I'm an Antarctic Statistic...

This one will be short, maybe...



Since I'm writing again so quickly since the last one I only have two things to really talk about today. First on the agenda will be something I left out from the last blog, Freezing man... what is it?



As many of you have probably heard of the event called Burning Man that takes place in the dessert that is a start. Freezing man had the same objective as Burning Man. It was an attempt at a mass gathering of people to interact in live art. I'm not an expert on Burning Man but from some documentaries I've watched it appears to be a week long party in the dessert where people get grants and/or build art projects. The art is designed to allow people to become a part of the artwork itself. It has the reputation of being a bunch of hippies running around naked in the dessert taking all kinds of drugs. While that may very well happen the intention behind it all is the celebration of art.


Well Freezing Man was just that (we have a lot of hippies down here) except nobody was naked and there were no drugs. Just lots of beer! The organizers of the event had a lot of stuff mailed down here from all over the world. They went to a lot of Burning Man sites and expressed their desire to put on an event like Burning Man in Antarctica. For some specific reasons we couldn't follow all of the rules of Burning Man so it was somewhat an unofficial off site event.

If you have looked at my pictures from the event I was wearing some clothes that were actually donated from people all over the world. The pants themselves were skin tight purple sequined and the shirt was a baby-doll t-shirt that said drop it like its hot. The party itself was like a big dress up party with music and dancing. I spent a lot of my night making a hoola-hoop and then showcasing my hoola-hoopin abilities. There was also a lot of light dancing as well as a beard making center. The event had a lot of body painting and also a dunk tank out back. Which proved not to be the most intelligent choice for some people. One of my friends got hypothermia and had to been taken away by the fire department and warmed up at the firehouse. All in all though it was a very interesting experience!

Ok, now to make the title of this blog make some sense. I am on crutches right now and probably for at least the next week. It's not anything serious I just have a bone contusion in my right ankle. I was playing indoor soccer on Friday night and I got kicked in the ankle while I was passing the ball. It immediately became swollen, somewhat looked like somebody cut a tennis ball in half and stuffed it under the skin in my ankle. At first I didn't want to go to medical but about an hour later when it really started to hurt and the swelling wasn't going down I finally called medical and the doc came to see me.

I was really nervous because a lot of people have been sent home recently. Some for things less dramatic than a broken ankle so I was pretty sure I was going to be sent home soon. The doctor came and looked at my ankle and from the swelling he thought I could have a broken bone in my ankle but he couldn't tell for sure until he x-rayed it the next day. In the meantime he got me some crutches as well as some pain killers. He didn't really tell me what the pills were but the instructions were on it. 1-2 tablets every 6 hour or as needed. So I took 2 at about 11PM, I woke up and at about 3AM and my ankle was throbbing so I took two more, minor mistake. I woke up the next morning and felt drunk and went to the medical building. As I was waiting for my x-ray to come back I became really sick to my stomach and almost threw up. Came to find out that he had given me percocet. If I had known that I would've only taken one more at 3Am but oh well.

So as it stands right now I'm staying on the ice, but I'm just on light duty until my ankle is completely better. I imagine that if it gets worse or just doesn't get better I could be sent home but that's very unlikely. So for now it's just a pain in the ass being on crutches and trying to get around, Antarctica isn't very handicap accessible. The ADA is not being fully followed down here, shame on the government :P haha but I must say I like the attention!

That's all for now, as promised a little bit shorter than usual!

Much Love,
D