McMurdo, Antarctica

Well, folks, I'm here. I won't have my laptop until saturday at the earliest, so I won't have any pictures for a while, but I assure you I'll have plenty soon. After all of the reading, research, and internet searching I've done, I can't believe how much the pictures don't do this place justice.

Today, the sun shone on the Royal Society Mountains for the first time this Winter (still can't see the sun from McMurdo, but if you climbed up the hill you could) and they were simply awesome. I was in awe. I was a little disappointed when I arrived yesterday that it was a mere -28* f, a temperature that I've actually felt before. It felt great after being on the plane in all of the Extreme Cold Weather gear that we were required to wear, sweating like a maniac. I didn't have to wait long, though, before I reached my new record low temperature after the sun went down. Words and photos can not convey the beauty and purity of this land. Well, except for around Mac Town, which is as dirty and ugly as it looks in the photos.

My room mate seems like a cool dude, seeing as how the first music he put on when we were unpacking was 'The Life Aquatic' soundtrack. I'm still not quite used to the time change, I woke up a few hours too early this morning for my first day of work. It's definately not like the other janitorial jobs I've had before, if only because we have extremely rudimentary cleaning supplies. It's difficult to convince the company to get us anything new down here, because of the high cost of getting anything to The Ice. The spaghetti strings in the mops come out in clumps like a chemo patient's hair. I got to clean all three bars today, so I have a leg up on seeing where the hang-outs are. They all seem like nice places to relax, but the stinky bar (read: smoking bar) lives up to its nickname. Everything definately still has the feel of a military base, with its short, utilitarian (read: ugly) buildings and innumerable acronyms for every place, position, room and department. I'll ask someone where they work and am too embarassed to ask what they mean when they say something like 'HGQ' or 'VYK' or something.

I can't wait till I get paid and can send everyone some postcards. We took a walking tour of town today, and I just can't wait until I have the outdoor safety training so that I can go on some hikes see The Ice from a vantage point outside Town. Well, I'll be back soon with something better to say. Right now I am so unfamiliar and overwhelmed that I can't really think of anything worthwhile to say. Check everyone out later,
Jesse