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> July 17, 2006 - To the Gipanis..., ...or Another round of hurry up and wait
Misty_Nikula_Ohlsen
post Jul 17 2006, 08:34 PM
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July 17, 2006 - To the Gipanis
or Another round of hurry up and wait

Today Jody, Ben and I were scheduled to head to the Gipanis. The ship is docked in Korsakov, a city about 45 minutes south of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. The students and some of the other scientists had gone to the ship yesterday and were waiting for us. We had stayed behind to finish my purchases of Russian “essentials”, put more minutes on the satellite phone and complete our clearances with the KGB and Russian Coast Guard, plus a few other odds and ends.

While Ben and I walked to the Sakhalin Museum, I worked on learning the Cyrillic letters and their sounds. I have about 85% of them down. There are more characters than the English alphabet and some do not have English equivalent sounds. This means that I can sound out some Russian words now, though I am sure that my pronunciation is terrible.

I returned to the Russian Bazaar and knowing only the words for “May I” (moyzhna) and my newly learned Cyrillic letters, I managed to buy some q-tips, a nail clippers, a nail file, two candy bars, a delicious pastry with some sort of apple-like fruit inside and an ice cream. Very successful. I think that the Russian Bazaar is very cool and I could probably spend hours wandering around through them now. I am very impressed with how quickly I have built my independence. Two days ago I was scared to even venture out on my own. Today, I willingly spent an hour by myself and managed to find everything that I wanted.

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There is a statue of Lenin in the main square of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. It is flanked by two immense flat screens flashing commercials. A symbol of Russia’s past and future?

So we were instructed by our Russian hosts to be ready to board the bus for Korsakov at 2 pm. We were not to be late. So dutifully we were all packed and waiting at the front of the hotel by 2:10. By 3:30 we realized that if we had not been packed, the bus would have been on time. By about 3:50 we were loaded on to the bus with some more Russian scientists on our way to Korsakov.

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Korsakov (KOPCAKOB) is about 35 km south of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (ЮжНО-САКАЛИHСК) on the coast of Sakhalin Island.

We arrived at the Gipanis and after unloading all of the new gear to the ship, we were reunited with our friends. They had spent the entire day unloading the hold, sorting gear into piles, moving the piles and loading it back into the hold. Sounded very productive. They had taken time to locate some wildflowers and put them in my room. They have all been very sweet and supportive about the loss of my gear, offering clothing and toiletries as needed. I am very lucky to have met them.

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Mike, James, Matt, Paul, Dena, Jesse and Colby help unload the gear to the Gipanis.

The Gipanis, our home for the next six weeks, is about 50 meters long and has several decks. The students are mostly on one of the lowest decks, the scientists are mostly on the middle and upper berth deck. I am bunking with Pat Anderson again on one of the upper decks. I feel very privileged to be in a room with only one other roommate on an upper deck with nicer accommodations.

We arrived in time to quickly unpack our things and gather for dinner. The mess hall is pretty small and not everyone can eat at one time. So when you are finished you move on. We had a soup for a first course and then a sort of meatloaf with a hardboiled egg inside and rice for the main course. It was pretty good.

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Dena and Colby chowing down aboard the Gipanis.

Now we are all just “chillaxing” on the topdeck. Some folks are reading, writing in journals or sketching. The latest word is that we may not be heading out until later tomorrow, now because our KGB clearance has not been completed. We were originally scheduled to depart at about 11 am tomorrow, now maybe not until tomorrow night.

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Something to stay tuned for! Since everyone else here will not have access to email or communications home during the trip, they will be taking turns adding personal notes home throughout our expedition. Today, no one was feeling witty or that they had much to report, yet, having just arrived on the ship yesterday. So keep your eyes peeled to this space!
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