Settled in

My third full day of work, and I am doing fine. McMurdo is something else and and then not so unfamiliar at the same time. My body is still getting used to the sleep schedule and extreme weather, but I feel pretty good. I think all of my worries about the weather were foundless. My warm clothing is more than a match for the weather thus far. I expect things may get worse near the end of my stay, but this is definitely doable. Work is pretty much as I expected it. Living accomodations, meh... about what I expected. I can't say I am a fan of communal showering.

What was unexpected was the landscape. I can only describe it as awesome. It is difficult to wrap my brain around the magnitude and almost otherworldly nature of the environment here. I can't really explain it in this post, so I'll need to create a series of posts. Things are busy at work, so that may be some time. For now, I'm safe, here, and I'm feeling pretty good about my decision.

The weather outside is frightful

Argh! Weather caused important cargo to be delayed, so I got bumped off the flight tomorrow. It's not all bad, as it is effectively being paid to vacation in Christchurch. All the same, I'm ready to be there and start working.

Not well-travelled

After more than 20 hours in the air and about 10 waiting in airports, I'm finally in Christchurch now. Qantas airlines has some of the best in-flight food that I've had. I should go to the clothing distribution center in the morning, and I hope to be at Mcmurdo the day after. I showed up at my hotel today, and I couldn't figure out how to turn my room lights on. I felt like an idiot having to ask the front desk how to do that. It seems that my key card was necessary to unlock the switches...

Heading out

Three hours of safety training, and then I'll be on a plane for many hours. I think my hotel in Christchurch will have Internet, so I may have another post before Mcmurdo.

Dumb luck

Argh! One of my Microcenter brand SD memory cards failed on me last night. It was the one with all of my movies and eBooks. I only got about half of that stuff re-downloaded or converted before I left this morning. I guess I'll need to find some other way to entertain myself when I run out.

I'm in Dallas right now waiting on my connecting flight to Denver. When I got to IAH, they allowed me to jump on an earlier flight. With no cell phone, I realize that I need to wear a watch again. I haven't owned one of those in a long time!

Closure

Today was my last day at Rice. Twelve years are a substantial amount of history, but I've been fortunate in that they have been twelve of my happier if not happiest years. I've had a lot of fulfilling relationships there and will always have fond memories of working at Rice. I think I had more hugs than any person has a right to today, and it has definitely been hard for me emotionally these last weeks. I'm glad that my career at Rice has ended on a good note, and I look forward to starting with Raytheon the day after tomorrow. I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight, but I guess I can sleep on the planes tomorrow.

All packed