Marcy Kerbein's Antarctic Log

On November 29,1995 five students (including me) from Mr. Norwitt's Field Biology class went to a sound studio in Sebastopol. We were told beforehand to prepare some questions about Antarctica to ask one of the expedition leaders, Jonathan Chester. I was particularly interested in his views on the Global Warming crisis and how and how it might relate to Antarctica. Other people asked him about krill, polar bears, and other animal and plant life. We also asked him about how his sleep and eating habits would change, and what the appropriate clothing would be to wear in Antarctica.

After the question-asking, we all moved to a planning room to discuss the trip and survey the map of Antarctica. Jonathan showed us the route that the crew was to be following and we talked about the different experiments they could do to help us students with our projects. I decided that it would be to hard to chart the effects of Global Warming in Antarctica in such a short time. Instead, someone suggested searching the Internet for information. So that's what I am going to do.

Overall, it was a very exiting day-none of us had ever been in a sound studio before and we learned a lot about the Internet and the Antarctica expedition!

Today we attempted to chat with the passengers on the Livonia. Once again, we were not able to connect with them. Instead, we ended up viewing some pictures that were taken by some of the travelers in Antarctica. Some of the pictures were of the Livonia, others were of the crew members.

At the time we hooked up to the Internet, the ship was passing through Drake's passage. They were experiencing some turbulence, which was hard on the crew members, who were experiencing sea-sickness.

I had hoped to be able to chat with the crew members. Maybe next time!

At the moment, I am reading the journal entries (or logs, if you will) of the various crew members. It was interesting reading about the Ushuaia Airport and their run-ins with Argentine officers. And it was funny to hear about the Hotel Albatross with the sign posting, "We beg do not leave valuable items in your room" when they had thousands of dollars of computer equipment there.

I enjoyed hearing about the beauty of Aitcho Island, with its many different kinds of animals. I didn't know that there were so many penguins in Antarctica...100 million populate the rim.

Overall it's been exciting to learn about all of the beauty of Antarctica.