Whales!

There are whales in the bay!!! I just went out and saw them spraying water up through their blowholes! They didn't come to the surface enough for me to actually see them, but people saw flippers and stuff earlier today. The bay is about 1/4 open water at this point, and the whales are all hanging out just beyond the open water where there is still ice but its all broken up. Too cool!

Here are some pics :)

This is the view from my dorm (that's Mt. Discovery in the distance). Town itself isn't too pretty, but the view over the bay is incredible!



Closer up of Mt. Discovery.






More mountains across the bay-I think this looks like something out of a fairy tale.



Me with penguins! Emperor penguins!

Calm down, this post is not about penguins! (well, maybe it is, but mostly it isn't!)

Here's a little summary of general things that have been going on, as opposed to awesome seal/penguin/holiday super hero adventure stories.

I keep saying that things here are busy busy busy, and here is what they are busy with:

I've joined a dodgeball team. The team is strictly galley (kitchen) staff. I've found that I am quite nimble, but am not good at throwing the ball. We've all decided that I should be a sneaky assasin catcher (for those who don't know, in dodgeball you split the court in half. Each team has to stay on their own side, you get out if 1) the ball hits you or 2) someone catches the ball you threw. Therefore, you have to be nimble and either a good thrower or a good catcher). I've only taken one ball to the face, but its a soft ball, so it's all good. We are in first place right now and going into the championship tournament, so send good thoughts our way :)

I have also been playing indoor soccer. There was a league going on when I first got here, but all the teams were full, so I was a roaming sub. Now its open soccer every Friday, so you just show up and play. Its interesting, because we play on a basketball court, which is smaller and more slippery than a normal indoor soccer court. Here, too, I've only taken one ball to the face. Soccer balls are rather hard though, and it was kicked very forcefully. Don't worry though! My face is A-Ok, and it shouldn't effect that modeling contract I have with Gucci next summer. (For those who witnessed my ball-to-the-face outdoor Denver soccer move, this was totally wimpy).

I am taking Zumba, which is a type of dance aerobics with latin dance moves. The morning classes are usually full of the Kiwi army guys. They always make up in enthusiasm what they lack in rhythm, and the class is super fun. I just starting boxing lessons with one of the cooks and a photography class with one of the janos (janitors). I plan on coming home a Raging Bull type wedding photographer who can break it down on the dance floor when the entertainment needs a little rejuvenation. I'll have to charge double for the service.

I also just started belly dancing classes! It feels ridiculous, but we get to wear these jangly noise making belts, so thats a lot of fun! And, as of a few days ago, I am certified to use the indoor climbing wall. I thought there would be nothing to do here, but I don't think I could possibly do everything available!

I try to volunteer in other departments when I can. Its good for networking, seeing what other jobs I might like if I come back another season, and giving my heart that warm, fuzzy feeling.

And, of course, I try to get out of town whenever I can. (Here is the part where I write about penguins, even though I said I wouldn't). I got out twice recently and saw penguins both times! The first time I saw Emperors again. They were molting (shedding their feathers and growing new ones). When they do that they go far inland and stand basically still for about ten days. We couldn't get to close to them, and they just looked like statues. Still very pretty. The second time I wasn't that far from home, just a 15 minute walk to the edge of town, and I saw Adeli penguins! They are smaller than Emperors, and much more playful. They were all sleeping when we got there, but woke up when they heard us and started walking towards us! There was a large crack in the ice so they had to stop about 20 feet away, but they weren't scared at all! It was pretty amazing.

The sound is still mostly ice right now, but the ice breaker has been coming in every day, breaking up all the ice. The vessel that brings in supplies for winter is due in about two weeks, and when all the ice is gone and the boat comes in there will be much more wildlife in town. People have been talking about the possibility of whales coming in! I'm going to go out every chance I get to look.

There's only three weeks left, and I feel like I still have a lot to do. Time has just flown by! I guess that means I really am having fun :)

Icestock/Freezing Man

January is high summer down here, and as summer is the season for festivals the world round, McMurdians did not want to miss out! Enter Icestock and Freezing Man!

For those in the know, both names sounds familiar. But let me enlighten you, just in case. Icestock is, of course, the Antarctic version of Woodstock (oh yeah, that one!). Freezing Man might be a little more obscure. Every summer in the high desert of Arizona there is a music/free spirit festival called Burning Man. There they burn a giant effigy of a man, dress in wild costumes and listen to live music. Here at McMurdo, we froze a slightly smaller effigy of a man, dressed in wild costumes, and watched dances performances, as well as danced ourselves.

Icestock was on January 2nd (the day that the station celebrated the New year). Since everyone was at the show instead of stuffing their faces in the kitchen, we galley folk had very little work to do and got a few hours off to go see things! It was held outdoors and the weather was beautiful! There were people in costume, face-painters (I got my bald head painted), people selling wares they had made, and of course, a large stage from which many musicians played. After the outdoor part of the festival was over (about 7:00 pm) things moved into the bars, with acoustic and electric shows, depending on where one went.

Freezing Man was two days ago! It was held inside the "Big Gym" (not as big as you think...about the size of a basketball court-no bleachers). It was lit by black light, and even more people were in costume for this one! There were a few stage performances, including belly dancing, a play, and some badass break dancing (done by my roomie).

So! It may be cold here, it may be isolated, there may only be 1000 of us here! But we still like to celebrate the summer season just like everyone else :)



From Freezing Man.

New Year's Eve...and Day!

McMurdo is in the first time zone after the International Date Line. Know what that means? It means we will be the first in the world to hit midnight tonight! (New Zealand is in the same zone). My friend keeps saying that this year will be very good for all of us since we are ringing it in first. I can't agree more.

I will be celebrating tonight at Scott Base. I would stay here, but, as usual, McMurdo is not celebrating this holiday on the actual day. We are waiting until the weekend to pretend its New Year's, and I will have to work the holiday anyway. I have tomorrow off and I can't let the chance to celebrate first in the world slip through my fingers! Plus, it'll be a cool cultural experience to see if the Kiwis do New Year's differently than us.

This weekend at McMurdo is Icestock. It is exactly what the name implies: an all day festival of music. Like I said, us galley staff will be working, but we each get an hour off to check things out. There will be contests such as "Beautiful Beards," "Best Snow Suit," etc. I will be entering the "Beautiful Heads" competition for baldies only. I'm thinking that I will have an advantage being the only girl competing against a bunch of old men.

Speaking of which, I am still happy to be bald :)

I hope the New Year brings good things for all of you, and I can't wait to see you again next year!

My First Christmas Away From Home

Christmas here at McMurdo was nothing short of bizarre. For me anyway.

My Christmas usually goes something like this:

last minute Christmas Eve gift buying spree (demanded by long tradition instilled by my father), big turkey dinner, mad wrapping rush, hang up stockings, go to sleep with sugar plums dancing in my head. Secretly wake up and open the stockings with my brothers in the dead of night, wake up again Christmas morning at the crack of dawn to see what else Santa brought, festive breakfast followed by a day of relaxing and a night time drive to see the lights for the last time.

Christmas this year went a little like this:

Worked all day Christmas Eve to get ready for the big party that night and even bigger meal the next day. Went to the party (with almost the whole 1000 people who live here) and danced the night away. Woke up Christmas Day, went into work to have "family meal" (special meal for kitchen folk) and immediately after stuffing our faces had to work a 10 hour shift to feed everyone else. (I think this is worth noting: we stuffed out faces with lobster and duck, and a hundred other delightful little side dishes. Much better fare than I ever expected here). It is probably also worth noting that the delightful fare did not agree with me and I was sent home sick. No tree (there is no vegetation here whatsoever) but I made one out of construction paper, complete with ornaments, and hung it on my door. My roommmate made a fire with stockings hanging on it (also out of construction paper) and put it on the fridge. All very festive.

I ended up celebrating my own little Christmas a day later than real Christmas because a) I had the day off and b) we are a day ahead, so the day after Christmas here was Christmas back home. I got a little tradition filled package from home (that I opened secretly, in the dead of night on Christmas Eve, just to keep things real) and was able to call home, so I didn't feel too far away.

I think if things had been more "normal" here I would have felt much more homesick, but as it was it just felt like another adventure here on the Ice. And really, my first Christmas away from home was in Antarctica. How good is that?

Look what I did!

Under Pressure

In the past week I have gone on TWO tours of the Pressure Ridges.

You may be asking yourself, "What are the Pressure Ridges?" Never fear, I am here to answer all!

When a glacier flows onto the ocean it is called an "ice shelf." There are two ice shelves here, the Ross ice shelf and the McMurdo ice shelf. These two meet near the Kiwi station (Scott Base), and where they collide is almost like a frozen earthquake on the ice. Think of how two plates under the Earth's crust collide and form moutain ranges, just on a much smaller scale. These little mountains are called the Pressure Ridges.

They are very beautiful and often intricate ice sculptures. Some of them even look like they must have been crafted by humans. Others look like frozen waves. We hiked out over the sea to get to them and, once there, the trail weaved in and out of the Ridges, almost like a silly maze out of a Dr. Seuss book. There were places where the ice was mostly melted called "melt pools" and also many crevasses in the ice. All of these ultimately lead to the ocean below, but the ice is so thick it didn't feel like there was actually water beneath us.

And now for the cool part. On the first tour, towards the end, we saw a baby seal and its momma across one of the melt pools! It was adorable. The mom was lying there, clearly just trying to bask in the sun, and the baby was flopping all around, slapping it's mom with his little flippers and being the cutest thing on earth. Then, on the second tour, there was this huge seal lying about fifteen feet away from the path! We got so close, it was amazing. And then we continued hiking and that same baby seal with it's momma were there again, but this time they weren't across a melt pool, they were literally two feet from the path! We didn't want to bother them (if you get too close/make the animals upset here its grounds to ban you from the Ice forever) but it was the coolest thing to walk by and see their faces up close. They were just looking at us, curious, and then the baby started flopping around and burying its nose under it's mom's flipper. It was so cool, seeing something so wild and so untouched, so close up.

My friend is sitting next to me, trying to get me to walk down the sea ice in an attempt to see more seals and maybe some penguins. I may just have to take him up on that offer :)

But first, a little treat. One photo (that I did not upload, but stole from a friend) of me at the Ice Caves. Enjoy!