ECW Issue

Well I just took my last long shower for 5 months and it felt greatttt.  From what I hear it turns out we're allowed (2) 8 minute showers a week.  That sucks hardcore but maybe I can make it (4) 4's instead, fingers crossed.  There isn't a natural source of fresh water so they have to desalinate 50,000 gallons of seawater every day so conservation is apparently a big deal. 

We went and tried on all our ECW(Extreme Cold Weather) gear today and I'm all good to go and ready for tomorrow. Thats really all we had to do today and then had the rest of the day to ourselves.  So I hoped on a bus with a few of the other folks and we went and checked out some of the city.  It's nice here, it's really pretty, and all the local people I've talked to are really nice.  On your return trip you can pick what day you'd like to return to the US. So it's possible to stay here for a little while for a little vacation on the way back, I might have to do that.  I've got to check in at 7:30 tomorrow morning for the flight to the ice. We're wheels up at 9:30a here which is 1:30 in AZ. If the weather rolls in at McMurdo and we aren't able to land we get "boomeranged" and have to come right back to Christchurch and try again when the weather clears. It's about a 6 hour flight so as long as the weather at the landing strip is clear and we don't get turned around I should be there about 7:30 tomorrow evening AZ time. I found out today the record for boomerangs is 7, and I'd rather have unprotected sex with a bandsaw than break that record! 

Anyway, onto the picture show!

This is what a $1.50 CANNN of Mountain Dew looks like oh and some chips...

USAP!

This is all the ECW gear they issue you. There is also the "bunny boots" but they're hiding behind dudes arm...

The "International Antarctica Center" is right next door. It's kind of like a museum and an amusement center. They have an "antartica experience" where they put you in a really cold room and blow a bunch of wind at you. It's $65 effin dollars, I think I'll wait and experience the real thing and get paid for it. Take that bitch...

This is part of the Antarctica Center, you can ride around in one of these babies only without the whole snow, cold, ice, penguin situation. Again I think I'll wait for the real thing...

They do not yield in New Zealand, they give way...

They also drive on the wrong side of the road, what the fuck...

K-mart at the mall. It looks like one of the anchor stores in the mall. Blue light special bitches!

PakNSave, the cousin to Pic N Save? I think yes...

We ate at Hell's Pizza, the phone number even has a 666 in it, hilarious...

You can apparently fist celebrities at Hell's Pizza too, I have dibs on Rachel McAdams...

Hells Pizza again, obviously the whole hell thing going on, they had mis-fortune cookies too...

$2.19 not bad for premium! Except that's a liter. 3.79 liters per gallon so that's $8.30NZ a gallon. On the bright side with the exchange rate that's a paltry $6.59US a gallon, fill er up baby...

A park...

Having a picnic in a park, fortunately there was 1 girl there...

Riding the bus back to the hotel...

I'm tired and I have to get up early...so peace out.

One incredibly longggggg day

So I'm in Christchurch, NZ now.  It feels so, SO good to be able to take a shower and lay in a flat position.  Over 27hours of flying and laying over was every bit as shitty as I thought it was going to be and more.  I did learn that flying Qantas is pretty nice. You get the TV's in the back of all the headrests so you can watch movies all night long if you want. It also had a cool feature where it showed on a map in real time where the plane currently was, speed, altitude, and how long until the destination, pretty cool.  The seats are a little bigger too and that's so amazing when you're sitting there forever.  I tried taking sleepy pills and it did make me tired but it's so hard to sleep sitting up when you're all cramped. I slept and slept and SLEPT for what seemed like forever and woke up thinking we had to be really close. So I checked the planes location and we were still 4.5hrs away!  I wanted to cry like a little girl. I couldn't sleep anymore so I just had to watch movies and try not to cry loud enough that others could hear me, so I wept into my sleeve, it was very therapeutic.  We did finally land in Auckland. After we cleared customs we had to go check in over at the domestic terminal for our flight to Christchurch. Here is a pic I took waiting in that line to check in...

My first impression of NZ is that it's alot like Seattle. Really overcast and everything is a little bit wet. I don't know if it's like that all the time but it is now.

Not only is it an Exit but it's also apparently the Way Out, doors all over say Way Out over them...

Here is another shot from inside the terminal in Auckland, waiting for our flight...

So they gave me a seat in row #1. Everyone gets settled in and were ready to leave and it turns out I'm the only person sitting in the first row.  If we had crashed into a mountain I would have been the first passenger to croak, but we didn't.

Here is a shot out the window when we were descending into Christchurch...

Outside my hotel room window...

Money!

On the way to my room....

Outside. The airport is across the street. Looks like a C-17 in the background, I wonder if that's the guy we'll be flying on?

Ok well I haven't really slept in like a day and a half so I'm gonna go so nothing...woohoooo

Orientation day 1

So, day 1 of orientation is over. It turns out there are about 60 people going down with me.  Met some pretty cool, laid back people so far. Did some information security training, benefits, finance, and a final "what to expect" type presentation for our travel tomorrow. Also got issued my "travel funds"...$215 baby, lets partyyyy! I've never worked anywhere, where they handed me a fistful of cash 5 minutes after walking in the front door. I like this already!

I also learned that there was apparently another earthquake in NZ on Sunday. Yippee, can you say aftershocks baby?! I guess we shall see what happens but if I die in an earthquake after flying for almost 18 hours I'm really gonna be mad. At least kill me off in an earthquake before being stuck on a plane for so long!

They've got a shuttle taking us to the airport a little after noon. Should be at the airport about 1:00 and the flight leaves at 7:45.  In case you're new to mathematics, that would be six fuck hours and 45 fuck minutes to wait fuck for my flight...fuck!  THENNNNN, once we get to LAX it's another 2.5 hr layover before finally getting to leave for NZ.  So that's like 11.5 hours of flying and waiting followed by a 13.5 hr flight, then another 3 hr layover in Auckland, NZ before another 1.5hr flight to Christchurch, NZ, then I'll finally FINALLY get to see the inside of a hotel room.  Dude, what the hell am I thinking!  I just want the next 36 hours to be over already. Oh well I guess I'll just have to suck it up and deal.

I'm not sure if the hotel in NZ has internet access or not. So I'm not sure exactly when I'll be posting again. It might be a couple days.

Oh and here is a pic of some of the folks waiting outside for the shuttle to take us back to the hotel this afternoon. I know I'm not in it but I thought I should at least post 1 pic since I haven't posted any pics since I left home.

 

So it begins

Well I'm on my way.  I left Phx this afternoon and now I'm sitting in my hotel room in Aurora, CO.  The flight wasn't the greatest, pretty bumpy toward the end there. If that's as bad a flight as I have though then I won't bitch and complain. 

I've already met about 8 or 9 other folks on the shuttle and in the hall ways that are headed to Antarctica too.  So far so good.  It's an hour later here and I've gotta get up at 6 for a 7 o' clock shuttle to the company's HQ. 

I think I'll go get unstinky now. Might as well enjoy some nice long showers while I can.

Peace out my peeps!

Before & After

Before...

After...

Now lets just hope it all comes in under 150lbs.  Oh and lets hope the baggage handlers don't steal my new cameras!

Webcam

Here is a webcam of McMurdo where I'll be working at. Maybe if you look really hard you'll be able to see me. Just give me time to get there.

http://www.usap.gov/videoclipsandmaps/mcmWebCam.cfm

Camera test

A pile of some of the stuff I'm taking with.  Also a test for my fancy new camera I got to take lots of pics on my little adventure.