Friday, October 31, 2008
Flat Stanley Dives McMurdo Sound!
A week or so ago, I asked one of the scientists in the lab if they would take Flat Stanley diving with her the next time she went out. She readily agreed, and I put Flat Stanley in a dry suit (aka laminating). He actually got to go twice because the first time the camera broke!These are all the sea creatures I get to see... an aerial view of the Touch Tank in the Crary lab.
And this is what Flat Stanley gets to see:
Oh, to be made out of paper!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Flat Stanley
The courier dropped off a piece of mail the other day addressed to "Science Team". It was covered in stickers of sharks, and the return address was to Laguna Vista School in Oxnard, CA. I opened it to find a Flat Stanley who had been colored and cut out by a kid named Joseph, a letter from Joseph, and a letter from the teacher of the class. The letter from Joseph was SO adorable. It started out "Dear Antaredca, Hello How are you?..." The letter from the teacher explained the story of Flat Stanley and listed their website. When I checked out their website, I noticed their Flat Stanleys did quite a bit of domestic travel, but I didn't see any internationally traveling Stanleys. I could just picture this kid Joseph being laughed at by classmates when he said he wanted to send his to Antarctica. I've made it a personal mission to get this Flat Stanley out and about. My coworker Robyn and I took some photos of him right away, and I sent one back to the class with a paragraph explaining how we ended up with Joseph's Flat Stanley. I also asked if we could laminate Stanley and if we could keep him for awhile so he could have some adventures here. Both of the teachers wrote back to me in two separate emails telling me how excited they all are that he made it here and will get to see and do lots of things. They said Joseph carried the printed photo we sent around with him to show all of his classmates. So yesterday my friend Jen took Flat Stanley out on a balloon recovery helicopter ride. She read Joseph's letter over the mike for the three other people in the helo, and while they were out at the dormant volcano Mt. Terror, they snapped a few photos of Flat Stanley!The first photo sent back to Joseph and his classmates
Mahesh the scientist, Marco the helicopter pilot, Flat Stanley, and Kevin the mountaineer
Saturday, October 11, 2008
I'm Here Again
Yep! Back in McMurdo. Day seven, if you count the half day when I arrived. Our plane touched down in the afternoon sometime at the Pegasus airfield last Tuesday afternoon. Austin (aka Poopsie Starfish), a bandmate of mine, was ready to jump on that plane after spending a year on the Ice. He gave me some amazing words of advice, and I chatted with two of my co-workers from last season who were only in town for the month of Winfly. If we wouldn't have been delayed in Christchurch for a week, I would've gotten to spend at least two nights hanging out with them before they left. But looking back, that week in Christchurch was a great time to unwind.I've been back to work a whole week now. Getting settled in includes getting the computer all set up to see the folders on the shared drives that you need to see, remembering how the phones work, and tracking down missing contact lists. We've got about 50 grantees on station as of today, and things are only going to pick up soon!
Monday, October 06, 2008
Still In Chch
Yep! Still here in Christchurch, New Zealand! This will be my ninth day here. It was only supposed to be here for two days originally but bad weather has kept us here. Every morning I wake up to look for a note slipped under my hotel room door. If it's not there I call because I am not getting up at 5am if I don't have to! Each morning, we drudge over to the travel office to get our per diem - $70 NZ per day! And then we make plans for the day. One day a group of us took a day trip to Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula and half of us took the boat trip out onto the water there. We saw Hector's dolphins, fur seals, and white-footed penguins! Two days ago, I took the bus to Lyttleton with two friends and we just wandered the streets and soaked in the sun at this crazy bar called the Wunder Bar. Yesterday four of us took a shuttle up to Hamner Springs (two hours drive into the mountains) and soaked in the hot pools for a couple hours. Another group of Ice people were there, and one of them, my buddy DJ, mentioned that we were being paid to be there so technically we were professional hot springers. It's a rough life!We just received notice an hour or so ago that we are canceled yet again today, so my friend Heather and I have been talking about a pool party today at the hotel. We'll have to see where the day takes us!
Friday, October 03, 2008
Delay, Cancel, Boomerang, Delay, Cancel, Delay, Cancel
We are delayed again in Christchurch! We were supposed to leave Tuesday, and it's now Friday and we're rescheduled for tomorrow already!On the plus side, I spent yesterday on a day trip to Akaroa with seven other Ice people. It was GREAT!