How incredibly beautiful. The island looks like something from a different world. I would have loved to see it in real life, I do realize how amazing photography is now. It makes me rather grateful for modern day technology. I figure even with all of your reading, talking to scientists and watching movies you still have an extremely large amount of time where time seems to pass by slowly. Did you know my mom is a soil scientist herself? I'm sure she would understand all of the things that the soil expert on board has said about the various soil conditions of Antarctica but I am a total novice on the subject. I can't believe you saw a humpback wale today. In the time period of a single weak you probably have seen more exotic animals than the average American sees in a year. Although, maybe I am quite wrong about possible time fermentation because this is such a new experience. For instance, I visited Japan when I was in fifth grade and it went by in a flash. I love everything about their culture and I would love to spend more time there and learn Japanese but I don't think I will have the time for a significant period of my life. It seems as though my life is so completely focused on doing well in school as well as devoting time to clubs and sports that I have no time to even contemplate going somewhere else. For instance, yesterday my chemistry teacher offered the class an opportunity to go to Greenland and study chemical and biological science. This would be somewhat of a dream for me to be in that summer program but my summer is already packed. I am attempting to take various extra precalculous material and chemistry material to prepare me for next year and to have my mind not go flat. Sometimes I feel that I am wasting my youth, that I should be out having fun and getting in some trouble and running wild and free or whatever. It disheartens me that I cannot do some of the things that my friends are doing. Oh well, maybe I'll figure it out. I realized that as I am writing this you are probably docking right now, on the other side of the world. That's a pretty cool image. Time is pretty fickle when you think about it in the context of the ever rotational world. I do apologize for rambling. I noticed that a bunch of the people on board the ship seem to be incredibly young. For instance that one undergraduate on the boat. Maybe I read that wrong but that seems like an incredible adventure for someone just over twenty two or so. Anyway, I thank you for reading my thoughts. Hope you are well!
Luke Plowden