freshies and seventies

Random Fact of the day: The Antarctic Treaty comes up for renewal in 2041. This treaty basically governs the use of the continent for research only and limits countries from claiming land they've staked as their own territory. I'm sure there's some other important stuff in that treaty, too, but that's all I've got for you now!

Yesterday was a pretty busy day! I had my first Ice Runway pick up. I was the lead shuttles vehicle (with my supervisor) and we got to pick up 67 new faces from the C-17 cargo plane in 6 vehicles! I was amazed at how cool it felt to be the “experienced” old kid on the block when these new people came in!

The picture above shows Tia, myself, Mike, and Dave enjoying the ATO BBQ after work. The food wasn’t so great, but the people were pretty fun. Our department & building is categorized as ATO (Air Transport Operations), so we work closely with cargo, kiwi cargo, air services, and the Post Office (hint, hint: My office is in the same building as the POST OFFICE. It’s really easy for me to pick up mail; but only if people send me stuff)! At the post office, we are also able to get our official Antarctic Passport stamp. You’d better believe I was over there already to get that mark in my book! How many people can say they have that stamp!

After that party, Mike and I, walked outside to a cloudy sunset and decided we should take advantage of the amazing sunset over the mountain ranges, so we found our way down to the chalet. Behind me in this picture is the Ross Sea Ice. It will begin to break up a bit later in the season. Once the ice melts to 6 feet thick, the runway will move. Pictures are simply not going to do justice to the amazing grandeur God has created down here. It’s an incredible ice kingdom!
Speaking of God’s Kingdom, we also slipped into the Chapel of the Snows to take in the sunset. It’s warm, and there are binoculars in the front of the church to look out at the sea ice and mountain ranges behind.

Yesterday was the “Summer Kickoff 70’s Party” at McMurdo. So, we went to the non-smoking bar, Gallagher’s, and saw some fantastic costumes (there’s a gear issue with plenty of costumes down here). This picture is of Tia, Mike, Laura, and Mike's disco ball alarm clock. I popped in and out pretty quickly after a couple pictures since I was pretty exhausted after this long week! We can't believe it's only been 3 days!

On the flight that came in, we got a pallet of "freshies." This includes pineapple, bananas, apples, oranges, and lots of other fruit and veggies. We found out that if we ask a Dining Assistant nicely, they will pull out a couple of bananas for us, so I smiled nice and took a couple back to my room! At breakfast this morning, the fruit was by far the highlight of the meal. They also have a tastey waffle bar! Yummy!