Ronit is the San Diego Zoo’s 2007 Arctic Ambassador. She and other teens from around the world are in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, to partipate in Polar Bears International’s Polar Bear Leadership Camp.

Greetings from Canada! Everyone is finally here, and Polar Bear Leadership Camp has officially begun. The jitters about meeting everyone are long gone, and although conversations were halting and unsure at first, we now talk about everything from politics to sports at a mile a minute…or 1.609 kilometers a minute, now that we are in Canada. I have to admit that the biggest culture shock for me has been the switch to the metric system. I really appreciate the ease of measuring with metrics because we use it in science classes in the USA, but I am still somewhat unsure about measuring temperature in Celsius. For example, the temperature here in Winnipeg has been around 27 degrees, which I expected to be cold, forgetting that in Celsius, 27 degrees is hot! But I am adjusting; I am beginning to do all my measurements in metrics, now that I have been here for three days. The majority of the camp is in metrics so I am learning quickly and I hope to be completely “fluent” by the end of camp!

Anyway, today we toured Winnipeg, stopping at the Leo Mol Sculpture Gardens in Assiniboine Park and the Assiniboine Zoo. Because we are taking this big trek to see the polar bears in their wild habitat, being at the zoo sparked a discussion about the responsibilities of humans when we have animals in captivity. Many important and eloquent points were made by some of the other campers, a director of a Scandinavian wildlife park, and simply by watching the zoo visitors marvel at the animals. The general consensus seemed to be that captivity provides an important opportunity for education, but the discussion also highlighted the importance of maintaining aspects of an open and realistic environment in the exhibit to protect the natural behaviors of the animal. I am thrilled to be traveling with this amazing group of people, and I cannot wait for more intriguing conversations with my fellow ambassadors.

I have been surprised and excited by how diverse our group is. I must admit that I thought Canadians would be “just like” Americans. I can’t quite put my finger on it but I am enjoying the differences. And of course there are students from Australia and Denmark, and Cesar moved to the U.S. from Guatemala a few years ago!

We are gearing up for our trip to Churchill tomorrow, and you can feel the excitement in the air. We are getting closer and closer….

From just south of the Arctic Circle,

Ronit

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