Well time sure flies when you’re having fun. Cliché sure I know it! But it is true. I’ve been on the ice for 125 days now can you believe it? Tomorrow is my last day here and can I say how excited I am to leave and go to Italy?
Once again I have to somewhat start this blog off with an apology as to how long it has taken me to update you all once again. And quite honestly I don’t have a good excuse other than the truth. Until the last week or so nothing all too new and exciting has occurred.
There was however an event that made international news down here. The event I am speaking of was a Jello Wrestling party in one of the storage warehouses. Unfortunately the day after the event was held a handful of NSF bigwigs were taking a tour of the warehouses and came across the cleaned up venue. There was no Jello still around on the floors or any mess to speak of. What did tip them off was the fact that the mattresses used were strapped to pallets and still in the warehouse along with a food waste bin which was where all of the Jello had been thrown.
What really sucked about the whole situation was that a good friend ended up getting fired over it. In my opinion the only reason he was fired was because the NSF was already in hot water over the fact that numerous high ranking officials had recently been busted for surfing porn on their laptops and were fired for it. With $6 billion recently given to the NSF it would look bad if they allowed things of that nature to occur.
What was really funny about the whole fallout was the fact that the station manager went on to hold town meetings explaining his reasoning. Essentially what that caused were town bitch-fests at upper management. What really pissed a lot of people off down here was the fact that jello wrestling has occurred numerous times with no more than a slap on the wrist as punishment. No station supplies were used and nothing was damaged. So firing the employee for no good reason really pissed off a lot of people down here.
After that happened there was only about a week or so until the Vessel arrived. That was actually a lot of fun. I was moved to nightshift for the offload and we had to work twelve-hour days. The offload went very quickly and definitely helped to speed my time up. Tonight is my last full night of debauchery down here (i.e. drinking lots of beer and whiskey) and I intend to have a blast. It snowed a lot today but the forecast is clear for tomorrow which I’m hopeful it is so I can get out of here on time and spend a few days in Christchurch with Anthony before heading off to Europe!
Some people are able to live this lifestyle, for them it works. For me it’s been a very exciting experiment to say the least. I have definitely valued my time down here and wouldn’t trade these experiences for anything. On that note I know for a fact that I couldn’t do this year after year. One thing that I cherish that is not possible in this life style is that of having a family and seeing your family regularly.
I am so incredibly excited to be going to Italy in less than a week and seeing my family and the love of my life! It’s been great corresponding with all of you back home while I have been down here. I plan to at least blog once from Italy so feel free to send some more emails. I will try to respond to all of your emails as soon as I can. It has been awfully business as of late and I’m sure it will be the same in Italy.
Much Love,
D
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Happy New Year!!!!
Ok ok, so I've dropped the ball a little and it's been like 20 days since I've posted a blog. I'd really like to say that it's been because I've been super busy and done all kinds of crazy things. Well, that's not the case. Life at McMurdo has been pretty much the same over the last few weeks. Things are starting to ramp up a little bit though.
I have 30 days left on ice at this point and as much as I've loved every minute of it I'm getting ready to see nighttime again. Just yesterday the Icebreaker boat finally came into town. What the icebreaker is responsible for doing is well, duh, break up the ice. The reason we have them come is so that a giant vessel can come in with supplies for the next year as well as a fuel tanker. All we really need now for that to go according to plan is for a good windstorm to come and take all of the broken ice out to sea.
The fuel tanker is expected to come in around the 24th of January and the Vessel is to come around the 31st. Once the vessel gets here the entire town pretty much shuts down. I myself will be switching to the night shift and get running a forklift for 12 hours a day until we have unloaded the entire boat. From what I understand it's a lot of fun and it ends rather quickly.
Ok, ok, so on to other business. What craziness have I gotten myself into since we last spoke... Lots! First and foremost, I am no longer on crutches!!!! I actually got off of my crutches a week after Christmas. Just in time for New Years! And may I say it was one of the best parties I've ever been to. Aside from it missing some very important people it was amazing.
Every year down here they hold Icestock... If it sounds like Woodstock that's because it is supposed to. It's a huge outdoor (yes outdoor) music festival. I believe there was about 8 or 9 bands that played and there were all kinds of things to do outside. After the concert was over there was a party held in a secret location, we partied in an old retired fuel tank. Don't worry about fumes it's been fuelless for years. I actually go up there regularly to pull supplies out of it. All in all New Years was awesome!
This last weekend was another awesome weekend. On Saturday night myself and some friends took a hike out to Hut Point to see the Ice Breaker coming in. While we were out there we were accompanied by a Weddell seal out in the water. Pretty soon we should be getting all kinds of wild life out near hut point. Everything from seals, to penguins to big ole orca whales! I can't wait for that to start! After we left we hung out for a little while until we went to another secret party down here! This one was in the Laundry Room! It was pretty fun, the parts of the night I do remember.
On Sunday there was another annual event that I attended down here. That was the annual Rugby match between the Kiwi's and the Americans. It was pretty amazing to see the set up. They actually had goal posts erected and seating for us to all enjoy the game. Unfortunately (not a huge surprise) the American team lost again. They've never actually scored, but this year they did have the ball bounce off the crossbar! They lost 8-0 :(
As my season is coming to a close I am very grateful for everything that I have experienced down here. I definitely wouldn't trade this experience for anything. That's not to say I don't miss everyone back home because lord knows I definitely do! My crazy best friend has decided that he is going to stay down here until Oct. 15th. So he'll be back just in time for the wedding. He of course will be missing the bachelor party but I understand. There are a lot of people down here that are getting a little rough around the edges and can't wait to get off of the ice. I just hope that none of them forget about all of the amazing things they have done down here. I know that I definitely wont. The journey is far from over though!
Until next time...
Much Love!
D!
I have 30 days left on ice at this point and as much as I've loved every minute of it I'm getting ready to see nighttime again. Just yesterday the Icebreaker boat finally came into town. What the icebreaker is responsible for doing is well, duh, break up the ice. The reason we have them come is so that a giant vessel can come in with supplies for the next year as well as a fuel tanker. All we really need now for that to go according to plan is for a good windstorm to come and take all of the broken ice out to sea.
The fuel tanker is expected to come in around the 24th of January and the Vessel is to come around the 31st. Once the vessel gets here the entire town pretty much shuts down. I myself will be switching to the night shift and get running a forklift for 12 hours a day until we have unloaded the entire boat. From what I understand it's a lot of fun and it ends rather quickly.
Ok, ok, so on to other business. What craziness have I gotten myself into since we last spoke... Lots! First and foremost, I am no longer on crutches!!!! I actually got off of my crutches a week after Christmas. Just in time for New Years! And may I say it was one of the best parties I've ever been to. Aside from it missing some very important people it was amazing.
Every year down here they hold Icestock... If it sounds like Woodstock that's because it is supposed to. It's a huge outdoor (yes outdoor) music festival. I believe there was about 8 or 9 bands that played and there were all kinds of things to do outside. After the concert was over there was a party held in a secret location, we partied in an old retired fuel tank. Don't worry about fumes it's been fuelless for years. I actually go up there regularly to pull supplies out of it. All in all New Years was awesome!
This last weekend was another awesome weekend. On Saturday night myself and some friends took a hike out to Hut Point to see the Ice Breaker coming in. While we were out there we were accompanied by a Weddell seal out in the water. Pretty soon we should be getting all kinds of wild life out near hut point. Everything from seals, to penguins to big ole orca whales! I can't wait for that to start! After we left we hung out for a little while until we went to another secret party down here! This one was in the Laundry Room! It was pretty fun, the parts of the night I do remember.
On Sunday there was another annual event that I attended down here. That was the annual Rugby match between the Kiwi's and the Americans. It was pretty amazing to see the set up. They actually had goal posts erected and seating for us to all enjoy the game. Unfortunately (not a huge surprise) the American team lost again. They've never actually scored, but this year they did have the ball bounce off the crossbar! They lost 8-0 :(
As my season is coming to a close I am very grateful for everything that I have experienced down here. I definitely wouldn't trade this experience for anything. That's not to say I don't miss everyone back home because lord knows I definitely do! My crazy best friend has decided that he is going to stay down here until Oct. 15th. So he'll be back just in time for the wedding. He of course will be missing the bachelor party but I understand. There are a lot of people down here that are getting a little rough around the edges and can't wait to get off of the ice. I just hope that none of them forget about all of the amazing things they have done down here. I know that I definitely wont. The journey is far from over though!
Until next time...
Much Love!
D!
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