Home Again!

So, I’m finally back in my apartment as of this week. After traveling and living in such close quarters with a group for so long, it is kind of cool to sit on my own, on my own stationary couch, and watch the Olympics. But I miss my group of people, and as I watched the Opening Ceremonies, it made me smile to see the Parade of Nations and see all the countries of my new friends march in!

I spent a week in Patagonia (southern Chile and Argentina) before I came back, which was kind of a nice transition before coming home. Seriously, I love Patagonia too! FYI to everyone, you should visit there someday as well if you get the chance. It’s like the Greatest Hits of Earth’s landscapes – glaciers, forests, mountains, deserts, plains - all in one place. How is that possible?

It has been strange getting back into the swing of things and coming back into work this week. But I’m finding that this expedition to Antarctica has resulted in some unbelievably awesome things. For me, it was spectacularly indescribable in so many ways. (But those who’ve been reading the blog know I’ve tried!) And it will be a great resource in many ways for the Museum of Science and Industry. But something else…. people have been constantly coming up to me at work – sometimes good friends, sometimes acquaintances, sometimes people I didn’t know before – all to talk about this trip to Antarctica. My family and friends have all followed along with me, and have passed the blog onto others, and many friends who I’ve not spoken with in a long time have reconnected with me about this trip. It has been SO COOL to see everyone else’s excitement at my experience, and to see what they learned on this blog. Everyone wants me to do shows with stories and photos – which is awesome for me, because of course I LOVE every chance to talk about it!

BUT I REALLY MISS THE ICE!! WHEN DO I GET TO GO BACK??

Photos!

I was finally able to put photos back into the posts once I left Antarctica and had decent internet in South America. It’s fun going through them all, but it was hard to choose which ones! (Although soon I’ll organize them all in Picasa or somewhere online to share.) The posts are ordered from newer to older, just in case you want to start from the beginning!

Enjoy!

Last Thoughts

As you can probably tell by the amount of exclamation points throughout this blog, I am just so grateful to have been able to come on this expedition and workshop to Antarctica. I don’t know what I did to deserve it, I’m just glad I did whatever it was! It was definitely one of the greatest experiences ever. It never ceases to amaze me how in all my travels, I always meet the coolest people and see the coolest places, and Antarctica was certainly no exception. My cheeks hurt from smiling!

It’s so cool too, this blog has been viewed sometimes up to 350 times in a day, which I never expected! I hope everyone has enjoyed sharing the stories!

I already posted this photo, but I wanted to post a group photo here at the end. Science rock stars, all!

And one of my favorite snow photos for the end...

And a blue iceberg photo for the end (my new favorite color)...

And one more penguin to say bye!

A Toast to Us!

Today a medal was awarded to each of the main organizers of the workshop by the Minister/Secretary of Earth Sciences for Russia, and some toasts were offered by everyone in the group. This was such a supreme effort by so many, so there was a lot to toast! Some toasts: to each of the organizers for all their work, to each of us for contributing our knowledge, work, and enthusiasm, and to the Earth, for taking care of all of us. Part of my toast included acknowledgement for documenting things on the blog and on video/photo, and a note on how “brave” I was for “being outside without my hat on sometimes!”

One of the KGB workshop's organizers from the International Arctic Research Center in Alaska, receiving a medal for his work. Well-deserved!

What’s Up for Next Year’s Workshop?

We had a big group meeting in order to discuss the workshop as a whole – how it went, what we’d want to do for next time, what are the outcomes of it, etc. Definitely the group that travels next time with have the added supreme advantage of us already having identified and worked with the right people (see previous lesson: in order to make a workshop in Antarctica work, it comes down to who you know). The need for specific plans in terms of logistics was talked about too. Such as determining what the percentage of grad students vs. distinguished scientists attending should be, providing people with more specifics on what to expect (i.e. plan for extra time to hitchhike off the continent), and outlining more definitive scientific and educational goals of the workshop as a whole.

We also discussed the various options of publishing this endeavor – including the planning, the execution, and results of it. So, all of us will be writing a short abstract of our involvement and perspective to be put together in a group. Several people will be speaking about it and submitting abstracts to various upcoming international climate conferences as well. It is already so awesome to be a part of a huge effort like this workshop has been. But to be a part of the first time it happens—and a part of figuring it out for future years—is SO awesome!

The Antarctic Fraternity

One of the scientists here from Russia (the only other woman in our group aside from me) has been to Antarctica a few times before, for a total of a year and a half spent on the Ice. She said to us after we got back: “Welcome to the Antarctic Fraternity!”

Some of the newest members of the Antarctic Fraternity!

And a couple last thoughts about being back… several of us realized that we are just as excited now, talking about Antarctica and thinking about the experience, as we had been when we were anticipating it, months and days beforehand! We did some rough math (although I don’t know how accurate this is), and think it’s probably about 1 in several million people on the planet that get to go to Antarctica and live at a scientific base. That is SO COOL!

Back off the Ice

So what is it like being back? My first observations being back in Chile at 11:30pm at night: the lights at the Punta Arenas airport seemed so bright (which is a super-small airport, but the few lights they had looked like SO many)… the complete darkness of the night seemed super dark… the color green of trees and grass is brighter than ever… and smooth, solid pavement to walk on that seemed like a soft fluffy cloud that you didn’t have to worry about sinking into!

Another feeling that we all had: It’s amazing being back and not having to worry about hearing “pasada mañana” (translation: “I will tell you tomorrow, or maybe the day after tomorrow if it will work, but you still won’t really know.”) No more “pasada mañana!” Transport, accommodation, food – it’s all up to us, and no waiting for someone to decide whether we go or stay, or what we do!

Leaving the Ice – Plan C

A Chilean Air Force C-130 Hercules plane arriving!

We got to the airport on Sunday, because there is a plane here – a Chilean Air Force plane this time. (And ended up paying a little less than planned—shocking, but a nice change). It was also close to not happening, even at the last second, because a group of Chinese scientists came about 10 minutes after us, with their luggage and all, and had to leave, because we got the seats on the C-130 first!

We had to line up outside to board. Can't believe we're boarding to leave already!

So here we are on the plane back to South America, a day and a half early. It is forever a drama to get on and off Antarctica. But Antarctica was VERY good to us. Lots of great people, international culture, awesome science, fantastic experiences, adorable animals, sweet glaciers and icebergs, exhausting but exhilerating treks, scary falling-down-snow-cliffs events, views of Earth the way it should be—before we mess it up—and on and on! It was kind of a sad sight – that last sight of the land, then the last sight of the icebergs out the window. But it was amazing, and I would not trade a SECOND of it for anything!!

Saying goodbye to the blue icebergs out the window

Hitchhiking off Antarctica!?

Since the next day’s flight (Saturday) was cancelled (as I said, I didn’t really understand why). So the new plan was to basically hitchhike back to South America. Our base is like a mile from the “airport” hangar and runway (i.e. made of gravel), so we can listen for the sound of planes landing, and then we could make a call to see if there was room. So basically if a plane landed on Sunday, we’d have to get ready right away – just in case. There was kind of a tense calm all day, because we couldn’t leave the base and go too far to do measurements, etc, in case we needed to leave, but we couldn’t really relax either. Plus there was kind of a weird feeling in most everyone, like on the one hand, you want to try to get home because you’re not sure when you may be able to—but on the other hand you don’t want to leave either! It’s kind of a stranded feeling—but it’s also kind of like a “I’m totally cool with being stranded” kind of feeling.

Getting ready to go - we think...

Sweet Music

I actually got some music by the afore-mentioned “best guitar player in all of Antarctica”! They had a file on the station computer with some of his music, so I was able to copy it. (This was after navigating through some files with Russian names—who knows what I may have found in there, but had no idea). In any case, I would highly recommend to everyone to ask me to borrow it to make a copy of it for yourself. It’s AWESOME.