10 Days Before The Invasion

So another week has gone and we are beging a new one. In 10 short days we will now feel as the winterover people did. We are being invaded by mainbody when the population here swells from 350 to 1000, within two weeks. Talk about mind numbing. Our life as peacful and quiet will no longer be. That's ok though, with mainbody good things come. We will be getting mail and can send mail again, yay, not to mention more freshies (fruit and vegies). The other day we had salad straight from the greenhouse down here, and it was delicious. It is amazing what some food will make a person do when they know it's going to be for dinner. We also had pizza night. It was a frenzy.

We have been having sunsets that last 6 hours at a time. The sunlight has been gradually increasing for 15 minutes at a time each day. It is very beautiful. There is a new sunset each time you walk out of the building. One of the perks to being down here so early.

This was taken just after we climbed observation hill. A hill that is right next to town and is often a reference point. The sun is still setting in the background and I'm taking a short rest. This was at about 7:30pm. I'm sure there will be more of these kinds of pictures to come.

Click to Enlarge (nice photo of McMurdo and surroundings.)

This week we also moved to our new dorm. Now we no longer live across the tracks, as everyone refers to it here. We are in building 155, this building houses numerous people, the galley, and a few offices. It is centrally located in the town so not much is more that a couple minute walk. We will soon be placing some photos of the town and our building. Most of the dorms int this building are 4-6 person rooms. Josh and I were very fortunate to recieve one of the 2 person dorms. There are only about three of them.

Rock Band "Level 5"

On Saturday we had "Winstock" a smaller version of "Icestock". This was the event of the season. It is amazing how many people down here are musicians. There were 7 small bands that played a variety of music from acustic to oldies, and alternative rock to modern rock. Many of them were original songs and a few described life in Mactown.

Links and other stuff

Click on images to enlarge them.

Here are a few links to other websites and blogs

My weblog last year: http://www.joshinantarctica.blogspot.com/

It's been a Quiet Week in Mac town

It's been a fairly quiet week in McMurdo. Melissa is doing well with her job, she enjoys working with her co workers, and I too have the pleasure of working with a fun group of guys. The weather has been fairly good most of the week, with Sunday being the exception, were we had a "Herbie" come through town. A "Herbie" is a storm that usually comes from the south and brings "huricane" force winds. (technically supposed to sustain winds of 75 MPH).

The weather on saturday was really nice. Melissa and I both had the day off so we hiked to Castle Rock, a large rock outcrop about 3.5 mile away from town. There are ropes set up to assist the climbing of the summit.

Here is Melissa climbing her way to the top of Castle Rock

Here is a Photo Eric Kawasaki took the other week while we were watching the lunar eclipes and arouras. We could be the people in the photo (but it's hard to tell).

The End of Week Two

Well we have made it to the end of week two. This week has been good. I have started my normal routine for work and josh is getting back into the swing of things. Not much new going on here this week. The weather has been very windy. One day we were bouncing from condition two to condition three. Occasionally for brief moments it would be a condition one. For those who don't know what the conditions mean here is a brief explanation.

Condition three is perfectly fine, you can go about your buisiness as usual.

Condition two is, go about your business as usual but no going out of town, no working out on the runways.

Condition one is everyone stay in the building and if you are outside, get in.

Condition 3 (lets go for a hike!)

Still Condition 3

Condition 2: in town travel only

Condition 1! enough said

My work department held a housing party and it was fashioned as "the roaring 20's." There were costumes to fit the theme. Below are some pictures for you to enjoy.

(Bob and Talie)

Pictures From Week One

So we have been here one week and we have already seen a lunar eclipse and the southern lights. Here are a few pictures of what we have seen.

The town trolley in Christchurch.

This was gear issue day, we had to try on all of our extreme cold weather clothes to see if they fit. All of our gear came in two of these orange bags, they are bigger than they look

A ride in the C-17, we were stuck on the side. Made it interesting when landing and taking off. The pallets you see in the picture, were also in front of us. Occasionally you would see them rock back and forth. There was only about 50 people on our flight, the rest of the plane was filled with cargo.

Ahhh, the brisk cold climate of Antarctica. This is one of the first pictures as I was getting off the plane. A little windy as you can see my fur on my hood is all blowing one direction. Not to bad temperature wise, but the wind was frigid.

Our C-17

This is a picture of the group that came off the plane, myself included in the front, and Ivan the Terra bus. He is bigger than he looks, but not very warm. The bus ride from the Pegasus to McMurdo (mactown) was about a half hour long. Nice sights along the way.

This is a picture Josh took on Sunday, the day after we arrived. The moon is right above Scott's memorial cross on Observation Hill (ob hill)

A look at the lights for the runway and mountains at Pegasus airfield.

This was Tuesday, we signed up for a recreation trip out on the ice shelf to see the lunar eclipse. It was kind of cloudy that night so the pictures of the moon didn't come out clear. Just as we were about to head back the southern lights came out. They were amazing. This is just a glimpse of what we saw. The lights were twirling around right above our heads.

(Mike Whittington)