My first blog post and it is about Antarctica. I suppose that is the big news in my life.
The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of change and travel. After spending about two weeks in Humboldt with my mom and my brother's family, I was off to Denver and the beginning of orientation. The last week in McKinleyville was a little stressful because I ended up getting sent to Antarctica about a five days earlier than expected and only got the email a few days before I had to leave. So, I rushed around, bought my last minute things and headed off to Denver.
Orientation was a little boring but it was cool meeting people and making friends. The first girl I started talking to was a firefighter from Reno, NV. After she found out where I was from, she said her boyfriend was also from Humboldt. After a bit of laughter and chatting we discovered that her boyfriend and I had gone to elementary school together. It was crazy. Matt Manago had lived not too far from me and I usually rode by his house on my horse. He moved away when we were in high school and I never in a million years imagined that I would run into his girlfriend on my way to Antarctica.
While I was in Denver I got a chance to hang out with my friend Lindsay and her daughter Isabel. We went to REI in Denver which was enormous and fun, a gearhead's dream. It was good just seeing and spending time with Lindsay, she is one of my oldest friends from childhood.
After two nights in Denver, we were off to New Zealand. The flight was long but not unbearable, I was actually super tired and fell asleep before the plane took off. After sleeping a good eight hours, I woke up and chatted with the Australian girl next to me and watched a few movies. By the time we landed in Auckland and then transferred to Christchurch, I was again tuckered out. Christchurch was nice, though it rained the whole time I was there. We only had two nights before flying out and they were pretty busy. I ended up staying with a couple who were friends of Ben's, they were nice and the husband had an obsession with camels. Kind of funny, I have never seen so much camel memorabilia.
The second day we were in Christchurch we got our "extreme cold weather" (ECW) gear issued. I think I ended up taking more than I really needed and it was tough trying to keep all my luggage under the 75 lb weight limit. Luckily, we were required to wear some of our ECW, and the big red parka has huge pockets that can hold a lot. :) I weighed out at exactly 75 lbs of luggage, not too bad if I do say so myself.
Early, on the morning of the 12th, we were all at the Antarctic Center ready to fly out. There were 109 of us on our flight and it took a little bit of time to get everything ready. We got to ride a military C-17 five hours down to McMurdo. Being inside of a military plane is far different than being on a commercial flight. The plane is stripped to the bare minimum, no frills, not even windows, and you have to wear ear plugs because the engines are so loud. But it is a neat experience, the best part was when I got to go up to cockpit and I got my first glimpse at the white ice and black mountain peaks of Antarctica. Stunning.
Not too long after, we were landing and before the doors opened people were jumping up and struggling into their ECW gear. As I approached the door of the plane, the cool Antarctic air hit my face and the bright sunlight streamed in. My first step onto the sea ice was cautious, but as I walked out onto the blue glowing ice runway I lifted my head and looked around. Tall mountains surround McMurdo Sound and the starkness and beauty of the shimmering ice and bare volcanic rocks and peaks are breathtaking. It was a moment of awe and realization. I was in Antarctica, a place I had never dreamed of going, and yet life has a funny way of taking you to places you never expect.
I was pushed along in a tide of red jackets and ushered onto a shuttle. We were taken to another briefing and before I knew it, I had my room key and Ben was waiting for me. He did play a practical joke on me and had one of his friends call me up to the front before the briefing. I was told that Medical had found something wrong with my dental x-rays and that I was going to have to return to Christchurch to have them retaken. My jaw dropped. I had already had to retake those stupid x-rays three times! Luckily, Cindy couldn't keep a straight face and confessed that Ben had put her up to it.
McMurdo and Antarctica take some getting used to. In some ways life is similar to being back in college, you live in dorms and share a bathroom. You eat all your meals in a large dinning hall called the Galley. There is a set meal time for all meals, so if you miss dinner you are outta luck and are usually stuck eating popcorn and cookies. Speaking of cookies, boy, there are a lot of cakes and sweets. I think one of the strategies to keeping morale up is lots of desserts.
Work is good, I am driving shuttles which means I get to meet lots of interesting people. I drive all over the station and out to the different runways. There are three runways that serve McMurdo. I also get to drive by the New Zealand base, on my way to two of the airfields. It is an amazing drive, the site of Mount Erebus smoking in the distance as you crest over the hill takes your breath away. And on really sunny day, out over the ice the Fatah Morganas, ice mirages, shimmer in the sunlight.
There are about 1,000 on the station so there is a lot to do. There is a coffee house, a bowling alley, three gyms, two bars and a station store. There are also science lectures twice a week and I have been to a couple already. Really, there is never a lack of things to do, in anything there is too much to do. I just started my set schedule this week, two days off a week and 5 twelve hour work days. I guess life down here is about working hard and playing hard.
