A journal in two parts.
CDC
This morning, all of the USAP (US Antarctic Program) participants went to the CDC (Clothing Distribution Center) to be briefed on a couple things, like waste management, our flight times, and wildlife, and we also went to get our cold weather gear.
Here's all of the gear we got:
All of the gear that the CDC has. Not everyone gets everything but I think we got most of it.
And here's my pile of gear:
Here's my giant pile of gear. It takes up a lot of space, which is good because that means it's got a lot of insulation to keep me warm.
My bag and clothing form! I'm going to the South Pole! With cold weather gear!
My parka has my name on it! There's something very official and real about having a name tag of your own.
It took a while to get the gear because we had to try everything on and in every possible combination because we needed to make sure it all fit and worked properly while we could still replace it, if we needed. Once we get to Antarctica, we're stuck with what we've got.
I can't imagine needing to wear all of this but I'm assured that I will be grateful for it when I get to the South Pole.
CHC (Christchurch)
After we left the CDC, we went downtown and explored some. It was really awesome and I'll post a lot more about it very, very soon.
Highlights
We went to the Canterbury Botanic Gardens.
The botanic gardens in Christchurch. It's a gigantic place with a ton of different plants.
Huge ferns and.. a dinosaur? Or my roommate, Emily?
We saw Re:Start (a new mall made from shipping containers).
Re:Start shipping container mall. Every store is in a refurbished shipping container.
We went to the Canterbury Museum:
The front of the Canterbury museum.
The oldest rocks in Antarctica.
It's good luck to rub Amundsen's nose before you go to the pole. It's supposed to help you have a safe journey. Also, it's tradition so I had to do it.
It was a really awesome day and it would be a lot of fun to stay here for a couple weeks. There's so much more to the city and to the country that we haven't seen.