The first transport is away....

YAY! Yea, so I'm here in Antarctica. So yesterday I had to get up for the plane again at 0400am.
Our group met at the Antarctica center and checked in. The security for the military flight was pretty high. Of course it is a military flight so what do you expect. Though I did not not have to take off my shoes to get past the medal detectors. The Kiwi military basically run the show until you are on the runway, then the US military takes over. I had this bomb/drug sniffing dog scare the bejesus out of me because I didn't see him...then I had a cold nose on my hand. He was a wicked cool dog, and if he wasn't on the job I would have taken his photo. But you know I didn't want to distract him from his important duty. Everyone is in for a treat for today I'll upload a ton of photo's. The photo to the left is of course us landed in the C-17 on the ice. Here is a photo of my boarding pass.

As you can see, its pretty official looking. So after we boarded the C-17, we sat down and got the safety briefing from the crew. I don't know how you all feel about this; but when I notice a big orange box attached to the celling of my plane that says "Warning Explosive device" I kind of get distracted. But the safety briefing was enjoyable none-the-less. The oxygen mask is really a hood and we use it if the plane decides to smoke up. The "beverage" service was of course 3 large Gatorade like bubblers filled with ice cold water. The "lunch" was a pre-packed brown bag lunch made by the kiwi's I suspect. It had a ton of New Zealand candy, which looks good on paper but doesn't fill my tummy. The flight was 5 hours long. And the in flight entertainment was the wicked loud engines. There is not a lot of heat on the plane so one had to wear all their cold weather gear. I took a nap and played on my ipod (shout out to my sister who bought it for me...best gift EVA!) Here is a shot of what the other people were doing behind me during the flight.
The flight wasn't to bad and I know this sounds crazy but...it was the smoothest landing on the ice. It was the smoothest I've ever had, so I was impressed. They had to have a "hot" landing and keep the engines running since, well We are in the FROZEN TUNDRA. We boarded the bus, IVAN the terra bus, and went to the welcome center. After some good old McMurdo chow, and yet another welcome/safety briefing. We were dismissed. The guys at the firehouse showed up and walked us over to the FD. We were introduced to the A shift guys and received our pagers. Now, if you guys want you can send me pages....BUT it can and will be read by the US gov't. You can request the number at my email. After a quick tour of the Dept, we got in one of the trucks to have them pick up our baggage and bring it to our dorm. Of course I'm living above the cafeteria which is open 24/7, and I'm a stones throw away from all 3 bars. But what I am most proud of is my view of my very own active volcano near the base. The Photo is displayed bellow observation hill, I believe. I plan on hiking up that bad boy in a couple weeks maybe, after I get a "survival" course certification. Basically they teach you to stay out of crevasses and build shetlers We arrived at the biggest party of the year, Halloween. Everyone was dressed up, but I'm far too lazy to upload all those pics. But there was a decent amount of Sarah Palins walking around. I have to start work in roughly a half an hour. Everything isn't too bad down here. Prices are reasonable, ($3 a 6 pack of New Zealand beer) and the food isn't too much different from the College food that I've so missed. Hope you all are well and I'll upload some more photo's and update this blog when I can. Internet wifi is unheard of, but the Internet center is in my building. Take it easy everybody, I'm off to my first day of work