el fin fo' sho'

Okay so I lied... the pictures are here: http://www.melindawebster.com/antarctica

You can even look at the main part & explore. Hopefully the site will progress & bloom into beautiful linkage of pretty pictures from every trip I've taken. But cut me some slack, I just learned how to change the font color yesterday. Oh yea, & I'm back in Oklahoma.

the end!

You all can finally celebrate! This will be the last update of the trip; theyre shutting off our internet account tomorrow approx. 10 am Ushuia time (I spelled that wrong). In other words, dont write me anymore! However, if you have nothing else better to do, you can keep replying with no updates at melinda@upperspace.com

In all honesty, there hasnt been a whole lot of excitement except watching people make simple traveling plans much more complicated than they should be. I am one of those people. Anyway, we saw over 20 humpback whales last night during dinner so most everyone left their food cold & spent an hour or two outside freezing for pics. I was one of those people too. Im not going to spend much time writing a sappy wrap-up update until I get home so youll just have to settle with this: Im pretty bummed to even think of coming home BUT...

I know Ill be back. So until then, goodbye! & the emails were greatly appreciated.

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ohmahgah another update

AHH! Last landing day is TODAY. Im not happy about this. But its supposed to be one of the best landings plus we have the best sunshine out of the entire trip so way to go out with a bang, right? Tonight & tomorrow is Drake Passage fun. The expeditions leaders usually sedate us with seminars & films on sea days. Weve been having slideshows occasionally (I mentioned this before maybe?) of our best pics, we have one more left so todays the final day... *sniffle* We toured the Ukraine Station yesterday; most guests seemed to enjoy their home-made vodka more than their tour, naturally. I went touristy & bought a cool shirt having no idea what it says. Today we kayacked again & were models for the photographer (I guess we had good synchronation except mom cant steer worth a crap). Im still not sure what day were leaving here but its coming up. People wont stop talking about it, party poopers. Ill have the pics all lined up when I get home so expect some New! Flashy! Exciting! & Okay? photos. Okay, I should clear cards before our final adventure. bye

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Hey!

Merry Christmas! I still dont believe that its December but I guess theres nothing wrong with that. Yesterday we all took a little dip at deception island, it was actually waaaaay too hot for people to stay in but it was still a nice photo opportunity. Today we went kayacking around some glaciers/ice/penguins/crab-eating seals. Of course, we had to go ALL-THE-WAY to the boundaries just to see if we could get ourselves into trouble. We ended up getting pretty stuck in ice because the current/wind pushed us/ice together in a nice compact sheet. Luckily, I have legs & I used them to kick our way through. And I only got mom and my camera a little wet in the process.

Ive been sleeping & eating all day after that, I think Im still a little asleep. As for previous boat plans, we were cruising as far south as we could go but had to turn around a few minutes ago. The ice was thick, blah blah blah, BUT this trip has taken the boat the farthest south its ever traveled. I can get gps info on that tomorrow probably. Future boat plans: We have an extra day since we were just so darn fast at the beginning of the trip so I think there will be some fun landings on the way back. Tomorrow: no idea; everything depends on the ice now & how far we manage to go.

Tomorrow/nextday/ornextday will be a better update maybe; Im too darn sleepy to type. Were spending Christmas Eve in Mingo Bay, surrounded by ice. I hope each & every one of you have a very, very Merry Christmas

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vicarious update?

Due to special request, Ill describe in too much detail about life on the ship. Our cabin is full of creaks, which makes it a little hard to sleep at night because theres a super high-pitched creak in the door somewhere that makes me mad sometimes. The boat is always swaying a bit, not so much when were anchored but you know. During rough days, the waves are AMAZING. The ship smashes through them, creating gigantic barrels of foam down the sides. Its fun to watch silverwear slide everywhere on those days. We see birds a lot, usually flying really fast on purpose so I cant get any nice pictures of them. The sky is mostly gray but the weather changes constantly; oklahoma times 2. Clouds/sun race over the glaciers & hit you right smack in the face. Glaciers are usually white but there are a few blue ones off in the distance that everyone takes about 2490148 pictures which never turn out. Last night was my first sunset & it looked really neat. I stayed up til 4 & was disappointed that there wasnt a spectacular sunrise. Light down here is weird. Theres a ton of wind so my bare feet kind of hurt after 45 seconds. I might try to wear shoes outside the ship more often. I havent been to the sauna or to work out yet. I HAVE been eating though! The food is pretty awesome; im not cooking, nor am I cleaning. I think that makes the food taste better in a way? Theres a piano on the ship so ive been rocking out occasionally when nobodys looking. Theres a library with the best tea Ive ever had & cookies too. Theres a bar & I play in there sometimes. The crew are very very funny. Most of them are Swedish & love talking about their wives/kids/life back home. We have a "recap" every night where people talk about what we did that day/whats going on tomorrow/birds/underwater videos/shackleton/hoopla. Everybody knows everybodies name except I never can remember everyone elses name but everyone is very friendly. There are hand santitizer dispensers all over the ship. Sitting by the windows can be pretty chilly. The showers are bigger here than the Babelfish's. We never have to pump any toilets which is quite nice. My hours are all off so I sleep when Im sleepy & talk to different people at odd hours. There are free beverages/cookies/fruit all of the time. I think theres a xmas party coming up sometime but I dont know. They clean our rooms 2-3 times a day which is weird. I dont know if I can adjust back to college life after this. Actually, Ill probably starve when I get home. Can I stay?

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sea rambling

Its still December! Were moving along the Weddell Sea now, we just left Elephant Island. We took zodiacs around the site where Shackletons crew hung out for a while. Talk about insane, we didnt even land because it wasnt safe enough. Its hard to imagine people actually hunkered down there in small, upside-down boats. Were spending the rest of today & tomorrow at sea so Ill need some emails to keep me out of trouble. Here are some questions I have for everyone: Is anyone watering my bamboo plant? Whats the weather like there? What are the xmas plans? What about new years? Did you know that penguins slap eachother with their flippers when another penguin is macking on their woman? Its pretty funny to watch. What do you think of Glacier Bay? Whats your favorite color? What do you think of elephant seals? Anything exciting in the news?

This is probably a "you had to be there" story but oh well, use your imagination: A couple of days ago we were at another penguin colony. Its really interesting to watch all the drama those little guys cause. We were in a cluster of king penguins (fairly big) & there was this little foreigner, a chinstrap penguin (much smaller), hanging out with them. Well every now & then, the kings get fed up with each other hitting on their significant other & they start flapping their flippers at each other. They hit each other just below the neck so no harm done, its like little kids punching each other in the shoulder. Unfortunately for the little foreigner, he got caught in the midst of a slapping & and took one in the beak.

So this trip has been pretty crazy. Ive never been able to get so close to wildlife & not get hurt. BUT there was a close-call the other day (to me, anyway). We were hanging out with elephant seals. Their pups are very cute, like the cute you could probably squeeze to death. Anyway, theyd come up, nudge on you, nibble your pant legs, or even the leg itself. You know, just adorable/huggable little creatures. The males, on the other hand, are enormous. Look up how much they weigh & youll get the general idea. The males around us were juveniles but pretty freakin scary nonetheless. When its time to head back to the ship, we have to put on life jackets at our landing site & climb in the zodiacs. I was strolling along towards the landing, minding my own business & taking a few pitchers when I noticed a nice-sized male. Everyone kept walking past him & taking his pic so I proceeded to do the same. I took one picture, checking out the viewfinder when I hear this burp-like growl right by my face as the stupid monster was trying to plant his sharp-teethy-scary-open-enormous-REALLYugly- mouth on my little head. I RAN FAST. I didnt get hurt or anything, but I was a little shakey after that. Ive learned my lesson though. Practice sprinting, or let someone else go first.

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update #9874329

Were somewhere in the middle of the ocean right now; theres loads of monster waves everywhere so I took a shower a little bit ago for some fun (twas successful). We went to the Orkney Islands this morning & checked out the chinstrap penguins. It was super snowy & windy so I took a few pics, climbed up a fairly steep hill, & dived face-first off of it repeatedly. This actually passed the time rather fast & the photographers were having some fun taking pics of me being stupid.

Heres another story to pass the time. Im sure most of you have heard of Ernest Shackleton 100% incredible man. Hes my new role model for obvious reasons. If you dont have any idea who he is, Ill go ahead & be a jerk & force you to google him. Anyway his grave is located at the whaling station on South Georgia. His son, Lord Shackleton, was on his way to see his
fathers grave for the very first time. So the local guy decided to fix the grave up very nicely: freshly painted white fence, arranged stones, arranged flowers, etc. He finally finished his masterpiece & decided to meet up with a buddy at the local, very small bar. His buddy usually walks past the graveyard many times throughout the week; it just so happened that he passed by it on the way to the bar. The local man asked him, "So what do you think of the graveyard?" His buddy began laughing & said "Oh its just terrible!"

The local man kind-of-joking asked "Youre kidding, right?"

"Oh, Im not! Those elephant seals really messed the place up! They broke the bloomin' fence down!"

The local mans face turned pale. He immediately left the bar & went straight to the graveyard. There were elephant seals all over & half of the freshly painted fence was broken. Lord Shackleton was coming at 11:00 the next morning & he had very little time to fix it. The local man began putting a new fence back together. It was about 10:30 am when he finally finished. But something didnt look quite right... Half of the fence of pure white, while the other half was plain wood. [insert word!] He immediately ran back down to town to get some paint. He slaved away while looking at his watch anxiously, furiously slapping on gobs of white paint everywhere on the fence. Suddenly a voice behind him said, "Well, somebodys working hard this morning!"

The man said "You bet your [insert word] I am! Lord Shackletons coming here to see his fathers grave for the first time. It must be perfect & presentable! He cant see the mess that it is now! Everyone will come to see his fathers grave! I must finish as soon as possible or theyll lean back & get white paint all over their trousers!"

The man behind him said quietly, "Well I see what you mean..." He looked down at this pants, "I'm Lord Shackleton, by the way."

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