On the Shelf

I have officially been in Antarctica for one week. This week has gone by fast yet has been full of my new job and meeting new people so it feels like a lot has happened. I have imagined some questions some people might have so here is my first hypothetical Q and A! If you have other questions about life at McMurdo, ask away in the comments and I promise to address all relevant ones in future posts! Again, sorry for lack of pictures. I'm still working on this issue! Q: What's the food like? A: I work in the galley, so I can answer that question well! We serve a rotating menu that repeats every five weeks, with multiple options for both meat eaters and vegetarians. Things we have served this week include gyros, beef burgundy, meatball subs, and bbq beef brisket. We serve most food cafeteria style, but there are stations to get fresh burgers, burritos, or eggs to order depending on the day and the meal. There is usually some sort of  "salad" which could mean real...

I'm writing this from the computer lab at McMurdo Station, Antarctica!  I wish this post had some pictures to prove it, but I'm working on that - hopefully pictures to come! In my last post, I talked about being delayed because of storms-and those storms ended up resulting in me being delayed about 2 1/2 weeks! It was not a historic delay, but the longest delay for the program in decades, according to the news articles I read. It was great to get to explore Christchurch but I was ready to start my job and get down to the ice. I rode a C-17 down to the ice, operated by the U.S. Air Force. This was a new experience for me, and a new type of aircraft - after all the small planes in Alaska and the various passenger jets, it was a completely different experience to be in a large plane with no windows. It was a remarkably smooth flight down to the ice and the crew did a great job handling us. I can't really describe the moment I stepped out of the plane. The white...

Greetings from Christchurch! I am writing from a very nice business hotel in downtown Christchurch. I am a sucker for hotels, as I rarely get to stay in them, and all the hotels I stayed at as a kid were those sketchy motel 6- types. So a nice hotel with comfy beds and room service is the way I pretend to be rich. Why am I not in Antarctica? I underwent training and tried on all my cold weather clothes that the program issued me, and was supposed to fly out today. However I'm sipping tea in a hotel and procrastinating packing my suitcases so I can be moved later today to a new hotel. What's going on? The answer is a Condition 1 storm on the continent. Flights have been cancelled and we are getting backed up. Once the storm is cleared and the runway is re-cleared of snow, flights will begin again, but that means I have to wait to fly until the delayed folks ahead of me have been safely delivered to Antarctica. I might be able to leave tomorrow or I might end up in New Zea...