My Last Hurrah

This is my last planned post for this blog, detailing my very last adventure. I have now been back in Corvallis about a week, and I felt I should write about my trip to the International Antarctic Center while I can still remember it.

I took the bus into town, and then changed to the bus that went out towards the airport. The Antarctic Center is just beyond the airport, but the driver didn't realize that I was going there so he tried to get me to get off at the airport. Once I got to the center, I picked up my ticket and was told that the penguin feeding was happening right then. I rushed over there, as the penguins were pretty much the reason why I wanted to come to the International Antarctic Center. They were Little Blue Penguins, which is a native New Zealand species, not Antarctic penguins, so why they were at the Antarctic center is anyone's guess, but I was glad I was able to see them before I left New Zealand. Most of them had been injured in a way that they couldn't survive ( damaged wing, partially or entirely blind, that kind of thing). they were quite cute, however.

After I was done with the penguins I wandered back out through the other exhibits. when I got to a room where there was actual snow, a lady came out and asked if I was waiting for a storm. I asked her what she was talking about, and she told me it was an Antarctic storm simulator. I was leery of how cold it was going to be (she said it got down to -18 Celsius with windchill), but they gave us coats (which I put over my sweatshirt). It got very dark, and a little windy, but it didn't seem all that much colder during the storm than before it. It was alright, I guess.

I wandered my way through various other exhibits, learning lots of cool stuff about Antarctica. I was especially intrigued by a list of all the signatories of the Antarctic Treaty, which allowed them to send scientists to Antarctica for research. North Korea is a signatory, which I think was the big surprise. I was also surprised to learn that Canada has no Antarctic base of their own.

The last thing I did was go on a Hagglund ride. These were these huge all terrain vehicles that looked rather like tanks that they took us out for a ride on a specially designed course. This was made up of lots of very steep hills that we climbed, a crevasse we breached, and a 4 meter deep lake we swam through. It was a little like going on a rollercoaster ride. They're impressive vehicles.

So I think I shan't write any more on this blog. Exams were unremarkable, as was the plane ride back to the States. The night before I left my flatmate invited me to a party (part birthday party for himself, part farewell party for me) where we played Trivial Pursuit and I was repeatedly schooled by questions about rugby, but that was about it for interesting things that happened to me when I was in New Zealand. I plan to transfer all of my reviews of books and stuff to a book blog I'll be starting up soon, so keep your eyes peeled for that.