When last we met, I had boarded a 3 hour flight from McMurdo to the South Pole. The plane was the same kind (a C-130) but this time, there were only 11 of us flying and the trip was much, much shorter.
Here's what that flight looked like:
The inside of the airplane to the Pole. Much, much less crowded.
Remember how much more crowded it was when there were 40 people?
Anyway, partway through the flight, one of the crew came around and asked us if we'd like to go into the cockpit to see Antarctica. Of course, I was very excited and ran up the steps to see what was happening outside.
This is what I saw:
In the cockpit of the C-130, looking at the iconic Trans-Antarctic Mountains.
The navigation screen showing the Trans-Antarctic Mountains.
Shortly after that, we arrived at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Three of us are working with IceCube and ARA and we were warmly greeted by the project members that were already here.
Three of the IceCube/ARA people (Me, Chih-Ching, and Perry) arriving at the Pole.
After saying hello to everyone, we were moved inside for orientation and room assignments. Orientation was a basic intro to the building and to the important people and policies we would need to know while we're at the station.
The room assignments were interesting. Most people actually stay in the station and their rooms look like this:
Nils (a guy working with IceCube) let me take a picture of his room in the station.
However, I get to stay outside in a building called a hypertat (which is short for "high performance habitat"). The hypertats don't have running water or phones in the rooms. I have two outlets in my room but no lights so I have to use my window to illuminate my room. Luckily, that works no matter what time of day it is since it's always sunny here.
This is the hypertat I live in. It's named
Here's my room in the hypertat. The christmas lights were a present from my mother-in-law and they help make the space homier.
Because I don't have running water, I go back to the station whenever I need to use the bathroom, brush my teeth, get ready for bed, or refill my water bottle. So, my daily schedule looks sorta like this:
5:00 am - wake up and get dressed in cold weather gear and pack up all the stuff I'll need for the day 5:30 am - walk to the station and finish getting ready 6:00 am - get breakfast 6:30ish am - try to get online, if the satellite isn't super slow (more on this in another journal entry) 7:30ish am - get on the van or the snow machine sled and ride to work at the IceCube building or at the field site 12-ish pm - lunch 6-ish pm - dinner evenings - hang out with people around the station 10-ish pm - go back to the hypertat and sleep
The walk between the hyper tat and the station is about 5 minutes and it takes me about 15 minutes to get fully dressed so I really have to anticipate the times I'll need to go to the bathroom. Or I just stay in the station as much as I can.
All in all though, I have no complaints. I love being at the South Pole and it would be awesome if I could come down here every year.
Update (12/16/12): I got a room in the station last night! Now I don't have to get dressed in my cold weather gear to go to the bathroom! To celebrate the move, I took a shower one day early. :)