46 MARCH 2023 By Carsten Cooper Antarctica is the seventh continent I’ve visited. I went with my mom, sister, and my Aunt Lili. We are the 4Z because all of our last names start with a Z. We saw a lot of wildlife together at the bottom of the world. So let’s get our jackets, gloves, snow pants, and boots. We’re flying to Antarctica! To get to Antarctica, I had connections at Dallas and Buenos Aires before we got onto a cruise ship in Ushuaia, Argentina. Our cruise was small compared to other cruises so that it can fit through the icy canals. Hurtigruten is an expedition cruise ship, which meant that it wasn’t a relaxing cruise. But in my opinion, I qualify it as a relaxing cruise. There were three restaurants, a Jacuzzi, infinity pool, lounge, art center, science center, lecture hall, gift shop, gym, launch room, spa, sauna, cabins and suites. There were 11 floors connected by the elevator and a big screen. When I was on the boat I felt like a baby being rocked in a cradle. We spent two holidays, Christmas and New Year’s, there. We were on the boat for three weeks. During landings, we would get off the ship and take a walk to see the wildlife around us. We saw tons of animals. It didn’t matter to me if they were small or big. They were all so beautiful. We saw six different species of penguins! Each species was so different compared to the others. Also, we saw a couple of killer whales at the bridge. Another animal that we saw was seals. Two different kinds, to be precise. The leopard seal and the southern elephant seal. The Leopard seals eat 14 penguins every day, while the elephant seals eat fish. In my opinion, I think the elephant seals are fascinating creatures. They fight against each other for power. They also live to be about 15 years old. They die at 15 because they fight so much. In our free time, we would play card games or do art. My sister Crystal got me a card game called Boss Monster. We would play with it with the other kids on the cruise, whose names were Jameson, Alli, Shannai and Ian. When Crystal and I were playing Animal Crossing on New Year’s, we saw the fireworks on the Nintendo instead of in real life. We made origami penguins and clay penguins. Another way we were entertained was watching movies at midnight. We finished all of The Hunger Games . Everyone was so nice to us, like our servers Erik, Cesar and Kim. They were super amazing. Cesar was hilarious by doing magic tricks, while Erik was super understanding because he has a son and lastly Kim always got our drinks right on the spot and he always knew what we wanted to drink. They knew if we ever were in a bad mood or in a good mood. A big thanks to our expedition team. They helped us every time we needed help and they made this Christmas and New Year’s ones we can always look back on. I remember when Morven [another server] wore his penguin outfit and became Morvenes the Penguin. When we arrived at Deception Bay, we saw Santa Ian, who gave me a hat and a shirt. Another time when Jameson and I were playing Scrabble, Dominic helped us find out if ET was a Scrabble word and surprisingly enough, it was. When Crystal and I gave a present to Mattia, he gave me his compass. One time, the kids were in a lecture led by Wayne and Karen, who challenged us to put our hands in ice-cold water. All of the boys finished in two minutes and thirty seconds. Another awesome memory was when we went to Whale Bay with Morven and Zoe and we did the Science Boat. We got to use a Water Drone, so we could see what was underwater. Another important part of our trip was doing the polar plunge. We did it at Whale Bay because it was the warmest place in Antarctica because of the underwater volcano. The water was still freezing, but at least it was not ice cold like the lecture that Wayne and Karen gave the kids. My feet were horribly cold. But I still did it. So if you ever go to Antarctica, DO THE POLAR PLUNGE! You will not regret it. In conclusion, this trip was spectacular. I enjoyed hanging out with my sister and my family. We made a lot of new memories and took lots of photos. So when we’re old, we can look back on this trip and remember when we went to our seventh continent all together. I totally recommend Hurtigruten. If you ever want to go to Antarctica. Go with the best, and get some rest. My trip to Antarctica Editor’s note: Carsten is a sixth-grader at Villa Montessori School in Arcadia who wanted to share his adventure with Arcadia News readers. If you’ve got a youngster with a story to tell, send it to editor@arcadianews.com for consideration in an upcoming edition! Carsten Cooper. King penguins. Crystal, Carsten, Christina and Lily. The polar plunge. PHOTOS COURTESY OF CHRISTINA ZHOU

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