Sunday, October 7, 2012

Today, I slept in for the first time in a long time. Last night I had started to feel a little under the weather so I made sure that I caught up on my sleep before the season really kicks off on Monday. Every Sunday here at McMurdo, we have a huge brunch from 10 AM till 1 PM. Lots of pastries, bacon, salmon, cheese, waffles, eggs, quiche...you name it! It was great to have a relaxing brunch with some great friends this morning. 

The weather has been pretty crazy since yesterday. In town, it is now Condition 2 but everywhere else is Condition 1. That means that even if we wanted to go out to go fishing, we would not be allowed! I think it is mainly because of the wind and the visibility because the temperature isn't that cold right now, only about -10 F. However, tonight it is supposed to be around -37 F! I spent most of the morning and afternoon in the Crary science building. Here is what our laboratory space looks like. Soon we will have to share the other half with another science team, however, they have not arrived in McMurdo yet.

Last year, all of the science teams worked amazingly well together to ensure that we all had the best field seasons that we could. One way that we did this was to record all of the sizes of the sea ice cracks we found and update the sizes as the cracks healed. We also recorded where fish huts were in case someone needed some quick shelter. Here is what Sandwich made to start off the season.

After working in the lab for a while, I headed back outside. The weather was pretty nasty. Here is what Condition 2 looks like. And while the weather was pretty bad all day, it was still a really nice and relaxing day.