Let's stop and think for a second.
Where are we in all of this? Where am I? What am I doing?
We still have a little over 2 months before we leave.
Wait, hold on, we only have about 70 days? Aghghgh!
On the one hand, I'm ready and excited and want to go NOW! Goodness, I'm going to the bottom of the world. I'm going to the land of extremes; a place of wild, unearthly beauty; a place of snow and ice; a place void of green and life; I'm going to one of the last unexplored places on our planet. I, little ole me, gets to go to Antarctica. Get me there already!
On the other hand, I need more time! There's so much more I need to do to get ready and there is so much more I want to learn before we go. Hold the horses! Stop the clock for a bit.
That'll be me soon!
Ok, so where exactly am I?
I'm about halfway through my summer and I'm done with some of the stuff I had to do. The medical preparations were supposed to be a huge hurdle. Yes, I had to go to my dentist three times for checkups, x-rays, and more x-rays and I had to go to my doctor to get an EKG and vials of blood drawn for a plethora of tests. But that part wasn't that hard. Even getting extra prescriptions of potential migraine medicine proved no hassle. I'm actually officially PQed now. That means, according to my doctor and to Raytheon Polar Services Company (the company that deals with the logistics of getting us on the Ice), I'm physically qualified to go to Antarctica! I'm going to survive the harshest continent in the world!
Is that due to my awesome yoga teachers who have helped me strengthen and stretch my body into shape? Is that due to my thirst to climb mountains on bikes on a regular basis? Is it due to my vegetarian diet rich in chocolate?
I don't know but I get to go!
I will survive this crazy continent!
I've also done most of the paperwork which, contrary to what I thought, was actually way more complicated. I'm still dealing with my school and PolarTREC and trying to get an invoice so I can be paid at least a little bit for the work that I'm doing and that I'll do. Bureaucracy seems to be rather cumbersome. Thankfully I've got a swarm of people helping me along. Cross your fingers that something will work out and if not, well we'll figure something out, but I still get to go to the highest and roundest continent.
Packing! Yes. That was and is hard. I probably made that harder by moving at the same time. But then, could you imagine packing for –11 degrees Fahrenheit when it's 85 degrees Fahrenheit outside? Thankfully I have one fully packed suitcase under my table, another half-packed one that I'm adding things to, and various piles almost ready to go. It will be nice when my suitcases are happily on their way and I don't have to think of them anymore. Thankfully I also didn't have to buy too much. I think I bought some wool socks, a couple of wool shirts, our team Patagonia shirt, and all the personal hygiene stuff that I'll need for three months on the driest, coldest, windiest continent. I hope my nose will be warm and my skin hydrated! We'll see. Luckily there are stores where we're headed in McMurdo and one of our team-members, Julie, is actually making special lotion for us!
So what's left? A little more packing, a lot more publicity and collaboration, and lots of research is what lies between now and departure time. The packing is just a matter of doing it. The publicity is trickier. We've had articles in the Good Times, in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, and in the San Jose Mercury News. We might even have an article in a newspaper in Germany thanks to the help of my mom. I've also got a few teachers that I'm talking with and I've got a start on the Cabrillo English 1A class curriculum and the Santa Cruz Adult School Computer literacy class that will integrate my experience into their classes, but I'd like more. I want to share this experience with as many people – old and young – as possible. Everyone should get to go! Actually you can. Check out www.rayjobs.com for your next job. You could be a barista, an electrician, a housing coordinator in Antarctica. Why not?
What would you want to do?
Well ok, if you really want to stay in your warm cozy home and be able to lounge outside without putting on Extreme Cold Weather gear, then you'll have to live vicariously through us. I'll bring it all to you through pictures, videos, and words and more words, which will all be posted in these journals. You'll "experience" a place as remote as Antarctica and "see" firsthand what actual research is like as it happens. Once I'm down there I'll take it up a notch, and you'll start seeing journals every other day or so.
I am also working on having teachers integrate this experience into their classrooms. They can either have their students simply read the journals and talk or write about them or they can participate in this WATER DROP program that I'm developing. In the WATER DROP program, the students download and print a template of a simple water drop. They then decorate it, laminate it, and send it down to us in Antarctica. I hope to get at least 50 WATER DROPs if not more. I'll take pictures of them in various spots in Antarctica and I hope to get different people in Antarctica to "adopt" a WATER DROP and take it with them to their "work" – in the Research Station Mess Hall, on a bus, in a Hercules plane, in a science lab. The "workers" will write about the adventures of the WATER DROP and take pictures so kids can think about what their WATER DROP experiences in this wonderful, remote spot of the world. I'm excited about this program but I still need to get more teachers involved. If you have kids and you think they want to learn about Antarctica and our expedition, then have your teachers get in touch with me (bsander [at] polartrec.com).
This is what the WATER DROPs could look like
So that's one big project that I'm still working on. The other big project is trying to understand everything – the continent, the science, the technology. I've learned a bit already. I've watched movies and read various books about Antarctica. I can recommend the movie, Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure: IMAX, which offers a clear, concise look at "one of the greatest optimists" about his "epic journey of the human spirit". According to Shackleton himself (before his adventure), "From the sentimental point of view, it is the last great Polar journey that can be made."
For a more complete, detailed version watch Shackleton or read the book, South: The Last Antarctic Expedition of Shackleton and the Endurance by Shackleton himself.
I can also recommend the book, Antarctica: Life on the Ice by Susan Fox Rogers. For anyone interested in short essays written by various people, this is a great read about their unique experiences with blizzards, depression, raining chickens, and penguins in Antarctica. For you cat lovers, there's the hilarious, insightful bookMrs. Chippy's Last Expedition: The Remarkable Journal of Shackleton's Polar-Bound Cat.
While movies and books have given me some insight, writing these journals, creating our website, and discussions with my teammates have solidified my knowledge much further. Yes writing is a powerful tool! For example, in trying to explain how SCUBA diving is different in Antarctica, I learned about divers not having to wear BCs in Antarctica and I re-analyzed exactly how bubbles form in diver's bodies and cause the bends. In researching the early divers, I've gotten a better perspective of how "new" we are to some things such as research under the ice in Antarctica!
I've also been refreshing the science that's buried in that brain of mine from my UCSC days long ago. The other day I had a meeting with a chemistry teacher and Stacy, our project manager, and had to relearn how salt lowers the freezing point of water and that's why the water temperature down in Antarctica is about –2, not 0 degrees Celsius. In looking at it a little bit deeper we learn that water always needs to be in a state of equilibrium, which means the amount of water molecules freezing (liquid water being captured by ice) is equal to the amount of molecules melting (ice moelecules escaping into the water). When you add salt to water, the salt displaces the water molecules and, because salt is less likely to freeze, less molecules of water are freezing than melting. The equilibrium is then thrown off! Oh Oh! To compensate for this and to restore equilibrium, the freezing point (the temperature at which water turns into ice) then goes down. With a lower freezing point, more water molecules will be able to freeze, or be captured by the ice and equilibrium is restored once again. Hurray! For this reason, the salty water down in Antarctica can be -2 not 0 degrees Celsius!
Lastly, in discussions with one of our engineers, Bob, I've re-attempted to understand circuits and transistors. I have a ways to go with that before I'm ready to explain anything. I am also learning about "blowing up farms" in a non-terrorist, electronic sense. You'll have to wait for what that means for the upcoming journals about SCINI and the engineering part of our project, but rest assured (and don't call Homeland Security!) it has absolutely nothing to do with pigs, goats, or bombs.
Yes, there's so much more to learn. It's certainly true that the more I learn, the more I don't know. At times I feel like I'm in front of an iceberg already. There's this amazing, beautiful world of knowledge in front of me and I'm chipping away at it. I'm trying to understand, I'm trying to learn, but I have a long, long ways to go.
So what would you be most interested in? What do you want to learn about?
The science down there?
The life at McMurdo?
The life in a field camp on the ice?
The history of early explorers and adventurers?
The many people that choose to head to the Ice for part of their lives?
The ways that Antarctica connects to the rest of the world?
All the meteors that they find down there?
The effects of the extreme conditions on organisms?
Or the way that we can build things to withstand and operate in those extreme conditions?
There's a whole world for us to explore! I'll learn what I can and pass it on to you. Then I'll head down there and show you what I can! Then it'll be your turn to head down to the Ice, or somewhere else, and tell us all about it.
Soon I'll be writing from here!