Friday, October 21, 2011

why i'm here part 6

our winter over picture with Amundsen and co looking at us
by Robert Schwarz

the refraction of the sun, just before the storm

the sun after the storm with summer camp and marisat on the foreground

shadows!!

the beautiful dining room for our sunrise meal

waiting for our amazing meal from the galley staff

ladies at the sunset meal

johnny and me at bingo

greetings from the last throws of winter,
we are awaiting the 1st basslers transporting the 1st summer polies.  currently there's a storm keeping them in mcm and we are all thankful for some peace before they arrive and everything becomes hectic.  our station manager was picked up by the 1st planes to come to pole in 8 months on monday, on their way through from Chile to mcm for summer operations.  i am due to fly to mcm in 15 days, although the weather delays help to keep us from expecting little when it comes to our "schedules".  we had a crazy storm for weeks last month and all the drifting we thought we were so lucky to have escaped throughout the winter appeared with this storm! then the temps were in the -90F's for over a week.  i have learned that the weather gets really wacky here once the sun rises, we didn't get to witness the actual sunrise because it happened during the storm i mentioned.  it was wild to have the sun several degrees above the horizon in the sky after the storm cleared out!  we are all packing up our belongings and skua which is what we call our free/trade stuff (skuas are the seagulls of antarctica) is out of control as everyone sheds their winter belongings for use by the next inhabitants of the station.  i really have enjoyed the winter and the celestial shows of the stars and auroras but i think i am definately a summer pole person.  the next 2 weeks will promise to be crazy and strange as our station will be over run with people... there have been 49 of us living very closely for 8 months and i can only imagine how odd and exciting it will be to welcome the 1st basslers passengers in for the summer....

take care,
karengrace

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