halloween debauchery

Halloween.




i have been told that halloween here on the ice is the biggest party of the year, and i do not find that hard to believe.



the event is held at the "big gym" on the far end of station. our late night walk there turned into an icy version of the wizard of oz. above is a shot of my friends marty and kevin dressed as a fork and an elf. from a distance they looked the perfect tin man and scarecrow.



all in all i found the experience similar to macalester's qu dances in college...but this event differs in that most of the costumes are either shipped down just for the party or are constructed from free items left in our skua (a free goods exchange here on station) and things found in the trash. the entire event is an extreme exercise in creativity.

my friend geniveve dressed as a lounge lizard and used fake wound paint from the fire department to transform her skin green. she won scariest costume (her eyes glowed in the dark!) micheal dressed as our friend marty's floor, and andrea was betty flinestone.



overall best costume went to two sisters (who look practically identical in this photo) dressed as Siamese twins!



these are some more of my co-workers! kris, my supervisor is the the pirate farthest to the left. next to her stands andrea again, jay, and scott (the m and m's!)



unfortunately i forgot to take a photo of my costume and the only shot my roommate krista and i could come up with was this silly photo of she and i--both attempting to look awkward. i think we succeeded. krista was pippy longstocking, and i dressed up as a color blind version of the comic book character, poison ivy. i was told that i failed to look evil!



throughout the night we popped our head out the back door to get some air. here is the bayside view from where we stood on the helo pad! it was a fabulous night.

sealing

A few days ago my co-worker, Shuttle Bill, and I took a Delta out to do a vehicle maintenance check. On the way, we decided to be tourists!



Because none of us are native here, we all seem to carry our cameras with us everywhere, especially us shuttlies. In this instance it paid off.



What a cutie, aye! (S)He even poked her head up for us!



And this last photo is one of the crack out at the "transition", which is the point where the sea ice meets the land ice. Fissures form when the tide goes out and comes back in. Today the crack looks pretty small, but a few days ago this baby was hurtin' if you drove over it too fast!

ice town

Being a shuttle driver here in Antarctica is far different than I envisioned shuttle driving from the states. This difference includes more than the Delta's and IVAN.

Technically speaking I am a Vehicle Operator for the ATO, the Antarctic Terminal Operations. Our main duty is to transport passengers and crew to and from airplanes (C17's, Herc's-C130's, the Basler-C30, little Twin Otters, and helicopters). I spend heaps of time driving to and from the runway.



Currently, the ICE RUNWAY is McMurdo's active airplane runway. Constructed on just over 6 meters of ice (!!), it is only 1.5 miles from station and viewable from the edge of McMurdo. Due to it's quick melting rate in the summer, we'll switch out to Williams Field Runway (which I have mentioned in earlier postings, aka: Willy Field) in December and then at the end of the summer and on through next Winfly we fly off a runway called Pegasus. Below is a photo I took of the ICE RUNWAY from the edge of the McMurdo bay late one cloudy evening around 2AM.



While working I spend hours and hours sitting in ICE TOWN, a little village of fish huts located out next to the runway ramp. Every 30 minutes, at the top and bottom of the hour, we run a shuttle to and from Ice Town; the air national guard, airplane mechanics, air traffic control tower workers, dining room attendants, and cargo personnel all use our shuttles...which means that I get to meet heaps and heaps of people (especially pilots), and have lots of down time (20 minutes every run) while I wait for my next departure.

The following photos are all taken from the shuttle stop just out side the galley. Just like back in Iowa, I spend as much time looking at the sky as I do looking at the landscape.



I also have a perfect view of the pluming, Mt. Erebus (the white mountain to the left!)







And on my way back into town, I always take note to admire the red flag road markers flapping in the wind. On still days they rest, silent and on blustery days like this one the flap wildly in the wind reminding me to turn!

the kiwi's: scott base

The Kiwis: Scott Base

This evening after work a group of my coworkers and I took our own shuttle (a definite perk of my job) on a little trip over to New Zealand's station: SCOTT BASE.



Scott Base is the kiwi's only base here in Antarctica; located a couple of miles from Mcmurdo, only about 70 people live here. For logistical reasons the 1,000 American's can only visit the base if they are invited or to check out the kiwi store (which has beautiful postcards, and good chocolate!!)



As shuttle drivers, we drive past Scott Base nearly every day on our way out to the William's Field runway. In order to get there you have to climb over the SCOTT BASE HILL. This is considered one of the most dangerous places for vehicles, particularly due to snow. Thus, we are required to always make a full stop at the Scott Base sign in order to check incoming traffic: bulldozers, caterpillars carrying fish huts, IVAN.

Today at our stop we pulled the van ahead a bit to take touristy photos. The sky was beautiful! My Scott Base photo was taken peering down the hill to the right (where Michael is looking in the above photo).



This image is a shot of the down slope of Scott Base Hill. It doesn't look all that steep but straight ahead of that curve is a 100-foot slopping cliff. Off in the distance, just right of the hill, you can see the ice shelf pressure ridges. These ridges are developed when the tides under the frozen sea shelf push the ice into the Antarctic shore causing huge rolls and eventually breaks in the sea ice. We often spot seals here.



Once at the bottom of the hill, we get a clear view of the smoking volcano, Mt. Erebus. Mt. Erebus is visible from almost everywhere on station and stands (I believe) 14,000 feet.



This last shot is a view across the bay. Beautiful aye?

ivan

this week at work, i got trained to drive IVAN the TERRA BUS!



*grin* this bus is HUGE, but i must admit ivan is one of my favorite vehicles to drive. ivan intimidating, a real challenge, but you all know how i love challenges.



ivan is one of 7 terra buses in the world, the other six are in greenland. in total he weighs 67,000 lbs and the wheels stand nearly 5' 6'' off the ground. he is an all terrain vehicle built specifically for artic/antarctic climates, slow travel. he has 6 gears, and a gas tank that hold 80 gallons of diesel. we use about 1/3 a tank of gas every time we drive over the scott base hill out to willy field. a gas guzler if i have ever seen one. *grin*

around here we joke that folks back in the states are going to start ordering delta's and terra buses to transport their kids to school because hummers are no longer big enough!



i hear that we can hook up our ipod to the inside stereo system. *grin* which is a super good thing because this beast moves slow!!

my sunshine

this posting is dedicated to my grandpa, louie kramer.



born on july 24, 1907, and married to my grandma coletta for 67 years before she passed away.

last friday (october 17th) my grandpa suddenly got very sick. when i left him just two weeks ago, i thought he would live forever. at 99, he still had spice, a memory that could run circles around many of his grandkids (and even his 50 great grandkids), and vigor for life! On his 99th birthday (last July) he descriptively talked about his wild younger days, and despite his continual warning that he could die at any minute (which he has been saying since he turned 80), he also joked that he would probably live until 105. We always sang with my grandpa. He loved to sing; he yodeled, and recalled german songs from his childhood. tara and I sang him bluegrass, old folk tunes, and traditional ghanan songs.

i loved my grandpa dearly.



my grandpa just passed a way two days ago, an especially difficult experience from so far away. along with distance, making phone calls from here is really tough; we only have 40 phone lines for 1000 people. in addition, i have found it nearly impossible to find even minutes to be alone-a difficult state to deal with death. it has been an incredible struggle for me.

but, with that said, i have had some heros on my side. my friends here (and at home) have really gone out of their way to be supportive, offering me comforting words, opening the privacy of their rooms when their roommates are at work, bringing me dinner so i don't have to go to the galley and eat with hundreds of people, and covering my shifts at work so i can call home.

oh and my family, my family has also been amazing! my dad managed to call me here, in person, just moments after grandpa died (a miracle), and kept me informed so i felt i was there. my brother, tim, who is also in antarctica (palmer station) identified with my circumstances; he suggested places to find privacy, and brought great perspective both to our now, and to grandpa’s life. my sister, tara, represented both tim and i while we are away-singing to grandpa on his deathbed and at his funeral. if only we could have been with her. and my mom, she was there, supportive as always.

all in all, i am feeling much better now. i listened to music, sang for my gramps in our little greenhouse here, and sent some photos home for the funeral. i feel lucky to have had an amazing grandpa that really choose to live all the way up until the last hour, and he always had such good humor. what a standard i have to live up too.



the night before night before grandpa died, around 10:30pm, i took this photo from just above the ross ice shelf bay. it was about 10:30 at night. normally, the sun here just circles in the sky always appearing as mid-day, but that night the clouds created the closest experience to a sunset that i have yet seen. i was at the coffee house and decided to walk (in the freakish cold) a half a block to the nearest open shot of the sea ice...it just happened to be the chapel (farthest south in the world) cozied admist warm light and large glistening snow drifts.

the bright night life.

here is an introduction to the wild mcmurdo night life.

on friday we went to our big department ato (antarctic terminal operations) party. from left to right: moi, andrea, micheal, and massie...our dangerous shuttle quartet.



after the ato shin dig we went to a huge 70's party at our bar, gallagers.


genieve and i!!

some wine has been drunk which is evident. *laughter* although, i am really not as drunk i look. we couldn't get the photographer to figure out how to use my camera!


the crew.

shuttlie

so, life here has begun full force.

all and all, i am slowly beginning to feel settled, but to my suprise everyday is full and very busy (relatively low stress but busy!). i work a lot. and by a lot, i mean A LOT. my schedule thus far has been monday through saturday 7:30 to 17:30 (we run on military time here); in total i work 60 hours a week. if you add on a 30 minute breakfast in the galley (dining hall) before work and about an 1 1/2 after work, that gets my day finished around 7...i then email for an hour, chat with folks in the hall, maybe go to the gym (my new FAVORITE WARM activity), the store, or the coffee house...and then to bed. it's taking some adjustment, especially having just come from being self employed, on my own schedule, for the past few months. and this week i started my 6:30am shift...which is rough. i don't like going to bed, but without it 5:30 am is EARLY --even when it's always sunlight! the two photos above are shots taken at 10pm from the door just outside the shuttles office.

with all of that said, i totally love my job-now that training is coming to an end i am finding the environment pretty chill, and the scenery continually stays beautiful.

today i took a solo drive in one of our big red deltas out to willy field to drop of happy campers. williams field, our summer airplane runway, is built on the frozen ocean about 14 miles from station. our ice/happy camper school and two science projects are based off willy road. ice school, which i'll be doing in a month or so, is a overnight camping excursion to learn the basics of surviving antarctic storms. the two science projects, the Antarctic Geological Drilling Project called ANDRILL, and the Long Duration Balloon (LDB) Project are phenominal. scientists collect data on the origins of the universe, information on the growing ozone hole, data early geological formations of the world, and photographic images of cosmic activity.



these huge delta's just feel like monsters. the tires literally stands 5'4'' tall (just two inches shorter than me.) and climbing up onto them in all my gear is a bear!! especially when doing our daily engine checks.



the drive down willy road this time of the year illuminates antarctica's vastness. today the sky was this stunning dusty grey blue color that made the snow sink into my chest. it was so pleasant.



this is an image of willy road from a few days ago. the day to day changes are subtle but stunning!
i've started shooting video footage as well, i can see a new video project manifesting!!!!

white

not only was today my first sighting of antarctica, but i also took my first step on the 7th continent!

i am here! yep, none of us on the plane thought it would happen, but after circling mcmurdo a few times. descending, ascending, descending, ascending...we finally took a sharp plunge and hit the ground running.





this place is crazy! within my first few minutes here i went thorough about one thousand emotions...and one was that i really didn't think i was all that nuts until i stepped off the plane. and then, wham. a smile as big as the vast stretches of white spread across my face. it was across my lips, and in my eyes. oh it is utterly beautiful, here. mcmurdo had just gotten fresh snow fall, and a wind storm had made the sky white, but the sun still shown bright. oh, i hadn't expected such striking awe! rather thought i would see soot and grim. i am sure that will come in time but for now, i just awe when i look out the door to my building and see ob hill and mount erebus. the beauty is stunning. and the light. oh, how bright the air and sky, the world is when there is nothing to absorb the rays. i am struck with shock and awe. and 24 hours of bright rays. wow!




but with equal shock, i have just entered back into undergrad dorm life. whew. this i am not really ready for! but regardless, here i am...with three roommates, eating dorm food, and living in the epitome of a first year college dorm room with no windows (which i suppose is good because it is light out 24 hours a day). the furniture is all covered in fo' veneer that is chipped off on the edges. i'm on a top bunk that squeaks when i move. when i walked in the room at first i was overcome with a depression that felt like i had just walked into an all guy's college house, which was soon to be called home. but, of course, now, i have already cozied the place up. (i can't believe two people lived in that room for a week!) i now have christmas lights circling my head....and a book shelf to put my things on. oH, and i have lots of green things. fake plants, and a green hand dyed wall hanging. i love them. tim knew exactly what to tell me to bring (i wonder why). i now am growing to love my room...and i think that my new roommates will appreciate this decorating power too.

boomerang

hi oh. hi.

i bet you all thought i would be writing you from the dear ol' chilly land of white.... and so did i. *grin* but rather, another tale has been added to my adventure. but how i love these evolving events!

so as planned, all of us here awoke at 0dark30 (actually 4:30am which isn't all that bad) and brought ourselves out to the international antarctic center where the excitement begins. we began to layer on our 35 lbs of ecw (extremely cold weather) gear. (people here LOVE acronyms!). getting onto the cargo plane is required to have enough clothes on their person so that they are prepared if we were to crash or have an emergency landing.



we then checked ourselves into us air force security...and i literally mean ourselves. we first loaded our check luggage onto a scale and once they authorized it, then we-our person with all of our gear and our carry on orange luggage bag had to step on the scale. I carried 64lb more than my body weight, which is over half my body weight!!

just imagine pulling up to a huge grey u.s. air force plane (like the ones in the news flying to iraq), wearing moon boots, big red parkas, and carrying over half your body weight. the doors were lowered and one by one we got on. a pallet of seats were spread into the center of the cargo space and strapped down. seats lined the walls on both sides and large pallets of cargo were strapped into the back of the plane. above us was the metal body of the plane covered in thousands and thousands of wires. all the explosive equipment was labeled. each of us were handed one set of earplugs to help block the loud roar of the engine.

i was going to antarctica.
or so i thought.

about three hours into our 6 hour flight, the captain got on the loudspeaker. this was the first word we heard from our military flight attendant. "we are currently two hours from mcmurdo station. the winds there have been blowing strong all morning. we had hopes that they would clear, but we haven't found a pocket. so, we are turning the plane around. our estimated time of arrive in christchurch is 3 hours and 20 minutes. that is 3:30." the plane roar continued, then took a drastic shift.

we got BOOMERANGed!

so, here i am now, sitting in christchurch with another $200 dollars in my pocket (minus the turkish kabobs, and fantabulous dessert from a restaurant called 'strawberry fair'). we hear the runways out on the ice are pretty bad, so we are watching for continued plane delays....and more money in our pockets. nothing like working in extreme climates-not that i have done it yet! *grin* but i am being paid as though i am!

i'll keep all of you posted. and you can think of me tomorrow because i may be pulling into all that ecw gear again!

with love,
tia

a lucious green chill

this morning (after a total of 18 hours on a plane and 9 hours waiting in airports) we arrived here in christchurch, nz.--the most beautiful place in the world. geez, it really is like a magically fairy wonderland here! from the sky, i could watch the snow capped mountains melt into rolling green pastures, and gently fade on to white sand beaches; ocean drift off into the distance.



all in all, the experience feels magical and i am reminded of how comfortable i am engaged in travel. life is so new; the sky stretches on forever, daffodils are blooming next to the dandelions and palm trees. the sun looms in the northern sky. i lived only 3 hours of october 7th; another phenomenon that blows my mind.

it is now sunday here. the streets were quiet, cozy, and calm. kiwi's know how to take days off. life feels so slow that i have found myself standing next to my friend genieve, staring at the ducks on the pond in awe. this place, these moments are so dramatically different from the life i thought i would have a year ago. the hustle and bustle of chicago, that invigorates me sooo, seems like a stressful fast paced moment in the speck of the universe of what can be. yet a dear speck. how large the universe is. and we have so many possibilities. that is the wildest part!



i walked through the botanical gardens today. the air chilled me as fall does back home...only here the chill signifies the end of the winter rather than the beginning. the bright autumn leaves that mesmerized me last weekend in minneapolis are now transformed into yellow and pink blossoms. poppies line the streets, and some trees have not yet budded. the air smells earthy here. even the birds are relaxed. and the earth moves on into summer. summer is on my way. mine will just a mighty cold one.

this afternoon we also took a gondola up to the ridge that overlooks christchurch in one direction and little artsy town called littleton in the other. here is a view of littleton.



tomorrow, i'll be issued my cold weather gear at the cdc (clothing distribution center). i hear the weather in mcmurdo has cleared and our flight is to fly as scheduled. i am up for it! *grin* and as ready as you can be to fly to a desolate place that is -15 degrees with 24 hours of sunlight! and i am continuously told that i have a great job! so, with all the lovely, awesome, talented, creative, handy, and adventuresome, people i have met, an interesting job, and a completely wildly new life...i think i am bound to have a good time. and my commitment to learning how to live a more balanced life gets stronger by the day. i am excited to see where my new commitment takes me.

here is a wee snapshot of just a few of the fabulous folks i'll be working with everyday. together we are 5, of the 20 people on the shuttles crew. from left to right: dave massie (massie), andrea, me, marty, and micheal.



my love to all of you.
ta ta until soo soon.