Christmas in a desert... in summer

So Christmas has quickly come and gone for us here in Antarctica. We in the galley had a random extra day off during the month as our "Christmas." Mine was a few weeks ago. I remember the  day. I spent the whole day in my pajamas. Relaxing was the whole agenda.
Christmas for the rest of the town was a totally different story. Everyone on "Town Schedule" (work Monday-Saturday and Sunday off) got an extra day off, Saturday which was the day we celebrated the holiday. My day had a slow start because of a late night the night before. The Town Christmas Party at the Vehicle Maintenance Shop was a crazy mix of photos with Santa, a slide show of pictures from home, caroling by the choir, snacks, drinks, and dancing the night away. Back to work... My work day was from 9am to 7 pm and included helping setting up the dining room, washing pots and pans, and goofing off. The day went by pretty quickly and included being "adopted" again like Thanksgiving so I got an hour and a half off mid afternoon which I used to nap. I got off work just in time for the last dinner seating and sat with a group of friends and enjoyed some conversation and a few bottles of wine. The night was spent at the Carpentry shop which was transformed into an art gallery for the night. MAAG, McMurdo Alternative Art Gallery, happens once a year and is a showing of everything from interactive art to paintings and a fashion show. The night ended again with dancing the night away.
Sunday was a morning to sleep in. Again a group of us met in the galley this time for brunch and mimosas. We parted ways after stuffing ourselves again. I called home and then went for a walk out to Hut Point and happened to see 6 penguins!! They were way off in the distance so the pictures aren't very good. Then I went to see a group of people put on Charlie Browns Christmas play which was cute and then went outside and saw the CREST LDB balloon up in the sky. Overall a great Christmas weekend.
Up next... New Years and Ice Stock, McMurdo's Woodstock!

My new gig

So I was selected to be the new DA(dining attendant) for the Long Duration Balloon facility run by NASA here just a few miles from McMurdo Station. I have only spent 2 days out there training so I don't have all the info and stats on it and only limited pictures but I am so excited to share the news about it.
Monday will be my first day out there post training and to add to the excitement there is the possibility of a launch! There are several projects going on here in our few buildings one of which is a large balloon with a payload of 7,800 lbs that will be looking at the particles that hit the Earth from Super Novas.
To watch it all happen check out the "real time video" on this site... http://www.csbf.nasa.gov/antarctica/ice.htm
I hope it works!
The window of opportunity that I was told about is from 11am-4pm on Monday here in Antarctica. So that would be Sunday from 5-10pm eastern time. This is subject to change due to weather conditions.
Some more info about the projects...
http://stratocat.com.ar/bases/41e.htm
http://icecube.wisc.edu/info/neutrinos

Mc Murdo’s Inner Workings: Water Plant

How the heck do we get water in a desert? Well that's what I went to find out.

Last week I attended the Ross Island Yacht Club meeting and happened to sit down next to a guy that works at the Water Plant, so I set up a tour! I told a few friends and 7 of us ended up going. So we walked down the hill to the water/ power plant building. It turns out that the Blue Ribbon Panel that is here on station was touring the plant too. So we waited. 

When it was our turn we had Paul(who I estimate is in his mid 60s, maybe more) show us around the plant and explain what did what. 

The process is basically take water from the Ross Sea, heat it from 28 degrees to 38 degrees, remove the salt, filter it, treat it with chemicals, store it and use it! You may be wondering about the temperature. Salt water freezes at lower temps than fresh. It's not special Antarctic water or anything! 

So we walked around and saw all the pumps and filters and holding tanks and felt the pipes to get an idea for how cold the water is. It was pretty loud so I didn't hear everything but I got the gist of it all. 

An interesting stat: we use about 60,000 gallons per day on an average summer day. There are about 1,100 people on station. We have experiments going on, laundry to be washed, food to be cooked and cleaned up after, smelly hard workers... Lots of water used.

Neat Place... now what to tour next?

Pictures...
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.695955767349.2144599.44801562&type=1&l=850cfb4a8f

Some time outside the Galley and the Craft Fair

So a couple days ago I got to get out of the kitchen and do a special project. This is the first special project I've gotten to do since I arrived so I was very excited. I had the honor of spending about 2 hours helping out a very sweet lady named Peggy who is in charge of the food for the field camps. She has a room upstairs in this storage building that is basically a grocery store. But you don't pay.
I arrived at Peggy's after our afternoon break to see what my task would be. I've heard stories from other DAs that they make trail mix or repackage things and that Peggy offers you tea and listens to good music. This sounds very exciting and all... right? So my projects included repackaging baking powder into smaller bottles and labeling them, mixing and repackaging tortillini, and dividing up some sort of burrito chili thing. All in all not exactly thrilling tasks but it was very nice to be able to work on something that I don't do every day. It was also a beautiful day out so the walk to and from the galley was a treat.
Today the galley was transformed into a craft fair and what a time we had! I wish I had thought to bring my camera with me, but none the less it was great. I ended up spending about a hundred bucks on everything from earrings to a t-shirt to a wallet/passport holder. Now you may be wondering what the heck we are doing having a craft fair in Antarctica. Well, we all have to pass the time somehow. Some drink, others sew, or knit, or fold things. What did I purchase? Well, I got a pair of feather earrrings, a passport holder/wallet, a t-shirt stating "You don't have to be crazy to work here. We will train you.", a small fish mobile, some pins/buttons and 2 magnets, some wool gloves, and I think that's it.
Now I've never attended a craft show in Antarctica before but based on the turn out I'm going to say it was a hit! The number of people streaming in and out was great and I think people made some great purchases. A hit in my book!