Settling In

Our first two weeks here at McMurdo have been hectic!!!! It takes time getting use to working ten hour shifts six days in a row. We have found ourselves exhausted at night and are sorry to say that our bodies aren't cooperating like we hoped. Matt threw out his back playing basketball and had to spend a night on the floor. The next day my back started to hurt, at first I thought it was sympathy pains, but it lasted a few days!!!! We are finally feeling good again, the weather is improving and now we are working on catching up with friends!!! It feels great to be back and see so many familiar faces. This past week I was lucky and got the chance to attend two great survival trainings. The first is called Happy Camper School where you spend 36 hours out of town building shelters and learning basic survival skills in case you got stranded in a storm. I spent the night in a quinsy hut which is made by burying about twenty survival bags with a mound of snow. After letting the snow settle, we dug out the bags and it created a little igloo like structure to rest in. It was -18 that night, but we stayed somewhat warm in our hut. On Friday, I was able to go to see ice training. This is a day of analyzing cracks in the sea ice to see if they are passable in the vehicles we drive. We tested some of the cracks by drilling holes around them and checking the depth of the ice. We had a great instructor who also allowed us to sight see a bit and so we made a stop to visit some mother seals getting ready to have their pups and to a glacier at the end of of peninsula called Barn Glacier. Last night they had a showing of the Banff Mountain Film Festival in the galley. The pictures above are from our plane ride down, happy camper school, and sea ice training. We love and miss you all!!!!