Myself with my signed winter contract.
The Fuel Tanker and Ice Breaker(right)
Fuel Line with Tanker in Background
Skier in the snow. This could be considered MAAG
The rugby match. Kiwis in the black, Americans in the red, Goofy ref in the stripes.
Some Graffiti along the fuel line
Picture of an Antarctic outhouse for Karen.
The Entrance to MAAG
This could be an example of MAAG
My New Years attire. I finally got to wear the sweater.
Porn Spill playing at Ice Stock.
The GA crew except for two
Playing some Disc Golf
Crossing the finish line after completing the cyclocross race.Greetings everyone,
It has been some time since my last entry. Here is a brief summary of the last month or so:
New Years was a lot of fun. We celebrated with Ice Stock which was kind of an outdoor music festival. There was a stage set up outside where about 4 live bands played music past midnight. Around the stage there were a bunch of little warm up huts that had various offerings inside. The Kiwis grilled sausages and gave them away at one of the huts, while another hut was manned by the carpenters and offered free spiked coffee to anyone who wanted it. Pretty much the whole town was in attendance; everyone seemed to have a great time and danced their pants off. Luckily, we all wear at least three layers of clothing so there was no nudity for the NSF to complain about. The bands were all pretty entertaining and the New Year was brought in by my fav. band on station, Porn Spill, the funk cover band.
After New Years, things kind of returned to normal- long hours of work and occasional weekend recreational events. The food took a turn for the worse after Christmas and was pretty bad for about 3 weeks or so. It seemed like every night we were served the same mush just a different color. Since then, the food has been getting better though and lately we have been spoiled with copious amounts of freshies including, cherries, peaches, tomatoes, grapefruit, pineapple, etc… It has been pretty nice, but will come to an end soon.
The weekend after New Years, I ran in a 10K race. I didn’t even come close to wining, but I finished pretty much right in the middle of the pack. It was pretty cold at first but once I got moving I was able to stay pretty warm.
The weekend after the race, the annual American vs. Kiwi ice rugby match was played out on the ice shelf. It was pretty bizarre to see people playing rugby in Antarctica. The Americans have never won the game. In fact, they have never even scored a point against the Kiwis. This year was no different. Although, we did have a kick fly off the cross bar, we ended up being shut out. The NZ rugby league president donated a trophy for the event, a pretty big deal. It would be equivalent to Bud Selig bringing down a trophy for a baseball game. Also, the NZ team received a DVD message in the mail made by the All Blacks (the NZ national rugby team) coach wishing the team good luck before the big match.
The next weekend was the annual MAAG party. MAAG stands for McMurdo Alternative Art Gallery. This was a pretty neat event. Everyone and anyone in the community was encouraged to submit any kind of art they wanted to the show. There was a man in a barrel of pudding, a food fight room, and all sorts of weird art projects and entertainment.
The next week the ice breaker arrived in town. The ice breaker is a ship that breaks its way through the sea ice to create a channel for the fuel tanker and re-supply vessel that come in after it. The crew from the ice breaker were, and understandably so, happy to finally make it to town. They had so much fun on one of their first nights here that they were quickly banned from purchasing any alcohol on station. I guess all the things you hear about sailors held true. I became a “fuelie” for week while the fuel tanker was here refilling our fuel supply. I worked 12 hour night shifts. My job was to walk up and down the fuel line all night to make sure there were no leaks in the line. It was definitely not the most exciting job but it was pretty good exercise and there was a lot of interesting graffiti along the pipeline to keep it interesting. After the tanker left, the resupply vessel came in. The resupply vessel brings all the food, science supplies, and anything else that is needed for the winter and next summer season. I switched back to days to help with the vessel offload. Again, I was working 12 hour shifts. My job this time was to basically inventory all the food that came in. I worked with a group of people from the supply department here. It was pretty strange. All I wanted was for the whole thing to be over. Luckily we finished just yesterday and now I am back to normal 10 hour days.
I did get a winter position and passed my physical and psychological (whew) exams. This means I will be here at least until October. This week is officially my first as a Field Coordinator. I’m no longer a GA. This is a good thing. My pay pretty much doubles and the work is a little better. Basically, my job is to inspect camping/outdoor/science gear that was used this season or recently purchased and clean/repair/inspect it and make sure it is ready to be used next season. To give you a taste of the change, instead of doing everyone’s dirty work like shoveling snow or cleaning bolts, yesterday I spent the whole day inside sewing on an industrial strength sewing machine. I’m working in a building called the BFC which is basically just a big outdoor sporting goods store. It’s full of all sorts of really expensive gear, high quality gear.
People who aren’t staying for the winter have been starting to leave already and most of my friends will be gone by the end of this week. The last couple of weeks have been filled with conversations about which beach they will visit, what their first meal off-continent will consist of, and discussions about how tasty they expect their first draft beer to be. My first beach is a ways away and for the next 8 months or so there will be no draft beer in my tummy only the taste of the not so recently expired* Tui or Speights we are able to purchase here.
*All the beer here, and most of the food for that matter, is expired. If you are lucky enough to get something that only expired two months ago it is considered a delicacy. Most everything is at least 4 months past its date. They assure us it is still safe to consume, however, curiously enough the pilots of all the different aircrafts that operate here are not allowed to consume any drink or food past expiration. I guess their health is valued a little more than that of everyone else.
Other news:
-There was a big Jello wrestling controversy here. Yes you read right, Jello wrestling. A guy organized a Jello wrestling night in one of the warehouses here and when NSF people found out he was fired. People in the community were outraged that such drastic action was taken. Soon after the event, we had an all hands meeting (meeting with the station manager and everyone in the community), the whole meeting ended up being about Jello wrestling. It was basically everyone getting pissed off at management and arguing over whether or not Jello wrestling is an acceptable event. I should note that there was no nudity involved with the jello wrestling. The head of the station a guy named Duffy, who is an ex Marine, basically told everyone that he doesn’t think Jello wrestling is morally appropriate. This did not help diffuse the situation at all. Since the meeting, posters and bracelets have been popping up around station with WDDD (What Would Duffy Do). Also, a lot of stickers about moral compasses have been stuck in various spots. It was my favorite all hands meeting to date.
- Two of my roommates are gone now. Before one of them left, he decided to party pretty hard one night and was found “Donald Ducking” in the public lounge at 4 in the morning. If you are wondering what Donald Ducking means, think about what Donald Duck wears. That is also what my roommate was wearing when he was found, nothing but a t-shirt.
-I’m trying to think of winter projects or things to keep me occupied over the winter. So far all I have come up with is that I want to work on my screaming voice. You know how people like Adam Sandler and Jack Black have really good shouting voices, well mine is not that impressive, so I’ve made it my goal to make it better over the winter. This means that I will have to spend a decent amount of time just shouting in my room. I’m wondering if this will cause a stir with my neighbors or if it is pretty much standard practice to walk down the hallway in the winter and hear random screams coming from peoples’ rooms.
- I also plan on winning a bet that I made with my good pal Erik Hoversten concerning the offering of mints at any place that serves food with a lot of garlic or onions in it. We made the bet 4 or 5 years ago, basically I have to have some sort of law or ordinance passed that requires an establishment to provide patrons with free mints if they are going to subject them to foods that encourage strong breath odor. Neither of us really remembers exactly what the wager was, but one of us has it written down somewhere.
-The meat thief has never been found. It appears that the perfect crime has been pulled off.
- The ghost pooper may be expanding his territory. I have heard reports of people finding poop in other buildings around station. Supposedly, it is not that uncommon. I’ve heard stories about other years when there has been someone pooping in weird places and/or smearing poop in inappropriate places. You may be wondering what an inappropriate place to smear poop is, I would probably say anywhere would be an inappropriate place, unless it is somehow related to saving your life or the life of someone else.
-A bunch of Navy Cargo Handlers (NAV CHAPS) are currently in town to help with the vessel offload. When they aren’t working they can be seen browsing facebook or myspace in the computer area. They all wear sweatsuits. Sweats from head to toe. I have nothing against sweats but these people really love their sweat suits. Somebody put some posters up in one of the main hallways that said - Navy come for the adventure….Stay for the sweats.
-The annual McMurdo film festival was held a couple of weeks ago. It included a few films submitted from people at the South Pole station. I think everyone felt a little better about their current level of sanity after seeing the submissions from the South Pole. It would be comparable to somebody with a broken arm seeing someone in a full body cast. The person with the broken arm would feel a lot better about his/her injury after seeing the bodycast person.
-Oh one last thing, I shaved my beard completely off on New Years. Fear not though, I just recently started growing it back, and expect it to be disgustingly bushy in no less than 2 months.
It has been some time since my last entry. Here is a brief summary of the last month or so:
New Years was a lot of fun. We celebrated with Ice Stock which was kind of an outdoor music festival. There was a stage set up outside where about 4 live bands played music past midnight. Around the stage there were a bunch of little warm up huts that had various offerings inside. The Kiwis grilled sausages and gave them away at one of the huts, while another hut was manned by the carpenters and offered free spiked coffee to anyone who wanted it. Pretty much the whole town was in attendance; everyone seemed to have a great time and danced their pants off. Luckily, we all wear at least three layers of clothing so there was no nudity for the NSF to complain about. The bands were all pretty entertaining and the New Year was brought in by my fav. band on station, Porn Spill, the funk cover band.
After New Years, things kind of returned to normal- long hours of work and occasional weekend recreational events. The food took a turn for the worse after Christmas and was pretty bad for about 3 weeks or so. It seemed like every night we were served the same mush just a different color. Since then, the food has been getting better though and lately we have been spoiled with copious amounts of freshies including, cherries, peaches, tomatoes, grapefruit, pineapple, etc… It has been pretty nice, but will come to an end soon.
The weekend after New Years, I ran in a 10K race. I didn’t even come close to wining, but I finished pretty much right in the middle of the pack. It was pretty cold at first but once I got moving I was able to stay pretty warm.
The weekend after the race, the annual American vs. Kiwi ice rugby match was played out on the ice shelf. It was pretty bizarre to see people playing rugby in Antarctica. The Americans have never won the game. In fact, they have never even scored a point against the Kiwis. This year was no different. Although, we did have a kick fly off the cross bar, we ended up being shut out. The NZ rugby league president donated a trophy for the event, a pretty big deal. It would be equivalent to Bud Selig bringing down a trophy for a baseball game. Also, the NZ team received a DVD message in the mail made by the All Blacks (the NZ national rugby team) coach wishing the team good luck before the big match.
The next weekend was the annual MAAG party. MAAG stands for McMurdo Alternative Art Gallery. This was a pretty neat event. Everyone and anyone in the community was encouraged to submit any kind of art they wanted to the show. There was a man in a barrel of pudding, a food fight room, and all sorts of weird art projects and entertainment.
The next week the ice breaker arrived in town. The ice breaker is a ship that breaks its way through the sea ice to create a channel for the fuel tanker and re-supply vessel that come in after it. The crew from the ice breaker were, and understandably so, happy to finally make it to town. They had so much fun on one of their first nights here that they were quickly banned from purchasing any alcohol on station. I guess all the things you hear about sailors held true. I became a “fuelie” for week while the fuel tanker was here refilling our fuel supply. I worked 12 hour night shifts. My job was to walk up and down the fuel line all night to make sure there were no leaks in the line. It was definitely not the most exciting job but it was pretty good exercise and there was a lot of interesting graffiti along the pipeline to keep it interesting. After the tanker left, the resupply vessel came in. The resupply vessel brings all the food, science supplies, and anything else that is needed for the winter and next summer season. I switched back to days to help with the vessel offload. Again, I was working 12 hour shifts. My job this time was to basically inventory all the food that came in. I worked with a group of people from the supply department here. It was pretty strange. All I wanted was for the whole thing to be over. Luckily we finished just yesterday and now I am back to normal 10 hour days.
I did get a winter position and passed my physical and psychological (whew) exams. This means I will be here at least until October. This week is officially my first as a Field Coordinator. I’m no longer a GA. This is a good thing. My pay pretty much doubles and the work is a little better. Basically, my job is to inspect camping/outdoor/science gear that was used this season or recently purchased and clean/repair/inspect it and make sure it is ready to be used next season. To give you a taste of the change, instead of doing everyone’s dirty work like shoveling snow or cleaning bolts, yesterday I spent the whole day inside sewing on an industrial strength sewing machine. I’m working in a building called the BFC which is basically just a big outdoor sporting goods store. It’s full of all sorts of really expensive gear, high quality gear.
People who aren’t staying for the winter have been starting to leave already and most of my friends will be gone by the end of this week. The last couple of weeks have been filled with conversations about which beach they will visit, what their first meal off-continent will consist of, and discussions about how tasty they expect their first draft beer to be. My first beach is a ways away and for the next 8 months or so there will be no draft beer in my tummy only the taste of the not so recently expired* Tui or Speights we are able to purchase here.
*All the beer here, and most of the food for that matter, is expired. If you are lucky enough to get something that only expired two months ago it is considered a delicacy. Most everything is at least 4 months past its date. They assure us it is still safe to consume, however, curiously enough the pilots of all the different aircrafts that operate here are not allowed to consume any drink or food past expiration. I guess their health is valued a little more than that of everyone else.
Other news:
-There was a big Jello wrestling controversy here. Yes you read right, Jello wrestling. A guy organized a Jello wrestling night in one of the warehouses here and when NSF people found out he was fired. People in the community were outraged that such drastic action was taken. Soon after the event, we had an all hands meeting (meeting with the station manager and everyone in the community), the whole meeting ended up being about Jello wrestling. It was basically everyone getting pissed off at management and arguing over whether or not Jello wrestling is an acceptable event. I should note that there was no nudity involved with the jello wrestling. The head of the station a guy named Duffy, who is an ex Marine, basically told everyone that he doesn’t think Jello wrestling is morally appropriate. This did not help diffuse the situation at all. Since the meeting, posters and bracelets have been popping up around station with WDDD (What Would Duffy Do). Also, a lot of stickers about moral compasses have been stuck in various spots. It was my favorite all hands meeting to date.
- Two of my roommates are gone now. Before one of them left, he decided to party pretty hard one night and was found “Donald Ducking” in the public lounge at 4 in the morning. If you are wondering what Donald Ducking means, think about what Donald Duck wears. That is also what my roommate was wearing when he was found, nothing but a t-shirt.
-I’m trying to think of winter projects or things to keep me occupied over the winter. So far all I have come up with is that I want to work on my screaming voice. You know how people like Adam Sandler and Jack Black have really good shouting voices, well mine is not that impressive, so I’ve made it my goal to make it better over the winter. This means that I will have to spend a decent amount of time just shouting in my room. I’m wondering if this will cause a stir with my neighbors or if it is pretty much standard practice to walk down the hallway in the winter and hear random screams coming from peoples’ rooms.
- I also plan on winning a bet that I made with my good pal Erik Hoversten concerning the offering of mints at any place that serves food with a lot of garlic or onions in it. We made the bet 4 or 5 years ago, basically I have to have some sort of law or ordinance passed that requires an establishment to provide patrons with free mints if they are going to subject them to foods that encourage strong breath odor. Neither of us really remembers exactly what the wager was, but one of us has it written down somewhere.
-The meat thief has never been found. It appears that the perfect crime has been pulled off.
- The ghost pooper may be expanding his territory. I have heard reports of people finding poop in other buildings around station. Supposedly, it is not that uncommon. I’ve heard stories about other years when there has been someone pooping in weird places and/or smearing poop in inappropriate places. You may be wondering what an inappropriate place to smear poop is, I would probably say anywhere would be an inappropriate place, unless it is somehow related to saving your life or the life of someone else.
-A bunch of Navy Cargo Handlers (NAV CHAPS) are currently in town to help with the vessel offload. When they aren’t working they can be seen browsing facebook or myspace in the computer area. They all wear sweatsuits. Sweats from head to toe. I have nothing against sweats but these people really love their sweat suits. Somebody put some posters up in one of the main hallways that said - Navy come for the adventure….Stay for the sweats.
-The annual McMurdo film festival was held a couple of weeks ago. It included a few films submitted from people at the South Pole station. I think everyone felt a little better about their current level of sanity after seeing the submissions from the South Pole. It would be comparable to somebody with a broken arm seeing someone in a full body cast. The person with the broken arm would feel a lot better about his/her injury after seeing the bodycast person.
-Oh one last thing, I shaved my beard completely off on New Years. Fear not though, I just recently started growing it back, and expect it to be disgustingly bushy in no less than 2 months.
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