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My experience of Living on a ship & left the world for 2 weeks while visiting the arctic with no cell or internet service

My Arctic Adventure

By JonPublished 4 years ago 8 min read
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One weekend in June I realized I was given a chance to tour the arctic but then the reality of it still hadn’t hit me yet & everyone was freaking out & excited about me wining this trip and going to Arctic but I was still meh but when I was 2–3 weeks out from going in august I started getting excited for it but also then I realized oh snap I won’t have any internet or cell service for the whole trip (2 weeks) in my 6–7 years of being on social media & constantly being connected for last 10 or so years my family & friends were like how will you survive will you go through withdrawal cause I had never experienced such a disconnection before

So I had to mentally prepare my self & let all my social accounts go dark for 2 weeks

Questions like will anyone miss me will they notice I am gone after tweeting constantly daily for 5–6 years & facebooking blogging.

So as the final day arrived I prepped a few posts leading up to my last one & was mentally prepared & wrote gone for 2 weeks to visit the arctic my social platforms don’t miss me too much see ya when I get back

That was it my last post everything went dark i backed up my iPhone 6S then wiped it to factory default so i would have all the space as I boarded this charted private 5am flight to Resolute Bay Nunvaut to start my 2 week journey with my friend Angie by my side

I mostly slept, read, took pictures of the view outside or talked with Angie on the flight.

Then we landed & the adventure began non stop always moving talking interacting with people so my iPhone became just a camera that’s it and so it began surprisingly maybe cause I had prepped my self I didn’t miss it and began to adapt to not having internet/cell reception. But I always had my phone with my me as it was my camera to take photos & 4K video maybe that helped but there were times where I though oh I wish I could have shared this moment or tweeted that this is happening

But just meant I was there being present in the moment and enjoying it & sharing that those moments with Angie instead of the world at large sure I was always taking pictures but i had someone to share it with that’s the only connection I needed

Also our schedules were so jam packed everything was so structured & planned out with seminars lectures & zodac cruises. & going on expeditions to other communities and hiking up Mountains as well as creating & building relationships with other people the ship making friends having dinner & lunch with them so really there was so much more to do then playing on your phone. At the end of each night I would transfer all my pictures from my phone to iPad & wipe all the previous day’s vids/phone to have a fresh new space for the next day’s adventures We did have down time on 1 or 2 days but I either read wandered around the ship & chatted with friends or took in some seminars

Then we arrived at pond inlet in Nunvaut on day 5 of our cruise we were informed that in the library in the town there would be wifi there so of course that would be popular place for everyone on the ship. Before I left my parents wanted to check in with them during the trip so I took that opportunity briefly wrote an email to let them know I was alive and well attached some pictures. So my first chance for Internet after 5 days and all I did was send one email to my parents that was it. I actually started to like not having that connection almost became like a distraction to me I was enjoying my vacation also do you really wanna spend your whole time in this small inuit community you will never see again being on the Internet & being on social? No I would be rather be present & in the moment even 10–15 mins there Internet was slow so that was much for me felt weird hanging out there for that long.

So then I went to explored pond inlet sure I would have like to share the moment I was sipping on my Tim Hortons Ice Cap in front of actual Arctic Ice Cap but I got over those feelings & and Angie was there with me to share that’s moment and ha! I almost died cause she made me laugh when I was doing selfie and part of it went down the wrong pipe started chocking/gagging at one point. But what I realized was she replaced my need to be on my phone to share moments cause I was sharing them with her.

We toured around the rest of the town and headed back to the zodiacs and head back to the ship for dinner & the evenings entertainment

Actually I should mention that I realized there was Internet/wifi available. on the ship but it came at a cost I was not willing to bear @ 200MB for $100 being connected to the world wasn’t worth to me at that cost also I heard it wasn’t reliable and slow I enjoyed and remained clueless what was happening in the world for those 2 weeks. It was weird and kind fun being cut off from the whole and being in our own bubble of 160 people on board the ship it was like our own community/civilization we formed ha which was super fun and engaging

So what that I missed the olympics & no to connection to the world news

After 10 days of any real connection to the real world of news or anything we hit Greenland & heard that they have cell towers so being the curious person that I am I switched off my airplane mode on my phone & should you know it my phone switched on TELE GREENLAND provider ha my phone went nuts with all the sounds/notifications like a greedy child clinging to life I have data woohoo haha. But i like No I am not ready I wanna remain clueless i started this journey with no data / cell service I am finishing with no service so I quickly turned airplane mode back on also I didn’t wanna be charged for the roaming data haha from the moment people realized there was cell service that changed a lot of people on the ship from being open and friendly commutative to hiding in there rooms or talking on there phones around the ship

Was amazing how it changed people’s behaviour.

The only times I turned off airplane mode was to take screenshots of the blue circle for my location google maps to mark my location as collectable image & keep sake

Greenland was amazing we stopped at 4 towns again using my phone only as camera was amazing experience to be there an be present in the moment but other people went back to there old ways & work mode I gotta do this. I was like I am on vacation the world can wait for me I choose to come back when I am ready

So my airplane mode stayed off 99% percent of the time but when we landed back in Toronto from Greenland and switched off airplane mode my phone went crazy again lights bells notifications ignored it and on my way home on the UpTrain from the airport

It felt super weird surfing Facebook / Twitter like I am really going fall right back into my social media norms before left I sent out a few tweets out announcing my arrival home but I got nothing back. I did do a good job of pepping people to say i am gone for 2 weeks that that they were just ok he gone Was this true did they really just not care that I was gone

I spend the last 5–6 years building my self up on this platform then leave for 2 weeks and just picked up where i left off because I didn’t live tweet my trip i was forgotten about haha but that’s Twitter is used for mostly real time convos & interactions

So I totally started to see the platform in a new light this mostly become a shouting match everyone talking & nobody listening any more is if your not on it everyday engaging then you will be forgotten

It was weird out being away from social for 2 weeks then coming back telling everyone differently realized what I already kinda knew that Twitter is real time & you don’t post something that happened 3 days ago ha! But Facebook you can post anything from any point in your life & you get far more engagement then you would with Twitter

Anyway this was experience it was great to disconnect from there world & be in our own bubble people when people vacation they really disconnect from the world this trip was amazing cause it forced people to get involved and be in the moment and be with people and create friendships memories

I was afraid of letting go after a few days it was great and I had Angie & my new friends on the ship to hang with & was great fun definitely do that on your next trip just airplane mode the whole trip it you will thank me

See ya

humanity
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