last night in antarctica

I’m sitting in the galley. The sun is setting. My bags are checked. My room is clean. My boxes are stored. I’m leaving on a cargo plane tomorrow! I can hardly believe that my time in Antarctica is coming to a close.

Staying until the last flight has been wonderful. The food is better, the lines are gone, there is no worries about having delicates thrown in the dryer, I watched Williams Field Ice Runway come down, and I saw buildings close up and people say ‘goodbye.’ The last few days have been a bit lonely, but we have kept quite busy with work until this afternoon.

Tomorrow, we are scheduled to depart McMurdo around 11:30 and fly off of the Pegasus White Ice Runway at 15:00. I checked in (we do that a day in advance here) with my bags today and out of the 75 pounds of checked luggage we are allowed to bring home, I’m down to 56 pounds! Never mind that my carry on is nearly 50 pounds as well!

So, I have had my last supper, my last shower, finished the last of my laundry, packed my last boxes, and I’m headed out on the last flight in about 18 hours! My time in Antarctica is nearly up and one might ask what has happened to me in that time. People keep saying that I’ll return a different person. I disagree. I am very much the same person who left Illinois on October 4. I have new life experiences and a wide variety of perspectives to add to my mind full of ideas and beliefs. I have been disheartened by cultural and spiritual relativism but I have felt the ecstatic joy of the mountains and the hills giving glorious admiration to their Creator. I have been chilled by the wind and snow, and warmed by the endearing friends I gained. I felt sadness when missing events in North America, but elated to experience a new series of tales to tell them when I return. I am the same person at heart, with fresh memories.