Mac town

Hmm, first day to work…they don’t really give us any time to get settled. I guess they figure you will do that along the way. It felt really weird donning a chef jacket this morning. It’s been over three years since I put one on and I think that when I got rid of them last time I didn’t really think I would be wearing one again. Interesting how things come back around. It was interesting how familiar the kitchen felt and yet odd at the same time. How easily I remembered lingo that I had not heard in three years, funny stuff like that. Other things like the spot right at the base of my index finger on my right hand where the callus from my knife is long gone, and where a blister developed today from chopping a huge pile of onions and potatoes. Feelings I thought my fingers had long forgotten, and yet still remember somehow. A very odd step into the past, yet I fell into the rhythm easily enough, thankfully. I wondered how I would do after taking such a long break from the professional kitchen; however, all of those tidbits of information and training from the past are quickly coming back.
I think the magnitude of the cold really hit me this morning as a trucked up the street from the building I’m staying in to the cargo building where my big bags are. I stepped out the door and came around to corner only to be hit by a huge blast of wind that took my breath away. I took a couple of steps, thinking that maybe I could tough it out, after all it was only a short walk up the hill, however it quickly became apparent that I would not be able to tolerate even a short distance without more layers on. I went back in, put on my bib pants over my jeans zipped my vest over the top and headed back out. I thought about grabbing big red(our ginormous red parkas which everyone fondly call big reds) but decided I would be okay. Man, the walk up that hill was so brutally cold! The wind was blowing so hard it was making my eyes water. I just concentrated on getting up to the cargo shop, after all it was only about a two to three minute walk, but somehow it felt much longer than that. When I got inside I reached up to wipe the moisture away from my eyes, but as I was doing that I felt something on my eyelashes. I grabbed it and pulled it off my lash, realizing that the moisture from my eye had frozen, forming an ice chunk on my lash. Yeah, that was a different experience. It made me realize that I am less prepared for this whole coldest place on earth thing than I thought I was. In addition to that experience, I was talking to the breakfast-lunch sous chef for pole today, Beaver is his name, and he was telling me that he worked a Mac town(McMurdo) for three years before going to work at the pole. He said that when he stepped off the plane down there he thought, “Oh man! It is cold down here!” He could not believe how much colder it was at pole than at Mac. Great, I’ve really gotten myself into something this time. Me, the girl from the mild Pacific Northwest, going to somewhere colder than here, which is colder than anything I have experienced yet. I think this confirms that I am truly crazy, because I’m still excited to go down there. Meh, it’s more fun to be a little crazy anyway.
The first flight down to the pole is suppose to be on Thursday, I think they are going to try and send two planes one the first day too. I'm suppose to go on Friday, but we shall see how the weather cooperates. All could change in the blink of an eye as the people who are in CHC well know as they have gotten delayed until Monday, lucky ducks. We were one day shy of getting to stay longer, bummer, bummer. Ah, well, until we leave to pole we shall put in our time here at Mac town, enjoying while we are here. I'm going to try and take some hikes around if I can, try and see some of the surrounding areas.