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!!