Saturday, August 19, 2006

Leaving Civilization Tomorrow!

So much has been going on since I first arrived in Denver. Besides losing my luggage and a few notes I've made about training, I really haven't told you much.

I'll start again with Denver. On Monday morning we reported to RPSC headquarters for supervisor training. Luckily, the day before I had met Susan, who is also a first timer and will be a Lead Dining Attendant on the Ice, at the airport. She was there and so were a few other first time supervisors. Good to know I'm not the only new supervisor to the program this year. Tuesday was our first big day, and about 60-70 new people joined our group for safety training. I met Kevin, who is a friend of Phil's - a winter-over I've been in contact with for the last few weeks whose hot sauce is still lost with my luggage. My laptop was screened and passed so I can use it on the network down there. Wednesday we had a half day of training, which discussed security, human resources, and benefits. Before we boarded the busses for the airport, us newbies had to go through a "What Happens Next" briefing.

We boarded the busses for the airport, and then flew to Los Angeles. At LAX, I met Holly, a friend of my friend Devon. This will be his 5th season down, if I'm not mistaken, and he's been so helpful to me the last couple months. I walked up to shake his hand, but Holly's a hugger so I got a big hug! That's when my boss Amanda remembered that we had been in contact with each other (me and Holly) and why I had so few questions for her!

The 12- hour flight to Auckland went by fast. I tried staying awake to watch a movie, but I kept falling asleep in the middle of it, so I finally just gave in. I slept for more than three quarters of the flight. I woke up just in time to have breakfast. While we waited in Auckland for our connecting flight to Christchurch, I chatted with Kevin, whom I had met on Tuesday. Kevin used to go down to the Ice as a diver and had some great stories and amazing photos. As we got off the plane in Christchurch, we were grouped up and told if our last names were K-Z to get in line to get our paperwork and perdium and then get our bags and opposite order for the last names A-J. Then we were shuffled onto shuttles to take us into town.

I was the first one dropped off as my hostel is just north of downtown. I have my own room, and the place is very quiet. I was thinking about switching for tonight, but it's just as easy to walk the extra 8-9 blocks.

I met Susan and John, both Lead DA's at Cathedral Square. Susan has spent the last 9 months traveling and working in New Zealand, so for lunch we went to a restaurant one of her friends works at. Then we spent the afternoon lounging around, shopping, and picking up last minute things at the supermarket. Susan made a comment that it kind of feels like we're going to jail. We were trying to think of things we needed to get before we left. At one point in the afternoon, Susan was looking at earrings from a vendor at the Square. She made a comment about how she was looking for some earrings to wear for the next 6 months. The guy said, "Oh, you're Ice people." We asked how he knew, and he said Ice people go away for six months. The Ice people definitely invaded Christchurch yesterday, and I could tell because we would run into them everywhere. We made plans to meet up with a couple of the returners for beers at Dux de Lux where we had a round. Then we walked over to Bailey's, which is full of Antarctic history. Someone told me last night that the old explorer, Scott, had eaten one of his last meals in New Zealand there back in the day. Seven of us (a mix of returners and newbies) went to The Bog for dinner, and then ventured back to Dux de Lux for a couple more rounds. I was so tired, I kept falling asleep. I slept very well last night.

This morning our shuttle driver from the day before picked me up at 7:30 to go over to the CDC (Clothing Distribution Center) to get our ECW (extreme cold weather gear, now refered to forever as ECW because I'm sick of defining acronyms). We had to attend a briefing about our flight tomorrow. We need to report to the airport around 4am tomorrow morning. Then we were let loose into the changing rooms - women in one and men in the other. There were a pair of orange bags in the middle of the room for everyone. You grab your bag, stake out a corner of the room to call yours,
and start trying everything on working the buttons, zippers, velcro, etc. Everything fit, but the zipper on my big red parka wasn't the greatest and I wanted a different style fleece jacket. I hopped in line to exchange things. The line formed to walk behind a curtain to exchange whatever you needed so the guys working in the main clothing room couldn't see in to the changing room. The wait took a while, so I left my things in line, and ran over to the travel office to see if they had heard about my bag. They hadn't but I told them I still wanted to fly down. There's nothing I can do about my bag here, and I just want to move on and if it shows up - it shows up. If not, at least I'll be in the swing of things down there. I also requested a pair of cargo pants, a red windbreaker, and an extra orange bag. I was issued enough warm clothes and work clothes that all I really need now are underthings, which is what I'm off to shop for now. Hopefully the airline reimburses me for everything.

Posted by Katie from the Ice @ 12:00 PM