Antarctica

I have been here now for 10 days and it seems like there has been so much going on but really not a whole lot of time. I have been going to a lot of trainings in the time that I have been here and making use of all of my free time that I have. In case you want to know my address here it is: Kathryn Patrick, RPSC
Mc Murdo Station
PSC 469 Box 700
APO AP 96599-1035

I have been loving it. There are so many safety things to abide by and so many things to learn. I have been to a Drivers Training, Forklift Training, Sea Ice training, Snow School, Fuels training, waste briefing, Pisten Bully training, training on radio transmissions, out door safety training, back safety training and a streching clinic, just to name a few. Its funny, the weather is pretty nice most of the week but come Sundays when it is our day off it has been blowing snow so bad that it is unbareable to leave the buildings. Amongst all of these trainings there have been days where I have worked in the Galley, worked in the Skua (free yard sale environment- one persons trash is another persons treasures), shoveled snow, and several other things.

My day starts out somewhere between 5:30 and 6am when I get ready and head down for breakfast. I then have to be at my morning streching for my department at 7:30. We strech for 30 minutes and then pack up and get dressed again and go out and do our morning duties. We get a 15 min break at 10am and then go back to work until noon. We get an hour for lunch and then return to work, for me this may be the same task or even a new one, We work until about 3 when we take a 2nd 15 min break and then we work until 5:30. Dinner is served from 5:30 to 7:30 and then the rest of the night is my own. Around here right now the sun is actually setting for about 2 hours. In a few weeks the sun will not set at all. The weather hasnt been too bad here, we have gone to condition 2 a few times, but not to much yet. They are expecting this year to be a bad storm season since they havent had one in a while. That is ok, we can stay put in our dorms if need be, Im lucky i live in the same dorm the Galley is in and I dont have to bare the elements outdoors.

Well to explain some of the pictures a little bit, I have been on 2 trips off the station so far... the first of which was Sea Ice training. This was to teach us what was safe to drive on when we drive on the Sea Ice. If there is a crack we have to check it. The first picture is of my 2nd trip of the station. It was for Snow school, otherwise known as Happy Camper, this picture was taken at about 10pm the weather had calmed down and it was pretty nice. the 2 yellow tents are called scott tents, they are made solely from cloth, they can only be used in the Antarctic and the Sahara desert, they cant be used where moisture is present. The Snow Dome is called a Quinzy. It was hollowed out and there were 4 people that slept in it. The rest of the pictures are scenery pictures. Where there is blue that is actually Ice, the white is just snow and the dark dirt is volcanic rock and gravel. This place is amazing to see. These pictures really dont do it justice. Well for now this is what has been going on. I will talk to all of you later.

On My Way!!!

I am on my way down to Antarctica!!! I left Fresno at 6:30 on monday, October 10. i flew from FAT to LAX on a prop plane, that was one loud and cramped plane... we got down to LAX and I had to change terminals. Which meant I had to stand in a different ticket counter line and go though the security check point again. By the time I got to the gate I had probably about 20 minutes before I boarded the 747 bound for Auckland, NZ. I grabbed a sandwich and got in line for my flight. I was really impressed by Qantas, The staff, service, and flight was amazing. In my seat as i got to it was a pillow, blanket, and a cute little travel pack... it had a travel toothbrush/toothpaste kit in it, an eye mask, and a pair of socks all for us to keep and a pair of headphones. We had a wonderful dinner, and then they brought around a small little snack pack. There were pretty good movies playing this trip for us to watch... I watched 2 total, did a litle crocheting and then slept for about 6 hours. When we got off the plane in Auckland we went though customs, had our passports stamped, picked up our luggage and then went through the declaring line, here we had to let them know if we had anything illegal in our bags... i know i didnt, we then had to recheck the bags and walk to the domestic terminal, after a 12 1/2 hour flight this walk was really nice, we could have riden the shuttle, but i wasnt ready to sit down again... we got to the domestic terminal, loaded the plane and flew down to chistchurch. When we arrived we were greeted by Raytheon Staff and given our hotel assignments and our money for the 2 days we were here. We loaded our bags in the truck and walked over to the Raytheon Clothing Distrubution Center (CDC) here we watched a brief orientation video, and recieved our Extreme cold weather (ECW) gear. We had to try it all on and make sure it all fit and that it was all there. We then had the rest of the day to ourselves. I went to my hotel and just relaxed until 5 when I met up with a few others and we went to dinner and then came back for an early to bed.

Today I was up at 6 for a tram right at 7:15 to the CDC so I could be in a full day of Orientation, we have 4 hours of Introduction, Benefits, HR, and Financial training and another 4 hours of Safety trainings. After all of that I came back to my hotel to rest for a little bit, then I met up with a few more people going down to the ice for dinner at an increadable sushi restruant. I have never had sushi this good. I am back at my hotel and getting ready for bed. I have to be up at 4:30 in the morning, that is 5 1/2 hours away, I probaby better get to bed soon. Tomorrow we will get on a C17 and have a 5 hour flight down to the ice... pending weather... who knows we may not get to leave in the morning, it is starting to rain here and if the conditions are not right they wont send us down... But NO Matter what we are at the CDC at 6...

well this is all for now, i will post more later, but i just wanted to let you all know that i am doing good. New Zealand is spectacular and I am looking forward to getting down on the ice.

ciao!!!