The Disconnect with Reality

Today I stayed home from work with a cold. There’s not a whole lot you can do here while you are sick, besides watch TV and try and get better. I never watch TV here, except the occasional movie on one of the movie channels, but I ended up watching the news this morning, which was interesting. We have the armed forces television channel here, so I got to see the nightly news (morning here is last night in the states). It finally hit me how much of reality I have been missing. Like, for example, the Chilean mining crisis. Life here sometimes doesn’t feel that different then life in America, in a very small secluded community somewhere very cold with beautiful views, but we are so very far away from everything, and really don’t come into too much touch with reality (for example, me knowing nothing about this Chilean miner thing until today).

Watching the Armed Forces Network was interesting as well. All of the commercials are aimed at deployed forces. Some were about how to deal with the stress of being deployed. Lots were messages from people in the states to soldiers thanking them for their service. I admit you feel a little odd watching this stuff down here, because even though we are technically “deployed” (and get a newspaper called “Stars and Stripes” for deployed troops) its not like we are actually in similar situations to troops in Iraq or Afghanistan, or anywhere else. Antarctica is a truly unique place.

Things are pretty much the same around here. I went to a science lecture on climate change, which was really hard to grasp, but somehow the ozone hole is playing a small role in protecting Antarctica from suffering the disastrous effects that climate change is having in the Arctic- how’s that for ironic? And that the sea levels are rising not just because of melting ice but primarily because water takes up more space when its warmer. Pretty interesting stuff, overall. Its always nice to go to these science lectures and learn about what is going on in the scientific work on the base…or the work of the entire continent even. I found this lecture really neat because it talked primarily about the peninsula of Antarctica, which I visited on the cruise last December. It even cited scientific work done with ice cores that was done at Verdansky, a Ukrainian station where we got to stop at while on the cruise.

Lastly, the Skua are here. But they deserve their own blog post, once I can take some proper pictures of them.

My Thanksgiving Day

Because I work in the kitchen, I have to work holidays, and so they give us another random day off that month. So, my thanksgiving day was today. It was weird to have this extra day…I will have 2.5 days off this week, which may not sound like a lot, but down here its ridiculous. I have no idea what to do with this amount of free time anymore. I went on two hiking trips today One was the Cape Armitage Loop, which goes down to Scott Base and out onto the sea ice.

It’s very close to the pressure ridges, which is where the sea ice meets the ice shelf. The two ices crush together and it looks like churned up snow.

There are seals that hang out by them as well. Later on I went up to Hut Point, and watched a windstorm off on the ice.

This morning I started my part-time job at the video counter. It’s really fun to do something in the community that is out of the galley, and its fun as well. Its also a way to make myself get up earlier and enjoy more of the morning before I have to go to work. I am also going to start volunteering in the library in the morning once a week. They like to have things open in the mornings so that people who work night shift have a chance to go to things. I am starting to appreciate the nice morning hours more and more, since those are more peaceful than the rest of the day. Population is now over 1,000 people, and to say it is hectic is to put it mildly.

Because it was my thanksgiving I tried to think of all the things I was thankful for, and it was nice to remind myself about how happy I am that I am here. I am getting to see so much and experience so much. I love life here, and all of the adventures it has given to me.

Iceburg and Cape Evans!!!

Last night, I got to go on the most exciting recreation trip, out on the sea ice to see Cape Evans and a huge iceburg. These are the vehicles (called deltas) that we took out there.

It was so great to get out on the ice and away from town for a bit, and really experience the environment and take in the beauty of it all. This picture is taken at about 9 at night by the way, to give you an idea of the sun's height in the sky. There are no more sunsets now.

We went to go see Cape Evans, where Scott stayed before going to the pole. It looks like he left 20 minutes ago, and is coming back any second. Everything is still where it was left, and it is so cool to look around inside. Its really creepy and bizarre actually, like you are going back in time. Its astounding to think that people lived in this hut for a year and a half. Here is a picture of a penguin they had killed and had on the table, and a British newspaper from 1908 that they were reading.

It was such a cool place to go and see. You could walk around the land around it, but I was so absorbed with the hut that I stayed in it the whole time. But, here is what it looks like from the outside. At the top of the hill on the right is a cross, and a dog skeleton tied to it. The story goes that the survivors in the hut saw their ship coming for them from the hill, shot their dog and ran for it, leaving everything inside as if they were coming back moments later.

Cape Evans was simply amazing to see, but my favorite part of the trip was seeing this huge iceburg that was on the way out there. We drove over the ice to get to Cape Evans, and there was this giant iceburg kind of in the way. We got to walk around it and just explore which was awesome. I now want to learn how to climb glaciers, or some such thing.

They gave us ski poles to poke around so that we wouldn't fall down any cracks or crevasses (although I still fell in a small one). The iceburg is moving, very slowly of course, but there are still lots of cracks and fissures in the ice around it. We got to touch it, and investigate the cracks and crevasses in the burg itself, which was absolutely incredible.

It was so, so much fun, and so amazing to see. To give you an idea of the size of it, it took about 40 minutes to walk around, and here is a picture of us walking next to it.

My picture doesn't even reach the top of it!

This was one of those unforgettable, beautiful, epic Antarctic days. Life is simply amazing here.

5 days, 12 hours

This week, we tried changing up our schedule. We worked for 5 days, 12 hours a day, giving us two days off. (Normally, we work 6 ten-hour days and get one day off). There have been lots of new DAs coming in, so it worked for this week, although it won’t last. McMurdo is getting bigger and bigger as mainbody continues on. Here is a picture of the helicopters that I thought looked cool.

Something particularly interesting is that the people who are headed to the South Pole are starting to arrive. They work with us while they wait to be able to fly from here to the pole. Flights try to go every day, but none have been successful yet.

In other exciting Antarctic news, people are starting to see seals on the ice near the base. I haven’t seen any there myself, but its cool knowing that they are around and I have a chance to see them soon. The sun is also up, for good this time. Our last “sunset” was at 12:55am on the 23^rd. It was relatively cloudy, but I still took some pictures.

Its weird to think these were taken at almost 1 in the morning.

Its interesting to think that we will have permanent sun from here on in…its very disconcerting to be honest. I work indoors, but whenever I see the windows it looks like 2 in the afternoon, no matter what time it is or how long I have been at work. Its especially confusing when I am walking home from a party or just hanging out with my friends…one gets tired like normal indoors and then as soon as you walk outside, your body wants to wake up again because its bright out. I can see how insomnia can become a serious problem.

I have been here for over two months, and things are still really fun and awesome. All the people I work with are great. Last night, several of them cut mohawks into their hair for fun.

Don't worry mom, I was the photographer but didn't participate.

Tonight, weather permitting, I am getting to go on an awesome, awesome rec trip. If it ends up going, I will write all about it soon and include lots of pics!

Boondogle!

On Saturday I got to go on a boondogle. This is otherwise known as a working morale trip, or when we go do something random in the community that some department needs help with. It typically involves going outside, or doing something very different then our regular DA duties. We get one a season, so it was a little early to get mine, but the timing really couldn't have been better. It was the coolest thing too, I got to go dive tend.

Dive tending is when you go out with the divers and help them in and out of their suits when they are getting in and out of the water. First I went to the science lab, Crary, and met all the people. There were 2 divers, and two other tenders besides me. Then we went to the next building, where the divers got into their dry suits, and gave me a run-down of my duties. Basically the suits are really bulky, and the more gear they put on, the less they can put on themselves. So, we help them with their gloves, their weights, their tanks, etc. when they are about to get in, and help get all this stuff off them when they come back up.

To give you all a visual, this is one of the divers as she is about to get in- still needing 2 more sets of gloves and googles.

After loading up with the weights and the tanks, and after the divers were in the suits, we went out to the dive site. It was out on the ice, and this is the vehicle that we got to take out there. It was really cool to get to go out on the ice and see the mountains from a little bit closer, and see base from farther away.

When we got there, we suited the divers up some more, and they got into the hole. The ice was 20 feet thick! The man on the left was another one of the diver tenders. He is a diver himself, and had tagged some really cool specimens on a big ice wall decades ago (including a carnivorous sponge!) These divers were going to see if they could find any of his old tags, and tag the specimens again. They were later going to go down and take pictures, to see the changes over time.

This was the "hut" that they dove from. It was a really nice hut for this place. The plastic bag over the ice hole has a fan above it blowing hot air onto the hole so it stays melted while no one is there. While the divers were under, we scooped the forming ice out of the hole with nets.

And, saving the very best for last, a seal kept coming up the hole to breathe! Apparently the seals enjoy using the diver's holes as breathing holes. This little guy is a weddell seal and is about a year old. It was absolutely incredible to see.

This was a truly exciting, incredible Antarctic day. I was really reminded of all the reasons that I came down here, and why I love life here. It was absolutely amazing.

I love Antarctica.

Photos!

So I thought I would post some pictures of stuff I do with my friends, and more indoor activities. I love my pictures from my hikes, but I admit they are rather repetitive, and you all only need to see Scott's Hut from so many angles and in so many weather conditions before it gets dull.

I am not sure if I have posted this before, but it is our weather condition sign. Its right outside of the galley, and I think there is one in almost every building on station. When its condition 3 its like this, condition 2 scrolls across the screen in orange. I have never seen it, but I imagine condition 1 is blinking red.

This is one of the station vans, and happens to have an FL plate which made me smile. I think the plate is meant to stand for Christchurch (the city in NZ where we deploy from)

This was the Winfly Dodgeball Competition. The galley had a team, and of course everyone dressed up (creepy mustaches, white tees, and cut-off jeans were the uniform). Chris and Leon were two members of the team, and were ready to win :)

This is Russell and Chris playing pool. The creepy mustache was an entire galley event. This is American Night at Scott Base. Some people decided to dress in 80s clothes that night.

I have been in Antarctica for almost two months now, and it doesn’t feel that long at all. However, Winfly feels very far away. I miss the calm and peace and quiet of it, but meeting all of the new people has been fun, and with the increase in people, all of the new DAs are definitely needed. We are at about 700 people now, and the population will increase to be about 1200 in a few weeks. A lot of the new people coming in for the season are people working on scientific research. Every Sunday there is a science lecture so the people in the community can learn about the research being done. There have been lectures about nacreous clouds and weddell seals that I have gone and heard. They are very interesting.

We are getting flights in a few times a week, which means lots of freshies. We are serving salads every night and fresh fruit out all the time, which makes the community really happy. I never realized how much I missed fresh fruits and vegetables before now. The daylight is getting longer and longer which is weird. Even in the middle of the night it’s not totally dark out anymore, and by the end of the month it will be very light all the time. It definitely messes with your head; when you are inside you get tired like normal, but the second you walk outside you kind of wake up because of the light.

So things are pretty business as usual here in McMurdo. I work from 11-9 now, and then either go hiking, out with my friends, or just read and relax. A few Thursdays ago I went to American Night over at the Kiwi’s Scott Base. It was a beautiful walk, and you get a good view of the pressure ridges, which is where the sea ice and the ice shelf meet. They look like piles of snow that have been plowed, and are pretty cool to look at.

Besides hiking one of the other things I am getting into here is photography. There is a photography club here, and last week I learned how to work the settings on my camera, so I can learn how to take better pictures. I bought a Nikon Coolpix P100 right before I left but haven’t used the manual modes yet. Lots of people here know how to use their cameras really well, so it’s been great to get advice on how to use mine.

I feel like I am running out of things to write about in this blog; things here seem so normal to me now, I don’t really know what to talk about anymore. If anyone has any questions about stuff here, just let me know and I will be happy to answer them!