Quick update...

I am currently traveling around New Zealand, Australia and Hawaii on my way home. I have been composing these posts on plane rides. I'll work on more soon! Thanks to all my followers for not abandoning me! :-)

Farewell McMurdo!

As I write this post I am sitting on the C-17 that is mid-flight back to Christchurch. This is mostly going to be a stream of thought post. So I’m sorry if I ramble or don’t make sense.

McMurdo is a strange yet special place and will always have a little piece of my heart. I have made some friendships that I hope will last a lifetime. Before I got here I was excited and nervous because I didn’t really know what to expect. I knew 2 other women that I worked in Germany with but didn’t know anyone else. I had a pretty good idea of what my job would be like but I had no idea how busy I would be. I knew I would be working a lot, but I also figured that my down time would be quiet and peaceful. From the outside that is a common thought. But in a place where 1,000+ people eat, sleep, and work and it’s the harshest continent in the world there are only so many places to go. And when you think you can retreat to your room you have to think are any of my roommates asleep, at work, having friends over. It’s a very overwhelming place. Solitude for me never happened. There are some people that I think get swept into a lonely place due to alcohol or social anxiety, but most people here are active and full of life.

My coworkers this year were what made this harsh place a more bearable.  Strength in numbers so to speak. I met a handful in Denver during orientation and the rest were Ice friends. We have laughed together, danced our butts off, cried during the hard times and bonded to levels I never expected. When you eat, work, play and sometimes sleep in the same room as these people they become more than friends or coworkers, they become family. Every member of our galley family brought something unique and special and that made our bond so much stronger. No one really knew each other before we took this Antarctic adventure but none of us will ever forget the time we spent here. Summer 2011-2012.

As I sit on this plane I think back to the last several months and wonder what my life will be like from here forward. I will be traveling with my boyfriend for the next few weeks. We met on the Ice and this will be a test of our relationship, living and traveling together. We will part ways at the end of the month and go to our respective homes then we will report to work at opposite ends of the country. I will be back in the Florida Keys scuba diving and he will be in Alaska working on a trail crew. If all works out I will visit him in May and then we will work together back on the Ice for summer 2012-2013.

I have dreams about working a winter in Antarctica and also visiting the South Pole, which I didn’t get a chance to do this year. Maybe one day this will happen but if not I am content with my time on that harsh continent.

We were just told we are about an hour away from landing. I have my customs card filled out and my ECW gear packed in my orange bag. I am so excited to see darkness and smell fresh organic things! It will be a strange adjustment back into the real world from our Antarctic snow globe. Please bear with me as I adjust back and realize that I might need some space. I haven’t driven a car, gone grocery shopping, went to the movies, gotten a hair cut, played with a dog, etc since I left Vermont back in September.

I am thrilled to have had this Antarctic experience and hopeful that I will be able to go back.

Hi, are you Megan?

Who would have thought that a girl from a small town in Vermont would meet one person from the next road over and the father of a high school classmate.  Well, it happened!

In early January Heidi Smith walked up to me as I was working at the deli line and said, “Hi Megan, do you remember me?” It took me a moment to realize that the girl that I did ballet with for years in my youth was standing in front of me in Antarctica. Heidi and I attended school together and often got rides to ballet practice together. Her mother was a biology teacher at our high school, though never my teacher. Heidi was there for her third year in a row collecting samples for research. She comes down for about 3 weeks and then takes the samples back to Montana to analyze. I don’t think I’ve seen Heidi in 8 years!

A few weeks ago a man in uniform walked up to me as I was working the breakfast line and asked me if I was Megan. It turns out he is Kade Etter’s father. Kade and I attended Essex High School from 2000-2004 together. I think we had a few classes together but we were never really close friends. She has been following me silently on Facebook and possibly here on my blog and found out that her dad was going to McMurdo Station for a few days. So she told him to find me, which he did through the aid of my co-workers. At the time I met Mr. Etter I didn’t think much of the fact that he was in uniform. We have a lot of guys that come through McMurdo in uniform as we arrive and depart on US Air Force planes. So a day or two go by and several co-workers tell me a man in uniform is looking for me. So I find him and it turns out he was headed back home that day. I said my goodbyes and we chatted briefly. A few days later I’m on the phone with my parents and I ask my dad(retired Air Force) what 2 black stars mean on the AF uniform. For those of you like me who don’t know the ranks, that’s a two star General! So I met Major General Etter who happened to be at McMurdo as one of our distinguished visitors. After a little Google search we figured out that he is the Deputy Director of the Air National Guard.

Then, just to twist the story a little more…

Major General Etter’s wife was in some way my brother’s supervisor at the Vermont Air Guard base. Ready for it to get even more weird! My brother and sister in law are going to Washington DC next month and are getting a tour of the Pentagon through the Etters!

McMurdo's Inner Workings: DA Style... What exactly do you do all day?

I’ve had some questions about what my day to day life is like here at McMurdo Station. Well, first and foremost I am here to work and support science. My job title is a Dining Attendant, DA, so that means I work in the kitchen/dining room serving meals and cleaning up after them.  I have worked both the evening and morning shifts here and been on a 5 ½ day and 6 day work week totaling 54 hours per week. The shifts are 2 meals each, either breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner. There is also an overnight shift(nicknamed midrats) that serve a meal at midnight and breakfast. We also have the added challenge of working on the holidays so we get a random day off around Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years.

I was also selected to work out at the NASA/ Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility called the Long Duration Balloon site or LDB for short. My shifts there include about an hour and a half round trip of travel and serving and cleaning up from lunch served for about 45 people. This was a special honor, only 2 DAs work there at a time splitting the 6 day week. I was selected when Jean, my roommate, was promoted to a cook. Because I worked out there I received snowmobile training incase I needed to help with a launch. I also was film crew for the STO payload launches. Yes I said launches. There were multiple attempts before we had a successful launch.

What does a day in the life of a DA look like?

Well, I’m on mornings currently so I’ll describe an average day…

I wake up at 5 am, get myself ready and am downstairs by 5:20. Long commute! Remember I work in the same building as I live! I grab a bite to eat and am ready to work at 5:30. Our leads(aka supervisors) have a tasking sheet or schedule prepped for our days. Our time is broken up around meal times. Sometimes you work the whole meal period doing the same task, but often the meal is split in half. Then we have cleaning chores between meals and we do it all over again. We also have breaks through the day, as well as time for stretch breaks so we reduce the risk of repetitive motion injuries, and a few minutes to allocate or log what we did for the day for some HR type person somewhere to see and file away. So for example my 9 hour day(6 day schedule) might look like this…

Dishes from 5:30 to 6:30

Wash pots and pans from 6:30 to 8

Half hour break

Cleaning chore for an hour and a half

Stretch break for 15 minutes, allocate for 10 minutes

Family meal where all the cooks and DAs eat before we serve the meal

Restock the hot food(aka line) for 2.5 hours

Stretch again for 15 min

Half hour break

Cleaning chore for 1 hour 15 min

After work I generally relax and play on the computer, work out, or nap then shower and go eat dinner. My evenings are filled with things like travel talks, science lectures, tours, movies, dances, hikes, etc.

My day off has been Sundays which allows me to go out on Saturday nights(our big night out due to the 6 day work week). I enjoy Sunday brunch with my Vermont Maple Syrup, do laundry, call home, catch up on computer stuff, etc.

It’s a Harsh Continent

The title of this post is a saying that I hear almost daily here and it’s very accurate. It’s usually said in reference to something that you want that you can’t have because we are here at the bottom of the world. For example we get planes in with our prized “freshies” usually once a week on Wednesdays. A freshie is usually a fruit or vegetable that hasn’t been packaged or frozen, fresh eggs, ultra pasteurized milk, cheese, etc. These are very special to us and make us all very happy here. But the planes sometimes can’t make it due to weather or mechanical issues and people freak out that we are out of fresh eggs, or we run out of lettuce. Our response is usually “It’s a harsh continent.” I think the saying originated with the conditions outside like the snow, wind, and temperatures, but now it’s more our whining about what we don’t have. These are also often referred to as our “first world problems.” This is things that make our lives easier that we often take for granted that. The most recent time I heard this was in reference to the feeling of being so full post meal that our stomachs hurt. Definitely a first world problem.

Living here has been many things that I expected, but also many things I haven’t expected, and adjusting or adapting can sometimes be a challenge. As our time here ticks on and we are planning for our post ice lives we are talking more about things we miss so I thought I would compose a list.

Things that I miss(other than my family and friends that I hold near to my heart) and brief rants of why or explanations of them.

Real milk- our milk is powdered and one of my tasks at work is occasionally to make it which is gross and annoying

Sunsets- this in conjunction with the next 2 items. Having 24 hours of sunlight is strange. Plus I have a room with no windows so I had a freak out a few days ago when I napped in the evening and woke up at 5:48 not knowing if it was am or pm. It was pm.

Darkness

Stars and the moon

Swimming and diving- really water! Going from my last job where I was in the ocean every day of the week, multiple times a day to a desert where we conserve water. Also I see the large cooking kettles filled with water or the sinks and know that I want to take a bath or sit in a hot tub.

Animals especially dogs! People are fun but animals will always hold a special place in my heart. Penguins and seals are cool but we can’t touch them. I just want to cuddle with Hermes, or walk Shadow, or play fetch with Molly

Nature smells- dirt, grass, leaves- the lack of smells here is amazing, I think it has really heightened my sense of smell. I can’t wait to go to the park in central Christchurch as soon as I get to New Zealand and roll in the grass and smell dirt and flowers

Grocery shopping- again this goes with the next item, deciding what I want to eat, when I want to eat it. Having a menu set by someone else and no place to go if you want something different has been challenging.

Ordering what I want to eat from a menu- having someone make something I want to eat just for me and serving it to me, then not having to clean up after myself. I will miss not having to pay for food though! That will be tough to go back to. I haven’t carried a purse since early October and I don’t miss it!

Going to see a movie- seeing something that has been made in the last year rather then VHS tapes from 10 years ago

Having quiet time in a space of my own- living in the same building where I work in a room with 3 other women and sharing a bathroom with about 25 other women is wearing on me. Plus I see the same faces every day. Everyone wants to know everyone else’s drama and happenings. When you don’t see someone for a day it seems like a week and you have to have a meal with them to catch up

Walking around bare foot- I could do this more frequently except for it’s usually kind of chilly and there are rules for safety purposes about wearing shoes

Being in better communication with people- aka technology- This is more of a I wish I could receive phone calls. I don’t really miss my phone like I though I would, but it is defiantly more convenient having a smart phone. It’s been refreshing to not have to carry technology in my pocket all day.

Having different clothes- I am so sick of my outfits here. I feel like a total girl when I say I have nothing to wear. I want to go shopping so badly or at least raid my storage unit and get different clothes. 

Ok, end of rant!