was so full I thought that if I had one more thing to eat it would burst! All in all, an amazing night.

Hanoi, Vietnam

busy Hanoi traffic

Hanoi Traffic

Hello to all of you who are reading my first travel blog in three years!!  Some of you know that I am in Vietnam right now - visiting my brother Andrew who lives here. Those of you who didn't..... well, you do now :)

I made this video based on my first impression of Hanoi, Vietnam. 

I arrived in Vietnam about two days ago, and let me tell you, it has been chaotic!!!! I'll get back to that later though. My first stop in Vietnam has been Hanoi, where my brother has been living with a Vietnamese family for the past four months. Hanoi is a very big city, filled with a lot of people. These people always seem to have something to do, and somewhere to be. For me, the vibe of Hanoi seems to be a rush, and very busy. The streets here are almost always crowded with motor bikes. The only time the streets get quiet here, is around five o'clock in the morning! To get a feel for Hanoi, you have to know what the streets look like. Watching the procession, standing on the sidewalk (where motor bikes like to ride as well!), the bikes look like a constant stream of salmon heading up river to spawn; they pour down the road, with lots of cars mixed in to give the current a general direction. There is also the occasional terrifying bus that acts like a grizzly bear, out there to pick off the wayward salmon. 

All of the traffic constantly honks, even when there is no apparent reason, so the city is never quiet. When you need to get across a street in the city, there are no cross walks to guide you - instead, you just look for a small clearing, and out you go! It feels like anyone who crosses the street is going to get hit by a thousand motor bikes, but each time the end seems near, everyone somehow avoids each other. I haven't been brave enough to cross a major street by myself yet (the street in the above video was tiny, AND it was 6am before any traffic was out in force!!), but I know that eventually I will be ready... maybe :)

December 2011

Dec. 15, 2011

These are some of the videos I made (my dad filmed them and I edited and produced them) to send to my 6th grade classmates during my trip to Antarctica and South Africa in Winter 2009:

Everything below this entry is from my "Ship's Log" onboard the National Geographic Explorer in Winter 2009, enjoy:

Mar 8

Today is March 8, 2009. We are arriving in Cape Town, South Africa and will be leaving the boat today. I am excited and a little bit sad. I want to leave, but I don’t. I have been living on the boat for the past 25 days and it’s starting to feel like a second home, but I am excided to get off and start our African adventure.

Unfortunately, as we were on our early morning approach to Cape Town, the wind started to blow at near hurricane force and our boat couldn’t go up to the harbor because the harbor pilot couldn’t get out to us (the harbor pilot is in charge of parking the boat), and then the harbor closed for the day. We would have to spend another day on the boat and miss one of our days in Africa. But then, later in the afternoon, a small boat with the South African Immigration and Customs agents was able to get out to our boat and my quick thinking dad made arrangements for us to go ashore on the customs boat when they were done. We were going to leave the boat after all. I said good-bye to all of my friends and then left on the boat.

Tony (our friend and tour guide) drove us out to our hotel. Tony was our guide the last time we were in Cape Town. He was so good that my dad decided to ask him if he was available for us again, and he was! This time Tony was going to take us down the Garden Route.

 Since we left later than we planned we got into the hotel at around 11:00pm. I was really tired because we were driving the whole entire way starting at 3:00pm when we first got ashore.

The hotel we stayed at was called the Eight Bells. It was a nice little hotel. It was really called a mountain inn, though. The hotel had a little kitten and she was very cute. She was very playful too.

Once we got to the hotel I went straight to sleep. I had a really tiring day. Just like the first day of my trip. The days ahead of me are just going to get busier and busier.

Bye for Now,

Emily

Mar 5-7

This is blog days March 5-7, 2009. Somehow these days got lost on my computer, so I’ll have to re-write them and post them later. 

Mar 4

Today is March 4, 2009. Today we start our final leg of the boat trip. We have four days in open water, and then we arrive in South Africa. We have been on this boat for about three weeks. It will be strange leaving the boat. All the days seem to blend in with each other.

Today I slept in to around nine thirty, since I had stayed up late playing cards and the time keeps changing an hour ahead. I didn’t do anything until lunch though. I was just doing homework the whole time.

After lunch I played some cards. I was played skip-bo for about an hour or so. Then Sarah and I went back to her cabin to draw. I went back to my cabin shortly after that to do some homework. My dad spent most of the afternoon reading.

My dad and I went upstairs to play some cards with Sarah and her friend Karen. We played until dinner, which was only about 5 to 10 minutes away, so we only played a speed round of cards.

After dinner my dad and I played some cards. We played until the movie about polar explorers and Antarctica started. It showed the North and South Pole. It went to about 10:00, and then I went to sleep.

Bye for Now, 

EMILY

Mar 3

                

                  Today is March 3, 2009. We are going to try to land on Nightingale and Inaccessible Island which, like Tristan da Cuhna, are volcanic islands in the middle of the Southern Atlantic Ocean. We are probably only going to do a zodiac cruise around Inaccessible (because it is inaccessible!). I will just have to wait and see.

                  So, I woke up at 7:00 for breakfast and then headed to Nightingale Island. There was a big hike up to the top of a volcanic hill. Along the pathway there were baby albatross sitting in their nests. Some of the nests are right in the way of the path, so I had to walk around them while they clicked their beaks at me in displeasure. When going around the nests, I had to push though the tall tussock grass – in most places on our trip the tussock grass has been trampled by all the Antarctic Fur and Elephant seals, so it was good to see the healthy grass growing here (it grows way taller than my Dad’s head).

                  Before I reached the top of the hill. The doctor, named Jack, stopped us because he thought that we would take a long time coming back down. We had to turn around right before we reached the top of the volcano – we still had a great view, though.

                  After the hike my dad went back to the boat, and I went to work driving one of the zodiacs, shuttling people from the landing site back to the boat.  I also did a training course where I practiced driving into tight coves and backing up and turning around, driving around and through thick seaweed, and how to time driving through big swells and breaking waves – it was a lot of fun!  I had had a busy morning and was ready for a rest, so I had a quick lunch and then stayed in my cabin until the boat reached Inaccessible Island. The weather, and more important the wave heights, were perfect for a landing there.

                  Our trip leader decided to land at Inaccessible. I guess the island is accessible after all. The people call the island Inaccessible because on all sides of the island there are sheer cliffs. There is only one tiny beach there, and the weather and waves are almost always too bad to land there. While on the island, we saw lots of Rockhopper penguins, so now we’ve seen 7 different species of penguins on this expedition – Magellanic in Argentina; Adelie, Chinstrap and Gentoo on the Antarctic Peninsula; King and Macaroni in South Georgia; and now Rockhoppers in the Tristan da Cahuna Island group. Also, when we get to South Africa, we may see some African penguins, bringing our total to 8.

                  After the landing we went on a zodiac drive. Pete drove this time. We went to go see a waterfall on another spot on the island. It was cool to see the waterfall because it fell for hundreds of feet down the sheer cliff and right onto the rocky beach.

                  Once we got back on board we had tea. It was special tea though, because it was served on the Aft deck. It was nice and sunny out that day. There was a gentle breeze. I was out there for a while.

Next, I went up to the library to play some cards with some friends. We played all the way until dinner. I had dinner with them since my dad wasn’t hungry for a big meal, and then I played more cards until it was 11:00. I went to bed at 11:30. I read for a while once I got back in my cabin. I had a great day.

Bye for now, 

     Emily      

Mar 2

Today is March 2, 2009. We are landing in Tristan da Cunha today. It is known as being the most isolated community in the whole world – the nearest place with other people is the island of St. Helena, which is over 1300 miles away. There are only 300 people living on Tristan da Cunha in a small settlement named Edinburgh, which is by the ocean on the only flat area of a big volcanic island. The islanders are partly the descendants of a British garrison that was established there in the Napoleonic era, and partly the descendants of sailors who have been shipwrecked and marooned there since. In 1969 the volcano erupted on the island. Everyone was evacuated to England, but two years later all but four or five of them chose to return to their island. At the time they were evacuated, almost all of them had never left the island before. They had to leave all their animals behind when they left. Even their dogs. It was sad, but fortunately the dogs survived by eating the sheep on the island. They were all happy to see the dogs alive after two years alone.

We landed on the island in the morning. We hiked up to the top of the volcano where it erupted. It was cool to see all the lava rocks. We then walked to one pub in the town - I got a soda. While I was at the pub, I went over to a dog and petted him. He was very friendly. He acted like my dog Lucy does. It was really cute. After a while my dad and I went around town looking at different things. It was very interesting to see. We came across the post office, so I sent a couple of post cards.

In the afternoon, there was a bus to take us out to the potato fields – which is the big highlight of the town! As soon as my dad and I got there, we wanted to go back – so we decided to walk. It was about a 3-miles, so it wasn’t that bad, and we passed by some people walking to the fields. We got back to the pub and had a few more drinks.

Back at the ship, my dad and I rested in our cabin for a while, then went to the lounge to play some cards, then had dinner. After dinner, my dad said I could read for a while before bedtime, but I didn’t have a book so I went up to the library to get one. On my way back down I say Sarah playing cards with her dad. They started talking to me and I sat down and they sort of went on forever. Then they asked me if I wanted to play cards with them. I said I would ask my dad. He said yes and we wound up playing until after 11:00!

Bye for now,

Emily

Mar 1

Today is March 1, 2009. It is another sea day today, but tomorrow we’ll arrive at Tristan de Cunha. I didn’t sleep in that late today. I was awake by eight and started doing some homework. I was doing homework all the way till lunchtime. I tried to take a nap in the middle of doing my work, but my dad got mad at me. He said, “Emily you have to keep working.”

Right after lunch I interviewed the geologist about ice for one of my science projects. His name is Jason. He knows everything about geology and stuff like that. I think he should become a college teacher who teaches about geology, since he knows so much.

I asked him a little bit about how the ice got onto Antarctica. He said, “When snow falls in Antarctica it never melts. It keeps on building up and building up. In some places, the ice is 13,000 feet thick – more than 2½ miles of ice on top of the land!!! They have drilling sites on top of this ice cap where they can drill down into the ice. They do this because air gets trapped inside the ice each year as the ice accumulates over time. Using this method, scientists like Jason have collected air that is up to 500,000 years old. Soon, they hope to dig deep enough into the ice to reach air that was trapped up to one million years ago!

After that I went up to the library to play some cards with my friend, Sarah. We played until teatime. Once Sarah heard it was teatime she zoomed off to go get in line. I brought some cookies for my dad, he was reading in our cabin.

My dad and I hung out in our cabin until dinner. We watched the introduction to Tristan da Cunha on our television – if you don’t want to go to the lecture room, you can still watch them from your room. I’m looking forward to getting my feet back on dry land tomorrow (at least for a few hours).

Bye for now,

Emily

Feb 28

Today is February 28, 2009. Today is another boat day. I slept in until late morning again because we keep on moving our clocks ahead one hour, so I am staying up later and sleeping in. South Africa’s time is 10-hours ahead of Santa Barbara’s (and 5-hours ahead of the part of Antarctica where we were a few days ago). I did a little math before lunch.

After lunch we had another photo Critique, this one about our South Georgia pictures. They liked the photos that my dad and I took. I liked his too. After that we had tea. Then my dad and I went up in the lounge and we saw some pictures this man took. He put them on a certain program to make his photos look really cool and they did. His photos weren’t the best ones, but with the program they looked cool.

Once his slide show was over there was another thing to do in the lounge right after that. A man was going to make a special announcement. I think he was a comedian or something like that. He was making everyone laugh. It was funny to see the whole crowd laughing. He was making fun of this trip. He had a really heavy Scottish accent and was really funny.

Then I went back to my cabin to do some schoolwork, and then it was dinnertime. We were having a special Philippines dinner. The staff wore their traditional dresses and things as they would in the Philippines (all the kitchen staff and much of the crew on our ship are from the Philippines). The dinner was good because they cooked some of their traditional food. It was really good.

After dinner I watched a show about a National Geographic photographer who worked for the director of photography guy on our ship. He lives a crazy life full of adventure, but it seems like his family really suffers and misses him because he is gone from home so much. Then my dad and I started to watch the movie: The Bourne Identity, but I didn’t get to see all of it because I fell asleep – too bad because it was the only regular movie of the whole trip.

Bye for now,

Emily

Feb 27

Today is February 27, 2009. It is another boat day. I did homework, blog work, and wrote in my journal during the morning.

After lunch I went to go see Happy Feet. Everyone said that they liked that movie better than March of the Penguins. I think I agree with them. After the movie it was tea time, but I went up to the bridge instead because there were HUGE swells that were rocking our boat all over the place. The waves were mostly about 20 feet high and some were as high as 30 feet! The first officer was in charge on the bridge and he told me that these were the largest waves that our ship had ever been in (it is only about a year old). It was fun to be in huge seas. Every now and then all the spray from the sea would hit the bridge window. It was really fun to experience the power of the seas.

I was up there until it was time to go to Jason’s talk. He is a scientist onboard the ship and lectured about the Southern Atlantic Ocean. He said that the ocean currents and the wind currents move counter clock wise immediately around Antarctica. And so lets say a glacier from the Ross Ice Shelf broke off it would typically move all the way around Antarctica before melting and going up North, but the winds coming from the North hit the winds around Antarctica. So there are little circles of wind patterns going clockwise – and the predominant winds in the Southern Ocean move clock wise... This probably doesn’t make sense… oh well; it was still really interesting to hear from an expert.

         After the lecture, we watched a video that the under sea specialist made for us. One of the spots where he dived I was right above on the surface. Then it was time for dinner. I had a good day.

 

Bye for now,

 

Emily

Antarctic Fur Seal Puppies

Emily Sanborn 3:57pm Feb 28th Antarctic Fur Seal Puppies Here's a link to a video about cute fur seal pups

Feb 26

Today is February 26, 2009. Today is a full day at sea. These days can be a little boring for me, but I also get time to catch up on schoolwork. We also have a lot of presentations, which are mostly very interesting.

Today I didn’t really do anything until lunch. That was when I got up and was ready to start the day (sea days are also great for catching up on sleep!). After lunch I went to go see the movie: March of the Penguins. It was a good film.

I learned from the movie that there are fewer male emperor penguins than females. The males have to spend the cold winter huddled together far from the sea for about 2 months while they incubate the eggs from their partners. They go without food for about 4 months. As soon as the females come back to the see the newly hatched penguins have a reunion then the males hurry off to the sea. This is probably why there are fewer males then females because the males are so hungry some of them don’t survive the walk back out to the sea.

For the next couple of months while the chick is still growing the parents will commute from feeding the chick to going out to fish in the sea. The walk to the waters edge becomes a smaller and smaller distance each time because it is summer and the pack ice is melting.

After the film it was tea time. I took a few cookies and went back up to my room to work on some math and science schoolwork. About 2 hours later the video expert on the boat gave a preview of the film of the trip we are making to the Antarctic. I only saw myself once, but my dad was in it three times.

He also showed us some of the equipment he is using for the movie. There is a special microphone that is really fluffy and the penguins think that is food, and he says that they are always pecking at it. Also he has this pad for the video camera that he uses. He puts it down on a surface and puts the camera on top of it and it holds the camera still. He went through two cameras on this trip so far! One died on him while were in South Georgia, so one of his friends lent him there camera… or something like that. He said that maybe the cold affected it somehow. Also the batteries of the camera get used up in a colder place much faster than a warmer place. He always carries extra batteries for his camera just in case. He knows everything about videos.

After the presentation I went down stairs to have some dinner. Then I did a little more schoolwork and then I went to sleep. That was it for today.

Bye for now,

Emily

Feb 25

Today is February 25, 2009. This is my last day in South Georgia. Then the boat will be out at sea for four days. They will be playing a lot of movies during that day. Even “Happy Feet.” They also are going to play “March of the Penguins.” I’m also planning to interview a couple of the scientists on board for my science projects. So the sea days won’t be that bad.

I slept through breakfast today. I went straight to Grytviken. That is where Shackleton’s grave is. We toasted to Shackleton and then went to the museum that was down towards the old whaling station. Next to the museum there is a gift shop. I got a poster of one of Shackleton’s crew holding up puppies. I also got a jacket and a hat. The hat has little penguins on it. I also mailed two postcards. It was funny because at the front of the museum there was a little post box to put your mail into.

After I sent all my letters I went back to the boat. We had lunch after all the other people got on board. After lunch my dad and I went up to the bridge to see what was happening. Only the captain was up there. The winds were really strong. They were about 110 knots (and 60 knots is hurricane force). The captain doubted that we were going to be able to land today.

But lucky enough, once we reached the protected shore, the wind wasn’t blowing too hard to launch the zodiacs so we got to go to shore after all. The landing point was called Stromness, which used to be a whaling station. That was where Shackleton did his last leg of his trip of crossing South Georgia, arriving at the safety of Stromness. We got to walk up a few miles to where Shackleton and his men climbed down a frozen waterfall. It was cool to see.

After the landing we went back to the boat, ate and then went to see a recap of South Georgia. After that I went to bed. I had a good day.

Bye for now,

Emily