11/9/19
We had an eventful
last week here in McMurdo. Saturday night was the Halloween party. Elisha and I
dressed up as giraffe and cheetah (I’m sure you can deduce, based on heights
who dressed up as what). We were theming our costume after our trip through Africa. There were lots of good and creative costumes and of course plenty of dancing. Some of my favorite costumes were the Sea Ice lifeguard (dressed up by the guy who is the sea ice POC), Ms McMurdo (who was a fortune teller type person with a sweet costume) and a giant gender reveal cake).
On Wednesday morning I woke up with crust in my eye and was diagnosed with pink-eye. They put me in room quarantine for the day. It's actually not too bad of a thing to get b/c you don't feel sick, but have to stay home from work. So I watched the Lion King, Men in Black, some tv shows, and a new movie about Lea Israel the troubled writer. I also sorted through photos.
SAR practice this week was glacier travel and self-arrest on steep slopes. It was fun as we got to rope up and walk up on the ice fall of a nearby glacier. We also got to do some ice climbing.
On Friday I flew in one of the brand new helicopters out to Marble Point to do a camp review. Marble Point is a helicopter refueling station for the nearby dry valleys (helicopter truck stop). It's not a particularly scenic area, but it sits between a glacier and the coast. The best part of it is that there are 3 people stationed there: Gavin the manager who I knew before he used to work out there, a rotating fuelie, and Karen the chef. Karen is so sweet. She used to live near Glacier NP for a while until Montana got too crowded for her and now she lives in Alaska. But she dreams of moving to the North Coast of Colombia. Anyways, coming to visit the little shack at Marble Point is like coming to grandma's house as there is a delicious home-made lunch waiting, home-made soup (sweet and sour today), fresh-baked bread, and fresh baked deserts (chocolate chip cookies and chocolate dipped rice krispy treats this time). She also has one of the best selection of teas around as well as some of the best snacks (dried fruits and nuts and things). The Marble point building looks junky from the outside but it's very homey on the inside.
This week we also
attended the science lecture, which was given by 2 of the artists and writers.
They are collaborating on a project called "The Last Glacier" where
they are documenting the remaining glaciers. One of them is from Clemson University
and the other from Montana State University. The one from Clemson makes wood
carved art and the other takes photos. They then put their stuff in these giant
books (like 3 feet tall) that can be viewed at museums and libraries. The talk
and their project was especially meaningful to me as I love glaciers and thus
far they have made books on the glaciers of Glacier NP, Rocky Mtn NP, and
Kilimanjaro. This summer they visited the Rwenzori Mtns in Uganda to start a
book on the glaciers there.
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