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.