What is wrong with the Sun?

Yeah, this post is coming in extra late. But that's because I've been extra busy being extra lazy.

The flight back to Christchurch was pretty uneventful. I suppose I was lucky in the fact that my first time down in Antarctica I never had any delayed, canceled, or boomerang flights. There was a lot of room in the back of the C-17 because they usually send science gear down to leave down there, so there was a loot of room to get up and walk around or lie down without being in the way. The Air Guard crew tried to sleep until the call or turbulence came in.
I wound up watching a movie on my MacBook, and later played Monopoly with a Kiwi seated next to me. I don't remember who was winning, as we landed before we could finish.

One we landed everyone piled into the little sardine bus we rode in the first time. It did not seem as crowded as the last time, I think because most people were not wearing as much clothing, but the seats were still two narrow. It was difficult to sit next to someone without feeling like it would have been more comfortable to be sitting on their lap or vice-versa.

We were dropped off at a small wing of the Chrtistchurch airport where we picked up our luggage at a baggage carousel and then went through customs like anyone entering the country.
Which was odd, since I kept being told that technically we never left. We left the terminal and followed the blue footprints on the sidewalk again back to the Clothing Distribution Center, where we threw all our ECW gear into a pile and caught a shuttle to our hotels.

The Windsor had been nice, but I wanted to try another hotel so this time I stayed in the Camelot, right off Cathedral Square. It was a very nice room with two queen-sized beds and a private bathroom. I was staying an extra night so I had to pay for it, and I thought the price was a little high but not too bad. Then I remembered the room price was in New Zealand dollars and suddenly I liked the room a lot more.
There was a tv in the room. I wound up watching Boston Legal and another US television show I cannot remember. I also saw a lot of billboards on busstops around town for other US shows like LOST and CSI. Its neat that they get to watch our shows, but why do we not get to watch theirs?

I was later told, by natives of both New Zealand and Australia, this is because their countries lacked anything near as good.

It was fun finding something to eat in town. I wandered up and down streets looking at restaurants. There certainly was a lot of Asian food, though you could also find Greek and Middle Eastern and Pubs on every corner and even McDonalds, Burger King, and KFC. I almost went to KFC, having heard in McMurdo their chicken is better.
My second day, after a walk through the Botanical Gardens to cross town looking for a Borders, I found a nice Pub called the Fox & Ferret. There I had three glasses of the most amazing pineapple juice (which may have tasted better than it was after a several mile walk across town on a warm, sunny day) and the best burger I had had in six months (most likely contribuited to the fact I was in McMurdo for that time). It was truely an awesome burger and I let the staff know as much. It was the Fox burger, one of their signatures.
I found the Borders and bought a boxed set of the Harry Potter books. I refuse to buy the US versions since they change text around. I don't understand this. It was in English, it does not need to be translated into English. There is also no reason to retitle the first book, either. The Philosopher's Stone has been an item in US fiction before so it should not have been something new.
For dinner my second night I stopped at Ebisu, a little Japanese restaurant on the south side of an East-West running street a few blocks south of Cathedral Square. It was a nice little place with friendly staff. This is one of those Japanese restaurants where all the meals come in small portions and you and your group are supposed to order a lot of dishes and just trade them around.
Well, it was just me so I settled for just one dish, which was good, a kind of grilled steak with garlic. It was a great restaurant, and I will definitely do back if I'm in Christchurch again.

My flights back went pretty uneventful, except for the several straight hours of turbulence on my 747 flight across the Pacific.
I had originally been seated in an exit row with two Aussies, but the flight crew asked me to move since I was by myself. Apparently it is easier for them to get the meal carts out of the galley if people don't have their legs in the way. So I was moved to the back, where I was given first pick on an ENTIRE interior row to myself. Well, I knew I could sleep in a seat sitting upright if I needed and I expected to watch movies for much of the flight, so I turned down the offer and took up two chairs at the very last row on the right side of the aircraft. Apparently the woman who took the entire row also left her belongings in her original seat further up, which irritated another passenger who thought the woman was staking claim in too many areas.
Watch movies I did. I wound up watching the Incredibles and City of Ember. Both were good movies but the ending of City of Ember seemed to be anti-climactic. At least it had Bill Murray in it. I also TRIED to watch Space Chimps, which could have been a great movie about monkeys and space ships, but the entire subplot with the aliens was so stupid I turned that off and watched something else.
I slept pretty well, considering the turbulence. Somehow I slept for six hours when I thought it should have been more like one. MAYBE two.

Getting through LAX was not too bad. I had to pick up my luggage and then have it checked again, then re-enter the airport at the domestic terminal and get back into line. Myself and a Grantee from McMurdo both saw our tickets saying our flight boarded in the next half hour or so. It was then I found out that LAX has a separate baggage screening area for people who are 'in a hurry'. A man walks the isle, asking if anyone is about to be late, and then lets them through a separate door to another area which is completely empty, save for the TSA personel and the few 'late' passengers.
Turned out the plane was supposed to board in 30 minutes, but realy didn't until after that, as the departure time was well over an hour away.

I landed at DIA, met my father, picked up my luggage, dropped the gifts for my grandparents off, rode to Colorado Springs, saw my mother, and then went home to a pile of packages that had been waiting for me (I made a few online purchases while I was on the Ice).

All-in-all it was not a bad experience. I knew it would be interesting even before I started and I had told people so. It also was a little fun at times (I am still the only person I know who likes to drive Pisten Bullys) and I would even be up for the entire experience again, maybe in another department next time.
Yes, of my own free will.

It hasn't been too bad being back, and I do not think I had any trouble adjusting to the time-zome change. There were a couple of odd moments in coming back from the ice, the most significant of which being when I was walking through Christchurch and suddenly stopped, then looked up, puzzled as to why the sun was straight up in the sky.
I had been so used to the sun always being at the same height above the horizon throughout a day that I forgot that it goes up and down normally.

Lazy Lazy

So I have been home for four days now.  

But before that...

My last week on Ice was spent organizing the shop's electronic files for the most part.  I finished with what I could on Thursday and then Friday was my last official work day.  I was told all I had to do was turn in my keys and clan up the loose ends around the shop.

Saturday I spent half my day packing and just being lazy, and then Sunday I finished my packing and dragged all my stuff up to Bldg 140 for Bag Drag.  They weighed everyone and took their baggage to be checked.  I was left with what I could wear as well as my one carryon.

Monday I caught Ivan down to Pegasus Airfield and we loaded onto the C-17 and headed back to Christchurch.

It gets annoying how little communication there is on the important things.  

The only time I was told my redeployment date was several weeks prior, and second or third-hand through my shop Foreman.  I also did not know my flight time until the day of travel, about 9am or 10am.  Fun stuff.

During my last week I, as well as the rest of Raytheon Polar Services Company, received an angry email from one of the other employees who had been let go, using all sorts of bad language and insulting both the company and other individuals.

Apparently he had been fired over the Jell-O wrestling incident.  He was angry that he was fired, even though similar events had happened in past years without anyone getting fired, and that he was fired without an explanation of how he had broken specific rules. 

Many people sided with this man, but they forgot some important points.

For starters, just because people got away with it in the past does not mean its okay all the time.  Maybe it was not caught by HR last time, or maybe there were new HR reps this year who knew to put their foot down.  It also doesn't help this guy was caught on camera participating in the event.

Also, this was an unauthorized underground Jell-O wrestling event, held in a secured inventory location.  Had they permission for the event, they would never have been allowed to hold it there.  With as much drinking occurs at the parties in McMurdo, all sorts of drunken thievery and damage would have to be expected.  The building was supposed to be locked after-hours and instead all sorts of unauthorized people were coming and going.

Not to mention they had not fully cleaned up after themselves.  There just happened to be an NSF inspection of the building the next day and they saw the pile of Jell-O soiled mattresses.

All-in-all this email provided great entertainment for me and my roommate.

Seriously, people.  Use your brains.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Late in the day Thursday I received an email that I had been selected for Room With A View, a half-day snow-machine trip to Mt. Erebus where you get just above the peninsula to see the open ocean beyond. Well, they had sent me the email close to the end of the day, last minute.

So I showed up to the SSC on Friday dressed in full ECW gear and ready for the trip, only to find that I was an alternate. This wasn't a bad thing, as I did not even know how my name got put on the list in the first place. Since all eight other participants had shown up, I as told that I would be guaranteed a spot on the next trip on Saturday.

I went back to work, checking my email through the rest of the evening. Nothing. I checked my email Saturday morning. Nothing. I sent an email, saying I was told I would be going but that I had not yet received a new notice of when to meet and that I did not know if I was still on the list.

I received a reply later on saying that I was on the list and that I should meet up in the SSC as last time. Gee, thanks for reminding me.

We rode a van down to where the snow machines were parked and got on, two to a machine except for the two who were too large to share. The experience was not bad, but I did not really see why everyone else gets so excited. The ride was a little bumpy and sometimes the machine tried to wander one way or another but otherwise it was just a ride.

It was a NICE ride, but still.

We drove 15 miles out of station and 1400ft up Mt Erebus. We were nowhere near the top, but we did have a better view of it, up close. I think I was told the peak of Mt Erebus is 23 miles out of McMurdo.

We hung around up there, enjoying the view for a while. It got a little dull just standing there killing time, but everyone with a camera took photos and we played with a football and several frisbees. I toyed with my camera and figured out how to make it take High-Speed photographs in rapid succession.

The view was great. From as high up as we were we could see even more endless sea ice than before. I could see up the arm of the Ross Peninsula back to Scott Base, down the Erebus Tongue Glacier, or up to the open ocean north of McMurdo.

Several of the earlier trips this season had cloudy weather, blocking any views.

On the way up I drove, but on the run back I rode as a passenger.

I have decided I NEVER want to be the passenger on a snow machine ever again.

The machine bounced around so much I was afraid I might go flying out of my seat (I almost slide backwards of it several times). It was white-knuckle all the way down the hill. It did not help that the driver would slow down to put some distance between us and the next machine, then floor it. When I was driving we never got past 30kph. With my partner we were getting up to 60kph on his 'catch-ups'. He also accelerated into bumps, trying to get air.

I kept trying to think of how would be the best 'crash position' to assume should I fall off, though the situation never presented itself and I was not crazy enough (yet) to jump off on my own.

I enjoyed the trip out but not the trip back, as it definitely scared the flying monkeys out of me.

Twelve days left, not much longer now.  

Every day I seemed to get asked when my redeployment date is, I assume because everyone is just curious.  A lot of people think my date is really early, but I know of two guys leaving on the 26th of January.  

I am ready to come back.

I want food.

Good food.

Bad for me food.

I have a list of places I want to go and hopefully I don't attempt them all in one day!

I also only know of two movies that are out, or have been out.  Twilight and Quantum of Solace.

I haven't been doing too much lately, mostly cleaning up the shop spaces and now I am working on a computer project, cleaning up the shop harddrive and making a list of files for people to access to they don't have to go searching hundreds of folders for what they want.

The galley is out of hot fudge for Frosty Boy, and that makes me sad.

I wish I had thought of this sooner, it would have been funny to pose at the station sign in a different costume from Gear Issue every month.

And now here's an old photo from Christmas dinner:

Look, ma!  I'm smiling!

Do you have Prince Albert in a can?

Well, you'd best let him out, he has to spread awareness about Global Warming!

Prince Albert of Monaco is visiting the continent.  He is staying in Hut 10, a building normally rented out for parties down here.  I heard Monaco recently signed the Antarctica Treaty, so now he's touring the place and trying to spread awareness on global warming.  The other night he gave a speech.  I did not go to it, as I was tired.  

I'm tired a lot lately.  It probably does not help that i moved my bedtime back from 10pm to 11pm to make myself more sleepy by the time it came time for bed, or maybe its because I have worked 9 hours a day 6 days a week for the last 5 months now.  It'll be good to get back to the states.  

I might not trying Wintering over sometime, but not right after a Summer season.

There will be an art show tomorrow.  I might enter a couple dreamcatchers I made.  I made them from spare parts lying about the shop.  The second one is made entirely out of copper and brass.  I call it the daydream catcher.  It just looks neat.  I think I like making these.  I like working with wire.

And now, cookies:

The other day I sat down with Michael the Janitor Lead.  We eating and he started telling someone else that the steak was good that night.  I wound up eating one of the three pieces I had and thought it was good.  I started on the second piece.

I tried to tell Michael how good the steak was, but the steak was so good I could not speak

That has never happened before.

Congratulations McMurdo, you have now raised the bar on my expectations for steak tenderloin.

Viking Invasion

So the Swedish icebreaker Oden is in port.  Well, in and out of port.  You could see them from down in the distance past Hut Point slowly making their way in as they repeatedly backed up and rammed the sea ice.  By Monday morning they had cleared their way to the ice pier.  

The ice pier itself is funny because it is a small iceberg that rises and falls with the tides to make it easier to unload a ship.  There are power poles and small structures on it, its really quite amusing.

The Oden went back out to sea this morning and is out doing donuts in the parking lot to break up more sea ice to clear the channel for the resupply vessels.

Rock that Moon Bounce, baby!

So the other night I was driving shuttles, and a girl asked me if I could drop her off 'Near the BFC'.  I said I would, and then wondered if she wanted me to drop her off closer to her destination, since she had only said 'Near the BFC'.  She said anywhere near there was fine, and eventually said any place between the BFC and the SSC was good.  I thought this was a little odd, since that space is a large open area mostly used to park vehicles, and the NASA Moon Habitat prototype (which I refer to as NASA's Moon Bounce).

After I dropped her off and was driving away, I saw two other people I knew walking past the SSC.  At that point it occurred to me that something might have been going on at the Moon Bounce, and given the secretive nature it might be a party.

This morning at our shop's morning meeting one of my coworkers informed us that there was a party at the Moon Bounce, which was broken up by the station manager.  

Kinda a poor choice of location, considering the NSF Chalet is across the lot from the Moon Bounce.  Even more so when you consider the Moon Bounce is loaded with cameras to monitor it.

I keep finding out about all the 'secret parties', mainly because I know a guy.