Antarctic Winter-Fly

9/10/17
We arrived to McM Station on the 4th of September, nearly 2 weeks late. It felt good, weird, and cold to be back! Elisha and my dorm room isn't de-winterized yet, so they put me in bldg 155, which is the main, huge blue building that also includes the galley, computer lab, barber shop, craft room, and and other rooms. Funny, I'm in room 109, which is the room that Elisha lived in during our 1st year with 4 other girls. So that brought back good memories. Spent some fun late nights hanging out and kissing there during our 1st season ;)

We went right to work as soon as we got there, literally after we had dropped our bags off in our rooms, we went to work in Crary. I'm an assistant supervisor of lab operations again in the Crary lab. The big change is that Bev, who has been the lab supervisor since my 1st year, resigned. They have been unable to fill her position (they asked me, but I said no way as it's a super stressful job and full time (summers in Centennial, CO), so it will just be me and Carolyn, the other lab assistant running the place. Carolyn is SUPER awesome. I really like her. So I'm happy about that. She's from Wisconsin, and it's her 2nd year down here, but she worked 6 or so seasons as the lab supervisor at Palmer Station. Right now we're working with Diego who was the winter-over lab assistant. He'll be leaving in October. The only other one in the lab right now is Richard, the instrument tech. Soon my good buddy Mitch (lab admin) and Linnah (HazMat specialists, who I worked with in shuttles) will arrive. Also Elisha and Wynn, the crary supply folks will be here soon as well. Then we have Many as the crary IT right now. Oh yea! how could I forget. My lil sis, Liz, is back as the RA (research assistant) and she's so excited as I am to be in the same place again!

I've been very busy trying to get life back together in a new place while working the long hours at the lab (7:30-5:30 everyday but Sunday) and then trying to stay in touch with Elisha and my mom, and working on my thesis. I've taken over one of the offices in Crary lab (with a great view) to work on without being bothered after work and on Sundays. I've also been trying to hit the gym b/c as usual, the food is delicious and plentiful here. They've added some nice new extras to cafeteria but they replaced our dear frosty boy icecream maker with a fake (vegan and tons of non-natural ingredients) one, i think called frost king. The big thing is with all the budget cuts, there are less flights, so they didn't even bring freshies on our winfly flights which means no fresh fruit or veggies. I think that will be the name of the game most of the season. Our lab did get invited to Scott Base (NZ base) for dinner. It's a tiny ordeal as there are only 10 kiwis over there right now, but they have much better food even (fresher) and real icecream!

Winfly is probably the prettiest time of year here as more or less you are in an eternal sunrise and sunset. When we first got here, we probably had 14 hours of darkness, but the sun never rose above the horizon. The sun now does go above the horizon, and actually hit town a couple of days ago. And according to Liz, yesterday was the last day of true night. Now the darkness is officially termed twilight. Anyways, with the sun so low on the horizon, or just below it, there are beautiful glows everywhere. Just like sunset back home. And it stays that way all day as long as it's not dark. Later in the year it will just be harsh, strong sunlight all day long. At night, being in a place with no moisture in the air, the stars are super bright, as was the moon. Unfortunately we probably won't see any auroras. There's actually been a solar storm going on which produces good auroras but the past week has been the full moon and it has been too bright to see the auroras. The next time the moon is small enough, there isn't predicted to be strong auroras, plus soon it won't get completely dark, and the next few days when it does it will be late (like 12am to 3am). But that's okay b/c I've seen some amazing auroras and I know I'll see more since I have plans someday to visit Alaska and Norway again. I haven't done much exploring though b/c it's been really cold (average -20F  with -60F windchills when it's windy), but mostly b/c I've been working on my project.
Today, as it's Sunday, I did stroll out to hut point to watch the sunrise (at 9am). Today was the famous Sunday brunch. As usual, it didn't disappoint! There were 10 different species of fancy cheeses, my favorite being smoked cheddar and some sorta wine infused gruyere. Some cheeses I hadn't even heard of. But my very favorite was the baked brie. There was also some yummy spicy pesto dip, a hot and spicy buffalo chicken dip, beef tenderloin, peach cobbler, tropical smoothies, and much much more. It's always amazing all the fancy and special food they have down here. Some other highlights from this week was fiesta friday with lots of yummy Mexican food, and then a mongolian wok.

Station population is about 200 people right now, so it's really quiet which is really nice. Soon, when Elisha gets here, it will be up to 900.

I wish my camera could capture the winfly colors, but it just can't come close. You see shades of orange and pink that you've never ever seen on a palette or never even dreamed of were possible. So magical. And so soft in this harshest of lands. And it just lasts so long here, unlike a wink like it does elsewhere. I'll go into the gym and the colors are just amazing, and I'm thinking, maybe I should have gone for a walk instead. But then I'll come out after an hour and they're even better than before. Then I'll eat and come out and they've changed, and then watch out my window in my office until it becomes dark. Always changing and always magical

view from my thesis office

my thesis office