Well my time here is almost up. I'm flying back to New Zealand on Friday. It's been an amazing experience that I really hope I can do again. Sorry for not keeping this thing updated all that often but it gets pretty busy around here trying to finish up with the end of season stuff. I'll try to post a blurb now and then from my after ice travels. Take care all and thanks for reading!
Clay
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
A day in the life
I don't think I've ever really explained what a typical day around here is like. So here you go. We start our day with a morning meeting at 7:30 It starts with a drum roll, literally. A guy has a snare drum and does a nice little drum roll with a cymbal crash to start the day off.After that we find out if anything happened over night, catch up on the latest town gossip and figure out what's going on in the shop for the day stuff like that. After that we put all our chairs in corner and do some stretching exercises. They really are quite helpful as it's so easy to sprain or strain something here. We then break off into our own little zone groups and discuss what we're going to specifically accomplish for the day.
After that most people do rounds on their equipment just making sure that everything is up and running. That takes anywhere from 2-4 hours depending on how big the zone you're working in is. The rest of the time up until lunch is spent taking care of preventative or corrective maintenance.
Since I'm in the lab building and we have to have someone here at the scientists beck and call my group takes lunch in turns. I normally go between 11-12 sit with about 7 other people around a big table and chat most of the time. It's also a chance to catch up on errands most days if you need it.
After lunch it's normally more of the same continue knocking out work until the end of the day. the only difference to that is we try and take things a little easier on Saturdays just so we don't run into a chance of getting knee deep in a project and then having to work on Sunday to finish it up. There are occasional meetings to attend such as the bi-weekly town hall which is more rumor control than anything else. Then there are the obligatory safety meetings and such.
To give you an idea of the type of work that I'm doing I spent most of the day today wiggling through a really narrow crawl space making sure all the under floor heaters are working. It wasn't exactly the most comfortable job and It seemed like I was taking my pants off a tiny bit at a time as they snagged on corners non-skid tape etc and shredded. It is a little drafty in here this afternoon.
Evenings start off with dinner (on Saturdays we can have wine with our meals the rest of the time no booze in the dining room) People normally linger a while and figure out what to do on their day off or that evening. The recreation options are pretty broad. There are 2 bars (smoking and non) and a coffee house. Some nights they'll have either karaoke or a live band at one of the bars, and the coffee house is a good place to sit and play board games or the occasional acoustic jam session. Then we have a weight room and cardio gym as well as the big gym which is where we can play volleyball, indoor soccer, basketball, and dodge ball as well as have the larger town parties. We had a bowling alley too up until New year's day when the building became unfit for occupancy thanks to the floors starting to collapse. Actually that took out not just the bowling alley but also the ceramics room and bouldering cave. Luckily the climbers still have an indoor rock wall in the big gym.
There are plenty of other activities to keep people occupied. Since there are so many talented people there are all sorts of classes everything from knitting to jewelry making to dance lessons.
Any questions
After that most people do rounds on their equipment just making sure that everything is up and running. That takes anywhere from 2-4 hours depending on how big the zone you're working in is. The rest of the time up until lunch is spent taking care of preventative or corrective maintenance.
Since I'm in the lab building and we have to have someone here at the scientists beck and call my group takes lunch in turns. I normally go between 11-12 sit with about 7 other people around a big table and chat most of the time. It's also a chance to catch up on errands most days if you need it.
After lunch it's normally more of the same continue knocking out work until the end of the day. the only difference to that is we try and take things a little easier on Saturdays just so we don't run into a chance of getting knee deep in a project and then having to work on Sunday to finish it up. There are occasional meetings to attend such as the bi-weekly town hall which is more rumor control than anything else. Then there are the obligatory safety meetings and such.
To give you an idea of the type of work that I'm doing I spent most of the day today wiggling through a really narrow crawl space making sure all the under floor heaters are working. It wasn't exactly the most comfortable job and It seemed like I was taking my pants off a tiny bit at a time as they snagged on corners non-skid tape etc and shredded. It is a little drafty in here this afternoon.
Evenings start off with dinner (on Saturdays we can have wine with our meals the rest of the time no booze in the dining room) People normally linger a while and figure out what to do on their day off or that evening. The recreation options are pretty broad. There are 2 bars (smoking and non) and a coffee house. Some nights they'll have either karaoke or a live band at one of the bars, and the coffee house is a good place to sit and play board games or the occasional acoustic jam session. Then we have a weight room and cardio gym as well as the big gym which is where we can play volleyball, indoor soccer, basketball, and dodge ball as well as have the larger town parties. We had a bowling alley too up until New year's day when the building became unfit for occupancy thanks to the floors starting to collapse. Actually that took out not just the bowling alley but also the ceramics room and bouldering cave. Luckily the climbers still have an indoor rock wall in the big gym.
There are plenty of other activities to keep people occupied. Since there are so many talented people there are all sorts of classes everything from knitting to jewelry making to dance lessons.
Any questions
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
jobs
I changed jobs a little bit. People are already starting to head home so I ended up in a bit of a high profile spot. I'm now working in the Albert Crary Science and Engineering center. Basically it is this huge lab that pretty much ever scientist that comes through this area works out of. There are 3 of us always on call to make sure they stay happy. It's a great job though I get to meet some fascinating people and it really is amazing to hear some of the conversations they have amongst themselves. Stuff that would make grad students heads spin. I got a tour of the icebreaker today I put some pictures up. Enjoy!
Sunday, January 25, 2009
MIFF and SPIFF
Yesterday we had MIFF and SPIFF that's Mcmurdo international film festival, and south pole international film festival. I'm still really amazed at the creativity that exists here. there were some truly amazing films. Unfortunatley for the rest of the wrold they tend to focus on the minutia of life here and end up biegn a bit of an inside joke. For instance one fo the movies was a music video about trailer trash. See they condemned a building and moved everyone that had an office in it into trailers and frankly they weren't happy about it. A bit hard to appreciate if you aren't here I guess. I'm getting a copy of all the audio and video from down here and I'll be bringing it home with me just too much stuff to try and upload somewhere. I put up some more pics from the rugyb match and our shop photo at the photbucket site http://www.photobucket.com/sliding_south
Saturday, January 17, 2009
MAAG
MAAG happened last night. That's the acronym for Mcmurdo Area Arts Group. Basically it's where a bunch of art is made from scraps from around the station. It's really amazing how many creative people are here. The idea is kind of to be the antithesis of a normal snooyt art show. I think they really succeeded. Pics are up at photobucket. I also took some pictures of the icebreaker coming in. to top it off there are a few pic from my trip out to the crashed plane today. Gorgeous weather in the mid 20's with no wind. Hard to believe I only have about a month left.
Clay
Clay
Monday, January 12, 2009
Another Loss
Well America still has a perfect record against the Kiwi's we lost and yet again didn't score. However it was a close game (a touchdown and then a penalty kick both in the 1st quarter) after that we challenged them and were starting to make some plays. There were a few injuries, a concussion or 2 a couple separated shoulders and some sprained ankles not too bad for playing at the bottom of the world I think. Well there is always next year. Since I played I didn't take any pictures but I did manage to scavenge some from the spectators who so generously shared them with the community. they are up on the photobucket site.
In other news it's going to get pretty classy around here tomorrow. Prince Albert of Monaco is coming to Antarctica and will have a reception for the community Thursday night. Or as I like to say....He's going to Grace us with his presence(I wonder how many people will get that pun) Monaco just signed the Antarctic treaty and I guess he's a big environmentalist not to mention filthy rich so hey come on down!
In other news it's going to get pretty classy around here tomorrow. Prince Albert of Monaco is coming to Antarctica and will have a reception for the community Thursday night. Or as I like to say....He's going to Grace us with his presence(I wonder how many people will get that pun) Monaco just signed the Antarctic treaty and I guess he's a big environmentalist not to mention filthy rich so hey come on down!
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Happy New Year
Well this was the most different holiday season I've ever had. New Year's Eve was amazing. We have a festival called Icestock an all night outdoor concert. I've put photos of it up at photobucket. Probably one of my favorite NYE's ever. Only a week to go until our rugby match with the Kiwis. I can't wait!
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