Still Workin' It

Hello again,

things have been going so well. i'm having an awesome time and meeting some incredible people. I met this lady named Ann who works in waste management, and she was on the team with Ann Bancroft in the late 90's trying to ski across Antarctica. they "only" made it from McMurdo to the South Pole that time, but she has some incredible stories. And one of my coworkers' mom lives next to Steve Buschemi- he's a super nice guy, apparently. Laena (my coworker) has met him lots of times and hung out with him. I need to be introduced to this mom. I'm convinced that my other coworker, Bob, was the voice for the sea turtle in the movie Finding Nemo- and if he wasn't, then he was on the shortlist because he talks exactly like a surfer dude. What i can't figure out though, is that he grew up and lives in New York City. Go figure.

The loader picture shows what i drive on a daily basis. it's an CAT IT-28, capable of lifting 8000 pounds. i drive it over snow and dirt mounds, take stuff off the cargo lines (after i've dug them out of the snow drifts) and deliver them wherever they need to go around town. it's a LOT different than a forklift in a cement floor warehouse, and way more fun. the other picture is Mount Discovery at "sunset". I went to the Kiwi base on American night, hung out there until late, came back to McMurdo (there are taxis to take us through the mountain pass both ways) and there was this gorgeous view of Discovery across McMurdo Sound. keep in mind that it's about 11 or 11:30 at night, and the colors are from the clouds- the sun is still very much in the sky and not below the horizon. let me know if you want a larger picture than this one since i resized it for easier emailing. and let me know if it worked out okay.

I went for a hike up Observation Hill, got some good shots of Mount Erebus, the southern most active volcano. You can see smoke coming from its crater. There are also bits of petrified trees around in the different valleys around here. It's hard to believe that trees grew here 250 million years ago, but that's when the continent was in a different place on earth.

Yesterday i went to go to open bowling (i signed up for a league as well- monday nights), but it was locked, so i wandered around the building and wandered into the ceramics room. a few nice people were in there and showed me how to work clay on the pottery wheel and i made a nice bowl/cup/mug thing. i've never done that before and i think i'm going to do lots more. i have to back tomorrow night to carve the base of my mug, glaze it, and fire it. i started knitting a hat, too. i'm doing knit two, perle two, for 3 inches in brown, then we'll see where to go from there with my burnt orange and chartruese.

I'm getting pumped up to go hiking on the Castle Rock Loop. it's BEAUTIFUL out there i hear. Fifty below wind chill, but sunny and clear! my new room is so awesome, i love it. my roommate loves it more though. he was so pissed all the time in our old room, never even unpacked. but now, we was vacuuming, rearranging furniture, then he'd just sit on the couch and smile and soak it all in. he reminds me of some movie star- not bigtime like Tom Cruise or Pauly Shore, but more like that guy you always see playing supporting roles in almost every movie, and i think he was in Fargo. and i got the name and email of the lady in charge of physics experiments at Crary Labs. i asked the Crary Lab tour guide about possibilities in volunteering there, she asked me my background, i said physics major, and she smiled and said i should talk to Laura and she'd probably love to have me helping out on one or some of the 14 different projects she has going on here and at remote sites around McMurdo. so there may be chances of me getting to fly around in a helicopter and stuff! maybe, we'll see. last night, i went to Gallager's Bar, the non-smoking bar here, and they had karaoke. i was going to sing, but Strokin' wasn't in their system.

I still haven't seen any penguins. there was a HUGE iceberg (B15) that broke off the Ross Ice Shelf a few/couple years ago- it was all in the news- then it floated in the direction of McMurdo on Ross Island, banged into the Ross Ice Shelf and broke off a smaller ice berg (C-something) which wedged itself between Ross Island and the permanent ice in McMurdo Sound. Then B15 came along and wedged in between C-something and the Ross Ice Shelf. This has created a very large break water here and now the ice that usually breaks up and floats out to sea every summer has stayed here for 3 years and keeps getting thicker. for this reason, the penguin colonies have not been coming here since. apparently, in the past, they'd be right out there in the sound and some would even wander into town. last year, the fuel tanker couldn't get through the ice and people had to run 7 miles of hose out to and back from the ship. i can't believe that there's more than 14 miles of fuel hose here. hopefully, i'll get to go out and see more wildlife.

Phil