22 Oct 2011

We (Colleen, Chris, Mary and about 100 others) flew to McMurdo on 14 Oct on two planes, an airbus and a C17 – I was on the C-17.  It was a good flight – smooth, quick and no boomerang (a return to Christchurch because the weather is to bad to land at McMurdo).  I got to go up in the cockpit and take some pictures on this trip – that was pretty cool.

I am in dorm 203C this year in a two person room.  Definitely beats last year – a little over two months in a 5 person room – 14 ft by about 19 ft, 5 single beds, 1 wardrobe , a shelve and a about 3 drawer units.  I had wonderful roommates but there was very little storage and even less privacy.   Then I moved to a two person room for the ten days before I left and my roommate was a pain – a real princesses type who had to have things her way or she threw a fit – way too much drama for me.   This year I had the dorm room to myself for the first week which was really very nice!  Maybe there is something to karma or paying it forward?  I have to admit that I had a sinking feeling when I got the email to expect a roommate on 21 Oct, I figured just hope for the best and see how it goes.  I walked over to the room after work that night and walked in and there was Maggie.  We hugged and said how good it was to see each other and laughed about the fact that both of us had been particularly praying for a good roommate.  Have to admit I was ecstatic - someone I knew, liked and thought I would get along with.  Maggie and I meet my first trip down to McMurdo – she was my roommate Angie’s boss.  She is an engineer with CRREL (http://www.crrel.usace.army.mil/).  CRREL comes down every year to help McMurdo work on improving a lot of infrastructure projects -  The traverse to the south pole, the ice runways, the town roads and various other things.