“Hey, aren’t you that teacher with the bear?” Sometimes, life in a fourth classroom can be exceedingly hectic. As a “seasoned” teacher, I have found ways to work with whatever a gaggle of 10 year olds may throw at me. Most of the time, I can direct the chaos like a Tai Chi master. That […]
Birder in Training.
I have never been much of a birder. It’s primarily because I haven’t had the patience to sit and wait for little brown hard-to-identify sparrow-looking birds to come sit close enough to me so I can identify them. But when you come upon a breeding colony of over a hundred thousand birds standing, flying, swimming, […]
Bear(s)
Add a notch to the bear count. Actually, add two. We’ve been tootling around Svalbard for the last three days looking for wildlife, taking zodiac cruises, and hiking along the rocky shorelines. Today, the captain steered us into Nordaustlandet, the second largest island in the archipeligo. It prime polar bear habitat because of the fast […]
The Bridge
There is an open bridge policy aboard the Explorer. Passengers can wander in and out any time of the day or night. I have spent a fair amount of time there so far this trip. Typically, I have to open the door with my elbow because I have coffee, binoculars, and camera in hand. I […]
6-26-2015 Life Finds a Way
To be honest, my first impression of Spitzbergen, the big island in the Svalbard archipeligo was pretty harsh. I tried to imagine living my life in Longyearbyen. It may have been an interesting place to visit, but live there…no way. My impression might have something to do with the fact that ever since I moved […]
6/25/2015 On to Svalbard
The flight to Svalbard took about 3 hours. It is an archipeligo that is about 1200 miles north of Oslo, Norway. At 76 degrees north, we are less than 700 miles from the north pole! Longyearbyen is the main settlement of about 2,600 people on the big island of Spitzbergen. Vladimir was our guide […]