The last Sunset at McMurdo

Hello! 

Guess what we had last week at 1:45pm on April 24th! The last sunset!   Now, don't be thinking that we are wandering around in utter darkness just yet.  In fact, it's still quite bright for a few hours in the afternoon.  I've included a picture I took at 1pm on the 24th, still plenty of light.   

March and April have been fun months to be living through.  For March we had almost normal sunlight.  The sun would set around bedtime and rise as we were getting up.  It was novel.  The first time I didn't have to close my shades at bedtime was very exciting and all the summer people were marveling about it at breakfast for a few day.  After that novelty wore off,  we got the April sunset. Pretty much constant sunrise/sunset colors. The mountains and sky were a stunning pink and red all day long for weeks.   It was a delight.  One of those days, I looked over toward Erebus and saw the steam coming out of the top, but with the pink sky, the steam was glowing red. Spectacular. 

I'm curious to see how I'll settle into the darkness. As it is,  I can still feel myself waiting each day for it to get brighter and experience a minor sense of relief when I walk out of a building and it's a bit lighter out.  I wonder if this isn't partly because the sky is still in the process of  lightening and so I expect it to get bright. Perhaps I won't feel that expectation when we are total dark mode.   It will be an interesting experiment.   I have a friend her that's been tracking all the data for sunrises and sunsets.  She's still putting information together so will have some trends to share with us in the future, but for now I've learned some interesting facts about twilight. 

There are three different types of twilight: Civil, Nautical and Astronomical.  Nautical is named this way because it's the twilight when seafarers can see the stars enough to navigate. Astronomical Twilight is when it's dark enough for astronomers to stargaze.  In any day, you will go through all three of those twilights.  Start at night, move into astronomical, next is nautical, then civil and then day. 

Currently, with the sun just setting, we are in Civil Twilight for most of the day. The sun in only about 6° below the horizon.  On May 11th we'll move into Nautical twilight with the sun 12° below the horizon.  We'll have Nautical twilight at some point during the day until the next sunrise.   We'll start with about 6 hours a day and then by June it will drop down to 3.  So there is no point during this winter when we will have full "night" for 24 hours. Isn't it all so interesting?!

And Auroras!  There have been some sightings but I've yet to see any.  I'm really excited for an Aurora viewing. 

Well folks,  I hope everything is well with you wherever in the world you might be.  Enjoy the pictures! 

This is my 1pm photo on the day of the sunset.    I've been taking one every day (almost) at this time and I'm hoping to put them all together.  We'll see. 

A storage space at Lake Hoare in the Dry Valleys with the Canada Glacier in the background. That glacier is their source of water.  They collect (you're going to love this) "Glacier Berries" and melt them down. Glacier berries are parts of the glacier that have calved off. 

A super secret silent dance party on New Years' eve.  We met up at 11:30pm,  brought our own music and headphones and danced around to our own beats to ring in the new year. It was incredibly fun.

The inside of an empty LC-130. 

I like the story of this Helo pad with it's tiny H.  When the painters were sent out there, the Head Pilot told them to paint something fun on it. The painters painted a butterfly. You can kind of see the outline of it still.  Someone, however, didn't like that and made them go back out and repaint it.  What a bummer.  On the bright side, because of this project, I was allowed to ride out in the extra seat on the helicopter and got a little fly over in the Dry Valleys. 

The moon and Antarctica. 

It snowed in my pickle (the name of the tractor). The pickles are very old vehicles from the military and there is no real seal on the doors so the wind blows the snow right inside. 

SCIENCE!  The Research Assistant, Liz, touring us through the Arrival Heights building where she monitors a variety of science experiments. 

This is the boxes that the science equipment from Japan comes in. HOW ADORABLE! 

All the science equipment, all lit up. 

Fun in Antarctica!

When we were first planning on coming down here, we had been told of all the fun things there are to do but it's a bit hard to believe how much there is to do until you've been down here.  We brought books and movies down here to pass the time.  Oh were we wrong. Even with a 54 hour 6-day work week,  the social calendar during the summer is non-stop and infact it feels a bit frantic.    Things are a lot quieter now that it's winter but there's still a fair amount going on.  Here's a general list of things that happen here.  Almost all of the things happen both winter and summer but during the winter it's not necessarily every week or with so much at one time.

Here's a basic list of the things that happen here:

Weekly Events: 

Travelogues: Every Monday people have the opportunity to share pictures and stories of their travels.  We've heard stories of peoples trips on Cargo Ships around the world,  hiking the Anapunra trek in Nepal, bike trips across Australia, rickshaw races across India and all the long walks across America. The weekly travellogue is a dangerous event to attend because it just keeps adding to the list of places to visit and things to do.
TedTalks: On Wednesday there's a selection of TedTalks that is shown in the galley.
Science Lectures:  Twice a week the scientists give lectures of the work they are doing down here.
American Night at Scott Base:  The New Zealand base is 2 kilometers from ours and on Thursday nights they open the store and the bar to us Americans.  It's really nice to be able to go somewhere new to hang out and shop.
Brunch:  Every Sunday the kitchen prepares an excellent brunch.  When we were living in Korea I remember paying upwards of $40 for brunches that weren't even as good as these are.
Open Mic Night: Technically not every week, but still an incredible event.  The talent here is remarkable.  There are so many talented singers, songwriters,  poets and performers.
Two-Step Tuesdays:  Every other Tuesday we clear away the tables and two-step!

The following events are pretty self-explanatory. 
Karaoke
Yoga
Insanity
Volleyball
Basketball
Soccer
Rugby with the Kiwis 
Boxing Classes 
Spin Classes
Trivia



Outside Opportunities:
Hiking: There are 4 different walks you can go on here.  Two small ones out from and around town, both about 3 miles.  The longest is Castle Rock Loop, 10 miles and during summer you can walk/ski out to the Runway.
Cross country and skate skiing:  These can be rented from our "gear issue" and you can ski out to the airport, our out on the castle rock loop.
Snowboarding: The Kiwis have an actual ski lift which if you make friends with them, you might be able to use.   However,  you can hike out the the hill at the Castle Rock and ski or snowboard down that.
Marathon and half-marathon: Heck yeah!  If you're really motivated, you can train to run the marathon or half-marathon.

Bands and Parties:
Halloween: This is a huge party and one that people make plans for before the even get down to the ice.  People come with great individual costumes and group costumes to compete in a costume contest. If you win, the prize is usually a trip somewhere.  Very fun!
Waste Barn Christmas Show:  The Wasties go all out for the Christmas party.  This year the theme was from Ferrous to Paris and they decorated the barn like a street full of cafes in paris.  People sing all sorts of songs both Christmas and other.  Again, this is another event that people look forward to all year.
VMF Christmas Party: On Christmas Eve the VMF hosts the Annual Christmas Party.  There's a performance from the Choir, a Santa appearance, photo booths, a photo display, live music, a wine bar,  and snacks.
Icestock: Perhaps the biggest event of the year.  Icestock is our New Years party.  It starts at 6pm and goes until midnight on new years (although this year it was technically a on January 2nd and the countdown to the third was 5 minutes late).   Bands practice all season and perform on IceStock. There's a chili cook-off and usually about 7-8 different types of chili to test and sample.
Math Club:  This is a weekly, alcohol free party this is strictly about dancing.   It is incredibly awesome.  Even people who hate dancing usually love Math Club.  It's early in the evening so people aren't drunk, there's no guys creeping up on women. It's dark with fun lighting and no one cares about how you dances.
Dance Parties:  Aside from Math Club, there are spontaneous dance parties all the time. People love to dance here! Any opportunity to dance here!
General work center parties: Throughout the season the various work centers have parties with live music (and dancing!).   Carp shop, helo hanger, the BFC. Any place that has a big enough space and the time to host a party.


Other Random Things:
Dance Groups:  Special Project Other is a dance hip hop dance crew and will not only put on one or two dance performances but also a great flashmob at Icestock.
Cribbage Tournaments: This is an hilarious obsession on station.  Tournaments are almost constantly ongoing but there is also the "Cribbage Bracelet" that people are constantly challenging each other for and then flaunt when they win.
Film festivals: Each season, both winter and summer, there is a film festival that people on station can participate in.  During Winter, the festival branches out and becomes and international festival and people from all the stations in Antarctica participate.  I can't wait to see it!
Discovery Hut and Cape Evans Hut: Discovery hut is Shackleton's hut that sits right near station.  We can walk out to see it and a couple of times a year we get official tourguides to open it up and we can go inside and look around.  The Cape Evans hut is a little farther out so less people can get out there.  Only about 50 people made it out there this season (neither Jamie nor I).
Room with a view: This is a trip we can sign up for or win by raffle. It's a snow mobile ride out to a hut with an excellent view of Mt Erebus.
Ice Caves:  Another trip that can be won by raffle and another snowmobile trip. This one goes out to the IceCaves in the Erebus Ice tongue. It's the glacier that flows off of the volcano, Erebus.  
Tug-of-war competitions: This used to be an annual event that they brought back this season.  We had a team of 6 vs the Kiwis.   We lost royally.  The Kiwi had actually practice.   We lost in seconds. But it was great fun!  And a very serious event.  We had to weigh in before we could compete. The Kiwis were overweight so that had to drop one person.  Did I mention we lost?
Manhauling competition:  This is a ridiculous competition where people haul, either in teams of 4 or singly, weighted sleds across the ice.  Technically this is part of the Tug-of-War competition, the team that loses can then challenge the winners to another competition.  Whoever decided on Manhauling, i have no idea.  I'm sure you can guess, the kiwis were very good at this too.  They are a bunch of young and very fit men that are competing.
MAAG:  A yearly art show; Performance art, painting, sculpture, music

The Ice Caves.  And the video tour! 

Halloween!  A ghostbuster and David Bowie

Skiing out to the ice runway. 

Our friend's band, Shitty and Loud.  Their title is very literal. 

Dance Party! 

Icestock!!

Inside the Nimrod hut. 

MAAG.

Karaoke! 

The start of the 5K.  You didn't think we actual ran a marathon, did you? 

Hiking with Sage!

VMF Christmas Party

Holiday Meal!

Room with a View Trip

Trivi Night.   Notice the concentration.  They've won twice in a row and are a bit intolerable.  

More hiking! 

My awesome dance crew.  Special Project Other. Feel free to click the link and watch us! 

A link to my performance with Special Project Other:

Miscelleny

More Random photos for your viewing pleasure.
Many of these I took with permission off the USAP shared drive.  People have incredible cameras and I am taking advantage of the photography skills.

This is the view from the back of my dorm.   That's hut point and the mountains behind are the Royal Society Range.  You can walk out to that point in about 20 minutes from town and get a great view. 

My co-worker Travis and I run a bootcamp class twice a week.  This is our warm-up. This is one of the many opportunities people have for exercise here.  Yoga three times a week, spin class twice a week, pilates twice a week, bootcamp twice a week, volleyball, soccer and basketball each once a week. 

These are the penguins that wandered into our bay.  I posted a picture of them last week, but this is a much better one. 

I took a trip out to visit the pegasus crash site.  It was 6:30pm and getting darker.  It was quite dark before we left so the good photographers got some excellent photos.  This one is looking back toward town and the mountain in the background is Mt Erebus. 

These are my co-workers in our oh-so-cozy break room. 

These next sequence of photos are from the McMurdo Luxury Homes tour. People all opened up their rooms and we toured them.  There are some incredibly creative room set ups and I thought you might like to see them.

Kira and Brad in there exquisitely decorated and matching room. 

Yes, that is a climbing wall. 

The zen masters living room. 

Excellent wall hanging giving the illusion of two rooms when there is, indeed, only one. 

Paige and John in their cozy living room. 

Need a tapestry?

Eric in The Parrot Lounge.  He inherited this room from two summer people who did a lot of after-market additions.  They also left a lot of booze and Eric opens up the bar once a week for anyone to visit. What a great guy!  

I just loved the lanterns.

Miscelleny

I take random pictures, every week, and then don't do anything with them so I'll just post them here.
Why not?

This is not just this past week as I have a backlog, but here you go:

Sometimes we find perfectly good cake in the foodwaste bins.  

That's Rob, posing next to our truck that we can't move because that stupid Skua bird is in the way.   We walked out to get in our truck that morning and a bird had parked itself right in our way.  Because of the Antarctic Treaty, we aren't allowed to just shoo it away.  The general policy of wildlife is that you can't do anything to alter their behavior (let's not talk about having an entire base).    You can't walk so close it looks at you, you can't make loud noise to disturb them and you certainly can't shoo them out of the way.   We moved our morning meeting into the galley and waiting another 20 minutes for that Skua bird to fly off. 

I got to play with the metal bailer the other day.  I put all these drums in here and then I got to crush them! 

All down into one tiny cube! 

It was so fun I decided to give you another photo. These are all the tin cans from the galley. 

Look at that pretty cube!!

This fun looking vehicle didn't want to work in the cold morning so the VMF had to send out the Emergency Recovery Vehicle (a pick-up truck with all sorts of gadgets attached to make vehicles go) to warm it up.  You notice the hose and engine? That's a huge heater to warm the engine up. On cold mornings the VMF is very very busy.   There were no less than two times we had to call them ourselves.  

Penguins!  These emperor penguins had been hanging around for a couple of days and they walked right into our bay!  What a great afternoon.  The Waste department took our van down (no Skua impediments this time) to look at the penguins.   For people without transport, we had a van driving people down from work centers all afternoon.  

We won a night out at this little hut on the ice (random drawing).   It was cloudy when we arrived and stayed that way all night so we didn't get any stargazing.  I'm not to upset though. The weather had called for aggressive wind with temperatures at -72 (with windchill) so I was fine with it being overcast and still. The next day, however, was beautiful!

Here's that same hut the next morning. That mountain in the background is Mt Erebus-the cloud above it is steam-it's a living volcano. 

Clearly we chose the right group of people to go with-outfits, wigs, food and fun photos shoots. Such a great night out.  All these photos are compliments of our friend Debbie-far right.