Once more unto the breach, dear friends...

When does “once-in-a-lifetime” become… routine?

Two years ago in the summer of 2009, I was given a great opportunity to go along with an organization called Students On Ice, taking 60 students to remote Canadian Arctic locations aboard a refurbished Russian icebreaker to learn about the effects of climate change on that region.

It sounds so clinical to sum it up like that, yet its effects on me (and the students who went) were far from that. It truly was a life-changing experience and opened my mind to a new-found passion for the environment and environmental education.

It was… once-in-a-lifetime.

Then, in 2010, I was given a second chance to participate. Although very much different from ’09, Arctic ’10 was no less of an experience. Not many people could consider themselves similarly lucky. It furthered my passion for the environment, and sent me on a life path that has made me happier than I have been in a long time. Surely, for those reasons, I could still call it “once-in-a-lifetime”.

And now, here I am. About to embark on my THIRD expedition with the amazing staff of Students On Ice, merely 36 hours away from meeting a whole new set of 70 young people who I’d have the pleasure of getting to know over the course of 18 days. Like last year, I go into this journey with no expectations, no preconceptions of how things will go.

But how will this expedition… feel? Will I fall into familiar habits of previous years, overlook things because I’ve seen them before, or not be surprised by anything because it has become… routine? How long can “once-in-a-lifetime” last?

Well, one thing’s for sure, the itinerary will be different. Some of you may recall the ship we travelled on for the past two years, the Lyubov Orlova. Well, sadly, sometime after Arctic 2010, she was impounded for some financial reasons and her crew sent home. As far as I know, she sits empty in St. John’s harbour.

So, SOI had to find a new vessel for this year, and they found her in the Orlova’s sister ship, the Clipper Adventurer. With somewhat newer refurbishing, the Adventurer also has a different itinerary – departing from Iceland, travelling along the southern tip of Greenland and over to Labrador and the northern Quebec coast.

And of course, other than travelling outside Canada, the other difference will be the students. In both ’09 and ’10 we had a few students from the U.S. and Monaco joining us Canadians. But this year, we’ve got people joining us from 13 countries, including South Korea, Viet Nam, New Zealand and Russia. All told, over 12 languages will be spoken by our participants. And we have a burgeoning staff – over 53 scientists, educators, chaperones and explorers.

Over the next two weeks, I hope to introduce you to some of them, as well as the sights we will see. And no doubt, you’ll get a bit of insight into what I’m thinking – these expeditions tend to make me even more verbose than usual. I even get into icky things, like emotions and crap like that.

So it shouldn’t be boring. But will it be another “once-in-a-lifetime” experience? Time will tell. No expectations, right?

The adventure… continues.