Weather
Since October, when I arrived the weather at McMurdo has varied a lot. It was really cold when I got here, I'm guessing in the -20s to -30s degrees C average and then it has slowly warmed. we've gotten some pretty warm days recently with temps closer to -10 to 0 degrees C averages. With the warmer weather a lot of the snow banks and snow accumulation on station have disappeared slowly to the point that they are almost completely gone, it was muddy for about 2-3 weeks and now has gotten quite dusty, and water flows through the roads and in culverts has gone from a trickle to fairly strong flows.
Since October, when I arrived the weather at McMurdo has varied a lot. It was really cold when I got here, I'm guessing in the -20s to -30s degrees C average and then it has slowly warmed. we've gotten some pretty warm days recently with temps closer to -10 to 0 degrees C averages. With the warmer weather a lot of the snow banks and snow accumulation on station have disappeared slowly to the point that they are almost completely gone, it was muddy for about 2-3 weeks and now has gotten quite dusty, and water flows through the roads and in culverts has gone from a trickle to fairly strong flows.
The weather the last two days has been pretty beautiful... snow!! Not just old snow blown off the surrounding mountains, but actual snow. It was just a light fall all day yesterday, but now is coming down fairly thick.
Activities
So- I'm not sure what else to write or what people are interested in so I'm just going to start writing about some facets of life here...there are a lot of off-work/free time activites that are planned or are available for people to do. Although, maybe it just feels that way to me because its my first time here.
Here's some thrown together classification of some of the activities:
Partying
-In people's rooms, lounges at the dorms, at the two bars (Southern Exposure and Gallagher's), and at the Coffeehouse (a coffee and wine bar)
-Wine and beer sold at the Store
-Parties sometimes advertised to all or just to some at work centers
Sports
-basketball, volleyball, dodgeball, soccer, climbing wall (all at the indoor gym) - pickup and/or leagues
Training classes
-light-weights/heavy-repitition classes, weight class, boxing class, zumba, abs, yoga, bellydancing, country dancing
-24-hr open weight room and cardio room
Other
-board games and musical instruments that people own and also available for free rental
-Music room (for bands, whoever to practice)
-Arts and crafts room (for arts and craft obviously)
-Stich-n-Bitch (knitting/sewing and gossip group)
-Cribbage group
-Chapel (supported by two priests but open to all donominations)
-Radio show
-Movie nites
-Travelogue presentations
-Science lectures (by researchers on station usually)
Outdoor
-Skiing, skate skiing, mountain bikes, running, hiking (~4-5 trails), swimming (just kidding, I wish), frisbee golf (A lot of the this equipment is available for free rental, but people also bring their own gear)
Events
-Women's Soiree (kind of talent show, variety show)
-Softball Tourney (was yesterday - 6 teams)
-Rugby Match (US Station vs NZ Station)
-Art and Crafts Fair (homemade crafts for sale)
-Bar and Coffeehouse Events (Burger Bar, Live Music, Themed Parties, Acoustic Nite, Open-Mic Nite, Karaoke Nite)
-Theres always attached events to the holidays as well (Thanksgiving, Xmas, New Years)
-Icestock (big music festival)
-Marathon
-5K Turkey Trot
-Runup Ob Hill (short uphill run)
-MAAG (McMurdo Alt Art Gallery) show
-Snoopy Christmas Play
-Xmas Acoustic Show (waste barn sponsored)
-Xmas Party
-Halloween Party
I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of now.
Some of my recent activities
Recently I did the Ob Hill run...about 20 people showed up for it. Its a 1 mile or less run up a steep mountain. Everyone had to hike/run up parts of it due to the difficulty and the terrain (skree slope). I took third, but was about a minute behind first and second finishers. (8:11, I believe was my time). Pretty rigorous short run.
Also recently finished a volleyball league. We made it to the finals and went through an intense and crazy few games. The team that I was playin with had gone all season without losing a match...It takes two matches to win a game. So we went into the finals of a double-elimination tourney having beat our opponent already once in the tourney in the first round. We took the first match and then lost the next two to take our first lost game. But being a double elimination tourney we had to play again. This time we lost the first two, but beforehand it had been decided to be a best-of-5 instead of a best-of-3 final game. So we had one more chance...and we pulled it out by winning three straight matches in a do-or-die situation. It was awesome!!! Was definitely dragged out, brutal, intense, adrenaline-filled 2-hours of volleyball...
Over the season, I've been watching a lot of movies. There are two stations on our TV that run movies all day and there are also free rentals from the store. So I've definitely been watching a lot of movies, probably more here than in the past couple of years combined....
Here's a list of some of the ones I've seen:
Movie List
300
Adventureland
Australia
Borat
Breaking Away
Defiance
Himalaya
Into the Wild
Dexter (Season 1)
Flight of the Conchords (Season 1)
Road to Perdition
Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto
Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple
Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island
Shanghai Kiss
Star Trek
The Science of Sleep
The Darjeeling Limited
The Magnificent Seven
The Wire (Season 4)
The Simpsons Movie
The Sand Pebbles
Terminator Salvation
Transformers 2
Zack and Miri make a Porno
Straw Dogs
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
UP
Valkyrie
No comments:
Post a Comment