Skuas have arrived

11/1/11

I joined the volleyball league tonight. It was a lot of fun b/c it ended up being kiwis vs americans, which made things interesting. Turns out the kiwis should stick to sports with their feet...

Had spanish class tonight and our lesson was talking about home. Apparently most people in the group are homesick. Not me, having too much fun.

11-2-11

The big storm had passed and it was gorgeous. We reached a high of 16F today. It feels so warm. The road out to the ice runway was treacherous (read fun) b/c of all the giant snow drifts. B/c so many flights had been cancelled the days before, they sent out a bunch of flights today which meant we were really busy, so we all ended up working a 13 hour shift, so I had a very, very busy day. Went to pickleball (went undefeated in 6 games) after scarfing down a quick dinner and then to open basketball.
One of our supervisory senior operators, Jen, went to the pickleball and basketball. I think I have a mom crush on her. She is so sweet and so nice and so positive and on top of it all, she's great at sports. She's always there when you need any help.

When I got to work in the morning there was a package waiting for me. When I opened it, there was a hand knitted wool hat inside and a nice message from Ildi saying she was sorry we hadn't met up yet, so she made me a hat. She is so sweet!

Saw the first Skua today. They are migratory birds that come down here for the summer. Kind of weird to see such a vibrant piece of life other than people. The only other signs of life have been the fat, immobile seals, and 1 penguin.

11-3-11

We had a seal get stuck on the ice runway road today. B/c of all the snow and drifting, there are big, steep snow berms on either side of the road from the plows. The poor guy got stuck in between and couldn't get all that blubber out.

Got another package from mom today!

Just so you guys know if I am not in as much contact as I would like, it's just b/c I'm very busy here. Just think of this: There are 24 hours in the day and 12 is for working and 8 for sleeping, which is 20, leaving 4 hours left. 1 hour is for dinner (they are very social), 1 hour is for getting ready in the morning, eating breakfast, and arriving 15 minutes early as is required for shuttle drivers. So that leaves 2 hours left. I average 1 hour of social/educational thing per night plus 1 hour of sports per night (though it is not uncommon I do a total of 3 hours), so that puts me at 0 hours left. But there are always some random things and the internet to do, so that means that I drop my sleep down to 6 or 7 hours. So that's why I'm not contacting you as much as I had while I was on the 10 hour days. But I do get 2 complete days off, so that is nice!