Trav's Travels: Breaking the Ice

1/11/18

Tonight was MAAG (McMurdo Alternative Art Gallery). It was held in the fuels barn. It's a cool event displaying art from people all across the station. There are standard pieces of art and then more abstract pieces as well. There are interactive pieces as well as live pieces with people in them. There was one where you were shuffled into a room and there were 3 people all in white sitting on a white couch with white cake. The one person would say a controversial topic that maybe the media/govt is trying to propagate, and then the 2nd person would feed the 3rd person cake. They kept doing this with different topics and then asked the audience to feed the girl with a topic. There was also a cozy little room with stuffed animal dogs, a couch, fake fire, emotional music, and videos of dogs on a screen in an attempt to help satiate one's desire for missing their dogs here. There were some dramatic readings and a fashion show with things from skua (the free thrift shop). There was also a burlesque show where the actors went from scantily clad to full ECW gear while a reader read a story full of innuendos that she had written about missing your partner if they are delayed in Christchurch. A trumpet and drums were also used in the story.
It was very crowded, but the fuel barn was decorated really nicely. People dress up and mingle with wine, beer, and cheese, like a real gallery. It's always incredible how creative and how talented the people are here. Definitely some great stuff.

1/12/18
It was a very windy and snowy day today, but next week I'll have the duty pager and can't leave town, so Elisha and I xc skied up to castle rock. Though it was stormy, it was warm, and in a bit of a clearing, we could see the icebreaker, US Coast Guard Polar Star, way off in the distance. It was a fun and fast ski back

1/13/18

My day off for the week, and I decided to make the most of it. I first biked to hut point to check out the Polar Star Icebreaker in the distance. I then did the hut point loop, where I checked out the skua nest. The little skua has hatched, and now it's a cute ball of grey fluff. I then biked out onto the ice shelf and to LDB where I had lunch there. They still haven't launched their big balloon yet, and they've been trying since 10 December! It was super windy out on the snow roads, but the wind was lined perfectly wit the road, so after I biked back into town, I stopped by shuttles to see if I could get a ride back out to the snowroads. This time to ski with the wind at my back. The wind was super strong and it felt like downhill skiing with the wind at my back. Unlike when I biked back home into the wind, I elected to take a shuttle back instead of fight the wind back. I got lucky and the shuttle on the way back has become the "party shuttle"! It's driven by Shuttle Shelley (who started with Elisha and I back in 2011), and since it's the afternoon shuttle on Saturday, she's made it a fun run. She prints out lyrics to fun songs, hands out fake microphones, and she cranks the volume as everyone sings the songs on the way back. Very fun! Once back on base, I did some more biking around before spending an hour at the coffee shop and then joining Mitch and Elisha for our insanity workout. All in all a 31 mile day!

After the workout, we had a crary family dinner as it's Linnah's last weekend before the Palmer research vessel gets into town, which she will board for a scientific cruise to Hobart and then onto South America. We'll definitely miss her! After dinner, Elisha and I biked out to hut point to watch the Icebreaker come in. It was right off of hut point, and it's interesting to watch it break the ice. Such a slow process! It has to back up, then shoot forward where it breaks a couple hundred yards of ice, before it has to reverse again. It's pretty crazy to see this big old boat in the middle of a sea of ice with mountains in the background. I have a relative on the ship, Gena. I don't know what she is, 2nd cousin thrice removed? She is my mom's cousin's grand daughter. Anyways, it will be interesting if I can meet her. Funny, I had another cousin, Clare, on my dad's side, come do research at NZ's Scott Base the year after I was here last time.

1/15/18

Elisha got lucky and won a trip on the rec trip known as room with a view (or vroom with a view as I call it). Since Carolyn and Linnah were leading the trip, they each get to take a plus 1, so they took Mitch and me (The last time I was here I was a guide for that trip, but it didn't work out to be one this year). It's a trip where we take snow mobiles and drive up 12 miles along hut point peninsula to get a nice view of Erebus and down in to Erebus Bay. It was a foggy day, so we didn’t get the big view as we ascended into a cloud, but it’s always fun to snow mobile around.

Polar Star Ice Breaker

crary crew. Front Marci (lab assistant), Liz (science head), L to R back row: Wyn (supply lead), Mitch (admin), Linnah (haz mat specialist), Graham (research associate), Joni (head IT), Mike (heat UT), me (lab assistant), Elisha (supply), Carolyn (lab assistant), Chan (IT). Not pictured: Neal (research associate), Richard (instrument tech)