Seals!

10-27

Another routine day at shuttles. While driving I had seen some seals very close to the observation tube (the tube drilled through the ice so that you can climb down and see under the ice and into the water, like an aquarium). To go there b/c it is on the sea ice, you need a partner and a radio b/c of the potential for crevasses or of course holes (that the seals make to come up for breathing and to go down for fishing). I asked a bunch of friends, but everyone was going to dinner and then to a live bluegrass band playing at one of the bars. So I headed to my room and I said hi to the girl next door, Jean, who I had met last night at basketball. She asked if I wanted to go for a hike with her and I said yes, as long as we first went down to the Ob tube. And thus I met my newest friend. Jean is pretty cool. Since she graduated from college she has been travelling for 6 years and only working 14 months out of thost 6 years (here and in australia and thailand were the places she worked). She travelled on a pretty extreme budget in that she mainly did hitchhiking and staying with locals. She was telling me about some of the cool ways she went from place to place without taking planes and that was by just going to harbors and docks and throwing her name out and then getting on big yachts owned by rich people who were lonely and looking for someone to sail with them, so she'd get a free ride and food for helping out and hanging out on boat rides across the oceans and seas. Sounded pretty cool. Anyways she is super friendly and likes to do something outdoors everyday, so a cool new friend to have. Down at the Ob tube were 3 seals. It was awesome b/c we were able to get super close to them, so you could really get a good look. I think at one point we were about 8 feet away. So awesome!

After checking out the ob tube, we did the hut point loop and met a guy on the way named steve. It's his 16th season, and he is a heavy equipment operator. It seems to be a sweet job as he's gone everywhere, including the traverse to the pole. He lives about 20 miles outside of Bellingham, WA towards Mt. Baker. He seemed like a real cool guy and said I could do some skiing with him here if needed a partner.

Had spanish class tonight. The teacher wanted ideas of things to do to learn spanish. I thought up the idea of writing postcards to spanish speaking penpals in grade school and having them write us back. writing and reading practice. So if anyone knows people teaching abroad in a spanish speaking country, please let me know.

I had a fair amount of reading time today. I'm reading the Life of Pi. It's good so far. Bringing back lots of fond memories of India. A quote that I liked "I love Canada but I miss India. I miss the heat of India, the food, the house lizards on the wallls, the musicals on the silver screen, the cows wandering the streets, the crows cawing, even the talk of cricket matches."

I also found his quote on scientists amusing: "I never had a problem with my fellow scientists. Scientists are a friendly, atheistic, hard-working, beer-drinking lot whose minds are preoccupied with sex, chess, and baseball when they are not preoccupied with science."