Churchill - Day One

Started the day by taking a walking tour of downtown Winnipeg. Very quiet on Sunday morning except for the Manitoba Marathon taking place around the municipal buildings. There are some interesting districts but again not opened. Did stop for breakfast at a famous pancake house but line was too long and I succombed to a very gooey cinnamon bun.

Off to the airport where some other teachers had already checked in. Everyone seems very pleasant and there are 5 from the L.A. area. Most teach middle school science.

Made it onto flight and arrived safely. whew!

Met by staff members and driven back to Churchill Northern Studies Center.
We are the first to use the new building and its really comfortable.
The weather is fairly mild but windy and there is no snow on the ground. The land is very flat, pools of water all around and sparsely populated whte spruce trees.

Had a good dinner and then we were briefed by our project director.The study center is located at the edge of the arctic circle where the boreal forest meets the tundra. It isn't a  very distinct line and there is a wide transition area .The basic focus of our research is to determine baseline environmental conditions so later on people can determine if significant changes have occurred.
Tomorrrow we get our first assignments in the field (we already got our KP duties)

This is the building we are staying in and we will be using the old buildng for testing samples.