Thursday, December 4, 2008

McMurdo Station - Dec 4, 2008 - Logan



Logan Mitchell
Date: 12-4-2008
Location: McMurdo Station, Antarctica
Time: 11 pm
Latitude: 77°50'46.42"S
Longitude: 166°39'59.78"E
Elevation: 34m (112’)
Animals: 3 Waddell Seals, 1 Skua
Breakfast: Blueberry pancakes, eggs
Lunch: Turkey sandwich with lots of freshies!
Supper: Steak, mashed potatoes, green beans. Mint Oreo cream pie for desert.

Photo
Inside Scott's Discovery Hut

Today we had lots of classes. First up at 8am was the Environmental Awareness class where we learned a bit about the efforts that are being made (and are expected of us) to keep Antarctica as pristine as possible. After that we went to the best class so far: snowmobile class! The instructor (Joe) was really funny and we learned how to diagnose and fix simple mechanical problems. Then we went out and got to drive snowmobiles around an obstacle course on the sea ice! The obstacle course had flags set up that we could slalom through and hills to go up and over. It was a ton of fun!

At dinner we found out that our flight has been pushed back yet again. This will allow me a little bit more time to work (procrastinate) on the blog. After dinner we went over to Scott base (the main Kiwi base of Antarctic operations which is only a 30 minute walk from McMurdo) for “American” night which happens on every Thursday. It was fun to get to hang out with Kiwis! On the way over to Scott base we saw a few Waddell seals from a distance and one Skua (looks like a grey seagull). One funny thing about the Kiwi base is that they painted all of their buildings green. I don’t know if there is a specific reason for this, or if they just wanted to have some color in their lives.

No comments: