A big thank you to the Research Council of Norway for having the foresight to include young researchers in the Oslo conference in such a meaningful way. A great opportunity for all of us! This month I am taking the opportunity to share with you one of my favorite moments of the conference.
Sunday night, 6 June, Hugues Lantuit, myself and several members of the conference steering committee were invited to join the 100th Anniversary celebration of the launch of the Fram Expedition that headed to the South Pole (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Roald_Amundsen). The event was at Roald Amundsen's House in the Oslo Fjord with all the decedents of the explorers on that historic expedition. I was fortunate enough to meet Liv Arnesen there - the first woman to ski solo and unsupported to the South Pole (in 1994: http://livarnesen.com/). Liv and I discussed many of her adventures and she told me about her upcoming expedition in 2011 with Ann Bancroft and women from every continent who will again ski to the South Pole to raise awareness of our precious water resources. This will be a great thing for those of you interested in outreach to get involved with - more details coming soon :)
After a few hours at the party, this amazing old pirate ship came sailing past Amundsen's house and stopped. Hugues and I and the conference organizing gang boarded a few zodiacs and joined the ship - which was full of all the APECS and PolarTEACHERS workshop participants. Liv came with us too as she was in search of Johnny Depp :-) Thanks to all of you on that ship for making that night such a fun and memorable experience. Ahoy!
