PICTURES! Yeah!

Peacock in Paradise!

Just got up from a five hour nap. Once again, I overdid it on my day off yesterday, and was a complete zombie all day today! I don't think I really woke up until about midnight today.
60 people, aboard three C-17's, departed McMurdo for the south pole today and another 40 will leave tomorrow (shout outs to Charley, Nick, Rose and Nicole. You will be missed!) Many were waiting up to two weeks to leave. The delay, for the most part, had to do with temperature. Planes can't land in temperatures below -50 degrees fahrenheit. Apparently global warming hasn't reached the South Pole.

But yesterday was great! I did my first cross-country skiing! I skied the Cape Armitage route from Mcmurdo station to Scott base, the New Zealand base. Scott Base is smaller and cleaner, much like New Zealand.
There are a couple routes aproved for skiing, and I'm looking forward to trying all of them out. I'm also looking forward to learning to skate ski. The roads here are more suited to skate skiing, becasue they are flat and icy, and because vehicles appear to have little regard for the classic style tracks that they crush below their treds.
Ski rental hasn't been a problem. There is a decent collection of reasonably well maintained used skis and boots (although the boots I used yesterday gave me a fat blister). I've thought about mailing my skis down, but the terrain is choppy and sharp at times, and I have no need to bang my ski's up.
I think often of the birkebeiner, while I'm down here, I'm not sure why. It was the most physically brutal thing I've done in my life. Yet strangely I'm drawn to it. Why do humans do things like run marathons or ski the birkebeiner? Why endure such pain for no tangible reward? Maybe we are all masochists at heart!
There is also small hill along the Castle Rock ski trail that is suitable for downhill skiing. Hopefully I'll be able to do s a little snowboarding this summer!
The Halloween party was out of this world! Everyone was really looking forward to it, and I was more than ready to let loose a little. I managed to scrounge up a green reptile skin skirt, a bright blue, trippy 70's style shirt, a set of wings with boa's stapled on, and some gold sparkles for my mohawk. All in all, the look i was going for was a peacock, but most people though I was a mermaid, due to the tighness of the skirt. All in all, though, a most oddly excellent night: hundreds of partyers in the most outragous costumes, packed into a tiny gym decorated like a high school dance. Walking home after the dance, through the frigid, icy streets of antarctica, blinded by the bright 3am sunlight, dressed like a peacock, and surrounded by and passing outrageously happy partyers, was one of the most surreal moments in my life.
When I first stepped foot on the continent, I got the feeling that this place was unique, unlike anywhere else. Despite the strenuous workload and travel restrictions, that feeling still remains strong.

Mailing Address

My address at McMurdo is:

Evan Brost, RPSC
McMurdo Station
PSC 469 Box 700
APO AP 96599-1035

US domestic shipping applies! Thats right, 39 cents to send me a letter, you've got no excuses!
Flat mail is quick, within a week probably, but packaged mail can take weeks.

Salvation Beauty Sauna Daily Show Prize Pics

pots, Salvation, pots, Salvation, pots, Salvation, pots, Salvation . . .
Another day spent in the Salvation room, washing Salvation.

I've decided I need my beauty sleep. No less than 10 hours will do.

Thank god for the sauna.

Hey, I found out we get the Daily Show on TV down here! Jon Stewart, you're my hero!

Keep your eye on the prize, Evan, keep your eye on the prize. Wait, what's the prize?

Pictures coming soon!

The President's self-fulfilling prophecy

I don't get much news down here in Antarctica . . .
but from what I can tell, the president is really doing a bang up job on that whole 'axis of evil' thing. I mean, when he first started talking about the axis of evil, I was like, ehh, those countries aren't all that evil. But, now, in 2006, I'm like, damn, those are some really evil countries.
I guess, then, that Mr. Bush can really be understood as prophet. When he created the axis of evil, few understand the clairvoyance of his words. Many even blindly critisized The Comments as divisive, unproductive, and provocative. But all you pansy peaceniks, eggheaded intellectuals, 'cry me a river' humanitarians, and 'infidel' scientists have egg on your face now! Iraq is in a brutal civil war, North Korea has got the nuke, and Iran's president is more fanatical and has more power over Lebanon and Iraq than ever before. Four short years of the President's foreign policy, and the term 'axis of evil' has become a reality. I guess the president just has more foresight than the rest of us.

Thanx!

Thanx for the comment guys! Its a lot more fun to write when I know people are listening!

The first antarctic commandment

I fear I am using the sacred word, "dishes" in vain. After all, I must remember, "dishes" are the path to the salvation that is the spectacle of Antarctica. I therefore decree, "FROMeth THIS MOMENTeth FORWARDeth, I SHALT NOT USEeth THEeth "DISHES" NAMEeth IN VAINeth!
Every pot I scrub, every plate I rinse, is just another step that the rightous man (and by righteous man, i mean myself, in case you weren't sure) takes on the path toward salvation. In every clean, shimmering plate, I will see not my own reflection, but the face of God. The blistering, suffocating steam of the dish machine will be my incense to the heavens. And the cries of agony as my back breaks, will be my prayers.
Praise the Dishes, for they are Good!

A day in a life without dishes.

Wow, I'm exhauseted. Not easy fitting an entire weeks worth of stuff into my one day off: waxing skis for the rec department, volunteering for the diving team, hiking the hut point ridge trail, (http://www.mcmurdo.usa), salsa dance lessons, and a presentation on the golden eagle hunters of Mongolia.
Awesome day . . . almost too awesome. The dishes that await me tomorrow seem all the dirtier for it.

PENGUINS! on a TV screen

pots, dishes, pot, dishes, pots, dishes, pots, dishes, pots, dishes . . .
I watched a documentary tonight (coming soon to a local pbs station near you - support public media, Yeah!) on the penguin colonies (emporer and adell?) on the ross ice sea shelf. Afterwards the researchers that made the video stepped out of the audience to field questions! You feel really connected to the research when you're working among the researchers, near the location that the research is taking place, and working (indirectly) to support that research. Quite Amazing.
So I've learned that my antarctic experience is going to be marked by long days of tedium followed by moments of spectacle. Pinned under a mountain of dishes, I am constantly peering past the broken plates, food spills, and baked on pizza sauce, to winter wonderlands, penguin colonies, and glacial volcanoes.
Tomorrow is my day off. I've heard that if you volunteer for the diving team as a diving attendent, you get to go to some pretty gnarly places, and see plenty of penguins and seals. So cross your fingers, my post tomorrow may be a detailed description of antarctic sea life . . .

Five days on the ice, and I'm going insane!

Five days into my stay at McMurdo station and I'm settling quite nicely into life in the antarctic. It goes something like this - pots, dishes, pots, dishes, pots, dishes, pots, dishes, sleep - and repeat. But I exagerate.
The community life is actually quite vibrant for a place so desolate. Surprisingly good food, bowling, film festivals, three (yes 3!) bars, our own radio station, hiking, skiing, snowboarding, running, pool, $5 six packs (and it ain't PBR), sauna, beer pong, yoga classes, dances classes, etc. And by far the most interesting aspect is the people, the wide range of personalities: world travelers, adventurers, thrill seekers, tree huggers, science lovers. I feel right at home, quite inspiring.
There is however, one common demoninator among McMurdo residents: insanity. There is an ongoing discussion about the physical effects of living at the bottom of the earth. Many residents claim that a few weeks on the ice makes you dumb. Namely, you lose your train of thought, cannot create sentences, lose your short term memory, become forgetful, lose reasoning abilities, etc. I'm not sure about the scienctific value of this claim, but I have an alternate theory. People who make the decision to come down to the ice necessarily have to be dumb, and most definitely a little insane as well. And by insane I mean; the act of forgoing logic and reason for something less concrete, something more exciting: doing intentionally stupid things: acting on a whim, a hope, or a random idea: forgetting everything you've learned: telling your mind to shut the hell up: exploring the chaotic quantum mechanics that exist in your brain below the clean theory of general relativity. For example, an insane act could be defined as travelling several thousand miles to the coldest, driest, windiest, most biologically desolate place on earth, in order to work a grueling job, for a war profiteering corporation, for the equivalent pay of 6 McDonalds double cheeseburgers per hour.
I'm not sure if Antarctica make you dumb, but I am sure that you have to be a bit insane to come here. And it is this sense insanity in McMurdo residents that I find so interesting, so inspiring, so fun.

Arrival in Antarctica

Well, I'm geeking out. I'm in Antarctica. Shit, I'm in antarctica . . . holy shit, I'm in Antarctica.
A week of plane rides, long lines and people talking at me is finally over.
I arrived to McMurdo aboard a C-17 on Monday October 16, 2006. The temperature: -21 degrees fahrenheit. The windchill: -33. Never has the sensation of freezing flesh felt so refreshing. The second I stepped onto the polar ice shelf, a deep smile froze to my face. The continent felt unique. I knew these first steps were special, I knew great things were about to happen . . .