Sun's up on Sunday...
After the relaxation time we spent yesterday, today was a day for work. We headed off to school after lunch to use the internet to get some materials for the talks for the whole school and the Junior class. It was a bit frustrating because of the slow internet connection but we were able to get the information we needed and also catch up on e-mail and other tasks.
While Jeff, Dejian and I were working away on our computers, Tobias decided to go for a walk to enjoy the day. He walked up one of the valleys to get as close as he could to the glacier. We were so wrapped up in what we were doing we didn't notice that he was not back when he said he was going to be. It turned out that Tobias had gone over to the gymnasium and was invited into the community feast that was taking place. There, he had the opportunity to taste raw frozen caribou meat (with sauce for dipping). He said it was difficult for a non-meat eater to explain what it tasted like but the best description that he came up with was that it tasted like frozen carpaccio. There was also boiled seal and "aged meat". Pauline and Melissa (both on staff at the hotel) were quite interested to hear if Tobias had tried the aged meat. Then we found out that it is basically rotting walrus meat that makes the person who eats it a little bit "high". I was glad to hear that he had not tried this delicacy as I don't think that Kim and I included this as a possible risk on our field trip permission forms.
We finished up the general talk on ACE and the Arctic Validation campaign that will be given to the whole school tomorrow morning. Also, we got part way through the talk for the Junior class that goes with the spectroscope activity. Because everyone is working so hard, we are a bit worried about getting sick. Jeff and I are following a strict regimen of multivitamins every day and Dejian is taking Chinese herbal medicine. Tobias volunteered to be a guinea pig and take both to see if you can boost your immune system with both Eastern and Western medicine. It is too bad no one had their camera out to capture his expression after the first dose of the Chinese medicine. Dejian had promised that it is 50% honey. However, the other 50% appears to taste pretty awful. This was fairly obvious when Tobias' face crumpled up even as he tried to convince us that it tasted "mmmm really good". We'll have to see who gets sick first to determine which one is the best regimen.
Also, we found a cribbage board at the hotel so Jeff taught Tobias and Dejian to play cribbage. I had played this before so all I needed was a refresher course. This also meant that Jeff couldn't make up rules that were too outrageous. We'll see if everyone's skills improve over the course of the trip.
Best regards,
Kaley.