Pictures

I just wanted to tell all of you that I put up a whole bunch of pictures on FLICKR tonight. I had a few minutes of free time while I was planning my class schedule for next year. If you want to go see them, click on the pictures link to the right of this post. I hope you enjoy them!

HOME!

I got home yesterday at about 11 am. Life has been quite the tornado since then. This post has to be very VERY short because I have two days of catch up to do. Plus, I have been gone for two months and a lot of things have fallen into disrepair without my presence. I will post some pictures when I have the chance. I am really sorry to all of you that this post is so short, and I have no time to put up pictures. They will come; I promise!

the bow

We are still in transit. There are 152.8 miles between the port in
Punta Arenas and me. I've been a little stir crazy for about three
days now. Ever since I was little, I always felt uncomfortable
without having a schedule, without something to do. You could ask my
mom, Sundays used to be my least favorite day of the week. I am
starting to feel like I have had one too many Sundays in a row.

Two days ago I got off the night shift. Within 200 nautical miles of
Chile we have to turn off all data collectors because there is some
kind of permit the vessel and Chile need to do scientific studies.
We turned off all of these systems yesterday. No more schedule. No
more ping editing. It has been quite the struggle to get back onto a
normal schedule. The first night I went to bed at 2 am and woke up
again at about 4:45 am. I couldn't fall back to sleep until sometime
after lunch. Then I slept until 3 pm. What an attempt at a normal
schedule! Last night I tried again. I went to bed at about midnight
and woke up again at 3:30 am. Hmmph. That's no good. I got back to
sleep at about 7 am and slept until 3pm! Whoops again! Hopefully
tonight I will be able to get closer to normal. I have two more
nights until I am back at school and back in class. I might not be
sleeping well because I am so excited to get home. As you all read
in the beginning of this blog, that was my problem when I was getting
ready to leave the U.S. My brain just doesn't want to stop turning
thoughts!

Today we (as in Steph, the roommate, Jeremy, the Marine Tech, and I)
went out on the bow. The seas have been pretty rough, and we have
been rolling quite a bit. When we stood out on the bow (the very
front of the ship), the waves were so huge that the ship would slam
down into the water and splash water all over us. It was so fun and
surprisingly not that cold either! The more north we go, the warmer
it has gotten. We were at an amazing 9ºC today! I haven't been this
warm in months. It's now getting to the excessively warm stage.
Since we are no longer doing any research, all of the doors have been
closed all day. This makes for a very very warm inner ship
experience. Woooh! Everyone has stripped to their t-shirts and
jeans from long underwear, long sleeve shirts, fleeces, and carhart
overalls. I can only imagine how shocked my body will be when I get
back to the sunny spring in Colorado.

just a few more days now

We are now getting to the very end of the trip. I am currently
heading north from the Antarctic Peninsula. We are nearing the Drake
Passage and heading toward the western entrance of Punta Arenas. We
have a maximum of five days left, but the people who man the ship
believe that we will be in to port in four days.

Yesterday morning we experienced our last little piece of research.
We stopped to pick up a mooring. A mooring is a device connected to
big floating buoy type things that collects information on density,
salinity (concentration of salt), and temperature over a long period
of time. It's just like doing a CTD, but a research left the mooring
in the water for a year or so. I wasn't awake for the recovery of
this mooring, but I had seen it earlier in the trip. It's actually a
pretty neat little machine. When we recover the mooring, we have to
communicate with it through shooting out beams of sound. The little
machine hears us talking to it, and it talks back to us. It tells us
where it is, whether it's working, and if it is on the bottom of the
ocean or on the surface. It's also very good for learning more about
an annual shift in temperature and water composition. Due to
Antarctica's harsh climates, I doubt people would want to come out to
ocean in the middle of winter to find out about temperature and
salinity changes.

Well, I haven't been up to much else. We have been watching a lot of
movies because all of the researchers don't really have anything left
to do. I am working from 8pm to 4am now. I get up at noon and hang
out with people, watching movies, playing games, and just talking (oh
and working on some independent study homework). Then I work for a
few hours. I seem like I have less time now than I did while I was
working 12 hours shifts even though I have been sleeping less. This
lack of time is probably just due to me having way too much fun!

just an update

Well, the cruise is drawing to an end. We have maybe two or three
more days of research, and then we are off to the Drake Passage.
This the small area between the Antarctic Peninsula and the
southernmost tip of Chile. There are 12 days left of the cruise and
13 until I get back to Colorado. That is as long as we get back in
time for me to catch my plane. The ship should be arriving into port
in Punta Arenas at 8 am on Monday, March 26th, but my flight leaves
Punta Arenas at 12:40pm. That would give me four hours and forty
minutes to get going! I guess we will just have to wait (attempting
at patience here) and see if the Drake Passage is kind enough to let
me pass quickly.

We've seen quite a few seals as of late. It is pretty sad to watch
them realize a huge ship is coming at them. I don't think we have
hurt any seals, whales, or penguins, but I can't help but worry about
how this vessel affects their lives. Penguins are very curious, so
when we come at them, they like to stare at us for awhile. When they
finally realize that a HUGE ship is coming at them and won't move
around them, they have to "run" or flop down on their bellies and try
their hardest to get into the water in a hurry. It's traumatic I am
sure. There have been a few seals that were protecting their
territory and hissing at the ship while it passed. That is somewhat
funny, but also sad to think about. These animals are not accustomed
to humans being around, invading their area. I really hope that
Antarctic science works for their environment, instead of against.

Speaking of hurting animals, a whole bunch of krill got stuck in a
pump in the engine room. Krill are little shrimp like creatures.
They are probably related to shrimp, crabs, animals like those. I
think they may be arthropods. I am not sure. That's only if I
remember biology from sophomore year of high school correctly. Oh
Mr. Devan, I have failed you! Anyway, there were dozens of them
sucked up into this pump. There are thousands of tons out in the
ocean though. I believe sperm and blue whales eat krill. These
whales don't have teeth like an Orca whale, but they have strainer
like teeth where small little critters get stuck. So in a way sperm
whales eat like cows--constantly, and orcas eat like predators--the
hunt. Pretty cool that there are so many different new things going
on down here!

After nearly two months, I am really starting to miss good fresh
food. I really want a salad right now, and maybe some fresh fruits
and vegetables. Obviously, you can't keep fresh fruit on a ship for
very long. I should have appreciated what I had on land more! This
has happened to me before, my freshman year of college. I didn't
realize what amazing cooks my mom, grandma, aunts were until I left
their kitchens and ate in a cafeteria for 9 months straight. There
are so many things that I am craving. I can't wait to get home and
have some good food from the cafeteria at school. HAHA!

the adventure continues

As I thought my adventures were drawing to an end and calming down, I
was proven wrong. Wednesday consisted of some of the most fantastic
hours in my life. At the end of my shift on Wednesday morning
someone knocked on my door to tell my roommate and I to get ready to
go out on the ice. We got into all of our cold weather gear (red
parka, long underwear, wool socks, nylon "bibs," bunny boots,
mittens, hats, hard hats and all). Once we got downstairs and
outside we were lifted by a winch off of the ship and onto a HUGE ice
floe. There was ice as far as the eye could see. This was a
multiyear floe of sea ice (ice formed from ocean water, NOT ice shelf
icebergs) that had accumulated over the past few winters and never
had the chance to melt yet. Once all twelve of us got out on the
ice, we took ice cores. I am sure you have heard of a core where
someone uses a tool to dig long cylinders out of the earth. Ice
coring is pretty much the same. We use a long hollow cylindrical
tool with threading on the outside like a screw to drill into the
ice. It is designed so that when we pull the tool back out, it holds
the ice in it. It doesn't let it fall back out. There are so many
fascinating little inventions in science!

I have no idea how cold it was out on the ice, but I got chilled
pretty quickly (I was on the ice for about an hour). To think people
spend their lives studying in cold, windy, icy, snowy, blindingly
sunny places like Antarctica! I don't know if I have the drive. I
do love it though.

I was part of the first group of four who went back onto the ship.
As soon as I was in the air again, I turned around and saw that two
Adelie penguins were curious enough to move within 50 meters of the
two groups who stayed behind. I almost exploded with jealousy and
regret! Oh if I hadn't gotten so cold! The little penguins were so
cute and shiny. They just sat in the wind and watched the groups
collect ice cores. What an experience.

Last night (Wednesday) at about 1am, one of the vessel drivers
noticed an Aurora! The Auroras in the south are called Aurora
Australias (in opposition of Aurora Borealis in the north). I don't
think I quite understand Auroras well enough to explain them, so I
would advise those of you who do not know what an Aurora is or how
it's formed to look it up in the dictionary. It was a very slight
little green light about 40º up from the horizon in the north. It
jumped around, appeared, and disappeared quite sporadically. I never
thought in my whole life that I would see the "southern lights." I
am the luckiest person I know!

One last note. This is how absolutely lucky I am; yesterday I heard
someone say that it takes $50,000 to run this ship DAILY! Meaning
that on a 51 day trip 2,550,000 dollars are spent by the National
Science foundation just to run the ship! Outrageous!

Right now we are off the continental shelf near Wrigley Gulf and the
Getz Ice Sheet. We are headed east and somewhat on our way back home.
Latitude: -072º 58'.556 S
Longitude: -129º 04'.548 W

Styrofoam

Today the crew did a REALLY cool thing! We had a super deep cast for
a CTD today at about 2780 meters. At this depth (probably any depth
over 1000m) the pressure of the water is so great that it pushes all
of the air out of anything that goes down. We drew with sharpies on
styrofoam cups and then sent them down attached to the CTD in a net
laundry bag. When they came back up they were about a third the
size! It's really neat. I am sure you could do this in any ocean at
a depth greater than a 1000m, but I think this is one of the coolest
fun discoveries we've had so far. When you are stuck on a boat being
serious 7 days a week for 12 hour shifts you have to find neat things
like this to de-stress and rejuvenate your mind.

A couple of nights ago the tip of an erasable marker fell off so we
glued it to my nose and drew on whiskers and cat ears to make me a
kitty. One of the MTs (Marine Technician) came in and started
cracking up. Everyone got a kick out of that. So we drew him a big
unibrow to make him a cave man because he has messy hair and a big
beard. My roommate, Steph who is gorgeous and blonde, got a mustache
and a "soul patch." We all laughed so hard we had to walk out of the
room to look at something other than each other. I was surprised at
what a great reaction we got from everyone, even the serious head
researcher types. Like I said, everyone needs a little break from
being serious all the time in order to appreciate what they have.

retry

I wrote an entry the other day and tried to put in a picture due to
the complaints of one's name I will not mention. *GEORGE* It failed!
So now I am going to copy and paste what I said, cutting what I said
about the picture.

We are now in the midsts of a ping-pong championship, and I am in the
losers' circle. I still have a chance at the prize in this losers'
circle if I keep winning after this. That is highly unlikely given
the amazing and talented ping-pong champs on this ship. There is a
man named Raul from Argentina who can really kick some butt at just
about every table game. He's great at ping-pong fuzbal, and all of
those things. Oh boy though, I am glad I am not on his team; he is
EXTREMELY competitive. I am now paired with one of the Multibeam
crew (such as myself) against the marine science techs. So we are now
the Multiteam versus the marine science team. I better win!
Well, it's time for the match now! If you would like to email me my
address is
rose.vail@nbp.usap.gov
I have not been able to actually see my blog in a month or so;
therefore, I cannot read your wonderful comments. Please email me
comments if you can.

I would also just like to say that I am now headed back west from
Pine Island Bay. We are going back the Getz Ice Shelf to do some
more CTDs and oceanographic work. After that we are going east again
and crossing the Drake Passage. The trip is coming to an end! At
least that's what it feels like. We have 3 more weeks left. I'm
going to be so sad when this is over. I believe we have to set aside
7 days for crossing the passage between the Antarctic Peninsula and
Chile. There are some REALLY NASTY storms in that little area. Wind
can really concentrate itself in passageways, so we may be stuck in a
bad storm. Strangely enough, I look forward to it. The ocean is so
terrific when the weather is stormy.
Until next time.

Minke?

I saw about six or so Minke whales today. That was really
interesting. I got a little video of them on my digital camera, and
I am sure all of you will see the video when I return. Minke whales
are pretty dark brown with dorsal fins way in the back of them, not
so high as an orca's. They were really playful and active when I saw
them. I believe they were feeding. How lucky I am to be here seeing
such wonderful sights.
Today was very busy in the beginning, but it died down toward the
middle or so. Yesterday we were at the "Bay of Whales"--the most
southern place we will ever be on this ship. I saw a few orcas there
in addition to a few penguins. Today we got to do a "sediment
grab." I think I may have described this before. It is a process
where we lure a huge contraption into the ocean (it was really deep
here, about 1100m deep) that snaps once it hits the bottom, trapping
sediment. This grab wasn't all that interesting. It was a nearly
gelatinous, gooey mud that jiggled when we moved it. I thought it
was fun to stick my hands in to search for pebbles, gravel, and
larger rocks. There weren't any larger sediments at all! This mud
may have been a diatom. Now I am not sure, but I think a diatom is
formed biogenically (by flora and fauna). I believe this mud was
made by a build up of phytoplankton and algae like organisms. NEAT!
Now we are trying to navigate through tons and tons of ice. I looked
out the window about an hour ago, and all I could see was white. Ice
everywhere. I couldn't even see any water. Good thing this ship is
an ice cutter and not something smaller because we would be sinking
like Titanic.
Off to bed now. I need to get some sleep for another long 12 hour
night shift. I hope you are all enjoying my blog even though I can't
put up pictures. I promise as soon as I get back I will overload you
all with the pictures I have taken throughout this time.

Ross Ice Shelf

Today we are right on the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf. This is the
most ice I have ever seen or even imagined! There are HUGE cliffs of
pristine ice as far as the eye can see. Originally this ice came off
of the west side of the Transantarctic Mountains, but now there is a
controversy as to whether any of that ancient ice is still there or
if it is just new snow pack ice. The old ice from the mountains
supposedly moves to the bottom while snow and water builds up on top,
compacts, and forms a new layer of ice. Ocean water then moves in
under the old ice and melts it away. The only way to tell if there
is ancient ice left is to do a core. This is a very archaic
process. The scientists use a tool that looks like a gigantic cork
screw. They turn the top of the tool, and it spirals into the ice.
When the tool hits the bottom of the ice (this can be meters upon
meters in this area!) the corers pull the tool back out which
contains a big long cylinder of ice. The cylinder of ice contains
layers of ice deposited in a chronological order. I am not quite
sure how these people can tell the difference between "young" and
"old" ice, but it's a pretty interesting concept. I wish I knew if
there was any ancient ice left and how old it really is. It may be
thousands of years old! No one really knows.

Hell hath no fury like that of the ocean

Excuse the language in the title, but WOW! I've been in a storm the
past couple of days, and I will be in it for most likely a few days
more. I never quite understood the true beauty of the ocean until I
saw it in this storm. Huge waves nearly 20 ft high crash into each
other outside of every window. There is snow, rain, waves, wind.
The wind has been at a pretty constant 40 mph (maybe it's knots per
hour? I'm not sure).

I am in awe. Absolute awe. Now I also have a better understanding
of how awful and awesome, two words with very different meanings in
today's language, both have the same root. The ocean can be so
terrifying and beautiful at the same time. It's beauty is at its
greatest when it is most terrible. Don't get me wrong, I am quite
comfortable and safe at the moment, but I can only imagine the
destruction this storm could wreak on a smaller, older, wooden boat.

I haven't been outside in quite a few days. I don't believe anyone
has. The towers are iced over. Snow covers the cameras facing the
bow, a-frames, decks, etc. I am constantly on a ferris wheel or a
roller coaster. The waves push me up and pull me down with such
force that I nearly fall down the stairs or even UP the stairs! I
was working out this morning (my morning which is actually 3 pm my
time and 7 pm for most of you), and I feared flying up into the air
while pedaling on the stationary bike (not so stationary bike I might
say!). Lifting weights was quite the experience too! When we were
lifted up by the wave I felt like I might strain myself just trying
to lift five pounds. While we were headed down, I may have hit
myself with the weights due to the borrowed strength I had from such
physics law as "centripetal acceleration" and my "apparent weight."
I feel just like I am always on a roller coaster!

There have been few times where I was so struck by the confusion of
emotions I am feeling. I have never been so inspired by something so
terrible and beautiful at the same time. The ocean is stronger than
anything I have ever seen. I am tempted to become some kind of sea-
fairing lady on a permanent basis due to the fantastic mix of
emotions I am feeling.

oh with the swelling!

I'm feeling a bit green today. This is because we have hit an area
where the ocean swells and then pulls back, creating big waves. Not
quite big waves like you would see in a movie, but just rolling waves
up and down, back and forth. I've never spent much time in a boat,
so I don't have what they call "sea legs" yet. I am unaccustomed to
being in a boat when there is a lot of movement in the water. Tonight
when I got on shift, the sickness really hit me. I tried some ginger
that didn't work. I tried to look out of windows to make sure I
could see what I could feel. I nearly went over the edge, needing a
trash can, so I had to leave my post of ping editing to go lie down
for a while. I didn't think I was tired, but I went to sleep nearly
immediately without feeling sleepy. It was the strangest thing.
When I woke up the motion sickness medication had kicked in, and I
was ready to get back to work after about 2 hours off. I'm now
getting sleepy again because the medication is starting to wear off.
It's weird to think that what doesn't make me sick puts me to sleep.

Biology

I will be working the night shift from now on. That means I work
from 6pm to 6am. Tonight is actually my last night off. We just
started moving the ship about a few hours ago, so we aren't doing any
pings yet; therefore, I have no pings to edit.
Last night I stayed up until 3 am to try to acclimate to my new
schedule. I would have stayed up until six, but you have to be so
quiet when you work the night shift, and I got bored. I woke up
around 9 am and waitied until lunch rolled around. At about noon I
heard there were orcas outside! This was really exciting. We most
likely won't be seeing a lot of orcas throughout the rest of the
trip, but since we are so close to the ice, we will be seeing a few.
I saw four this morning. They were playing in front, around, and on
the side of the ship. They were so amazing! They aren't very big
whales, but they stick their dorsal fins out all the time. I also
saw one little adelie penguin jump from the ice into the water. That
was really neat too. I am glad I got to see them, but all of them
were so far away that I didn't get to take a picture. I guess all of
you will just have to come down to the cold Antarctic to see them for
yourselves!

Ping editing

Today I learned about ping editing. This is the end of a very long and complicated process. The ship uses a "multibeam" system. Simply, on the bottom of the boat there is a device that periodically shoots a "ping" a big sound off into the water. The sound then goes to the rocks and sediment below the boat (this can be 20-800 meters deep water) and reflects back to a receiver that is also connected to the boat. Our ship shoots off a "swath" of sounds to cover a big area of ground. Using basic physics laws we understand the topography of the bottom of the ocean through the reflection of the sound back to the ship. These physics laws would have to do with sound, density, salinity, etc. Each ping occurs approximately every 5 seconds (this is a rough estimate). The deeper the water, the longer it takes for the sound to reflect back to the receiver. It's really interesting. I have discovered that many different areas of geology use sound to find out about the sediment, rocks, and topography. For example, seismology is used for oil fields. Seismology is kind of like multibeam in that seismology uses sound and density to find out about rock. Oil companies dig a core (a big long cylinder out of the ground) then send an electric wire down the hole and put of a big sound. This sound reflects back telling the oil company what kinds of rock are around in addition if there are petroleum wells, gases, etc. Anyway, I'll stop boring you all with that now. What ping editing does is edit each sound's reflection. Due to different things that can react with the sound such as bubbles, big waves, floating objects, ice, etc, the pings collect a lot of errors. I get to go through all of the data and make sure the topography that is reflected follows a pattern like all geology does. Like, when you are going up a hill, there is a slope, it isn't just straight up vertically without any gradual movement up to that. The errors in the pings usually turn up like a vertical change in topography which is pretty much impossible with geology. Anyway, yeah, that's what I did today, I will be back with more background in a few days.

just a quick picture blog

I have a few minutes and a chance to post some pictures! so I will do that now. To see them, click on the link labeled "pictures" to the right. These are from my little adventure with the senior Geology majors. The ones with the beach are in Kaikoura. There is a lot of faulting and tectonic activity there. The penguin is called a "blue penguin." There are fur seals and some random sea life. don't forget to go the my PICTURES link on the upper right hand side. there will be some more pictures there. The big mountain pictures and pictures with clouds are south of Kaikoura. The mountains are the Southern Alps. Some of the pictures are of Mount Cook--a huge cloudy mountain that is about as hard to climb as Mnt. Denali. The lake is Lake Pukaki. The water is so absolutely gorgeous and blue. This bluish green color comes from glaciers. There are still a lot of glaciers in New Zealand. They feed into these lakes and rivers and make them that beautiful color.
I have to go to dinner with my crew now! We are eating at the "Dux de Lux," a well known restaurant in Christchurch. There are only about 10 of us! This is really exciting. They seem to be really nice and down to earth. The man I am working with is a lot nicer and smilier than my professor, Chris, described. Gotta run!

REAL FAST!

This post is going to have to be pretty fast. I have quite a few updates though. I don't have time to put up pictures right now, and truthfully now that I have learned more about what my experience will be like, I might never get to put up pictures. I might have to put them up after I get back to the states. I have been tromping around the southern island in New Zealand for awhile. If you look back at the map I linked earlier, you may see Christchurch, Kaikoura, Lake Pukaki, Lake Tekapo, the Southern Alps, etc. I went to all of those places and learned about the geology there with the senior geology class.
There may be a change in my accessibility to the internet on the boat. What might happen is I will only be able to post once a week. We will see. The internet will be somewhat different there than I expected. It probably can't load as much data as needed for me to post on my blog. Anyway, we will work things out. If I am unable to post to my blog often enough, I will send a big email.
That's all i have time for now. The ocean is beautiful and the colors are outrageious here! So beautiful. There are some grasses that turn yellow and red just like at home in walsenburg. I never expected that! There is also a little bit of a communication issue here, eventhough I and everyone born in this country are native english speakers. Those kiwis are hard to understand. (Kiwi is a nickname for New Zealanders.) Now I am off to get my cold weather gear and get ready to leave on a C-17 tomorrow between 4 and 10am.

PANIC!!!

Tomorrow is the day. I have been in panic mode for a few days now. I am sure it seems like I am exaggerating, but I feel like I haven't slept in days. The woman who is in charge of my plane tickets is somewhat of a flake. She is really hard to get a hold of, and I never know what is going to happen with her. I wasn't sure about my plane tickets until just this morning! Tuesday! The DAY before I leave. No wonder I am in panic mode. Yesterday I had to drive to Colorado Springs from Denver to get my ticket packet to be able to get on the plane, into New Zealand, and into and out of Chile. There is a letter in this packet that tells the country of New Zealand that I am allowed to be there. I had no idea that I needed something like that! It freaks me out to have so much dependent on a little piece of paper.

I will be flying alone. Travelling for days alone. I think being alone and somehow losing something are my biggest fears for this trip. On Sunday my aunt Edna had a going away party for me, and everyone was telling me how brave I was to be willing to go so far away with people I don't know; proud of me for being on a ship for two months straight. I am truthfully not afraid of any of those things. I am just afraid that somehow I will forget something really important that will not allow me to travel. I am sure all will be fine but WOW! I really can't sleep.

It is time for me to say my good byes. Up until this point I wasn't sad. I wasn't worried. There were no issues. Now that I have realized that I am leaving tomorrow, I am a little melancholy. This will be an experience of a lifetime. Hopefully I will cultivate a better understanding about what I can do with geology. Tomorrow will begin an opportunity on 500,000 people have had.

I will be visiting Christchurch and Kaikoura while I am there. Kaikoura is a little north east of Christchurch. Kaikoura is on the beach and is well known for its whale watching sites. I am meeting up with Christine Siddoway and the senior geology majors in Kaikoura. Hopefully I will learn something about the fascinating geology of New Zealand from them!

The wait continues....

On Thursday and Friday I found out that I was finally "PQ-ed" (physically qualified) to go to Antarctica, and I got a preliminary intinerary for my trip. Unlike what I told the Gardner students on Wednesday, I am actually flying over the Pacific Ocean to get to New Zealand. Last time I had talked to anyone about flying to or from Australia or anywhere like that, they said that they had to fly from New York and east instead of just flying west. I guess things have changed, or I was just wrong. So far they think I will be flying from Denver, to Las Angeles, to Auckland, New Zealand, and finally to Christchurch, New Zealand. I will get there at 10:20 am on Friday January 26th after leaving on Wednesday January 24th (don't forget that I have to cross the International Date Line). I will be in Christchurch for a few days, but then I will be taking another plane trip to McMurdo Station.

McMurdo Station was developed by the National Science Foundation for the United States science research trips to the Antarctic. McMurdo isn't actually on the continent of Antarctica. It is on a volcanic island just off the coast of Antarctica, but these two pieces of land are connected by an ice sheet. I'm pretty excited to get to McMurdo. I have a friend who has been there since October, and she will have plenty to tell me about live in Antarctica (or very near). I know that about 1000 people or so live there during the year, and I was actually thinking about (yet not very seriously) maybe working there when I get out of college. Who knows though. I am sure I would be doing a lot of manual labor. It also depends on how much money they offer me. ^_^

I am rambling. I don't really have much information to offer today other than the fact that I will be flying over the Pacific Ocean instead of the Atlantic, unlike I previously thought. In addition, after my boat trip is over. I will go to Punta Arenas then Puerto Montt, to Santiago, and then finally to Dallas and Denver. It will be a SUPER long trip. My arrival in the states will happen about March 27th or so. I can't wait until I leave!

pretrip

Well, I believe I have 3 weeks left. In just a few hours I will be down to 20 days. I didn't think this would ever come so close. I don't know if I can imagine myself thousands of miles south of here is less than a month. There have been quite a few mishaps and misadventures along the way. Actually, I am still dealing with one. My deadline for being "PQ-ed" as they call it, which is just an acronym for "physically qualified," is January 5th. That is...FRIDAY! I am all set to go except I have two cavities to fill. I had a dentist appointment yesterday that was cancelled due to an unbelievable amount of snow in Trinidad. Supposedly, this is the biggest snow storm in Trinidad history. I would say they had at least 3 feet there. Well, unfortunately, that put my "PQ-ing" off until further notice.

I am beginning to panic now. What if I don't make qualification in time? What if I forgot something? What if I am not prepared enough? I really think that I might be capable of surviving this trip without much damage. (Doesn't that sound self assured?) Tomorrow I will hopefully be speeding to Trinidad to get my weak teeth filled, and then I will be ready to go!

Another thing I am hoping for is a chance to leave a couple of days earlier than the rest of the crew so I can see Christine Siddoway. She is the mentor I have had since my freshman year at Colorado College. She is the only reason I am going on this trip. I took my first geology class from her. When I found out that she did research in the Wet Mountains, I got really excited. For those of who don't know where or what the Wet Mountains are here's a clue: Greenhorn Mountain, Colorado. Greenhorn is one of my favorite places, and hearing that she spent a lot of time studying there really got me excited about geology. Anyway, back to the trip. I would like to meet Christine in New Zealand while she is there with the Colorado College senior geology majors. I think that would be great! Plus, if I go early, I get to peruse around a new country for free! When do you ever get a chance to do that?

I have just a few more preparational things on my list of to-dos. For one, I would love to write an article for the La Veta local newspaper called "The Signature." I think it would be a good inspiration for the people there. While that sounds like a very conceited thing to say, I know the folks in Walsenburg, and I am sure they all need a little push in understanding their own capabilities. If I were still a student in Walsenburg, hearing someone say they got to do research in Antarctica would make me want to try harder to be able to get to do that kind of thing. Luckily for me, I did hear a lot of inspirational stories about kids from Walsenburg who actually got out and made something of themselves, that is why I am where I am today.

Well, this was the first post, and I am sure all of you will be reading more. Maybe a few before I leave again. Now I am off to search for links to sites that will give you more "scientific" information than I am capable of at 11 pm.