December 30

With the holidays and the morale trip my routine has been thrown out the window. I've started allowing myself the time to sit and enjoy the company of those around. For the most part, the folks here are folks that follow their dreams. The type of people I admire and wish to emulate. Today, a dishwasher was spinning her own yarn for the first time during her 15 minutes break. Yesterday was the annual Icestock music festival where all of the local bands performed at an all-day outdoor venue. There were at least 10 bands, many folks wore costumes, everyone danced. The all female band performed in tank tops (the weather was in the low 20s and snowing). Eight different teams entered the chili cook-off. The carpenters built a coffee house, called it 'Sawbucks' and sold liquor and coffee all day. What other town of 1,000 can compare? I may love it here.

I miss road trips. I miss canoeing. I miss trees and backpacking and dogs and children. I miss the sounds of the woods at night time and I may even miss the rain. I miss stars and campfires and cooking my own food. Still, I may love it here.

December 26

My off-campus trip for the purpose of morale-building occurred today. My time is sort of off because the trip occured during my normal sleeping hours. The trip was essentially a guided snowmobile tour of the sea ice. We stopped to look at seals a couple of times and our guide taught us much about safety with ice cracks. We periodically stopped to drill into the ice and ensure it was at least 30 inches thick. We crossed a two-foot open water crack and spent some time discussing it's safety. The highlight of the day was the Emperor penguin we saw hanging out all by his lonesome. Though, I'll admit, driving the snowmobile was good fun too.

December 24

All is well in Antarctica. I celebrated Christmas Eve with another long walk on the designated trails near campus. I took the time to sit down, shut my eyes and enjoy the sun. The trail runs right close to the water's edge and some seals were swimming in the water nearby.

My parent's sent me roasted nuts for Christmas. We celebrated Christmas with a fancy meal at midnight. I had the duck, roasted root vegitables and about a thousand desserts.

December 23

I awoke for my first of two work-free nights. Attended the campus-wide Christmas party held in the heavy shop's grand ballroom. There was eggnog and cheese plates. The New Zealand folks were grilling sausages for everyone. Santa Claus was drunk and sitting on a snowmobile. You had to wait in line to get your picture taken with drunk Santa.

Later in the night, I went for a long hike on one of the designated trails near campus. I saw a seal climb out of the water and onto the sea ice. I very much enjoyed playing with the new camera and took lots of photos of the local volcano.

December 22

The Janitor Christmas party had a 'Christmas morning' theme. Which meant everyone attends in pajamas and eats breakfast foods. The party began at 6:30pm, which is about the time I wake. I received two Pez dispensers, a digital birthday candle and a reindeer pen in the gift exchange. The housing department gifted each of us with a stapled-together stocking filled with gummy bears, pretzels, a glow-in-the-dark neon bracelet and a can of applesauce.

Today is our seventh working day in a row (we typically have a day off every six days but the schedule is all out of whack due to Christmas), we were rewarded with an extra 15 minutes during both of our longer breaks.

We spent a good bit of time scrubbing grease from the heavy shop's walls in preparation for the upcoming campus-wide Christmas party.

At the mailroom, I received 4 letters and a package. I received a new camera from Alex and will again be able to photograph and post pictures of my going-ons.

December 21st

I had good intentions but never made it to acoustic night at the waste barn. Opting instead to take the time to write a letter home before work.

At the end of the night's work, the night janitors had a scheduled morale-building activity. We played cards and few similar games. My co-worker from Thailand taught us how to make flowers out of paper and cooked curry for us.

December 20th

We had a presentation on nutrition during our morning janitor meeting. Essentially, the presenter spent 20 minutes whining about the food selection on campus.

The new campus hairdresser arrived on the 3am flight from Christchurch and tons of people left on the 4:00am flight back to Christchurch, presumably on their way home for the holidays.

It's been snowing heavily and my off campus work has been cancelled. The snow is so pretty.

December 19th

I received an email from my boss that I am to attend a trip off-campus tomorrow to help drill some holes in the sea ice.

Many of the janitors celebrated the official "Pirate vs. Ninja throwdown" Thursday by dressing as one and attacking the other throughout the day.

Had a discussion with my co-workers about what's the first thing we want to do when we leave the ice. Three of my co-workers want to go for a long walk by themselves, which they can totally do here, so I don't get it, but I didn't ask. I said I wanted to eat multiple avocados in one sitting.

December 18

I slept until about 8:30pm. Work starts at 10pm so I didn't get much free time today. In my limited free time I attended a travelogue on someone's river float trip in Madagascar. It wasn't my type of river, but it was fun to learn about Madagascar. I love their trees. The average salary in Madagascar is ~US$200 per year and 70% of Madagascar's plants and animals exist nowhere else in the world.

Work was uneventful, we mopped a little here, scrubbed a few toilets there, swept some dust and took out trash. One of my co-worker's was off sick.

December 17th

I had to set my alarm to wake up early for Spanish class. We watched a Spanish episode of Seinfeld with English subtitles.

Worked all night and the day ended with the NANA station services Christmas party. They gave us free beer and we played BINGO. I had to watch my two bingo cards plus my co-worker Suluay's two cards (her English is broken so she was struggling to consistently follow what they were calling). It was fun, I won a 'Volunteer for the recreation department' hat.

December 16

Attended a science lecture on the penguin populations. As the climate warms, the penguin populations of northern colonies are shrinking while the more southern colonies are getting larger. At the end of the science lecture we were shown a NSF DVD on the topic. The DVD is available for the cost of shipping & handling from penguinscience.com.

December 15

Awoke 5 minutes before ballroom dancing class was scheduled to start but made it to class before they started dancing.

Attended the annual "Celebration of the Women of McMurdo". Women from campus put on a talent show, this year raising money for the Kiwi Family Trust. There was singing, choreographed dancing, stand-up comedy, a belly dancer and some lady who gave a lecture on the history of the tortilla. The event raised over $4,000 in raffle ticket sales.

Ate the midnight meal with a cargo guy brewing his own beer on campus. A chef at the table commented that it was an excellent beer.

As I understand, the permanent ice sheet is constantly growing and where it runs into our island it is forced upward and creates what is locally known as 'pressure ridges'. I joined an organized walking tour of the pressure ridges at 2am. The walk felt Antarctican to me, much more so than the dusty roads and trails I typically walk.

December 14

I put my laundry in the wash yesterday before my walk and forgot all about them. When I returned to the laundry room ten hours later, my clothes had been washed, dried and were sitting in a pile on top of the dryer with a note that said "you're clothes are done, you suck".

We finished work early tonight for reasons I don't really understand but are directly related to a meeting day janitors attend.

Today's high was 41F.

December 13th

After work, I walked on the trail with rumored seal sightings. From about 50 yards, I saw two Weddell seals lying on the sea ice. One of the seals scratched it's belly with a flipper and rubbed it's nose with it's tail. A third seal come up for air. It was all very cute. Both seals looked up whenever a helicopter flew overhead. The highlight of the experience was being able to hear the seal's call. It was an amazing sound.

At the morning janitor meeting, they announced which janitors would be heading to the South Pole to help clean things. Six of the ~20 janitors were selected. Sadly, my name was not on the list.

The temperature reached a reported high of 38F today, the warmest I've seen yet.

December 12th

My co-worker whose been here for 8 seasons had the inside connections to get some fresh Antarctican Cod from one of the scientist, she made us all some fish curry that was oh so yummy.

I enjoyed open mic night at the coffee house/wine bar. Mostly all folk music and some real quality talent for a town of 1000 people. I was reminded of what an amazing place I live.

December 11th

Attended a travelogue lecture on the presenter's 4 1/2 years spent in Honduras as Peace Corps volunteer. She learned conversational Spanish in 3 months of 4-hours-a-day in the classroom.

At the post office, I received two letters from Alex, which totally made my day.

They sky was a fantastic shade of turquoise tonight.

December 10th

Attended a 'hitchhiking seminar'. Presented by a fellow McMurdo resident who has hitchhiked about 75,000 miles over the last five years. He gave advice, tips, safety concerns and told stories of his adventures. He has hitchhiked all over the world and even had a documentary made about his travels.

In Spanish lessons we listened to a rock-n-roll song, then read and translated the lyrics and listened to the song again.

Our boss was proud to announce she has applied for an over-winter janitor position.

December 9th

I had to wake in the middle of my night's sleep to attend the craft fair. Tons of amazing artwork, mostly all done by artistans while on the ice. Lots of photography, paintings and jewelry. I think I may have bought more had I not been so sleepy.

Finished off the day with a morning science lecture on the ANDrill project. By drilling deep into the earth and recovering core samples, scientist can say much about what the climate used to look like in the particular area where they are drilling. They used to study when Antarctica's cold years, but nowadays are all looking at points in time when Antarctica was the warmest.

This years core samples showed evidence of swamp land 15-17 million years ago. They learned that rivers used to run in Antarctica (by drilling up the silt that the rivers deposited into the ocean) and when the local volcanos last went crazy (by drilling up volcanic ash). They showed us a picture of a core sample that was layers of deposited silt that had been disturbed by a worm like creature. So what they reckon happened was that the river was running really fast and the poor worm was washed down stream and buried in the silt and then he had to climb his way out.

December 8th

I had to set the alarm clock last night to wake up early for ballroom dancing lessons, tonight was the first swing dancing class. Having going to bed late yesterday and awoken early this morning, I took a two-hour nap after dancing.

I spent my off night writing a letter and making a long phone call to the States. It's amazing how quickly an entire night (an entire weekend on an Antarctican work schedule) can just fly by. I think I could easily occupy another 20-30 hours of free time a week.

December 7

I received my mid-season evaluation last night. I am almost exceeding expectations, which better than I expected.

During our morning janitor meeting, our boss told a story of the year the sanitary waste bin (tampons, condoms, band-aids, etc.) was blown over by the wind and all of the Skua birds (scavengers) had a feast.

The day ended with live music at the bar, quite possibly the first-ever 8am (for the night staff) live music event on the continent. Good times.

December 6th

Work was slow this evening. I learned that while the heavy shop dodgeball team has lost every game, their bowling team is undefeated.

I ate dinner with the wife of a chef, who spent a good part of the meal complaining about how hard the chefs have to work. They apparently have to take a break every 20 minutes while cutting meat and this sucks because they don't have enough time to get all the meat cut if they take a break every 20 minutes.

December 5th

The hair stylist's injured wrist isn't healing so she is flying home tomorrow. Apparently, there's a chef on staff that is also a licensed hair stylist. She has volunteered to help out and will be cutting hair like one or two days a week. Due to the reduced hours, haircuts are on a lottery system until another full-time hair dresser arrives.

We found two plates, a bowl and a fork in someone's office trash.

Ate breakfast with a heating and air conditioning guy who told stories of his time working in Afghanistan.

One of my roommates leaves today to spend 2-3 weeks at a field camp. He will be sleeping in a tent and doing general labor around camp. Another of my roommates is flying home tomorrow because of injury.

There are now four octopi in the aquarium.

December 4th

I attended a travelogue about someone's two-week skiing trip in Kashmir. They received 2 meters of snow on the day he arrived.

It snowed off and on all night. The ground is covered with snow but not frozen, which means much dirt is tracked into the buildings. The joys of a janitor's life.

There are now three octopi in the aquarium.

December 3

I started off the day being awoken by the alarm clock in order to make it to Spanish lessons on time. We practiced conjugating a few verbs.

At the mail room today, I had 3 letters!! I was so excited. One from my girlfriend, one from my parents and one from a dude I met hiking the Appalachian Trail over the summer. While there's typically no more content than an email, there's something extra I enjoy in a hand-written letter.

I went to the ceramics room after work and finished my Christmas surprise for Alex.

December 2

The buildings are tending to accumulate much more dust as the ground thaws on sunny days. This increases our janitor workload and sometimes one can taste the dust in the back of one's throat. Fortunately most of the buildings I work in have vacuums to suck dust instead of trying to sweep it. Without a vacuum we use a dampened dust mop. It is kind of nice to have enough work to keep us busy all night.

I had breakfast this morning with another dishwasher. She has a job lined up as a field assistant at a volcano in Central America after she leaves Antarctica.

A janitor won the big mountain bike race on campus. We are all very proud of him.

December 1

Saturday night is my weekly time off work. I'm not sure where the whole night went, but it's over already. I was invited to a rave at the post office cargo bay but declined, choosing instead a phone call to North Carolina. At the midnight meal, I ate with a dishwasher who is also an ecologist and studies owls in the back country of the northwest United States.

I learned that McMurdo sends weather balloons up into the atmosphere twice a day every day. The balloons are made of latex and carry devices that measure many things necessary for weather prediction. The balloons eventually fail and come down in their own time. They aren't recovered, so at least 100 balloons have been scattered about the continent and it's surrounding waters since I arrived. All so I can know what the weather may be (and presumably, the information is necessary for the airplane and helicopter flights).

November 30

I awoke at 8:00pm. Sleeping a little more than 10 hours. I think I'm sleeping better here than I can recall ever sleeping in the past. Many others complain of having difficulty sleeping.

I got stuck cleaning the bar that allows smoking. It has to be the most disgusting place on the continent. Well, maybe second to where ever all of our human waste goes.

November 29

All of the freshly-fallen snow melted during the time I slept. The days seem to be getting less cloudy and with the increased sunlight comes warmth. I often see people in t-shirts and others in sandals whenever the temperature reaches the 30Fs.

Over the weekend, they are planning to move the airport off of the sea ice and onto a permanent ice shelf. A good indication the sea ice is melting as summer continues to draw nearer.

November 28

We learned that we put the octopus home in the wrong aquarium. The aquarium where the ocotopus was staying means that he or she took a 3-4 foot fall last night.

Our supervisor told us she is sending 2-4 janitors to the south pole to get the placed cleaned up before some special senators arrive.

We received about 2 inches of big, fluffy snowflakes over about 3 hours time this morning.