emma leigh’s antarctic blog

last saturday we had a safety stand down. i have never heard of this event before coming here. apparently this is a station-wide event that involves a mandatory all hands meeting in the morning and then some work center safety stuff. after that most people get the rest of the day off. the galley is a work center that does not follow this pattern. we will get our extra half day off somewhere later in the season. it can be taken at any time before winfly happens.

just a quick note…. i have put up a bunch of new pictures.

 i believe they start somewhere around page 59 or 60.

 i will blog something more exciting tomorrow. hopefully.

fashion has been something i’ve been thinking of for a blog topic for a while. its really great here. i like to call it “mcmurdo fashion”, but it has come to light that “winter fashion” is much different than “summer fashion”. for instance, in skua just after the last flight left, i found many pairs of high heeled sandals. this would be silly in the summer, but more acceptable. they’d be downright ridiculous at this time of year.

when i found out i was coming down here i tried to pack lightly (HA) and i was not as concerned with fashion as i maybe should have been. i figured i would be given my uniforms for work, so i wouldn’t be too concerned with that. i did stress over my work shoes though. i ended up getting black danskos. they’ve been amazing.

now, when i got to denver, i was informed that 2 days a week i wouldn’t be working in the galley, but out in other departments as a GA (general assistant), and i felt i was unprepared for this clothing-wise. especially since i had ripped one of my 2 pairs of jeans just as soon as i got to denver. i had planned to go shopping for a new pair, but in all the excitement of getting ready to actually go, it didn’t happen.

now, here i am, a few months later, and i see everyone with patched jeans, and pretty much patched everything. i had nothing to worry about. then of course, there is skua! if you’re ever feeling like you need something new, you can go to skua central and pick out some new clothes or shoes, or whatever it is that you may find there. i scored 3 bottles of baby oil when i first got here and that’s been wicked helpful.

i would like to say here, that i had a really hard time for a while. i would say to myself “i can’t wear that, everyone has already seen me in it…” boy, did i have to get over that pretty damn quick. there is only one person here that rarely repeats an outfit, and she is well seasoned. though i’m seeing her sneak in repeats these days. she thinks no one notices…..but i do. and i’m tracking it.

i don’t know why i would be worried, i’m definately not the only person that goes to the bars in their pjs…..am i?

anyways, the other night, when coming home from 155 in an insane windstorm, i somehow tore my purple uggs. i had no idea it happened until i got into the building and realized my left foot was kinda chilly. i don’t know if it happened when the wind pushed me down the stairs, or if a stray piece of volcanic rock tore them on the way home. all i know is that i was upset. these are the boots that i wear all the time. they are my “going around town” boots. these are the boots that i wear on my GA days with my camoflauge pants. its quite a hit around town. how could i not wear them anymore??

after pointing out my dilemma to brad, and then listening to the lovely song he came up with about my “hole in the boot blues”, i realized that i was working at the BFC the next day. the BFC is where you take your big red to get fixed, so why not some purple suede boots?

just after their morning meeting i brought out the boot and asked if there was any hope for it. it seemed that there would be hope after all! kristen took the injured boot, and patched it up with a nice black patch and some shiny glue. i wore them last night, and they’re completely back to normal. i’m debating decorating with glitter glue, making the patch a “black hole sun”. i hope that i can patch the next rip with a red patch.

 i’m starting a trend here. don’t throw your ripped/torn stuff away. oh no. patch it! wear purple with camo! wear tye-dye with camo too, that’s another favorite of mine. put glitter on your uggs, put glitter on your carhartts.

and if anyone asks, tell them its a new trend from mcmurdo. screw the west coast getting stuff first.

wednesday morning, my day off, i had the joy of being awoken by simone, my suitemate. i had taken 2 melatonin a mere 2 and a half hours prior and was planning on sleeping right up until my physical therapy appointment. nature had other plans for me.

 i had been up most of the night because of the wind whipping through the buildings. at around 4:30 am i thought to myself, “the wind doesn’t usually sound like this” but didn’t make the connection that it may be coming from the south. i was just overall annoyed with the fact that my bed was shaking as the wind whipped by and shook my window. melatonin was certainly the answer…..

until 7:30am when simone burst into my room through the shared bathroom. “EMILY! I KNOW ITS YOUR DAY OFF, BUT ITS CONDITION ONE!!!” i leapt out of bed, searched for clothes in a haze and stumbled over to her, turning giddy when the words finally hit me. this was it, this was the weather i planned on seeing when i came down here. i threw on my trusty purple uggs and we bounded downstairs to open the door to the outside world to see what was going on.

 let me take time here to tell you exactly what the weather definitions are.

condition 3 - having winds less than 48 knots, -OR- wind chills warmer than -75F -OR- visibility greater than 1/4 mile. this is the NORMAL weather condition here in town. you are still allowed to hike, and you don’t have to check out with the firehouse if you’re travelling in a vehicle.

condition 2 - wind speeds of 48-55 knots -OR- wind chills of -75F to -100F -OR- visibility less than 1/4 mile.

condition 1- wind speeds greater than 55 knots -OR- wind chills colder than -100F -OR- visibility less than 100 feet.

ironically, it seemed very warm out, so we figured it was condition 1 for visibility. there were times when i couldn’t see building 155, which is roughly 100 yards from where i stood at the front door of the 207 dorm. we weren’t the only folks down there checking it out. they called condition 1 just around 6:45am, just when everyone is starting to get up and start their day. work starts in town at 7:30 for most folks.

condition 1 means that just about everyone doesn’t have to go to work until the weather is better. this is not the case for “station critical” positions. weather ops, station managers, firehouse, and of course, galley folks. we are still required to go to work. lucky me, it was my day off!

angie, our trusty boss, came to pick simone up, on the ropes that were connected to each building. when things get like this, you have to get special dispensation to travel outside of the building you are in. then you have to travel in pairs along ropes. the ropes go from the 209 dorm to the 208 dorm to the 207 dorm then across the parking lot to building 155. this was the route angie had to travel in order to get to work, picking simone up along the way.

by the time i woke up later in the morning, it had gone back to condition 2, but the ropes with orange flags were still laying out in the snow. what a strange site it was, and i was sorry that i missed having to travel in condition 1 to get to work. i’m sure there will be another chance….