Lazy Sunday

Another week has come and gone here on the ice. Nothing super cool has happened to report on. We launched another ozonesonde on Wed. Sonja was her name this time, Leslie and I sat up in Building 70 entertaining ourselves with song and dance. We have been watching movies almost every night. I'm pretty sure we killed Patrick Swayze. We watched Dirty Dancing one night and the next day, he died. Pretty creepy. We also watched Yes Man which was hilarious. Then the seal guys wanted to watch Day of the Dead but I only made it through maybe a half hour of that.

Wed, Thurs and Friday were just work. I honestly cannot remember what happened on those days... We watched movies I think. Sat we launched another balloon, Stewert Sonde. It was International Talk like a Pirate day. Lots of Yarrs and even Terry joined in. It was fun. We had some grog with dinner and Leslie gave a beautiful toast in pirate. It was great. There was also a craft fair last night where I did a little damage to the checking account. Leslie and I then went to the coffee shop and played games. It was nice and relaxing. I was able to stop and appreciate where I was. I'm in Antarctica, I just had to stop and remember. It really is cool.

So I thought I would give some cool things I have discovered here. Warning: These are super random.
1. The whole island is volcanic rock since it was formed by volcanoes. Mount Erebus is the only active volcano on the contienent of Antarctica and its right next door.
2. Sea ice really is blue. So cool. One of the fleet ops guys brought in a huge chunk of ice from the airstrip. It is a really pretty color blue.
3. There is never enough lotion. It is so dry here. I use tons of lotion and vasaline is my new best friend. It creates a very shocking environment. As in static electricity. I have never been shocked so much in my life, be careful of metal objects.
4. There is a very unique language here as well. Like we are here on the ice. Freshies are fresh fruits and veggies which we haven't had in a couple weeks. I am also considered a fng and a beeker. I've seen Fng spelled fingy and is pronounced fin-gee. It comes from the military and means f**king new guy. Can you guess what beeker stands for?
5. You come up with ways to entertain yourself. Like the marker board in my office.

There are more disturbing images as well, made by yours truely. Don't ask, we laughed a lot over this one.
6. Stuffed animals take on a life of their own.
7. We dance and sing a lot. Leslie and I can be found almost anywhere singing songs and having dance parties. We do a lot of Micheal Jackson and almost have the beat it dance perfected. Its funniest to do it when dressed up in all our outside gear. Here is the I'm Cold dance performed by Leslie.
8. You also find yourself taking random pictures of yourself. Like me in my sexy long underwear.
9. The smallest things are super entertaining. Like song and dance. Drawing on marker boards. Stringing pieces of strings through holes. Playing with tape. Naming ozonesondes. Cat's cradle. Shower day is exciting. Playing with pieces of metal. Talking like a pirate. Kicking a piece of ice up a hill. It all has a fun factor.
10. And my personal favorite. There are many strange qualities you discover about yourself. For example, I smell... bad. All the time. My feet now have an odor I can't get rid of from wearing thick socks. Its terrible. I'm also very tired of clothes and wish I could be naked more often. My new experiment is to see how long the hair on my legs will grow. This is the longest I've gone without shaving and I'm fascinated by the length of my hair. I know, it is gross.

Antarctica is a beautiful and fascinating place. I really am glad that I'm here to see it and do some things. Experience this strange and wonderful world. There are two things that I cannot seem to get used to though. The smell, myself and others. That and one ply toilet paper.