Monday, October 1 through Wednesday October 3, 2012

First post of the new season. First off, for those of you who have followed this blog in the past, thank you so much for all your kind words and positive feedback. It was overwhelming for me last year to know that so many of you appreciated my blog so much. So a huge thank you to all of you who have followed. And for those of you who are new, this is my second trip to McMurdo. I was a bit starstruck last time and everything was new and exciting. I will try to keep that energy going again this year as well. Now, for some details.

I left for the airport in Portland, Oregon on Monday, October 1 at 3:00 PM. My flight left Portland at 5:30 PM. From there, I hung out in the Los Angeles airport for a while with my lab manager, Marissa. Before boarding the plane, I was "randomly selected for additional screening." For how often I am randomly selected, I have just learned to laugh about it. We boarded the plane to Sydney at 9:30 PM but sat on the tarmac for almost 4 hours! We finally flew 15 hours but had to stop in Brisbane to refuel! That took an hour, and then another hour to fly to Sydney. We had missed our connection to Christchurch, New Zealand and I was "randomly selected for additional screening" again in the Sydney airport. We were all very exhausted at this point. However, we were allowed to spend some time (about 6 hours) in the Quantas lounge. We got free food, drinks and WiFi so it made our stay a little more comfortable. 

Our flight left Sydney around 7 PM on October 3 but didn't get into Christchurch until after 1AM on October 4. When we got off the plane and went to collect our the baggage, many of us learned that the airlines had "lost" our luggage! We spent the next two hours filling out reports! By the time I got to my hotel room, it was after 3 AM. I was exhausted and a real bed in my own room felt amazing! Needless to say, it didn't take too long to fall asleep.