brief version of my first 2 weeks

Ok so here goes…

I’ll start off with my job. I work for Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society. It’s a non-profit organization based on saving the earth’s oceans. OFS is divided into two parts. The first part is the expedition and film team. They go all over the world filming PBS specials (which some of you may have seen). The one that aired not long ago was about the Amazon. Jean Michel filmed there with his father Jacques (a household name) 25 years ago and so he decided to go back to see if anything had changed. I have not seen this film, but it sounds cool. I met the expedition team when I was doing my training in Santa Barbara and they are all really amazing people. Right now they are working on a film about Orca whales so I’m excited to see it when it comes out.
The second part of OFS is called Ambassadors of the Environment (AOTE). That’s what I am doing. AOTE is an educational program set up in some exotic locations around the world. Its goal is to get kids out into nature learning things hands on. The purpose is to get kids involved and to get them to understand how things work and what humans have done wrong in terms of affecting the earth and oceans, and what we can do to make a difference in setting it right again. As Jacques said, “We protect only what we love, and we love only what we know”. It’s a really cool program and I am really glad to be a part of it.
So what I do exactly is teach a kids program onboard a cruise ship in Alaska. I am on the Regent Seven Seas Mariner, which qualifies itself as a 6 star ship. I live in a passenger cabin with my coworker and old high school friend Laura Ostrov. We get our room cleaned every day and we have a balcony that looks out over the ocean so we can spot animals outside. It’s a pretty lush life. For fun on the ship, we can attend the shows and hang out in the lounges listening to music and such and we can go to the crew bar, which is always an experience. As a naturalist onboard, we get a lot of perks, like free shore excursions and stuff. So that means when we get to port, we go on an adventure. Already I have been fishing, hiking, on a train up a mountain pass, and on a sea otter and wildlife quest (twice). I also got to go out on one of the lifeboats when we went to Hubbard Glacier and get a piece of glacial ice from the water. It was amazing! We got up close to the glacier and some of it was calving. What an experience that was! Then today we went on the sea otter tour again, this time with our first AOTE participants. Unfortunately we only have one kid this week, so he is getting A LOT of attention.
The rest of the week has been pretty laid back, since we only have one kid and he doesn’t show up to all of our activities, we are free to roam around the ports. In Juneau, I went on a helicopter with some of my friends from the Mariner crew. We flew up to the glacier and walked around on it, looking into crevasses and drinking glacial water from one of the ice rivers. Then we flew back and hung out in town. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to see any of my friends from last summer yet, but maybe next week. In Skagway we just went for a hike to a waterfall. It was a nice hike, but I almost missed the ship cause it took so long!
Now we are leaving Ketchikan and today was great! Some of the members of the band on board took Laura and I to a Chinese place in town. We ate to our hearts content and then decided to attend the lumberjack show. I will post pictures of this even cause it is not to be missed! It was hilarious! Men in black and red plaid shirts and suspenders competed in a bunch of events like log rolling, climbing, axeing, and chain-sawing. Then when your team won, they gave out a piece of the wood that they cut. Well, at the end there was a guy who did a chain saw carving of a bunny but he “messed up” and cut off the top and voila! It turned into a little tiny chair! So cute. So I asked him if I could have it. Now out on my porch is my mini wooden carved chair. I think I’m gonna have a hard time trying to get that one home!