Okay. As has been pointed out to me by several people, I have totally fallen off the blog bandwagon. Sorry! Its actually a good thing though – things have been great here! Where to begin?
Well to start off with, my baggage made it here! It was amazing unpacking everything and then picking out an outfit the next day. The boxes I shipped myself also arrived. My bed is officially the most comfortable in the station! I have a memory foam bed top, down comforter, and flannel sheets. Its heaven. Seriously! The bad part is that it seems that ALL my boxes arrived at once! I had several people ask me how many winters I plan on staying. Ooops. After living so long with so little, I realized how overboard I packed! And there are more boxes on the way… oh well! I plan on making a large donation to skua at the end of the winter (the community pile of odds and ends free for all).
The previous NOAA winter crew left! Andy and I have been flying solo for several weeks at ARO without major issues! We’ve fallen into a good routine, and I’m feeling pretty comfortable with the basic job. This is a good thing – Andy leaves in a few weeks and Cully comes in. Then I’ll be alone at ARO for a few weeks – over Christmas and New Years.
The Emergency Response Team has been working pretty hard here the last few weeks. We are ironing out all the bugs in the system and getting trained up. There is a lot of experience on the team to draw from – its fantastic. The aircraft fire fighters have also been awesome. They are excellent teachers and have been an integral part of our training! They have also stood in and observed our drills, giving us constructive criticism in our drill debriefs. We are slowly coming together. We had the opportunity to test our system in real life a few nights ago. At 2:00am on Sunday night we had a fire alarm trip in the garage. We all jumped
People arrived! TONS of people! When I first got here, there were about 80 people on station. Now there are 232! Its just crazy. The station is full, and the Jamesways are near their capacity as well. The rumor is that we are going to top out at 250 people this season. Its amazing seeing how many people it takes to support the science that occurs here – and its really cool being a part of it. We have plumbers, carpenters, electricians, dishwashers, chefs, HR, heavy equipment operators, fuel specialists, cargo experts, materials personnel, grub luggers, utilities technicians, professional fire fighters, station engineers, power plant mechanics – you name it, we have it! Everyone is fantastic. I have met people from all over the county and all over the world since I’ve been here. Everyone has a fascinating story as well – you don’t get down here by having your run of the mill lifestyle, hopes, and dreams. Its wonderful talking with the people sitting next to you at meals, hearing where they are from, and what they have experienced. I love it.
Aside from work, there is TONS to do here, recreation-wise. Volunteers teach classes every morning and night of the week. If you’re bored here, its strictly your own fault. I have been taking part in the dance classes – I’ve been swing and salsa dancing several nights every week! It’s a blast! There aren’t too many of us, but it’s a lot of fun to just let loose and learn something new. I have also been hosting movie night at ARO every week. Attendance has been improving. This week’s film is going to be ‘Strange Brew’, a classic Canadian comedy about two brothers on a quest for free adult beverages. This movie is a little nostalgic for me – we used to play it on Rainier when we were cruising through Canadian waters on our way through the Inside Passage. Since the station is currently out of beer (good beer, anyway), I thought it was the perfect choice this week. Saturday nights have been movie night in our Communications Shop – they have a projector, disco ball, and bubble machine. Good times. Last Saturday night was the 10th annual James Brown Bingo. It is an evening of bingo and craziness hosted by our top chef. It was pretty insane! There was a cream pie fight, at least one shirtless guy, and enough yelling for me to begin losing my voice. I can’t wait for the next bingo night.
This morning a bulldozer finally made it out to ARO to clear the HUGE drift that was in front of the lab. We can’t get cargo in or out with the snow in the way. For about two hours, the dozer pushed snow away from the cargo deck and smoothed out a nice ramp for forklifts to nudge up and take away our boxes. It was like watching an artist work! The equipment operator was a PRO! She did a fantastic job clearing the small mountain and then using the blade of the dozer to make a nice smooth ramp. In the aftermath of the clearing, there was the perfect setup for a snow fort. So what did I do? I grabbed large blocks of snow created by the dozer and began stacking them. I plan on building a little more each day until I have a superior structure which provides excellent shelter from incoming snowballs. Not that anyone throws snowballs other than me… but maybe I will when I start ambushing visitors to ARO. The first test is going to be tomorrow night when my friends come out to watch the movie… Muahahahaha!
We had an Indian traverse group arrive on station yesterday – they came in three GORGEOUS Toyota Tundras retrofitted for Antarctic travel. They run on jet fuel, have huge tires, and are outfitted to haul huge trailers and complete science during their trek across the continent. I’m not sure where they started, but they made it here in only 10 days from the coast! Crazy! Our traverses which bring fuel take at least a month to get here. These guys were HAULING. I saw two of the trucks driving around the Pole for a photo shoot, and they were amazing. These things are definitely built to float over the snow. The ride looked a little bumpy, but not terrible! I can’t imagine traversing the continent in less than a month. Along the way, they are completing several studies, including looking at aerosols, glaciology, and other things – I can’t remember what their scientists told me this morning during our conversation!
Thanksgiving is this weekend! Yes – I said this weekend. We aren’t celebrating Thanksgiving on Thursday with the rest of the world. Instead of breaking up the week with a day off and then having Saturday being a normal working day and Sunday off, Thanksgiving was shifted to Saturday. This way, the Raytheon crew gets a solid two days off in a row. Everyone is pretty excited for that! So this week is chock full of preparations for the 232-person feast this weekend. I’m helping bake pies on Thursday evening. There is also a huge potato-peeling party on the same night. There will be three different seatings for dinner itself – two for the day crews and one for the night and swing shifters. I’m helping serve wine at the last seating. I am attending the first seating, where a good chunk of my friends will also be. It should be a lot of fun – I’m excited to put on a dress, do my hair, and wear makeup! It’s the little things…
That pretty much sums up how things are going here. I’m loving life. Until next time…
PS – Hello Ben’s Dad!
