My Journey To The Ice

So we met at the airport at 5:00 a.m.  We gathered our Extreme Cold Weather gear, weighed our bags, again, again, and again.  Lot’s of colorful language in the locker room as we packed and repacked trying to manipulate our luggage to meet the maximum weight allowance.  Then we gathered in the orientation room for a film on our journey to Antarctica.  Why go at this point?  I’ve seen the movie.  Two really cute dogs roaming around sniffing everyone’s luggage.  I’m guessing they were the drug specialists because this really was not the bombing-terrorist type of group. 

Have I mentioned some folks have been doing this for 20 years?

So, we shlepped onto the cargo plane, compliments of the Air National Guard, and headed to our luxury steerage seats.  I’m kidding about the luxury.  I was particularly impressed by the use of duct tape holding the plane together.

6 hours later I got off the plane and stepped onto a thin layer of snow covering this icy continent.  Just forever of snow and ice.  And the Extreme Cold Weather gear really works.  It was a mere 25 below 0 and I was fairly comfy.  It was a beautiful day as the Sun sat on the horizen, for that’s as far as it gets for 8 hours a day.  Then it was off in the Terra Bus for our drive into Mac Town.  Playing Led Zeppelin and Creedence Clearwater Revival

They take their safety and recycling very seriously.  I am very stressed about the whole recycling.  I am afraid the recycling police will bust me for some dubious act of failing to place some fragment of something in the right container.  How many containers to we have?  Multitudes.  Mixed paper, paper towels and tissue, corrugated cardboard, plastic, aluminum, glass, hazmat, bio-hazard, grease, non-recyclables, food waste, waste-waste… all the new kids are seeking therapy because it is all so overwhelming.

The people down here are a colorful lot.  Very friendly, very helpful.  The folks who have spent the Antarctic winter down here are doing the thorazine shuffle.  They need to leave.  Soon. 

The dining room looks out to the Transantarctic Mountain range.  I think I am at a ski resort.  I like it.

It snows a lot.  We had a Condiiton 1 yesterday which meant it was so bad out we weren’t allowed out and play.  I stood by the door announcing to everyone it was a Catergory 2 hurricane.  It sure felt like it.  Very exciting.

I had my first day of work today.  It wasn’t so bad.  Kind of slow.  But it was fine and I think I will survive the next 6 months of feeding the starving Antarctic throngs.  My boss asked how my day was going.  I said it was much easier than all the recycling.