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Published: April 17th 2005
Oh What a Sunset!
As the sun is getting lower and lower on the horizons, the sunsets are getting more and more beautiful and they last for a long time.‘Beep, Beep, Beep’, the alarm went off at 6:00am like normal. I was lying there in bed when I realized something out of the ordinary - There was a spaceship in my dorm room. I quickly got out of bed and looked around the dark room and that is when I saw the penguin. It was an Adelie penguin about a foot and a half tall and it was wearing a cheap, metallic red, plastic space suit. Suddenly, the penguin jumped out of the suit and started running (or waddling) rapidly around the room like a crazed puppy, flapping its arms and making a lot of noise. It was bouncing off of the walls, reminiscent of Daffy Duck in some of his earlier cartoons, and chasing after me with a look of joyful mischief in its eyes. If I touched the penguin I knew I would get in trouble, due to the Antarctic Treaty, so I was doing my best to avoid contact, but, despite my best efforts, the half-crazed penguin managed to jump up into my lap and proceeded to bite my fingers, but in a playful way like when your dog at home wants to play. I quickly put
Discovery Hut
This is a picture of the hut that was taken during the tour I took of the hut on the 92nd anniversary of Scott's death. the penguin down and locked it in my room and rushed out to talk to the NSF Station Manager and find out what I should do. I was told to get a blanket and a few diapers and to capture the penguin with them. Then, in the blink of an eye, I had the penguin wrapped up in the blanket (I still don’t know what the diapers were for) and I was walking it to the penguin rookery with one of my friends and a fireman. As we passed by a ditch at the edge of town, we found a baby emperor penguin. We picked up the small brown chick and decided to take it to the rookery as well, but the chick started growing in our hands and it changed from the small brown chick into a large, black, white and yellow emperor penguin, but only a foot tall. At that point the space penguin tried to eat the emperor penguin, which prompted us to synchronize our pagers and then, like a light switch being flipped on, I realized it was time to go to work and I woke up again - It was 7:04am. I have been told
The Gloomy Interior
This is a picture of some of the provisions from inside Discovery Hut. I have already posted a similar picture, but I liked the lighting on this one. that the dreams people have down here can be strange and quite realistic - I know this one was one of the most vivid ones I have had in a while. When I woke up, I remember thinking that it was strange that I was told to go and catch the penguin - everything else seemed absolutely normal! I know this dream doesn’t count as a penguin sighting, except in the Matrix sense, but it was still a cool dream and I had to share. I think it does count as a spaceship sighting though.
A lot of people have asked me, “What is the winter community like down there?” The number of people here in the winter is small, at around 240 people, compared to the summer population. People are a lot quieter and science is virtually non-existent. Most of our jobs revolve around things like station maintenance and construction that would be difficult to do in the hustle and bustle of summer. The standard work day for me involves getting out of bed at six in the morning and going to breakfast at building 155, which is the heart of the station, housing the cafeteria, the station
Looking Out From Within
This is a view from inside of Discovery Hut looking West toward the Royal Society Range. store, the computer kiosk, the radio station, the barber shop and several other things. After breakfast, I do some stretching and head up to building 175 where my office is. I normally spend most of the day at my desk, but I make several trips a day down to the water plant and power plant to gather information or solve problems that pertain to the construction we are doing there. I get an hour off for lunch and the day is finished at 5:30 on most days. In the evenings I spend my time in a multitude of ways - I go to Spanish class, I play volleyball, I watch movies or play games with my friends, I do short hikes, I attend the occasional party and do a lot of reading. My favorite hangout is the coffee house because it has a nice atmosphere and is not as rowdy as some of the other places around town. We get one day a week off and we spend our Sunday resting up for the next week, or doing some of the longer hikes available to us. On the first weekend of every month we get a two-day weekend, which is
Condition 2!
This is what a condition 2 storm looks like in McMurdo. What you don't see is the strong wind. normally accompanied by several parties and some sort of outdoor activity.
For the past few weeks I have been working hard and staying very busy in the evenings. On the 92nd anniversary of Scott’s death during his return journey from the pole I did a special tour of the Discovery Hut followed by a trip to the coffee house for a viewing of ‘90° South’, which is a film that was taken by one of the members of Scott’s expedition. The film was a silent film, but a narrative, which added a lot of humor to the film, was added after the expedition - the room was rolling with laughter at several points in the show. A lot of the humor was politically incorrect, but I loved seeing how things like Vince’s Cross and the surrounding scenery of Ross Island, that I have grown to know well, looked nearly 100 years ago - I hope I get the chance to see some of the other sites they got to see before I leave here.
Another big recent happening, I am now a member of the Ross Island Yacht Club of Antarctic, which is a large group of people
The McMurdo Sign at Sunset
Here is the famous McMurdo Station sign. At some point there will be a picture of me in my Hawaiian shirt and shorts next to this sign. with varying interests and backgrounds in boating - some of us are planning long trips on boats, others are boat owners and several are old Navy people who enjoy telling stories from their days on the sea. The different backgrounds of the people made for some interesting conversations and funny stories - I walked in during a vivid discussion on seasickness! One common point that we all shared was none of us have a boat here, in fact, as far as I know, there is only one boat on station, which is broken, and the nearest open water is now miles away - We are probably one of the few yacht clubs in existence that doesn’t have a boat!
Two times over the past week I have been in Hut 10 - Once for the yacht club meeting and once for a friends birthday party. Hut 10 is a small house, which used to be the station manager’s residence in the Navy days, and is now used as a get away that can be reserved for quiet evenings with friends or big parties. The place is comfortable and would be a nice place to live during the winter. The
Ob Hill
Here is an interesting shot of Ob Hill at dusk. birthday party was briefly interrupted by a magnificent display of Auroras that formed a long, wide, green ribbon of light dancing across the sky over the sea ice to the South of town. Everyone from the party stood out in the snow and watched until they went away ten minutes later, what a sight - I will write about auroras in a later journal once I manage to get some good pictures.
On Thursday, I went to Scott Base with ten of my friends for dinner with the Kiwis. The meal was spicy New Zealand lamb served over chilled, cooked vegetables with feta cheese, onions, capers, olives and a sauce that complemented the spiciness of the meat - It was one of the finest meals that I have had in a long, long time. The meal was followed by an interesting desert that is hard for me to describe, but was delicious. The rest of the evening was spent playing pool, America against New Zealand, and being beaten every time, but we had a lot of fun and made some new friends - It was a great evening.
The sunsets have been magnificent and darkness will become a
The Jobsite
The power plant is the red building and the water plant, where most of my work is done, is the yellowish building. regular thing when we loose sight of the sun for good next weekend. We have been getting some Condition 2 storms on a regular basis and snow is falling more often - it is easy to tell that winter is approaching. Temperatures at night have been approaching -20°F regularly and when the wind blows any exposed skin becomes quite uncomfortable - I have gotten several ice-cream headaches, without the joy of eating ice cream, due to the wind, which is a strange sensation. I look forward to the winter and the hardships that will come with it. I am enjoying the cold, but a nice sunny beach is starting to sound wonderful. To celebrate the falling of the sun for the last time, everyone is going over to Scott Base for a barbeque and the Polar Plunge - I will let you all know how that goes.
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anonymous
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Dream Interpretation
Son, when I started reading the dream, I thought, oh no! He's been in the cold too much! I was relieved to learn it was a dream. There is a link for dream interpretation. Maybe you should check it out. By the way, your brother can superimpose you standing by the sign in your shorts and Hawaiian shirt. No need to stand in the cold! - Kathy