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!!!