Well hello again!
It has been 2 weeks since the last time I wrote and wanted to update y'all on life here. The week before last brought a condition 2 storm. We even got to leave work early. Woo hoo!! A condition 2 storm is defined as when any one of the following happens: Wind speed is greater than 53 mph but less than or equal to 60 mph, or visibility is greater than 100 feet but less than or equal to 1/4 mile, or windchill temperature is greater than -100°F but less than or equal to -75°F. Quite a blustery day! The wind actually picked me up off of my feet and I landed on the ground hard! But I was okay. Eric was there to pick me up, but he wasn't quick enough to catch me. It just threw me for a loop. The strongest recorded wind gust so far this season was 78 mph! Eric says that this is some of the more typical weather at WAIS Divide and to pretty much get used to it. We should be heading there this week depending on weather. The Put-In crew hasn't even left yet for WAIS and they don't want us (the carpenter Put-In crew) to come for 3 days after they've arrived so they can groom the runway. They are about a week and a half behind schedule. We'll see what this week brings. Pray for lift off.
I do have some fun news for this past week though. I was able to do some actual carpentry work up at the shop. I assisted a carpenter in making a bookshelf as well as cut up some plywood boards to lay down as flooring. I used a table saw, circular saw and a router!!! Can you beleive it? I even got to wear a tool belt with tools in it and everything. It was quite heavy but as a few of the carps have called me "Muscles," I seemed to have done okay with it. I've always said that I'm stronger than I look. So that was quite a fun couple of days for me. I'm still learning a lot, a little more everyday and having a great time.
One thing I did forget to mention last time I wrote has to do with Happy Camper. That was the 2 day outside "Survivor" style course that everyone down here has to partake in. So during the introductions of about 20 of us, 3 people who worked with the BBC introduced themselves. It turns out that they are down here filming a series called "Frozen Planet." It's the same team that brought us the very popular "Planet Earth" series that Sir David Attenborough narrated. He will do the narration for this new series as well as possibly be here in McMurdo this coming January. My father is very jealous!
The six-part series will focus on life in the Arctic and Antarctic. The production team were interested to film a comprehensive record of the natural history of the polar regions, because climate change is affecting landforms such as glaciers, ice shelves, and the extent of sea ice. I was able to get to know one of the directors for the series named Dr. Chadden Hunter. Aside from being quite easy on the eyes (Eric knows that I think this and is fine with it :) ), he also presented a program for McMurdo showing us never before seen clips that will be in the series. It was fascinating and has added an additional level of "coolness" (pun intended) in being down here. The series is hoping to make it's premiere in Januray of 2011.
I wanted to give you a little bit of insight into a typical day for me down here in Antarctica:
6:30AM-7AM- Wake up at typically 7 because you know how I need my 9+ hours of sleep!
7:30AM-Report to the carp shop. Overalls (Carhartts) and all.
7:30AM-8AM- Morning meeting and stretching. After this I usually eat the breakfast snack that Eric is kind of enough to bring to the carp shop so I can sleep in another 45 minutes or so.
8AM-10AM-Work on whatever project they decide to put me on. For the first couple weeks this didn't even involve so much as a hammer.
10AM-10:15AM- Break, This usually involves eating fresh popcorn that the materials shop next door to us makes.
10:15AM-12:00PM- Continue working on whatever they tell me to.
12:00PM-1:00PM-Lunch with Eric
1:00PM-3:00PM-Continue with work
3:00PM-3:15PM- Break; Yeah!!
3:15PM-5:30PM- Finish up work for the day
5:30PM-6:30PM- Nap time!
6:30PM-8PM or so- Dinner time!
8PM-9/10PM- Rest, watch movie, go to the Coffee House and play cribbage and drink their yummy hot chocolate
9:30PM-10:30 PM- I'll be in bed anytime between these times. Good night!
I do this 6 days out of the week with Sundays off. On Sundays I do any or all of the following- sleep in, go to church, eat brunch, nap, read, catch up on the blog, take a hike, nap again, listen to a Science lecture, go to the coffee house, nap some more and get ready for another long work week. I've never enjoyed naps so much!
So thanks for continuing to read the blog. I should have some more interesting things to write about once we're at WAIS Divide. I'll let you know when we finally get there. I hope that everyone had a safe and Happy Halloween and has a super Sunday!!
McMurdo facts:
71% males on base
29% females on base
1032 people in mcMurdo now
Good odds for females, not so great for the guys...
Average age here- approximately 36 years old
We recycle almost 60% of everything here.
Love,
Erika
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
A Week in Review
Howdy everyone!
Wow what a week! So last time I wrote we had just arrived and had begun to settle in a bit, or as much as I could at least. Last Saturday Oct. 10 was the first day at work, mainly carpenter shop orienation and some training. There are around 70 people working in the Carp shop. Around 20 females and 50 males. Everybody is great, has varying levels of talents and seem to work well with others. Especially the small Texan who does not have much carp shop experience. But I am being taken under the wings of many and have been learning a lot! The first real day of work on Monday I did work orders, i.e. fixing broken door latches, installing toilet paper dispensers etc. Eric better watch out! He's going to be getting competition back in Austin! I also worked all day outside on putting together 10 boxes of Jamesways tents, which have ben used as shelters since the Korean War. This leads me to Tuesday at 5:30 PM.
I get off work and immediately head to bed. I have a 101.5 fever, chills, then hot sweats, a runny noise, sneezing fits, watery eyes, achy body... a whole lot of not very fun times. So I stayed in bed all the next day, having already called into work letting them know I wouldn't be there. During the whole time before, I was drinking plenty of fluids, or at least what I thought was plenty, washing my hands all the time and trying to stay generally healthy. But the bug found me. Eric sweetly brought me soup and crackers for dinner and put on Enya for me to listen to. What a nice boyfriend. So all day Wednesday I was in bed trying to get better. But I am much better now! I knew eventually I'd get sick down here, but didn't think it would be this soon.
On Thursday I helped do "Food Pulls" for WAIS Divide which is where I will be going for 6 to 8 weeks this season. It stands for West Antarctic Ice Sheet and is 800 miles west of McMurdo. They are drilling a 10,000 foot ice core there to study the earth's climate from 100,000 years back. Very intersting! Eric has been there twice and will be the carpenter foreman again this season. So I helped to get lots of the food that will be flown out there, packaged it up and got it ready to be mailed off. Made sure we had lots of chocolate! Although it was a lot of heavy lefting, it was a good, warm time inside which helped me to keep getting better.
Now that brings me to Friday and Saturday! So there is this camp called "Happy Camper" that all first year workers have to go to. Mine was this weekend. There were 20 of us that went out to the Ross Ice Shelf and went through a training course on how to survive out in the elements. We were very lucky as we had failry decent weather. Not much wind to speak of. Granted we slept outside in -27 temeratures but I managed to stay pretty warm inside my sleeping bag. We had to build shelters (one of them being a Quincy hut), use emergency kitchen gear, build ice walls, have buckets on our heads and try and find our instuctor (all of this to simulate a white out) and just in general survive. The key was to keep busy in order to stay warm and you would be fine. We certainly stayed busy. All in all it was a pretty good time. Not as bad as others made it out to be. But I was definitley happy to be done with it and to not have to do it again. I'll have some of the pictures labled from it so you can see what I am talking about.
So here are a few things that I've learned so far:
1. Static electricty runs rampant here. It seems that anything I touch shocks me. Sometimes even when you're not in the dark, the spark is so big that you can see it!
2. I've already gone through almost a bottle of lotion. My skin just soaks the stuff up. Again a testament to how dry it is here. I should have brought more lotion!
3. It's okay to want to go to bed at 8PM even when you don't have to wake up until 6AM. I am working my behind off here!
A few Facts about Antarctica:
1. It holds 70% of Earth's frehwater.
2. 98% of it is coverd in ice and snow.
3. It holds 90% of the world's ice.
4. The ice sheet is over 2 miles deep.
So that is my week in review! It feels like I have been here for 10 weeks. But it is really going very well. I'm meeting more and more great people, learning a lot and soaking up all that is the Antarctica experience. Until next time!
Love,
Erika
Wow what a week! So last time I wrote we had just arrived and had begun to settle in a bit, or as much as I could at least. Last Saturday Oct. 10 was the first day at work, mainly carpenter shop orienation and some training. There are around 70 people working in the Carp shop. Around 20 females and 50 males. Everybody is great, has varying levels of talents and seem to work well with others. Especially the small Texan who does not have much carp shop experience. But I am being taken under the wings of many and have been learning a lot! The first real day of work on Monday I did work orders, i.e. fixing broken door latches, installing toilet paper dispensers etc. Eric better watch out! He's going to be getting competition back in Austin! I also worked all day outside on putting together 10 boxes of Jamesways tents, which have ben used as shelters since the Korean War. This leads me to Tuesday at 5:30 PM.
I get off work and immediately head to bed. I have a 101.5 fever, chills, then hot sweats, a runny noise, sneezing fits, watery eyes, achy body... a whole lot of not very fun times. So I stayed in bed all the next day, having already called into work letting them know I wouldn't be there. During the whole time before, I was drinking plenty of fluids, or at least what I thought was plenty, washing my hands all the time and trying to stay generally healthy. But the bug found me. Eric sweetly brought me soup and crackers for dinner and put on Enya for me to listen to. What a nice boyfriend. So all day Wednesday I was in bed trying to get better. But I am much better now! I knew eventually I'd get sick down here, but didn't think it would be this soon.
On Thursday I helped do "Food Pulls" for WAIS Divide which is where I will be going for 6 to 8 weeks this season. It stands for West Antarctic Ice Sheet and is 800 miles west of McMurdo. They are drilling a 10,000 foot ice core there to study the earth's climate from 100,000 years back. Very intersting! Eric has been there twice and will be the carpenter foreman again this season. So I helped to get lots of the food that will be flown out there, packaged it up and got it ready to be mailed off. Made sure we had lots of chocolate! Although it was a lot of heavy lefting, it was a good, warm time inside which helped me to keep getting better.
Now that brings me to Friday and Saturday! So there is this camp called "Happy Camper" that all first year workers have to go to. Mine was this weekend. There were 20 of us that went out to the Ross Ice Shelf and went through a training course on how to survive out in the elements. We were very lucky as we had failry decent weather. Not much wind to speak of. Granted we slept outside in -27 temeratures but I managed to stay pretty warm inside my sleeping bag. We had to build shelters (one of them being a Quincy hut), use emergency kitchen gear, build ice walls, have buckets on our heads and try and find our instuctor (all of this to simulate a white out) and just in general survive. The key was to keep busy in order to stay warm and you would be fine. We certainly stayed busy. All in all it was a pretty good time. Not as bad as others made it out to be. But I was definitley happy to be done with it and to not have to do it again. I'll have some of the pictures labled from it so you can see what I am talking about.
So here are a few things that I've learned so far:
1. Static electricty runs rampant here. It seems that anything I touch shocks me. Sometimes even when you're not in the dark, the spark is so big that you can see it!
2. I've already gone through almost a bottle of lotion. My skin just soaks the stuff up. Again a testament to how dry it is here. I should have brought more lotion!
3. It's okay to want to go to bed at 8PM even when you don't have to wake up until 6AM. I am working my behind off here!
A few Facts about Antarctica:
1. It holds 70% of Earth's frehwater.
2. 98% of it is coverd in ice and snow.
3. It holds 90% of the world's ice.
4. The ice sheet is over 2 miles deep.
So that is my week in review! It feels like I have been here for 10 weeks. But it is really going very well. I'm meeting more and more great people, learning a lot and soaking up all that is the Antarctica experience. Until next time!
Love,
Erika
Saturday, October 10, 2009
The E's have landed!
Hello to everyone from McMurdo Station, Antarctica!
We arrived here this past Friday October 9 at 2 PM. That would have been 8 PM Texas time on Thursday. We got up at 5AM Friday morning, after no calls telling us that the flight was delayed, and headed to the USAP center. We loaded the plane around 8AM and flew 5 hours to McM. It was a non-eventful flight, just the way I like them. I even got to go up into the cockpit and meet the crew flying us. What a view! Speaking of views I wish you could have been with me as we got off the plane and stepped foot onto the coldest, driest and windiest continent on earth. It was about the most strange and out of body experience I have ever had. There was only 1 word to describe it, well okay maybe 2... surreal and COLD!!! A nice lady named Cynthia that Eric and I hung out with today told me I should name my blog "sureally cold." That would have been a good name!
Next we all took a bus to McM about 18 miles away from Pegasus White Ice Runway where we landed. It is called White Ice because the runway sits on about a 110 foot thick glaciated ice shelf with 3-4 inches of compacted snow on top, also known as white ice. So once we arrived in McM we had more briefings, got our room assignments, bedding and headed to Hotel California. Yes that is the name of the place we're staying. Very appropriate I would say! The view out of the window is stunning. It's overlooking lots of mountains and the ocean which of course is iced over right now, but is beautiful nontheless. Come January we will be able to see the actual ocean.
The town itself is about a quarter mile by a quarter mile. Everything is fairly compact and easy enough to get to. The dining area, laundry and general store is located in a bulding called 155 where we head to at least 3 times a day. The food is actually pretty good. I've had lasagna, chiken and mushroom pasta, steak, fresh fruits and veggies and today there was a Sunday brunch! Can you beleive it??? I had a made to order omlette, Belgian waffle and fresh fruit. It was tasty!
So our work week is 6 days a week, 10 hours a day (with 1 hour off for lunch) and is fairly brutal. My first day of work was yesterday at the Carpenter shop. Technically my title is FEMC GA with the carp shop. That stands for Facilities Engineering Maintenance Construction general assistant. So here I am at 7:30 in the morning doing YOGA with a bunch of carpenters and suddenly realizing that this is really happening. The whole day is more orientation, getting our tools (Yes I have tools. Watch out!) and familiarizing ourselves with the shop. There were just 6 of us new kids on the block doing this orientation. The rest of the 60 or so others had already begun their work for the day, making outhouses for field camps and knowing exactly what they should be doing. So all in all it was a good day, a bit overwhelming but I'm doing well considering where I am and what I'm doing. But I am going to live in the present, one day at a time and enjoy what I have been blessed with.
We have lots of opportunities to learn about what is going on down here which is really great. Right now we're off to have a tour of a lab that will explain some of the scientific research that is going on here. Should be interesting. It is 12 degrees with a wind gust of 30 mph here. That makes it have a wind chill of -12. Yikes! I hope all is well and warm where you are.
Love,
Erika
We arrived here this past Friday October 9 at 2 PM. That would have been 8 PM Texas time on Thursday. We got up at 5AM Friday morning, after no calls telling us that the flight was delayed, and headed to the USAP center. We loaded the plane around 8AM and flew 5 hours to McM. It was a non-eventful flight, just the way I like them. I even got to go up into the cockpit and meet the crew flying us. What a view! Speaking of views I wish you could have been with me as we got off the plane and stepped foot onto the coldest, driest and windiest continent on earth. It was about the most strange and out of body experience I have ever had. There was only 1 word to describe it, well okay maybe 2... surreal and COLD!!! A nice lady named Cynthia that Eric and I hung out with today told me I should name my blog "sureally cold." That would have been a good name!
Next we all took a bus to McM about 18 miles away from Pegasus White Ice Runway where we landed. It is called White Ice because the runway sits on about a 110 foot thick glaciated ice shelf with 3-4 inches of compacted snow on top, also known as white ice. So once we arrived in McM we had more briefings, got our room assignments, bedding and headed to Hotel California. Yes that is the name of the place we're staying. Very appropriate I would say! The view out of the window is stunning. It's overlooking lots of mountains and the ocean which of course is iced over right now, but is beautiful nontheless. Come January we will be able to see the actual ocean.
The town itself is about a quarter mile by a quarter mile. Everything is fairly compact and easy enough to get to. The dining area, laundry and general store is located in a bulding called 155 where we head to at least 3 times a day. The food is actually pretty good. I've had lasagna, chiken and mushroom pasta, steak, fresh fruits and veggies and today there was a Sunday brunch! Can you beleive it??? I had a made to order omlette, Belgian waffle and fresh fruit. It was tasty!
So our work week is 6 days a week, 10 hours a day (with 1 hour off for lunch) and is fairly brutal. My first day of work was yesterday at the Carpenter shop. Technically my title is FEMC GA with the carp shop. That stands for Facilities Engineering Maintenance Construction general assistant. So here I am at 7:30 in the morning doing YOGA with a bunch of carpenters and suddenly realizing that this is really happening. The whole day is more orientation, getting our tools (Yes I have tools. Watch out!) and familiarizing ourselves with the shop. There were just 6 of us new kids on the block doing this orientation. The rest of the 60 or so others had already begun their work for the day, making outhouses for field camps and knowing exactly what they should be doing. So all in all it was a good day, a bit overwhelming but I'm doing well considering where I am and what I'm doing. But I am going to live in the present, one day at a time and enjoy what I have been blessed with.
We have lots of opportunities to learn about what is going on down here which is really great. Right now we're off to have a tour of a lab that will explain some of the scientific research that is going on here. Should be interesting. It is 12 degrees with a wind gust of 30 mph here. That makes it have a wind chill of -12. Yikes! I hope all is well and warm where you are.
Love,
Erika
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Arrival in Christchurch
Hello everyone!
I write to you from the Travel Center at the USAP(United States Antarctic Program) in Christchurch, NZ. We landed yesterday afternoon Wed. Oct. 7 at 1PM from Sydney. That would have been around 5 PM on Tues. Oct 6 or so Austin, TX time. Man... losing a day is such a crazy thing. We had an almost 15 hour flight to Sydney with not much sleep, a couple of weird documentaries and a viewing of "The Proposal" starring Sandra Bullock. But all in all it wasn't that bad. It was a nice flight on a 747 with personal tv's and "On Demand" movies. I think Eric watched "Star Trek" and "The Hangover." The meals were quite tasty as well. I highly recommend transcontinental flights for the food alone. There are around 100 of us traveling together with Raytheon and shall I just say many interesting and different types of personalities. This is going to be fun!
So we are now here on the South Island of NZ (There are 2 islands, North and South. Hey this is also an education for you too, right??), staying at a nice place called Thomas Hotel for a couple nights. The plan is to get up around 4:30 AM tomorrow for an ice flight to McMurdo Station, Antarctica. It will be about a 4 hour flight on a C-17 for all of you Military buffs. This all is of course weather permitting. We just got done at the CDC, (no I haven't contracted any strange disease, it actually stands for Clothing Distribution Center,) where I tried on about 50 pounds worth of ECW (Extreme Cold Weather) gear (Are you staying with me on all of the acronyms??? There will be more to come people!!) I have carharts galore, gloves, huge boots, parkas, windbreakers and let's not forget the long underwear. Antarctica here I come!
So hopefully when I write again it will be from McMurdo and will be able to download some pictures for you to see me in all my glory in Antarctica! I send lots of love and warm thoughts from the Southern Hemisphere and will write agin soon!
Love,
Erika
P.S. I will put on the blog next time information on where to mail things to me in Antarctica to those of you who have asked. Thanks!
I write to you from the Travel Center at the USAP(United States Antarctic Program) in Christchurch, NZ. We landed yesterday afternoon Wed. Oct. 7 at 1PM from Sydney. That would have been around 5 PM on Tues. Oct 6 or so Austin, TX time. Man... losing a day is such a crazy thing. We had an almost 15 hour flight to Sydney with not much sleep, a couple of weird documentaries and a viewing of "The Proposal" starring Sandra Bullock. But all in all it wasn't that bad. It was a nice flight on a 747 with personal tv's and "On Demand" movies. I think Eric watched "Star Trek" and "The Hangover." The meals were quite tasty as well. I highly recommend transcontinental flights for the food alone. There are around 100 of us traveling together with Raytheon and shall I just say many interesting and different types of personalities. This is going to be fun!
So we are now here on the South Island of NZ (There are 2 islands, North and South. Hey this is also an education for you too, right??), staying at a nice place called Thomas Hotel for a couple nights. The plan is to get up around 4:30 AM tomorrow for an ice flight to McMurdo Station, Antarctica. It will be about a 4 hour flight on a C-17 for all of you Military buffs. This all is of course weather permitting. We just got done at the CDC, (no I haven't contracted any strange disease, it actually stands for Clothing Distribution Center,) where I tried on about 50 pounds worth of ECW (Extreme Cold Weather) gear (Are you staying with me on all of the acronyms??? There will be more to come people!!) I have carharts galore, gloves, huge boots, parkas, windbreakers and let's not forget the long underwear. Antarctica here I come!
So hopefully when I write again it will be from McMurdo and will be able to download some pictures for you to see me in all my glory in Antarctica! I send lots of love and warm thoughts from the Southern Hemisphere and will write agin soon!
Love,
Erika
P.S. I will put on the blog next time information on where to mail things to me in Antarctica to those of you who have asked. Thanks!
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Am I really doing this????
Welcome everyone to my blog on all things Antarctica!! Really, seriously?? I guess there's no turning back now! So away we go!
I am writing this on my second day of orienatation in Denver, Colorado as I begin the journey to Antarctica. Getting handed $210 for meals and incidentals for the week is not a bad thing! But I now know a lot more about OSHA requirements and scaffolding than most!
We have 2 and a half days of training/orientation here and then will get on a plane tomorrow afternoon (Monday October 5)to head to LA. We will leave LA at 10:30 PM to head to Sydney on a 13 hour flight. 13 hours??!! Yikes! Lots of walking and exercising as much as possible I'm sure will be done on the floght. From Sydney we have a 3 hour flight to Christchurch, New Zealand and then will be there for a couple days. If all goes according to plan we will be "on the ice" as they call it, on Friday Octber 9. But from what we've been hearing, the weather at McMurdo Station has been so rough that only 1 flight has been able to land there. Some people have been in Christchurch for a week and a half. Although if I were to have to get "stuck" somewhere, New Zealand is not a bad place to have that happen. It is beautiful!
So all is well here as I have the afternoon free while Eric is at his Supervisor training. Will he ever be my supervisor I hear you asking? We'll see about that...
I know he'll be a great one, and I'll leave it at that! I'll write again once we're in Christchurch and have taken my allotted 1 hour nap after more than 24 hours of traveling! Really, that's what they recommend in order to get used to the time switch. We'll be 18 hours ahead of Texas time once we're in Antarctica! I hope that you will enjoy following me on this adventure as much as I am looking forward to keeping you posted on this crazy experience that I am about to begin.
Love to all!
Erika
I am writing this on my second day of orienatation in Denver, Colorado as I begin the journey to Antarctica. Getting handed $210 for meals and incidentals for the week is not a bad thing! But I now know a lot more about OSHA requirements and scaffolding than most!
We have 2 and a half days of training/orientation here and then will get on a plane tomorrow afternoon (Monday October 5)to head to LA. We will leave LA at 10:30 PM to head to Sydney on a 13 hour flight. 13 hours??!! Yikes! Lots of walking and exercising as much as possible I'm sure will be done on the floght. From Sydney we have a 3 hour flight to Christchurch, New Zealand and then will be there for a couple days. If all goes according to plan we will be "on the ice" as they call it, on Friday Octber 9. But from what we've been hearing, the weather at McMurdo Station has been so rough that only 1 flight has been able to land there. Some people have been in Christchurch for a week and a half. Although if I were to have to get "stuck" somewhere, New Zealand is not a bad place to have that happen. It is beautiful!
So all is well here as I have the afternoon free while Eric is at his Supervisor training. Will he ever be my supervisor I hear you asking? We'll see about that...
I know he'll be a great one, and I'll leave it at that! I'll write again once we're in Christchurch and have taken my allotted 1 hour nap after more than 24 hours of traveling! Really, that's what they recommend in order to get used to the time switch. We'll be 18 hours ahead of Texas time once we're in Antarctica! I hope that you will enjoy following me on this adventure as much as I am looking forward to keeping you posted on this crazy experience that I am about to begin.
Love to all!
Erika
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