McMurdo

McMurdo is an interesting place. The best way I can think of to describe it is that it's what I think a mining town would be. There's lots of buildings that seem to have sprung up pretty haphazardly and each building has a specific function. There are a few streets and even a stop sign or two. It's built into the foothills of a mountain and there is industrial equipment and the like all around.

After our arrival brief, we took ourselves over to the dorm to drop our carry-on bags. The dorm room is pretty nice; nicer than the rooms in Towers. We've got 2 beds, 2 wardrobes, 2 nightstands, a desk, and a fridge. My roommate came in on the same flight as me so we got all unpacked yesterday before we went to bed.

After we dropped our bags off, we did a little impromptu tour of the main buildings. We saw where food was and where we'd be working. Then we headed over to the galley for a first meal at McMurdo. It was cafeteria food--neither exceptional, nor terrible. Food was followed by a quick walk down to Scott's Hut. It was a nice walk and I got a few cool pictures. Though I really started to feel the cold.

Last night I slept like a baby. The whole being light out 24 hours a day was pretty surreal but they have nice thick blackout drapes on our windows. It was actually hot in our room so we turned off the heat. I always sleep so much better in the cold. I slept from 10PM or so until 6AM which is pretty good, though I'm starting to drag a little bit this afternoon. I should have eaten more for lunch and grabbed an apple or some other quick snack for this afternoon.

Today I spent most of the day around the Crary Lab building where I'll be working. I didn't feel like I got much done because everything is still pretty disorganized. And on top of that, all of the Raytheon people are off on Sundays so we couldn't track things down and meet people. Oh well, I'm hoping they'll have something for me to do this afternoon.

I'm going to upload some photos I took on the plane and here in McMurdo to my picture gallery.