First blog!

Me on a hike out to Ross sea shelf - it's all frozen over. View of McMurdo

Me near Scott Hut around McMurdo where my camera froze...

I'm creating this blog so friends and family can follow my travels to Antarctica. I have just heard about blogger and am new to it. We'll see how technical blogging really gets as my trip progresses.

I am currently in Antarctica stationed at McMurdo. It's been a whirlwind travel first leaving Washington state and flying to Denver for orientation. After 1 1/2 days there, we all flew to Auckland, New Zealand with a layover in Los Angeles. Then we flew to Christchurch where we were issued our cold weather gear. After a few days there, we flew to McMurdo in Antarctica.

Looking at the calendar I've been here at McMurdo for 6 days although it definately feels longer. My final destination is the South Pole to which I'm waiting for the weather to warm up so the military planes (C130's) can fly us down and replace the Polies currently there. We're expecting to fly out this Tuesday.

My job title is production cook although I'll be working more as the lead baker's assistant - so I'll be making bread, desserts and pastries. An interesting fact about me is that I am not a fan of the cold or snow. I usuaslly pick seasonal jobs in warm/ hot weather and preferably with a beach or lake nearby. Armed with this information about me, all my friends think I'm totally crazy for wanting to see the South Pole. "It's really cold there and you'll be miserable," they all said trying to sway me into going someplace else. But stubborn as I am, I stuck to my guns and thought it would be a trip of a lifetime... and here I am. In the meantime, I just have to think happy warm thoughts for 60F to me, is cold.

It's currently -12C and I'm not sure of the conversion to Farenheit. The Pole is -58C today. I believe it's something like 21 hrs ahead of West Coast USA time. I just tell everyone on the westcoast that I'm 3 hrs behind but the next day. Kind of confusing but it makes sense to me.

Sightseeing around here is different. Everything is white with snow and cold. The first time I went for a hike for pictures, my camera froze. But the view is quite nice. It's 24 hrs of daylight so it still throws me off.