Special Ted does Antarctica

I posted some pictures of Antarctica, and some pictures were posted of me on facebook in case you are intersted in seeing some pictures of the ice.

10-22
Last full day of real training, though training will continue to happen. Stormy on and off today. I love how the different storms, clouds, and sun angles are constantly changing the look of the mountains and the ice. Everyday you see several different scenes even though you are looking at the same thing. So beautiful! And when it's completely sunny, you still get the cool ice mirages, called, phantasmagorias.

We had our ATO (Antarctica Terminal Operations, which shuttles is a part of) meet and greet and dance party last night. Great food: Steaks, cheese, cookie dough! plus lots of free wine and beer. It was tons of fun. One of the best dance parties I have been to in a long time. crazy how much like college it is here. Special Ted definitely made an appearence and made lots of new friends and of course danced the night away in wild fashion, then once the music was over apparently had a lot of fun tobagganing down hills on the way back to late night base drunk snack. Highlights of the dancing night included Shuttle Bob (he's probably in his 50's) amazing dance moves and me dancing with previous shuttle boss, Kris. She did our hiring and has a super intense interview and a lot of people I think I kind of scared of her. But as soon as she found out Glee was my guilty pleasure, it was time to dance (her quote of the night "I think I made journey mad once when I stopped believing"). Around 3am most people had ventured off to one of the bars or found a room (Shuttle Dan had a funny smile on his face this morning at brunch when someone asked him where he had gone with that girl he was dancing with and why the shuttles office was locked late last night when it is never locked), but Alyx, Fran, Mike, Julia, and myself stayed to the very end. Pretty crazy to walk outside after 3am partying to complete daylight. Actually last night was the last time the sun will set in antarctica until february! An interesting thing about partying in Antarctica: When you go outside to cool off and get some fresh air, before you know it, your beer has turned to slush. That's how cold it is. Funny thing is, although temps have been hovoering around -5F, I'm starting to get used to it and not even needing a hat or the big red parka all the time.

10-23
Went to church and then of course the fabulous brunch, featuring eggs benedict and blueberry smoothies and some fancy shrimp thing. Since then I've been working the whole day on my essays for Yale School of Forestry application. Shuttle Karen (aunt Karen. she recently retired from some fine arts center in manhattan. She still lives in Hells Kitchen, but also runs a farm somewhere else in new york http://www.auntkarensfarm.org/ ) let me borrow her laptop and so i found a quiet place. There's a huge showing of the france vs New Zealand world cup final rugby match tonight, but i think i will skip it b/c it doesn't start until 8:30 and i go to work tomorrow at 5:45am. We have now started the 12 hour work days, so I'll be working 5:45am to 5:45pm tomorrow and it will be LONG day. But I do plan on attending a science lecture tonight after dinner on emperor penguins.

Bc of the long days and continued applications for grad school, it may be a while before I get in the groove of things, so I may be out of touch and out of blog for a little bit.