Today, I left the South Pole, my home for the last four months. It was a bit sad leaving, most of the winter-overs came out to see us off and it felt weird to finally be the one leaving instead of the one saying goodbye to others leaving. I looked around one last time at this unique place that I had come to love so much, wondering if I would see it again. I hope so but only God knows. I pretty much have a job here next season if I want it, not in the kitchen, but working in Cargo instead. I spent the last couple weeks hanging out with the Cargo and Materials crews, learning how to drive a front loader. We shall see if I return, something to pray about for sure.
This season had its ups and downs for sure, some of the moments were not fun at all, but overall I feel so incredibly blessed to have had the opportunity to come down here. The people that I have met, the things that I have gotten to experience, so amazing. If I am able to come back it will be great, but if not I will cherish this experience as a most unique and wonderful one.
Tonight we are hanging out in Mac town, its kind of fun to come back after four months, see how things have changed. All the snow has melted so the town is just dirt, it almost feels like a different place. Its fun though seeing people here that I either met last time or spent some time down at pole, makes a big difference in being here again. I wish we had a little more time here, but I will take what I can get and at least they didn’t send us straight though. We are on the first flight out tomorrow which should put us in to CHC sometime in the early evening which will be nice, most of the time when you leave they send you straight through and you get in around eleven or twelve at night, no time to enjoy your free nights stay in CHC. So that’s a bonus anyway. I will be so nice to just relax for a while and get to do some sightseeing. Our friend, Danielle, that will be traveling with us, won’t be off the ice until Fri, so C and I will just bum around cheech for the week, maybe go to the hot springs, get some manicures and pedicures, well needed I assure you, whatever suits our fancy I imagine. Sounds so nice, nothing on the agenda…
Friday, February 12, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
The end is nigh
At the beginning of the season, looking all fresh and chipper :-)One week until the end of summer. Wow, the season has gone by so fast, but I am ready to be done for now. Its weird to have the people you have spent the last four months of your life, living, working, recreating, with slowly leave. Headed back into the real world to continue on with their lives. Our station population is slowly decreasing, preparing for the winter when there will only be forty people who stay. Its is a little sad saying goodbye to these people who I have spent so much time with. Every few days another plane-load of friends that I have made is leaving. Its kind of a strange feeling, at first I was really excited to be leaving on the last flight, a neat thing that I got to do the whole season, first flight in, last flight out, but now, it kind of feels like I am being left behind. Everyone else is leaving, starting on their vacations and I am still here, having to work for another week. Not a big deal really, but I am getting tired, every morning it gets harder to wake up, to drag myself out of bed. I mean I know that I will be done soon enough, and that I will probably miss it and wish that I was back here when I leave, but right now a week seems like a long time. Our replacements were suppose to be here yesterday, but our weather was so foggy that all three flights that were suppose to come wound up boomeranging instead of landing. So that means that they should be coming tomorrow instead. We will have a week to get them all transitioned over before leaving them for the winter. So that should be good. Man, I can’t wait to go on vacation, to wake up in the morning and not have to work for ten hours everyday, it will be so nice. The first thing I am going to do when I get to CHC is find an all night grocery store and I am going to buy a gallon of milk, it will be so great to drink real milk! Then I am going to find a coffee shop and get some espresso. Mmm. That might have to wait until the following morning though. The plan right now is, we bag drag on Friday, basically the same as checking in at the airport, only the palletize our luggage so that it can be loaded on the plane all in one fell swoop, we have to do it so early in case the weather turns bad and they decide to pull us out early. We are scheduled to leave on Monday as of now, but if the temperature starts dropping quickly they may have us leave on Saturday if they need to. If we leave on Monday, like we are suppose to, we will have a “straight through” flight to Christchurch. I put say “straight through” because its not really, we have to stop in McMurdo to switch planes, we will fly there on an LC130 and switch to a C17 to CHC, who knows though, I guess the last couple flights of the season are always up in the air. It all depends on what the weather does, sometimes a plane will be on its way and they will decide to make it the last flight, pull everyone out, they will do an all call telling everyone to get their stuff ready cause “everyone is leaving in two hours.” Shouldn’t be a problem for me cause my stuff will be ready and checked three days before I am schedule to fly. Who knows what the last few days of the season will look like, I am prepared for about anything.
End of the season, four am and not looking so fresh...
Friday, January 1, 2010
some pics
my room
the dome, in the process of being torn down
my humble abode :-)
Inside the dome, my one and only trip to it.
At thanksgiving dinner
...
The day after Christmas, we had a traditional south pole event called the Race Around the World. Normally it would be a track that would just go around the geographic pole, this year however was a special year. The old station, or the dome, is in the process of being deconstructed, it will be completely demolished by the end of the season, so the race this year went around the dome, the new station, and the pole. It was about 2.4 miles total, for the runners track that is. There is also another track which goes around the outside of the runners track for the vehicles and floats and such. People will run, ski, ride bikes, walk, whatever they feel like doing. Many people will make costumes to wear, and we had one guy who carried two fifty gallons fuel barrels which he had strapped to his back! It was pretty fun. I was going to ski the whole thing, but that didn’t work out quite as I had planned. I was going along fine until just before I got to the dome, unfortunately what I didn’t know was that there was a steep hill right before the dome. That would have been all well and good if it had been straight, however it was not. For someone who had been cross country skiing for less than a week, going downhill and having to take a sharp turn was not a happy scenario. Anyways, after tumbling my way down the hill, I decided that I would be better off to finish on foot, not that trudging in ski boots was great either but it was certainly better. Anyway the whole thing was fun, albeit eventful. Some of the floats that made appearances were a gigantic chariot that was built by one of the science groups here, they also built a dragon that had smoke coming out of its mouth and a hot tub, with people in it, on wheels. I don’t think they got much science related work done that week. :-) It was a great event though and I got a free t-shirt out of it too!
For new year’s we are celebrating today because it works out better to have the holiday on Saturday so that we get a two day weekend. And amazingly enough I get to take it with everyone else, which is nice for a change. Yesterday on the actual first day of the year, we had the pole moving ceremony, since the ice is moving under us, slowly sliding towards the sea, the place where the geographic pole is shifts too. Every new year’s day we have a ceremony to relocate the pole to the actual geographic location, which it stays at for about a day before it is off again, oh well. The pole winds up moving about thirty feet every year. I watched the ceremony from inside because I was working, but that was okay with me because in the last couple of days it has started to get colder again, the wind has started blowing and it will just get colder from here on out.
Something fun that we did last night in the kitchen during dinner was to make ice cream. Now I know that does not sound like anything spectacular, I mean making ice cream is pretty normal, right? Well how many people have make ice cream in a big five gallon mixer and used liquid nitrogen to freeze it??? That’s right, liquid nitrogen. You see, our ice cream maker, a soft serve machine named frosty boy, met his end this year. He decided that life was not worth living and croaked earlier in the season. So, my boss decided that for new year’s we should definitely have some ice cream. He took some of the mix from frosty boy, which we still have plenty of, recruited one of the science guys with his big tank of liquid nitrogen and tada! We have ice cream! It was great, so much fun. We didn’t eat it last night, we decided to save it for tonight, to let it freeze all the way through, it will be great when we eat it tonight though. Yay for doing odd things at the south pole on new year’s day!
Tonight is out new year’s party, we will be having a bunch a bands that people have formed while down here play amongst other things. It should be great fun, I think that I need to go take a nap so I will be well rested for the evening.
One more side note, I am done working dinner, had the last one last night. Monday I go to breakfast, yay for starting work at three thirty in the morning! Ah, well, it will only be for about six weeks and then the season will be over. Wow, only six weeks left, time has flown right by and it has been such a great time. I have really enjoyed being down here, such an amazing experience.
That’s all for now, signing off. :-)
For new year’s we are celebrating today because it works out better to have the holiday on Saturday so that we get a two day weekend. And amazingly enough I get to take it with everyone else, which is nice for a change. Yesterday on the actual first day of the year, we had the pole moving ceremony, since the ice is moving under us, slowly sliding towards the sea, the place where the geographic pole is shifts too. Every new year’s day we have a ceremony to relocate the pole to the actual geographic location, which it stays at for about a day before it is off again, oh well. The pole winds up moving about thirty feet every year. I watched the ceremony from inside because I was working, but that was okay with me because in the last couple of days it has started to get colder again, the wind has started blowing and it will just get colder from here on out.
Something fun that we did last night in the kitchen during dinner was to make ice cream. Now I know that does not sound like anything spectacular, I mean making ice cream is pretty normal, right? Well how many people have make ice cream in a big five gallon mixer and used liquid nitrogen to freeze it??? That’s right, liquid nitrogen. You see, our ice cream maker, a soft serve machine named frosty boy, met his end this year. He decided that life was not worth living and croaked earlier in the season. So, my boss decided that for new year’s we should definitely have some ice cream. He took some of the mix from frosty boy, which we still have plenty of, recruited one of the science guys with his big tank of liquid nitrogen and tada! We have ice cream! It was great, so much fun. We didn’t eat it last night, we decided to save it for tonight, to let it freeze all the way through, it will be great when we eat it tonight though. Yay for doing odd things at the south pole on new year’s day!
Tonight is out new year’s party, we will be having a bunch a bands that people have formed while down here play amongst other things. It should be great fun, I think that I need to go take a nap so I will be well rested for the evening.
One more side note, I am done working dinner, had the last one last night. Monday I go to breakfast, yay for starting work at three thirty in the morning! Ah, well, it will only be for about six weeks and then the season will be over. Wow, only six weeks left, time has flown right by and it has been such a great time. I have really enjoyed being down here, such an amazing experience.
That’s all for now, signing off. :-)
Monday, December 28, 2009
Post Christmas
Christmas came and went with a flurry of Christmas decorations(although only in the galley) and a weekend that went too fast. It didn’t really feel like Christmas this year, I think it was the lack of build up to it. No Christmas music, decorations in just one place, all of that added up to a Christmas that sprung upon us and was gone just as quickly. It was not as bad for me because I had put up the decorations my dear friend Em had sent me and also listened to as much Christmas music as I could when not working(many people were anti-christmas music until right before). Thank you, thank you Em for the Christmas cd, it was amazing and I enjoyed it so much, I also enjoyed the one Crystal and Kyle sent me, however I didn’t open the package until Christmas day so I only listened to it that day. Christmas day started out with the traditional holiday brunch, lots of goodies most of which I didn’t eat although the ones I did were delish. Everyone just chills out, relaxing for the morning, except for us kitchen folk of course. We are hard at work getting ready for the big Christmas dinner. About a week and a half before the holiday, my boss, James, will put up a list designating who will be doing what food for the day. My tasks were cheese trays for the appetizer times before dinner and the roasted vegetables for dinner. All of the veg for my stuff, with the exception of the pumpkin, was peeled and cut up by volunteers the night before, which was sooooo nice cause it would have taken me forever to get all the stuff prepped. Instead I just had to go collect my nicely prepped veggies from them. Awesome. Our menu for Christmas consisted of Beef Wellington and lobster for the main entrees and various side dishes, including my lovely sweet and savory roasted root veggies. Dinner went smoothly, same as thanksgiving, we had three seatings, all very festive with everyone decked out in their Christmas duds. It’s fun to see people that usually where carharts and other various layers of clothing built for warmth only, showered and dressed in their finest(or at least a lot finer than normal). I worked straight though all the dinners, cleaned stuff up at the end and then got out of the kitchen. Pulling a quick superman change in the bathroom, I transformed into a clean haired, makeuped person ready for some Christmas dinner. After eating I found a couple of my friends and we made our way back to the galley for some eggnog and dancing. That pretty much finished out the day for us. Not a normal Christmas, but not too bad either. I missed being with the fam, but it was okay.
More south pole Christmas traditions to follow….
More south pole Christmas traditions to follow….
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Post weekend
Ahh, the two days off this weekend were so nice. I was really great too because on Saturday most everyone else was still working so it was nice and quiet around the station. I spent a good part of the day in the arts and crafts room working on various projects including two pillowcases that I help Carol make and also a curtain for my window(which still needs some tweaking). It was very relaxing and nice to have nothing that I had to be at for the whole day, some days you just need a day that has nothing on the schedule and those don’t come very often around here. Sunday was nice too, but it felt like a normal one, soaring right by. Now its Monday, with only a couple weeks until Christmas, wow the time has gone by fast.
A new development in the work arena will be taking place after the new year. Carol and I will be switching from the dinner shift to breakfast/lunch. I was going to be switched because it was only fair to let the morning production cook, Jeremy, have a chance at doing something other than breakfast all season. So Carol had a chat with our boss, James, and he agreed to switch us a teams. I’m actually pretty excited about switching, although the whole starting at 3:30 am thing it going to be a bit of a bear, I will get to run the egg line during breakfast in the morning and that will give me a chance to talk to all the people as they come through the line which I will enjoy. Also I think it will make the rest of the season fly right by, by the time we transition and get settled in we will be getting ready to leave. I have enjoyed working dinner, but it will be fun to move to something new.
As far as my neck stuff, I went to the doc on Tuesday before work to see if he could give me anything to help relax my muscles or something. He told me that I had probably strained a ligament in my neck and that it just needed to heal. He didn’t believe in muscle relaxers because he says the muscles are just trying to protect the ligaments. However was willing to give me oxycodone so that I could sleep at night. Thanks doc. Well I took it the first night and it did knock me out and I was able to sleep for a solid nine hours, however the second night I took it I guess my body had already gotten use to it and I only slept for about five hours. Well that’s were mine and oxycodone’s relationship came to an end. I was not going to take a highly addictive drug and not even have it help me rest so my neck could heal. No sir. So now I have just been taking ibuprofen pretty much every day to help my neck feel better. Its pretty much no fun, I have a stiff and sore neck all the time and its not like I can just not go to work or not lift heavy stuff in the kitchen, so I’m pretty sure that’s not helping the situation either. Hmm…..not really sure what more I can do. Keep praying please.
A new development in the work arena will be taking place after the new year. Carol and I will be switching from the dinner shift to breakfast/lunch. I was going to be switched because it was only fair to let the morning production cook, Jeremy, have a chance at doing something other than breakfast all season. So Carol had a chat with our boss, James, and he agreed to switch us a teams. I’m actually pretty excited about switching, although the whole starting at 3:30 am thing it going to be a bit of a bear, I will get to run the egg line during breakfast in the morning and that will give me a chance to talk to all the people as they come through the line which I will enjoy. Also I think it will make the rest of the season fly right by, by the time we transition and get settled in we will be getting ready to leave. I have enjoyed working dinner, but it will be fun to move to something new.
As far as my neck stuff, I went to the doc on Tuesday before work to see if he could give me anything to help relax my muscles or something. He told me that I had probably strained a ligament in my neck and that it just needed to heal. He didn’t believe in muscle relaxers because he says the muscles are just trying to protect the ligaments. However was willing to give me oxycodone so that I could sleep at night. Thanks doc. Well I took it the first night and it did knock me out and I was able to sleep for a solid nine hours, however the second night I took it I guess my body had already gotten use to it and I only slept for about five hours. Well that’s were mine and oxycodone’s relationship came to an end. I was not going to take a highly addictive drug and not even have it help me rest so my neck could heal. No sir. So now I have just been taking ibuprofen pretty much every day to help my neck feel better. Its pretty much no fun, I have a stiff and sore neck all the time and its not like I can just not go to work or not lift heavy stuff in the kitchen, so I’m pretty sure that’s not helping the situation either. Hmm…..not really sure what more I can do. Keep praying please.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Neck issues
Soooo, I don’t know what I did to offend my neck but for some reason it is really screwed up right now. I woke up yesterday, after sleeping for a much needed 11 hours, and it was a little stiff but not bad. However as the day progressed it became more and more tight. I had some issues with it about two weeks ago where it was sore and tight between my shoulder blades but some ibuprofen and an icy hot patch cleared it up. No such results this time, the patch that I had on yesterday might as well have not been there for all the good it did, and the relief the ibuprofen brought was short lived. I had a co-worker of mine who is trained in massage work on it for a little while last night after I got off work and that seemed to help for a bit, but it seemed that a couple of hours later after the ibuprofen wore off that it was just as bad if not worse. I don’t know it I just slept on it funny or what. I can’t think of anything else that I could have done to screw it up so badly. It’s pretty bad though, I was only able to sleep for about four hours last night because I could not get comfortable and every time I would turn over or move the pain from my neck would wake me up. I think I am going to go see the doc this morning and see if he can give me a stronger muscle relaxer or something because I can’t work like this. The latter half of my day at work yesterday was pretty hard and I don’t want to have to go through that again. If you all would be praying for my neck that would be awesome and I would really appreciate it. Hopefully it is not anything serious and will be better soon.
On a happier note, Thanksgiving was great. Even though I had to work that day we had so much extra help in the kitchen that the day just flew by. Mostly everyone takes part in making the day happen, from cutting veggies and potatoes two days before to helping make pies the night before to carving the turkeys and getting the dining room set up the day off, there are lots of volunteers that made the day happen with minimal stress to everyone. Our dining room will not accommodate everyone on station so we have three dinners spaced out an hour and a half apart starting with a half hour appetizer time out in the hallway. It was amazing to see the transformation that the dining room went though in the course of about two hours. Cardboard was put up in all the windows to block out the light and make it feel like it was dark outside, there were linens and candles on the tables and pretty Christmas lights strung all the way across the ceiling. It was beautiful. Carol and I sat down for the last seating, for about a half hour, before going back to the kitchen to finish cleaning up. We were out of there by eight thirty though so that was really nice. After the last dinner was over, the table got pushed back, music was turned on and everyone just hung out enjoying their night off. I was pretty tired though and did not stay up too late, I wandered out to my room at about eleven thirty and was in bed by midnight. All in all it was a very good thanksgiving.
On a happier note, Thanksgiving was great. Even though I had to work that day we had so much extra help in the kitchen that the day just flew by. Mostly everyone takes part in making the day happen, from cutting veggies and potatoes two days before to helping make pies the night before to carving the turkeys and getting the dining room set up the day off, there are lots of volunteers that made the day happen with minimal stress to everyone. Our dining room will not accommodate everyone on station so we have three dinners spaced out an hour and a half apart starting with a half hour appetizer time out in the hallway. It was amazing to see the transformation that the dining room went though in the course of about two hours. Cardboard was put up in all the windows to block out the light and make it feel like it was dark outside, there were linens and candles on the tables and pretty Christmas lights strung all the way across the ceiling. It was beautiful. Carol and I sat down for the last seating, for about a half hour, before going back to the kitchen to finish cleaning up. We were out of there by eight thirty though so that was really nice. After the last dinner was over, the table got pushed back, music was turned on and everyone just hung out enjoying their night off. I was pretty tired though and did not stay up too late, I wandered out to my room at about eleven thirty and was in bed by midnight. All in all it was a very good thanksgiving.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Long time no update
Wow, it’s been a while since I have posted an update. Time has been just flying by, I wake up Monday ready to start my week and the next thing I know its Saturday and the week it over. Sooooo, what’s been going on… well a couple weeks ago we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the first women at the pole; they had all the available women go out to the pole and take a commemorative picture. That was a pretty cool thing to be a part of. Hmm, what else… Carol is back and up and running so that is good.
Oh, here is an interesting new perspective I have gained. We went about three or four weeks that I was here before getting fresh produce in. It has been coming more regularly now but, about once a week or so, but that first big shipment of freshies that came was the best. I will never forget the feeling of walking into the cooler and just standing in awe of all the produce. I never thought the prospect of being able to use fresh carrots in a dish would be so exciting. There was peppers, red onions, zucchini and oh man, are those green beans?! It was a pretty astounding feeling. We are getting stuff in more regularly now but it is still a treat every time to use that fresh produce.
Today is actually Thanksgiving although you would not know it around here. For us it is just a normal Thursday. We will celebrate our thanksgiving on Saturday because that way it allows most of the station to have a two day weekend. The majority of the station has Sundays off and celebrating on Saturday gives them two days off in a row. Sunday is my regular day off as well but all the kitchen people work on the holidays, of course, because everyone needs to eat and we make really nice meals for the special days. We will get our extra day off next weekend when all the managers for the station will come in and cook. The menu for their day is a no brainer, grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch and pizza for dinner. It will be really nice to have the extra day off though and they have fun coming in and cooking for everyone.
The weather around here has been pretty mild the last few weeks, it has stayed right around the -30’s which does not feel too bad. I have not been using my big red the last week, I switched to a couple layers and a down vest which seems to be sufficient as long as I am not outside for too long. It is plenty warm enough for the walk to the station. Hey if you all would like to find out more info about the station, find out some information about the science that is going on, or see the daily weather report you can go to http://www.southpole.usap.gov/ this is the site that comes up when I get on the internet. It’s pretty interesting to check out.
Let’s see…what else have I been doing…Carol and I volunteer in our store once a week. We have a midnight shift from 12:30 to 1:30 on thurs nights, so that is pretty fun. We just hang out and chat with people who come in. Check out movies and sometimes sell a few things. It’s a fun way to get to know more people in the station.
On Sunday afternoons I have been teaching a swing dancing class and that has been really fun. The turnout has not been huge, about five to eight people come every week, but we have been having a good time and there are a few other people who are getting interested and I think will come this week.
Well, I think that is all for now, I have to work in just over an hour and need to go get some breakfast cause my tummy is a rumblin’. TTFN
Oh, here is an interesting new perspective I have gained. We went about three or four weeks that I was here before getting fresh produce in. It has been coming more regularly now but, about once a week or so, but that first big shipment of freshies that came was the best. I will never forget the feeling of walking into the cooler and just standing in awe of all the produce. I never thought the prospect of being able to use fresh carrots in a dish would be so exciting. There was peppers, red onions, zucchini and oh man, are those green beans?! It was a pretty astounding feeling. We are getting stuff in more regularly now but it is still a treat every time to use that fresh produce.
Today is actually Thanksgiving although you would not know it around here. For us it is just a normal Thursday. We will celebrate our thanksgiving on Saturday because that way it allows most of the station to have a two day weekend. The majority of the station has Sundays off and celebrating on Saturday gives them two days off in a row. Sunday is my regular day off as well but all the kitchen people work on the holidays, of course, because everyone needs to eat and we make really nice meals for the special days. We will get our extra day off next weekend when all the managers for the station will come in and cook. The menu for their day is a no brainer, grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch and pizza for dinner. It will be really nice to have the extra day off though and they have fun coming in and cooking for everyone.
The weather around here has been pretty mild the last few weeks, it has stayed right around the -30’s which does not feel too bad. I have not been using my big red the last week, I switched to a couple layers and a down vest which seems to be sufficient as long as I am not outside for too long. It is plenty warm enough for the walk to the station. Hey if you all would like to find out more info about the station, find out some information about the science that is going on, or see the daily weather report you can go to http://www.southpole.usap.gov/ this is the site that comes up when I get on the internet. It’s pretty interesting to check out.
Let’s see…what else have I been doing…Carol and I volunteer in our store once a week. We have a midnight shift from 12:30 to 1:30 on thurs nights, so that is pretty fun. We just hang out and chat with people who come in. Check out movies and sometimes sell a few things. It’s a fun way to get to know more people in the station.
On Sunday afternoons I have been teaching a swing dancing class and that has been really fun. The turnout has not been huge, about five to eight people come every week, but we have been having a good time and there are a few other people who are getting interested and I think will come this week.
Well, I think that is all for now, I have to work in just over an hour and need to go get some breakfast cause my tummy is a rumblin’. TTFN
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