Ivan the Terra Bus dropped us off at the NSF (National Science Foundation) Chalet for a brief meeting to welcome us to McMurdo, get us set up in our dorm rooms, and let us know what sort of meetings we needed to get to in the next few days. There are several dorms in McMurdo. Three dorms have 3 floors and each building has a sauna! I haven't been to a sauna yet. Those dorms also have suites - two rooms connected to each other by a bathroom and each room has two beds. I am in the dorms that share the building with the galley. It is convenient to wake up and not have to throw on "Big Red" - our big red jackets - or some other coat to go to breakfast. We have three bunk beds in our room. It is a little like going to camp. It has worked out pretty well though. My main concern was being put in a room with other women who wanted to stay up late or make a lot of noise. Three of my roommates had come from the South Pole. All of them got varying degrees of pulmonary edema. They were told to rest and get as much sleep as possible, so for the first few days, they were always sleeping. Other than having to move about in the dark (we had the window covered), it was nice and peaceful. Two of them have been able to return to the South Pole and the third will probaby go as soon as the weather clears up (it has been snowing).


Jon is the other graduate student in our group. He and I went to a briefing where they overwhelmed us with papers and information. It was great to meet the various people who make things happen in McMurdo. Then we had to go to some environmental meetings where we learned more about how to deal with waste in Antarctica, how about 60-75% of all waste is recycled, so it is important to separate your waste into various bins. We also learned that the Dry Valleys are a specially managed area and we must be extra careful to impact the environment as little as possible. Then, Jon and I went to the outdoor safety lecture so that if we had time, we could go on one of the various hikes or ski trails around McMurdo. All of these meetings were in the upstairs lounge at the Crary Lab. There is an excellent view from the window of this lounge.



All the science groups going into the field have a staging area in a building known as the Berg Field Center (BFC). The equipment we requested is stored in a "cage" that is shared with 2 or 3 other field groups. Jon and I went over to the BFC with the list of the equipment we were issued. We wanted to unlock the door and go through everything to make sure what was listed was actually there. It took about an hour and then we decided to enjoy ourselves a little and go for a hike.

We went up to Observation Hill where a cross was put in 1913 in memory of Scott's party. The view up there is incredible. It was a sunny day, but it was also very windy and so quite cold whenever we were on the windy side. Even so, I was wearing Big Red so I was sweating (you are not supposed to let yourself get that warm around here because you will cool off much more rapidly if you are sweating). The wind nearly knocked me over a couple of times and both of my cameras froze up. The digital camera just needed its battery warmed, so I started keeping it in my inside pocket next to my chest. The shutter of my Nikon 35mm froze open, so I would have to deal with that back in a warm environment. Two of the photos, one of Jon and one of me standing in the same spot, show Mount Erebus in the background. Another two photos of Jon show the town of McMurdo in the background. The other is a picture of Willy Field, the ice runway.

I will end this post with two pictures of the view from Ob Hill.