Thanksgiving in an Antarctic Wasteland

Saturday was the big station Thanksgiving celebration.  Holidays are always celebrated on the weekends here to give the station crew a second day off (they usually work six days and have Sunday off).  Thanksgiving and Christmas are more special than normal and people often dress up a bit.

Some past and present SPT folks eating some delicious appetizers before dinner .

The food was amazing as always, and it was great to have all the dishes associated with Thanksgiving despite the fact that we're 10,000 miles from home.  Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole... and lots and lots of pie.  Since the galley isn't large enough for everyone to eat all at once there were two seatings and the SPT-ers were all in the first seating.  After having our fill of all the delicious food we headed to the B1 lounge to play some games before heading out to the dance party a little later in the evening.  I learned how to play backgammon, which is really cool, but it took me a while.  I got destroyed several times, but I'm starting to pick up on the strategy.

Brad and Tijmen locked in an epic post-Thanksgiving chess battle, while Amy destroys Jay in backgammon behind them.  She destroyed me too, but Jay and I had never played before...

The weather the evening we celebrated Thanksgiving, with a pretty picture of SPT.  Getting warm!

 Before and after Thanksgiving has been a lot of coding and analysis for me since the camera is still in use.  There's been a number of times I've had to grab data off a computer back home and waiting for the satellite pass can really suck.  But, when the TDRS satellite comes up in the afternoon... well, we all get pretty excited.  With TDRS you can actually check gmail without waiting 10 minutes for your inbox to load.

Best part of the day: start of the TDRS afternoon satellite pass.  30 kB/s  download speeds here I come.

The weather has also been pretty nice the last few days and while the calibration team that arrived before me finishes up their final measurements I went outside to take some pictures when the horizon was so visible.  On days like this it really hits you that there is absolutely nothing out there.  You can see for miles and miles and all that exists is drifting snow.

Jay and I at the Pole marker.

The weather today was incredible.  You really get the sense of how much nothing there is out there.

This is the Last Stop

After four nights in McMurdo, we finally arrived at the South Pole last evening around 8:00 pm.  I don't know what it is, but something about the time I've spent here makes it special.  Of all the places I've lived and seen the Pole and the home I grew up in are most vivid in my mind.  Walking off that plane, seeing the telescope off in the distance... it was like I never left.  It's really great to be back!

Cargo and bags on the LC-130 headed to Pole.  Almost there...

The rest of the SPT crew already down here greeted us outside as is the tradition, and after a round of hugs we headed inside to get our room assignments.  Most of the rooms in station are like the one I had last year - just wide enough for a bed and a tiny desk.  This year, however, we all got rooms in the A1 berthing, which has rooms an extra 3 feet wide or so, along with a much larger desk.  It doesn't sound like much, but that extra space really goes a long way.  I can sit at my desk without concern that if I move in any way (let alone get up from the desk) I'll bump the walls and wake my neighbor.  After the cramped living space last year this feels like flying first class.

A big room in A1.  Lucky!

This year I decided to bring Zazz Malcolm Peribothra Grant with me.  He's a good sea turtle.

My huge desk.  I brought lots of halloween candy to share with folks, and hopefully enough yarn to crochet myself a new pair of slippers.

Once we settled into our rooms we headed to the galley to grab some food.  Dinner ended an hour or so before we landed, but there were plenty of desserts and fresh fruit left over to snack on.  After chatting for a while, I headed to the Science lab where most of the SPT'ers already down here were working hard on a calibration measurement that needs to get done before the receiver team can take the camera apart.  After a bit of an information download and about 5 glasses of water (very important because of the dryness and altitude) I headed to my room to decompress and get some sleep.  Finally made it!

South Pole Station galley.  Nicholas, pictured here, was one of our two winter-overs.