“Grande!” Antarctic stories in Buenos Aires
The majority of the group had returned to St Andrews, except three who spent some extra time in Buenos Aires. These three intrepid explorers were recruited to speak to bilingual ten-twelve year olds at the Los Robles School in Buenos Aires about their experiences in the Antarctic, presumably after the three had been found on the streets of Buenos Aires clutching bottles of Malbec and wiping away nostalgic tears about the “good old days” of sailing about the Antarctic Peninsula….
The three reprobates eagerly jumped to the challenge of communicating the experiences of the Antarctic into a half Spanish, half English presentation, even though one of the three could only say “grande” (which, we must interject, she was immensely proud of, and would repeat like a parrot for any instance where Spanish was necessary).
Surprisingly, the presentation went over immensely well. There were oohs and aahs from the young Argentinians over the great killer whale and sea lion struggle, wide eyes when confronted with the true enormity of an albatross (“grande!”), and many laughs over the hilariously awful Drake’s Passage crossing. They also asked a diverse array of questions, some of which were slightly silly but most of which were thoughtful and scientifically influenced. It was clear that the children were, in general, enthralled by learning about the Antarctic and the wildlife and landscape beauty it possesses, and it is to be hoped that the presentation will inspire the youngsters towards science and exploration.
– The Unilingual Reprobate (aka Liz)