New Years was a really good time. Two days before New Years the shuttles had a Hut 10 Holiday party and did a gift exchange. Hut 10 here is basically a three bedroom house that can be reserved by anyone on base for the night to have a party. Parties range from people cooking food together, having a movie marathon in the living room, to an all out drinking bananza. The shuttles Hut 10 party was pretty low key with the whole group getting together and doing a gift exchange. I wound up with one of the cheaper gifts - an Antarctic Nalgene bottle. But I was happy with it considering I'm almost never without one. After the Hut 10 party there was a dance party at skua central. A skua is an Antarctic bird that is a scavenger and a nuisance. The birds hand around town and if you've got any food on you they will likely swoop down and try and take it. Skua central is a very small building in which items people no longer want, but can still be useful. Anyone can go into skua central and grab things as they're own. The size of the place is no bigger than a normal size kitchen. We fit about 20 people in there and had a lot of fun dancing to some great music. It was especially great since all 20 of those people I've gotten to know pretty well this season.
The next day, December 30, ice stock happened. Ice stock is Antarctica's outside concert with about 10 different bands playing for about 8 hours throughout the day. Unfortunately for me the time chosen was from 10 to 6, which just happens to be the entire night for me. I did wake up and showed up for a couple hours and it was awesome to hear live music. I was a bit delirious and didn't last all that long considering the time of night for me.
New Years eve was pretty low key considering that it was really mid-day for me and because of the medevac the week before I was on call and wasn't able to drink that night in case something similar happened. About 20 of us went out to count down the new year by Hut Point, where Scott's historic hut still stands. The spot overlooks the sea ice. The weather was snowy and the winds were blowing hard. I was there with a bunch of shuttle girls and that was a pretty nice way to start off the New Year. Here is a picture from that night.
Since New Years not much has really happened. Work has been pretty much the same. I am finally switching back to days this weekend and am really excited to switch. The ice breaker made it to town and the ships restocking the base will be in soon. There is one month left and because it is a busy month with offload and redeployment I've been told redeployment comes quickly. Everyone is already making plans for traveling afterward. I'm really looking forward to being in New Zealand in a months time. I think it's going to be hard to leave here so I plan on doing as much as possible in the remaining time I have.
