It’s been a while since I last posted anything on my blog, and now here I am, the season is over and I am mere hours away from boarding a C17 and heading back to New Zealand. The time since my last post has flown by, in part because of some mid-season injuries for which I almost had to be sent home. I developed repetitive stress injuries in my wrists, fingers, and forearms because of my job, and was unable to perform many of the essential tasks required of Dining Attendants. After many visits to the Physical Therapist, positive healing thoughts, and a fair amount of Ibuprofen, I’m happy to say that my wrists healed quite well and I was able to stay! Unfortunately, my mind was occupied during this time and that meant that some things fell off the wagon, namely, my blog. For that, I apologize.

That being said, a lot has happened since December! Here is a short list of the incredible things I’ve been able to do and see in my last months here:

1. I finally saw a penguin! I took a short hike out to Hut Point one afternoon and saw a little Adelie penguin waddling around some melted pools of water. He was such a curious and brave little guy. Funny story: at one point, I think I actually had a conversation with him! Let me explain: I called Kira and was waiting for her to come and see him, but he looked like he was about to jump into the water. I wanted him to stick around so that Kira could see him too, so I yelled out to him, “No, little chickie! Wait! Stay! Don’t jump in! No!!” After which he stood up, flapped his wings, squawked loudly, and looked at me! He positioned himself to dive in again, and I yelled out again, “No!! Pengui! Stay with me!!!” Again, he stood up, looked at me and squawked! We repeated this about 10 times. Inter-species communication…love it. (Oh, and by the way, I named the penguin after my Aunt Linda, just like I promised! I wish you would’ve been here to see him, Linda!)

2. The Prince of Monaco visited McMurdo, because of his country’s new commitment to environmental issues. He was a major dud. Horrible public speaker. Plus, used up a huge amount of fuel and resources to support his stay. Ironic.

3. Ships, tankers, and vessels, oh my! A series of large vessels have broken their way through the ice and finally made it to McMurdo at the beginning of January, starting with a Norwegian Icebreaker ship called the ”Oden.” Oden paved the way (well, actually just broke a way) for the next vessel, a giant fuel tanker with next year’s supply of diesel (all of McMurdo’s energy comes from diesel generators). Finally, the last vessel arrived…a huge titanic-esque ship with all of the station’s supplies for the next year, everything from hand soap and paper towels to dry food. It’s been a treat to serve the sea-folk waffles in the morning, watching their eyes light up at the sight of strawberries and whipped cream, knowing they’ve been on a ship for months. Sensory deprivation can be a neat thing.

4. Antarctic survival school. Several weeks ago, I got the opportunity to go to Snow School (affectionately known as “Happy Camper”). This survival training is required for all scientists who are heading out to field camps, and occasionally, open spots are given out as “boondoggles,” or morale trips, to Raytheon & NANA employees. I was lucky enough to get Karen as our snow school instructor, a mountaineer and incredible woman, who just got back from something called the “South Pole Traverse;” the Traverse was basically a train of vehicles, hauling fuel from McMurdo to the South Pole Station. Anyway, after learning A TON about frost bite, hypothermia, layering, hydration, and nutrition, we were shuttled out to the middle of nowhere on a glacier, where we learned how to set up a historic Scott Tent, build a snow quinzee, dig snow trenches, saw blocks of ice, and tie a bunch of cool knots. I slept in a snow quinzee that night (can I just say that I used to think that getting out of a tent to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night was the worst….now I know that getting out of a quinzee in the middle of the night in subzero Antarctica to go the bathroom is the absolute worst).

5. Mt. Terror: The USAP’s very own Rugby team! Over the season I’ve become good friends with a number of rugby players here on station. Once a year, McMurdo’s rugby team plays rival the New Zealand Scott Base team. Sadly, in over 30 years of playing, McMurdo has never scored a single point. With the long losing streak, we were certain this year was going to be different. The rugby team was better than it’s ever been, with the help of co-captains Ron (kitchen supply guy) and John (my good friend who took me out, see earlier post). Having heard about rugby practices all season long, I couldn’t wait to see the game. January 11th, game day: I had to ride on a sled hitched up to a huge yellow machine to get out to the rugby field (actually near the Happy Camper site). The game was historic, epic, absolutely incredible. Blood all over the ice, dislocated shoulders, concussions galore… In the end, we still didn’t score a point, but it was beautiful to see our friends out on the ice, working their hardest, giving it their all.

I hardly feel like I’ve made up for lost time with this post. I still have so many stories, pictures, so many things that I’ve learned during my time down here. I can be happy, though, knowing that these stories aren’t lost. They’ll come out in time, when we’re together and I can tell you face-to-face…which is always a preferred mode of communication I can’t wait to get home and see all of you and hear about your lives. It’s been a long, cold journey…and I’m happy to say that I’ll be home soon.

Rest assured, my friends - any time someone mistakenly called it “casserole,” we straightened ‘em right out.

Our day started out bright and early, with Kira and I grabbing the brown bag lunches we had packed the night before. We met John at the heavy machinery shop and was introduced to his “baby”: a DV87 Challenger (see the pictures of the huge, yellow piece of machinery) that’s been affectionately dubbed “The Cadillac” by McMurdo community members. This machine is truly the creme de la creme…one of only three manufactured in the entire world! The Cadillac stands out compared to the other machines around here, most of which are old, rusty tanks left over from the ’60s when this place served as a military base..

We loaded up in our sweet ride and spent most of the morning grooming the roads out to McMurdo’s two airfields: Willy and Pegasus. Pegasus receives flights coming to and from Christchurch, NZ and Sydney, Australia; whereas Willy manages the smaller planes that make runs to field camps and the South Pole. Once finished grooming by the airfields, we set out for Cape Evans – an area famous for two reasons: Cape Evans is the point where the sea ice meets the Byrd Glacier (quite beautiful…looks like overlapping ice sheets), and it’s also the spot where polar explorer Robert F. Scott built his hut/base camp over 100 years ago. The hut itself has been perfectly preserved in its original state, with cans of herring and packages of soda bread still on the shelves! Scott’s crews’ sleeping bags are still on their bunks, the dark room still equipped to develop photos, hay still lining the pony stables outside. It was really quite cozy inside! I would have loved to experience Antarctica that way…soaking up the roaring coal fire, sleeping in animal skins, no electricity, no showers…

After exploring the hut and its surroundings for a while, we boarded the Cadillac again and headed back toward the ice caves for another visit. On this leg of our drive (I might get in trouble for saying what I’m about to say, but oh well!), I got to drive! Mom and Dad – I’m officially a heavy equipment operator! Don’t worry…the machine caps at 21 mph, so I wasn’t at risk of crashing into an iceberg. Lol. We spent some time playing around in the ice caves again, which was lovely, since the first time around we only had a hurried 5 minutes or so.

When we were finished there, we headed toward toward the place I was most excited to see: a seal colony at a place called Turtle Rock! I was suprised by the calmness of the seals. In fact, they really didn’t care that we were there at all! I was a little afraid of them at first, but then realized that they moved at a sluggish 0.0003 miles per hour. When I realized I could easily outrun a seal (swimming is a different story, however), I overcame my fear of being so close to an animal so huge, so foreign, and was able to take some really cool pictures! Most of the seals were mothers who had given birth in the past month…so it was a veritable seal nursery. Perhaps the cutest thing I’ve ever seen in the wild. (Have I mentioned that several members from the Planet Earth crew are currently at McMurdo? They’ve been diving to film the seals that I just saw at Turtle Rock! How neat is that?)

It took about an hour in a Delta to get out to the ice cave, which is situated right between the sea ice and a glacier. Because summer is fast approaching, the sea ice is melting and causing the sea level to rise about a foot every day….making it impossible to get to this ice cave in about two weeks. After an hour of driving on the sea ice, we got to the cave entrance. To get into the cave, I got to slide down this huge icy slope…once inside, I think I started hyperventilating, laughing, and crying all at once. It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen! Sunlight was shining through some of the cave walls, making every bit of the cave was a different shade of blue. The surfaces of the walls were covered with layer upon layer of intricate crystals, and the floor of the cave was none other than slippery, exposed sea ice. I got to spend about 5 minutes exploring the small cave, with a Christmas morning smile glued on my face the whole time.

While we waited for everyone else to have their turn in the cave, Kira and I had fun playing with the Delta…who knew large machinery could be so fascinating? The last time McMurdo residents were able to explore an ice cave was 10 years ago…so today I’m so happy to say I was able to experience a once-in-a-decade moment!

It’s been too long since my last entry! The days have started to run into one another because I work so much (10 hours per day, 6 days per week)…so before I knew it, almost a week passed! I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about what the living situation is like down here, what there is to do for recreation, what the buildings look like, etc., so in this entry I’ll try my best to explain what it’s like down here!

McMurdo feels like living on…a military base. Or a college campus. Or maybe some combination of the two! Let me explain. The buildings look similar to and perform similar functions as a military base: there’s a heavy shop, a vehicle maintenance shop, an explosives unit, helicopter pads, runways, etc. In addition, most buildings are covered with sheet metal siding and painted various shades of brown. But there are also some features of McMurdo that make it feel more like college: a coffeehouse, climbing wall, pottery wheels, craft room, library, greenhouse, multiple gyms, scientific laboratories…not to mention we live dormitory-style with roommates (sometimes more than one!) and share communal bathrooms.

I live, work, and sleep in a building affectionately called “155,” which is basically the common area for McMurdo Station. I live upstairs in Room 245 with 3 other roommates…Kira (fellow DA who I already knew from St. Olaf), Whitney (a janitor who works nights), and Emily (an administrative assistant at the National Science Foundation chalet). 155 is a happening building with an especially happening hallway called “Highway 1,” along which is the station store, a mail drop box, computer labs, the cafeteria, and several important offices. Doing all of my business in one building has its benefits: I usually wake up around 15 minutes before my shift starts, roll out of bed, put on my hat and uniform, brush my teeth, and run downstairs to report for work!

This is by no means is an exhaustive description of McMurdo, but I’m sure there will be many stories to come!

Flying to and landing in Antarctica was such a crazy experience! I said before that we flew down on a C-17 military plane. Now, this was not your average commercial passenger plane (to put it lightly). The engine was so piercing that we had to wear ear plugs for the 5 hour flight to avoid hearing damage. No cushiony seats. No in-flight beverage carts or well-groomed flight attendant staff, either. Keyword: minimalist. Here’s a little video clip of the interior of the plane so you can get an idea of what it looked like:

After the whole boomerang incident with our first flight attempt (read post below), I was hesitant to get my hopes too high that we would actually make it to Antarctica on our second flight! After 4.5 hours of flying, I got a chance to peek into the cockpit of the C-17. I climbed the stairs to the cockpit and what I saw at the top took my breath away. We were flying over what is called “pack ice” (huge sheets of ice with large cracks in it, around the peripherary of Antarctica). It was such a beautiful sight! Shortly before we landed, I took a couple pictures out of a teeny porthole in the side of the plane…my first glimpse of a range of Antarctic mountains. Here are several pictures of those unforgettable first moments…

Right before we landed, the flight crew told us to not take pictures as we got off the plane (they needed to load a bunch of winter-over folks onto the plane directly after we got off, so they needed us to be efficient. However, I was naughty and decided to make a little movie on my camera of stepping off the plane. It was so worth it. Here’s a short video clip of what it’s like to step on to the continent of Antarctica:

I’ll write more soon about what my job is like, what we do for recreation here at McMurdo, and what it’s like to live in 24 hour daylight!

I’m finally in Antarctica!

We flew in last night and I had a long day of work today…so I’m too exhausted to even attempt a coherent entry, but nonetheless, I just wanted to let you all know that I made it safely and I’m already having a great time! More to come very soon…

Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention. In a few moments, you are going to feel the plane turn. [Long pause]. That turn is going to take us [another long pause] BACK to New Zealand. A weather system has just moved over McMurdo, and we’ve got to turn around. So get comfortable, we have another 5 hours ahead of us.

Moans, groans, and general disbelief ensued from here. I, myself, was speechless…with my jaw hanging open for several minutes. What happened to us is called a “boomerang,” or when the plane turns around mid-flight due to bad weather. But what happened to our flight just so happened to be the boomerang worst case scenario…because they were forced to make the call when we were only minutes from landing in Antarctica. I must say that it was quite disappointing…that after a week of flight delays, I was finally all dressed in my gear and moments away from my first step onto the Ice! On the bright side, the shared disappointment among all 150 passengers helped build solidarity

Apparently, boomerang flights are pretty common and the current record for boomerangs is 7. Let’s hope that we won’t even get close to breaking that record! We’re going to try to fly again tomorrow morning at 10 am. Keep your fingers crossed!