Today is our last day here at the tundra buggy lodge. The "Guys" plan yesterday night was to prank the ladies. Although full of many mischievious and evil plans, we finally decided to just sing to the girls early in the morning VERY loud. So while we all had smiles on our faces before we went to sleep, the girls had no idea what was going to happen the following morning.

We woke up and hopped right out of our warm, comfortable beds, everything was going as planned. The funny thing was, our chief Robert Buchanen was in the prank also. We were still half asleep so we all stood outside in the freezing cold to wake up. Let's just say we all were WIDE awake. Jules, Sam, James, Sean, and I entered the girls trailor and stood very still in the dark to see if all the girls were asleep. We looked at each other and at the count of three were supposed to yell. "One, two, three!" I said. Then everyone sang, "Oh what a BEAUTIFUL MORNING!, oh what a BEAUTIFUL DAY!, I've got a beautiful feeling, everything's going my way!! The girls woke up and I'm sure were all surprised. I was expecting the ladies to react with retaliation, but instead started clapping and commenting what a good job we did.

Today is our last day together so I'm sure there will be mixed emotions through the air. I've met some wonderful and VERY cool people and thank Polar Bears International for letting me have the chance to experience what I've done.

Last night was the closest I have ever gotten to a polar bear ever in my life. James and I were about 3 feet away from an adult polar bear with her two cubs. If James and I were to stick our hands out of the tundra buggy window, our whole hands could of been ripped off by the adult bear along with her two cubs. Last night I was so surprised with the close encounter with the bears, I hadn't noticed the uncharacteristic things I was saying. "OH MY GOSH!", ohh the bears are so CUTE! were only a couple of things I have remarked. The funny thing is, I was saying these girly remarks along with the girls such as Sarah, Ruth, Shelby and a couple other ladies.

When I thought that nothing can get better than this, our cheif Robert Buchanen announced that we would be flying out on helicopters to a polar bear denning area. I was very excited until I heard about the whole helicopter part because I am petrified of heights. With the help of everyone, I gained the confidence of entering the helicopter. To make things scarier I was in the front passenger seat, but thankfully I was not alone in the front. Sarah and I were in the front passenger seats, while James, Becca, Amy, and Bri were in the back. After we landed we had to wait and take turns to go into the bear den. Our group was second so I was very happy we didn't have to wait long to see this den (collapsed den). After our group finished seeing the collapsed den, we got our pictures taken and lazed around on the tundra. We made a circle and had random conversations about anything, the fact that we all were on the ground made it very comfortable (because of the soft moss). We hopped back on the helicopter and made our way back to the lodge. I am very happy with myself because of the fact that I conquered my fear of heights. This made me happy. The helicopter ride was amazing!!

Today, Kathy asked me to answer this question:
After all of the things that we've discussed about polar bears' survival, and climate change, do you, Donald, now wish that winter would arrive sooner?

Yes! I would love to have winter here in Churchill a lot sooner than normal, despite the negative effects such as coldness. The reason is because I love winter. Winter season is the best and/or only time where you can see and experience polar bears in the town of Churchill. I rarely get to spend as much time as we have watching polar bears here at the lodge, so if winter occur earlier the bears would be in town or around town a lot sooner than normal.

Last night I went to bed with a huge smile on my face. I was very excited and nervous for the morning to come. Today we were to present in front of a bunch of students from Mapleton School in Selkirk, MB. I normally don't say this, but the kids were so cute! The grade 4 students each went up to their computer that they were connected with us, and ask us some questions related to the north. The presentation was a success and the grade 4 students were satisfied with our responses. After we disconnected with the students, all I could hear in the lounge was everyone rambling on how adorable the grade 4 students were. The kids were adorable.

I consider myself lucky because I was assigned only one question to answer opposed to everybody else answering 2 or 3. My question was how many cubs can a female polar bear have in a lifetime? A female polar bear can usually produce only five litters in it's lifetime. Litters usually consist of 1-3 cubs per birth, this is one of the slowest reproductive rates of any mammal. Of course, something happened that I wasn't happy about during this presentation. The plan was that I was supposed to sit in the back area and just listen, relax, and act like I'm listening. The reason being is because I wasn't assigned any questions for this presentation. Nearing the end of the presentation I was caught off guard. A student asked the question how many cubs can a female polar bear have in a lifetime? I answered the question, but not with preparation as I wanted. Now I know that I'm going to be prepared for the next presentation...which is tomorrow!

Hello Again!

I haven't got the chance to do my journal entry yesterday which was October 4th, 2008 (due to the VERY busy kitchen duties along with cooking) , so I will be combining my journal entry from October 4th, '08 with Oct.5th, '08.


October 4, 2008,

I'd imagine someone else's alarm clock waking me, the loud cool breeze awaking me, or just someone hollering to me that it's time to wake up, but instead something WAY louder and surprising had occur. The LOUD singing of our wonderful chief, Robert Buchanan, he sings..."OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MORNING!, OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY!! Well..... you get the picture. I guess that's our NEW alarm clock for the morning.

Today was an all around good day, we saw a mother and two cubs along with many birds. After our buggy ride our group (group A) was on kitchen and cooking duty so we hopped right to our jobs. Lunch and dinner was a great success and overall was a good day for us. After our stomachs had a chance to rest our group decided that we should start working on our presentations. By the way, our group consists of Jules, Hillary, Eva and me. Jules and I paired together to start on our projects while Hillary and Eva paired. Thankfully we got our presentations finished that night, but unfortunately we couldn't rehearse due to how late it was getting. I hope our presentation is a SUCCESS tomorrow!

October 5th, 2008

"OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MORNING! OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY!" Robert sings. I'm slowly starting to get used to my new alarm clock. Today was the big day where we had to present our topic. Our group topic was on the impacts of the warming arctic on animal species' diversity, ranges, and distribution etc. The way our group has decided to present our presentation was a game show theme. The game we were imitating was "Jeopardy". The game was a huge success and everyone was pleased with our performance. I was surprised about the polar bear facts that were given during our presentation. Such as why the polar bears skin is black. The answer is the reason the bears skin is black is NOT because the black absorbs the heat from the sun to bear, resulting in warmth for the bear. Or How many cubs can a female bear have? The answer would be 4 to 5 litters in its lifetime.

Today we also went out for another tundra buggy ride. I am very happy that we see that same mother with two cubs. Today was another GREAT day.

Donald Suluk
October 3rd/2008


Hello everyone!!!

Today was a very exciting, yet VERY tiring day for me. I was to be at the train station by 9:00 A.M. today to meet and greet everyone from around the world who was arriving in Churchill, MB...(my home town) , but of course something had come up that I had to do. I had a math exam that I had to write. I arrived early to school to get a good head start on my exam, and two hours later the dreaded math exam was complete. Math isn't my strongest subject so I was very happy to just get the test completed.
When I arrived at the train station (half an hour late!!!) I was told to meet the group at the Gypsy's restaurant. When I arrived I was greeted with a warm welcome from everyone and from that point on I knew I'd meet some pretty cool people. After lunch, I was told to give a brief tour of Churchill. I accepted, not that I had a choice, and gave the tour of Churchill, with some help from Parks Canada employee Karyne. I was a little nervous at first (well ALOT) but later became more and more comfortable with everyone. After the tour everyone hopped on the bus and departed for the polar bear lodge, but first the bus driver gave us a tour out of town, then a surprise presentation at the Polar Bear Compound (polar bear jail). After all the tours and presentations we were finally off to the polar bear lodge. On the bus I fell asleep and before I knew it we were at the lodge. I was very excited. When we stepped on the Tundra Buggy we all were excited because we all wanted to see the BEARS!!! Unfortunately we didn't see any bears but we saw many different kinds of birds. I'm used to the wildlife so I was amazed that all the other students were getting excited over a ptarmigan or snow geese, but then again I'm use to this. Finally after one an a half hours on the Tundra Buggy...we arrived. Luckily there are only 5 "guys" on this trip so we didn't have to fight over the bunk beds. Thank GOD!!!