first week

my first week on the ice was a little overwhelming, but in a grand and fun way!

i got introduced to my new job (general assistant in the vehicle maintenance facility aka the heavy shop). the other GA that i work with, chris, is pretty cool and was very patient when showing me how to do everything. the mechanics we all cordial, which threw me off because i was expecting to get hazed. i think it helped a bit that i know two of the mechanics and a supply person... oh and the fact that i am full of awesome!

anywho, only after a couple of days it was new years eve and i attended a hut 10 party that my friend from black island threw. the food was a*maz*ing! i stuffed my face, drank a little wine and then went to Icestock to hear some good old antarctic music. I ran into everybody i knew, danced, drank my face off and then....

well i dont remember the rest, but apparently i had fun and thats what matters. not the puking for 4 hours part. nope, not at all. ;-)



i also went for a hike with sheryl and brenda on the ob hill loop. it was rather windy and i hadnt yet acclimated, so it was a bit nipply, but rather fun and we got to see some seals. of course, right when we got back to town i realized i hadnt attended an outdoor safety lecture and therefore my hike was illegal! oops!

Getting to Antarctica Videos

boomerang!

So on Christmas ever our flight took off from Christchurch on a C-17. Everything was good and dandy until 4.5 hours into the flight they informed us that weather was about to come in and they wouldnt let us land. So we headed back to Christchurch. boo! they sad thing was that we could see Ross Island from the plane.



After 10 hours of flying everyone was pretty sour about not making it to the Ice. I was sad because I really wanted to attend MAAG (McMurdo Alternative Art Gallery), the VMF party and have dinner with my friends.

On Christmas I met up with some of the grantees from my flight and ate at a pub, it was a pretty good time.

Then at 2 am we had the first in a series of earthquakes! It woke me out of a dead sleep and when I looked out the window I could see the power going off across the city. I flew out of bed and ran down 24 flights of stairs. We had another at 2:30, 5:30 and 8 am. After the 8 am quake I asked the travel department if I could switch to a smaller hotel. I just didnt feel safe 24 flights up and frankly my calves were killing me from running down the stairs several times.


(Damage from the September earthquake)

Right when I got to my new hotel we had a big earthquake and for the rest of the evening had smaller quakes. It was very unsettling and since I was sick and congested my equilibrium was off and I kept feeling dizzy. I ended up spending the rest of the day with some geologists from my flight and they made me feel a lot better about the quakes. Our last one was at midnight.

Unfortunately for Christchurch the series of 30 quakes was epicentered right in town and the rapid succession of them did a lot more damage than the bigger September quake. Roofs fell in, windows shattered, chimneys collapsed and because of that they kept shutting down more and more sections of the city. I will say they response teams acted very quickly.

The next morning we went back to the CDC and boarded our flight, we brought 25,000 lbs of beer!


our flight was completely smooth and we saw such great views of the continent!