birthday bash

In Antarctica, they say you get to celebrate your birthday twice. The first time is the McMurdo celebration and the second time is all the e-mails from the states because the time difference is almost an entire day different! October 17 marked another year of my life. Having a birthday on The Ice is not something everyone gets to have; even of those who make it down here because we only work 5-6 months of the year. In addition to celebrating my birthday, I was scheduled to work, as well, but one of my co-workers kindly switched days with me and instead of working, I began my transition into a night schedule. My shifts will be from 5:30pm to 5:30am. After sleeping in until 11am, I woke up to find a beautiful slice of birthday cake, a huge sign crafted by Tia and Michael. Michael had breakfast laid out for me and I even made candles out of cardboard for me and other friends wrote messages to me!Laura planned a dessert and margarita party for me, and even brought a no-bake Jello dessert down to make for the occasion; complete with real candles! Most of my shuttles co-workers showed up along with some roommates, Laura's co-worker Dan (pictured below), and some other folks who I met on the flights down here.Because I finally had a day off, I was able to get some laundry done, jog on the treadmill at the gerbal gym, and clean up myself and my room. I met Laura for lunch. This was the first time we spent time together since I made it to Antarctica. It's great to have her around to spend time with and even get mistaken for at times! Now that I'm working nights we're hoping to spend some time together at breakfast once a week.Our night crew has been adjusting and beginning to work the night shift. We spent a good amount of time together to finish off my birthday hours. There are five of us on the crew: Mike, Megan (supervisor), Rick, Dave, and me. You'll notice in the picture that Dave is hanging onto my new book, "Why Penguins have knees," that Jen gave me for my birthday. It was a package worth hauling with me!In some of our time off, a few of us took a van and drove over to the Scott Base Store. The Scott Base is the New Zealand station in Antarctica. The United States Antarctic Program works closely with them and they use many of our services. Scott Base is close to Americans except on "American Night" which is every Thursday evening. However, the store is open to us whenever they have store hours, and it was such a beautiful day, we spent some time enjoying scenery and meeting Kat who works the Scott Base Store.Sunsets are a novelty here. When the sun is visible and not clouded over, it is amazing to watch it pull under the hills. Last night, we watched it duck behind the hills. Complete darkness has disappeared from McMurdo. The sky is hazy light all night long!Mt Erebus is the active volcano that hovers over the Scott and McMurdo. Off the top, you'll notice a steam cloud drifting to the right. The mountain is quite impressive in the white & blue landscape!
My postings may slow down a bit. While I'm convinced I'll learn something new every day, these 12 hour shifts do not leave much time to recreate and websurf!