getting into the swing of things

10-18

Today was more training (5 new people showed up from the flight from yesterday), but Dan, Fran, Karen, and I got to do some real driving today. We took people way out on the sea ice in the big deltas for Happy Camper (training of the people going out in the field on how to survive camping in antarctica). Also did some routes in town. Today Kristy (aka shuttle queen...i have had dancing queen stuck in my head all day) did a lot of the training for us. She's very cool. It's her second year, but she's only 25, I think, and like me has continually put off graduate school to keep travelling. Her next big adventure she hopes to do is Cairo to Cape town. She thinks Dan and I are hoots b/c we try to be funny. And oh, Dan has the sweetest voice ever. I think he needs to do like national geo documentaries. He, kind of like Fran, majored in Outdoor leadership education. He went to a school with less people than Albertson...120!
Everyone on shuttles, especially for radios gets "shuttle" put in front of their name. Some people pick their names (i.e. shuttle queen) others are given one. They all thing Shuttle Guy is hilarious, so that is my new name.
We also drove a DV (distiguished visitor) today. He was the head of the NSF. They get lots of cool DV's down here. Some notable ones that Bill and Bob (two senior shuttle drivers) have driven are President Bill Clinton, John McCain, and Anne Curry. Apparently shuttle Bill really hit it off with Anne Curry b/c she got stranded here due to bad weather. This year, as it's the 100th anniversary of going to the Pole, the norwegian prime minister and some norwegian royalty will be coming down.
Today we also toured the ice runway and had a big powerpoint and lecture on the protocols and procedures of being on an airfield. We had to get and 85% on the test to pass. About 1/2 the class didn't make it on the first try. But I have quickly been named the shuttle nerd b/c I was the only one to get 100%. Teduard the shuttle driver...
A quote that shuttle Danster passed on today: "Behind every tree in Antarctica is a naked women" so true. but not a tree in site...or on the entire continent.
That reminds me of a funny bumper sticker I saw in ChristChurch. "Stop Plate Tectonics"

Today, and yesterday in my little bit of spare time, I have been working on my grad school applications to Yale, Duke, and Florida. I am lucky b/c Karen (the lady who retired from the lincoln center for performing arts in Manhattan) has offered to let me use her computer. She says she really likes me and I helped her out a lot by volunteering to go with her when we had to do shuttle runs in town. The town is very confusing b/c every building has a non-sensical number to it. I'm terrible at directions and memorizing numbers, but feeling a little less stressed and overwhelmed than her b/c I went through a similar thing at Beaver Creek. She says that we make a good team b/c I'm smart but shy and don't speak up. So I tell her and then b/c she is a loudmouth new yorkian, speaks up. I think she also appreciates that I help pull her up into the vehicles and hold her arm on the slippery ice spots.

Today after work I joined my first activity. I joined the spanish speaking and lessons groupl I hope to learn some more spanish before SA. Tomorrow I have to decide between team travel trivia and basketball and pickleball. geeze!

Someone said that the workforce in Antarctica is the most overqualified of anywhere in the world. I believe it. It's such a diverse and esteemed group of people. Never ceases to amaze me. Found out today that shuttle nate is a PhD student (on a break) in Astronomy at the University of Arizona. Cassa (a new arrival) is getting her masters in geography at UC-San Fran and also drives something called the tortoise bus in summers all across the country. He's not in shuttles, but apparently the 3rd person up in google is doing some menial job here right now. I found out that the lady from estes park, owns a house just two roads over on High Drive (columbine) from my parents and that she has walked her dog by our house all the time.

I did some room rennovation today as well. Finally found a lightbulb that fits in the lamp that I had found in a storage area. Also got some bamboo to tie to the roof of my room so that now all i need to do is find some old sheets to make curtains to block off a little private area around my bed and to keep light out when my roommates are up or watching tv.

Our boss told us yesterday that she and the previous supervisor had looked over 500 applications and then conducted 300 interviews to hire about 15 or 16 new people. I was wondering what it was that I had that made me standout with all those other most likely very qualified people. Well today I think i found out. Our supervisor mentioned there were two extremely important things: safety and most importantly with this job, flexibility. She wanted to see that we could easily just pick up and do something else and could go with the flow. I'm thinking she looked at all the travel experience and was like, this guy can definitely be flexible and handle a lot!