A place for language, poetry, domesticity, and the Ice
In McMurdo, there’s only 27% women at this time. There are a few funny euphemisms that are bantered about as a result of this, and of the low female population:
A “McMurdo 10″ is what in the real would amount to a 6 on attractiveness scale.
“McMurdo Pretty” and “5-hour ugly” go hand in hand: what may [...]
“One who returns to a place sees it with new eyes. Although the place may not have changed, the viewer inevitably has. For the first time things invisible before become suddenly visible.”— Louis L’Amour (Bendigo Shafter)
This morning, before breakfast, we walked up Observation Hill, which is a steep climb with loose gravel and compacted snow that goes up a switch-back trail. The skies were overcast over McMurdo, but the sun was shining across the way onto White Island, Black island and the Royal Society mountains. There was a little bit [...]
*poem poof!*
Dear Kira,
Yesterday was a good day here in McMurdo. I got to go on a special trip with Sue to the Erebus Glacier Tongue, which is the edge of a glacier that has spread out from the land onto the sea ice, and is essentially floating . There are natural pockets of air that get [...]
Down here, closer to the bottom of the world (if you see it that way), the air is so clean that you can see across the sound about 20 miles and it seems like it’s more like 5. Sometimes, there are temperature/air inversions that cause you to see things that aren’t there–optical illusions that most [...]
Dear Kira,
We’re here in McMurdo! When we arrived, it was amazingly bright, and very slippery. The plane landed on the sea ice, which is about 12 feet thick, but there’s water under there! We climbed into these vehicles called Deltas, which are like big orange boxes on bigger wheels, which took us into the town. [...]
Sundays in McMurdo are much quieter tha most, as many folks have it off. Today it’s blustery, and snowy, so not the best day to go out walking around, but I think we might take a little walkabout town. Tonight there’s a science lecture, there’s movies on TV, the gym, and lots of goings-on. As [...]
Note from Sue: I am being accompanied to Antarctica by Flat Stanley, who originated with Kira Liljegren. I’m happy to be traveling with him–he talks as much as I do, so we make a good pair. He’ll be writing letters here about our adventure to Antarctica.
***
19 November 2009
Dear Kira,
We began our journey in Colorado, where [...]
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