McMurdo Station - We have arrived!

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  McMurdo Station (Ross Island), Antarctica
Thursday, August 23, 2007

It's true...it did not set in that we were actually going to Antarctica until that first slap of Arctic air!

We arrived yesterday after a 5 hour flight on a C-17 (military cargo plane) from Christchurch. It was very exciting to fly in a cargo plane - they are so big! One of the airmen told me that they can fit up to 8 helicopters in these planes! During the flight we were able to go up into the cockpit and see all of the controls and talk to the pilots. I found a small peep hole window towards the back of the plane and was able to take some pictures of the ice and glaciers as we flew over the east side of Antarctica heading towards Ross Island. It was so amazing!

When we landed it was -34 degrees! Strangely it wasn't as cold as it sounded, but when the wind picked up we felt every bit of it! We took a 20 minute ride on "Ivan the Terra Bus" from the Pegasus runway into the "town" of McMurdo Station. Out by the runway it is nothing but ice and some beautiful mountain ranges that were painted pink by the setting sun.

After arriving at the station we had another brief orientation/welcome meeting and then set off to collect our baggage and get settled in our rooms. We are in a dorm called Hotel California which houses mostly couples whereas the other dorms are set up to house up to 5 people per room. It is nice to be in one of the quieter dorms, but the downside is that we have to walk about 100 yards to the dining hall. Since we didn't have much stuff it didn't take us very long to get our room set up, but will need to swing by skua to see if there is anything good that we can use for decorating.

There is a small building that is called Skua which is like a free goodwill. Anything that is left behind by previous winter-overs is taken to skua for the new people to ravage through and take. It is a good place to find clothes, books, costumes, electronics, decorations, left over hygiene products (especially lotion!) and anything else that you can think of. Being here during winfly is a bonus to getting first dibs at the skua stuff!

We will start working tomorrow...our schedule is to work 6 days and get 1 day off. We work 9 hours a day with the scheduled tasks rotating every hour. We will be starting on the 11-9pm shift versus the 6-4pm shift. It won't be so bad since we have already met and are friends will most of the crew already.

A few side notes:
* We are 16 hours ahead of EST. We are the same time as Christchurch, NZ.

* Mail sent to us that is intended to be received by Christmas needs to be sent before Halloween. Please do not use packing peanuts or any other fillers in the packages. We recycle everything here from food waste to bodily waste and it is a inconvenience to recycle useless fillers. If the package needs padding please use a padded envelope or something of use such as a small blanket or other warm items! :) Flat mail is received quicker than boxes.

* We cannot receive phone calls, but we can call you. We apologize in advance if we call you at an awkward time seeing as it is difficult with our work schedule & time difference to call during "normal" hours!

* Please feel free to post comments or to email us at our regular email. We want to keep in touch with everyone and hear about what you all are up to!

**Sadly I will only be able to post limited amounts of pictures because the bandwith is SO slow that I have to do them one at a time! When we return to the states I will put together an album and send it out to everyone.

Post your own travel photos for friends and family Pictures

01. The Cockpit	02. The cargo!	03. Arctic Scenery	04. Sea Ice
05. Wise Advice!	06. Our Plane	07. Ivan the Terra Bus	08. Hotel California
09. Our Room

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