Optimistic Indifference

So every so often I stop and think, and I wonder if this is really happening. Everything is shifted to the internet these days and things just become so impersonal. My hiring on, for example. The first two instances I had with Raytheon about work were through emails. My actual 'interview' was conducted over the phone. Then everything was handled through emails. Instructions emailed to me, forms downloaded off a webpage, more forms emailed, etc. Every so often I stop and wonder if I really was hired by a company to work at the end of the Earth. I feel as though I haven't talked with anyone, or met anyone, and that its all not really real, or that its an elaborate scam/joke, and that there isn't a job waiting and that come next week I'll get left behind with all the gear I've bought and packed and readied.
But then I stop and remember that I have spoken with people, gone to medical appointments, and even dropped off some paperwork in person at the company headquarters and that I've had actual physical interaction with the institution of Raytheon. That is how this sort of thing SHOULD be handled (unless of course you live in another state or something, then I can understand telecommunication). People should interview you in person, meet with you regularly or make phone calls or have you actually INSIDE their office at some point.

Oddly, I'm not really anxious about any of this. I'm not excited, I'm not nervous, I'm not afraid. It is something I want to do, without a doubt, but now that I've been accepted and I know I am going I've kind of just fallen back, relaxed and waiting. I saw 'Encounters at the End of the World' today with my mother. Afterwards she asked if seeing the movie made me more excited or nervous. I said that I would have been more motivated to go if I didn't already know I was going.
I think I've developed an odd, liesurely outlook on life lately, which is good. I don't get all upset at most things though my parents might disagree with that, but then again they've formed their opinions without all their facts.

I gladly look forward to getting down on the ice, to doing something completely new, something I have never done before, some place so far away from where I am used to. I want to do this, I will do this, I will do whatever it takes to get this done and stick through it, but at the same time I feel like I am just sitting back and enjoying the ride, letting what happens happen and looking at life with a weird sense of optimistic indifference.

Waiting Game

Okay! The purpose of this blog is to chronicle my misadventures in the land of the ice, penguins, Elder Things and outposts of the Ancients. Next week I deploy to Antarctica until roughly February (I do not yet have my exact dates). I have no intention of keeping a day-to-day journal of events, but I will try to post often enough with anything of interest that has happened.
Right now I am just waiting. Waiting for for September the 2nd. Waiting to confirm my travel itinerary.
For those of you that don't know, I will be going to work As a General Assistant at McMurdo Station in Antarctica for Raytheon Polar Services Company. I have been trying since February 2006 to get in and finally I'll get to go. I don't know yet if this will be something I will enjoy, but I do know that this will definitely be interesting. Originally I was supposed to deploy early October. Then a couple months ago they sent out an email asking who wanted to deploy early to help out with Springfly, which helps set up the polar stations in the antarctic. Well, I didn't get in with the first group of acceptees (I just invented that word, back off!), but apparently my name was on the top of the list of standbys, so with two weeks notice I accepted the offer. My On-Ice date is set for September 8th with an orientation date of September 2nd. I will be flying down through New Zealand where I will wait for a few days until weather is clear enough for travel. New Zealand will be my first time outside of the United States, though apparently I have been to Guam back before I can remember and that technically counts and U.S. soil. But as I cannot remember it, it does not count!
As a General Assistant I assume I will be going the general labor down there on the ice. I have been told multiple times that there WILL be snow shoveling, which I assume to be a task entrusted to only their most capable and intelligent employees. I do not know for certain yet what I will be doing down there. I was initially interviewed to work on some kind of fuels pipeline, though I have heard that because of funding cuts that job may not be there this season. However, since I was among the first to be fully PQed (Physically Qualified) for deployment they would keep me on anyways and they'll just have me do something else. Let someone else be standby.
So I sit here prepared, waiting, listening to Afuro Gunso while typing this up. I have a nice, new camera for taking pictures which I'll share with all of you once I start getting this voyage underway.