Even More Pictures

Views of and from McMurdo including the Discovery (Scott's) Hut, and the sea ice, which will hopefully thaw this summer now that an enormous ice berg that was clogging things up has moved. Oh, yeah, and a "sunset" -- that's about as much as it sets, and that was taken at about 11:30 pm!

Science Stuff

On Sunday (our one and only day off) I went on a tour of the Crary Science Center, which I believe is the biggest building at McMurdo. At the time the Crary was built several years ago, it was also the most expensive building the US Government had ever built. I noticed immediately that it's humidified (at least in some areas), a welcome change from the extremely dry air outside.
Our guide met us in the hallway and explained what all goes on there, and it is a lot. We saw meteor fragments found on the ice (it's a good place to look for them since they stand out on the ice desert), gigantic pickled sea fleas (giganticism is common in many marine species here, probably due to the cold), volcanic crystals that are only found in two places in the world: Mt. Erebus in Antarctica and Mt. Kenya, seal skulls and penguin eggs.
One wing is dedicated to biology, another area houses atmospheric studies. We saw video of Mt. Erebus (Antarctica's only active volcano) errupting and diagrams of the path the atmospheric balloons are following around the ozone hole. But my favorite area was the aquarium.
We walked into a chilly room filled with large blue tanks of sea water. The tanks held sea urchins, anemones, sea stars, sponges, octopus, sea spiders (really creepy looking!), and of course the famous antifreeze fish. These fish develop a chemical in their bodies to prevent them from freezing. They looked a lot like groupers to me. I asked the biologist if they were related and she said they are not sure, as they have not found any fossil record of these fish yet. She also said that they have to be really careful when catching these fish because if a single ice crystal hits their bodies when they come out of the water, they freeze instantly (as she put it, instant fish popcicle). Crazy! She allowed us to dip our hands in the tank and it was cold! Just under the freezing point of sea water, which I think is 23 degrees F -- something like that.

Ice Ice Baby

And it's actually not too cold...
Hi everyone, and welcome to my ice blog. I am writing to you from McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Today is a balmy 12 degrees F (-31F with windchill) and the sun is shining. As it will be all night. Wait, a storm just blew in and now we are at Condition 2, meaning it's really windy and poor visibility. Things change here fast! Anyway, I digress...
I arrived here Oct. 11, 2005 to an overcast day of negative 27 F. After spending 3 days of orientation in lovely Christchurch, New Zealand, I was anxious to go to "the ice," as we call it. We flew in a C-17 (huge military cargo plane), taking 5 hours to get to McMurdo. About 4 hours into the flight we could finally see the Antarctic continent below. Now, I'm generally not one to get overly excited about stuff, but I tell you, when I looked out that window and saw the mountains and ice fields below, I just about peed my pants. I mean, it's ANTARCTICA!!
Before landing, we bundled up in all our ECWs (Extreme Cold Weather gear), including signature red parka and "bunny boots." (This stuff really works! I can honestly say, I have not really been cold, core body temperature-wise, since I got here. Ok, my face feels like it's going to freeze off at times, but no hypothermia yet. We'll save that for Happy Camper school. That's when they take you out of town, teach you how to build igloos and stuff and you camp overnight.)
Anyway, we landed on the sea ice runway that will hopefully become McMurdo Sound as we progress into summer. And we really hit the ground running. As soon as we landed, we were driven to town in a huge orange vehicle called Ivan the Terra Bus. My supervisor met us and we were taken to the Galley (cafeteria) for orientation, given our room keys and eventually left to wander about for the day.
The following days are somewhat of a blur of training, meeting people, hiking, exploring, working, eating, sleeping and more training. Looking back now I realize I was exhausted the first week. It's a lot to take in: new place, new climate, new people, new job. And to top it off, you are wearing about 10-20 pounds of clothing whenever you are outside. It takes some getting used to. I found myself getting a little grumpy with how hard it is to do the most mundane tasks here. But eventually you get used to it and then start to take the time to stop and see the ice.
Here are some of my observations so far:

• Lots of white, lots of brown (volcanic dirt)
• Lots of beards
• Lots of drinking. People here have an immense fascination with alcohol -- even more so than Kwaj!
• Good food -- better than Kwaj. "Freshies" come from New Zealand -- good stuff!
• It doesn't take long before any temperature above zero seems warm.
• Wind = bad, cold. Weather changes quickly and often.
• Constant sunlight not a problem for sleeping, but very weird when leaving Open Mic night at the Coffee House at 11 pm and it looks like 2 in the afternoon outside.
• Wearing just jeans and a sweater feels like wearing nothing.
• Insulated Carhartt overalls are not designed for 5'3" women. Nor are any of the issued ECWs, for that matter.
• Returning with frozen faces from a hike up Ob Hill, we passed a guy out jogging in shorts and a t-shirt.
• Inspired by jogger, I can now make it from work to the bathroom 20 yards away without my big red parka. Raa!

Anyway, that's it for now. Thanks for checking in. I am going to post some pictures now and will try to update this when I can. The internet is extremely slow here, but afterall, it's Antarctica, man!!

More pictures!

My life: my work (Carpentry & Construction shop warehouse, featuring Kathy the forklift I learned how to operate), the galley (cafeteria), my dorm room, pre-arrival of roommate Cori.

Pictures!

View of Antarctica from window of C-17; Cindy, me and Jessica aboard C-17 en route to McMurdo; view of McMurdo Station from Ob Hill.

Glossary of Terms

McMurdo has its own language of sorts. Here are a few ice-isms -- feel free to try these at home:

• The Ice - Antarctica
• Polie - A South Pole resident, also a rock cover band from the Pole.
• Mac Town - What polies call McMurdo
• Fingee - That's what I am. Derived from FNG, for F-ing New Guy. (I prefer to call my self a newbee). (Can be a verb, meaning to go through orientation together. "You'll find the best friends you make here are the ones you fingeed with.")
• Returnee - Veteran of the ice
• Ice time - how long you have been a veteran of the ice
• Skua - 1. An Antarctic bird known for it's scanvenging. 2. Sort of a free Goodwill Store at McMurdo where people can leave clothing, etc. for others to scavenge. 3. v. To Skua - to either donate something to Skua or score something great at Skua. "Hey, where'd you get that awesome sweater?" "I skuaed it."
• Freshies - Fresh fruits and vegetables. (A rarity in the winter and later parts of the summer.)
• Kiwi Station - Scott Base, the New Zealand Station about 2 miles away from McMurdo