Another Brithday - now 32

The last two years have really flown by. It seems like I just had my 30th and now I'm on to 32. It was a good birthday spent with my family in Ohio. My sisters went out of there way to make me a great meal with some of my favorites - apple pie and tator tots . It was especially nice since I had been feeling in a funk leading up to my birthday. I'm still in the funk but slowly finding my way out of it. I think part of has to do with me being 32 and being where I am at in life. I have had a good two years since I decided to go travel but all of that two years has not been perfect. The hard times are when I'm back in the states and not working. I feel really unproductive. I also feel at times I have little control over what I do each day. Part of that is not having a car so that I can take off when I want to. In a way though I should be able to find enough things to keep me busy. And so the only one to blame is really me. Hopefully finding more things to exercise my mind as well as my body will help me get out of this funk.

Another thing about the hear and now and being 32 is I realize I'm not totally fulfilled yet with my life. Maybe I never will be totally fulfilled. All I know is that there is still some things missing. I love being able to travel and go to the ice and will continue to do so while figuring out those few things missing.

As an update, I've been back in the states now for two months and am in Ohio hanging out with family. I was in Denver visiting with my sis for the first 4 weeks. I've got two more months before deploying again to the ice. I am really looking forward to deploying and being busy again. I'll leave for St. Louis in a couple of days to visit friends out there and do my best to make it around the midwest once more to visit as many people as I can.

Someday I will get around to posting some pictures of Asia on the net. There are over 3,000 pictures to go through and I just haven't been motivated to look through them all and pick the best 100 or so to post. Most likely they will all go up on Facebook first.

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Since I am on the other side of the world and unable to be there for your birthday I thought I'd post a few pictures for you of me from the trip so far. I had been trying to figure out what I could do other than just a phone call and buying you something. It is so hard to get a perfect gift for you. After I talked with you yesterday Kris actually came up with a suggestion of writing on my blog with a picture of me holding a sign saying Happy Birthday. I thought it was a great idea and instead of the sign I thought I'd just post some pictures of me from the trip so that way you know:

1. I'm alive
2. I have not contracted some disease that one in a million would catch that you found a warning for on some internet site
3. have not been robbed
4. have not been beat up
5. have not been scammed since Ecuador
6. or left for dead somewhere

Sorry Mom, you know me, I can't resist giving you a hard time. I hope you had a great Birthday and look forward to seeing you in June.

For anyone else reading - Yes, I am a Mamas Boy

Outside of Angkor Wat - Cambodia

At the entrance to Angkor Tom - Cambodia

An Thong Marine Park - Near Ko Samui - Thailand

An Thong Marine Park - Thailand - Kayaking

The Gibbon Experience Group - Laos

Ha Long Bay - Vietnam
Sapa - Vietnam

Latest Readings

On the trip I've been able to get quite a large amount of reading done. Thanks to long bus, train, boat, and short airplane rides and a lack of a whole lot to see at night I've flown through a number of books. Over the last five weeks I have been able to read:

A Thousand Splendid Suns
The Power of One
Three Cups of Tea
The Alchemist
The Time Travelers Wife

I thought I'd write about my reading as the Power of One and Three Cups of Tea are actually very inspiring books. The Power of One is a fictional story about a boy growing up in South Africa during the beginning of apartheid. The book has some pretty amazing stories about the small things the boy was able to do in his time in South Africa. While fiction it did make me think about the power of one and what can be done by just one individual.

Randomly the next book I picked up was Three Cups of Tea which to me is the Power of One personified. The true story is about a mountaineer who finds himself in a remote village in Pakistan after trying and failing to summit K2. After staying in the village and seeing that the children of the village did not have a school to take lessons he decided to make a promise to pay back the hospitality of the village by building them a school. For three years the guy works on the getting a school built while basically living in the back seat of his car. After he gets the school built and gets a benefactor he makes a career out of building schools in the remote villages of Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the building of these schools he is so hands on that he with the help of the villages makes this miracle happen. It was an incredible story that is about the most inspiring thing I've ever read. I recommend the book to anyone.

While traveling in Cambodia I also got the opportunity to go to a concert in Siem Reap hosted by a Swiss doctor. This was also a hugely inspiring story. I'll probably blog a little more about this in a different post but I thought it interesting that I was reading all about the Power of One and then saw it actually happening. The Swiss doctor built six hospitals in Cambodia that provides full treatment to all of Cambodia's children absolutely free. 90% of the donations to fund the hospitals is from private donations. This one guy's ideas have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of children in Cambodia. Just amazing!

Reading and seeing this in action makes me wonder about all the friends of mine that have been active in the peace core at one point in their lives. I know the impact that they have had on the communities they worked at was huge and life saving. I really admire all my friends and all the others who have chosen to do such a great service to the world.

For me personally, I want eventually to spend time while traveling the world to give back and volunteer for a few monnths. It is the least I can do. The big thing is finding the right time to do this. This year it is not that time but it is one of my lifes goals to do this and to try and do it soon.

I am a Scuba Diver

One of big things to do while traveling in Thailand is to go Scuba Diving. Some travel guides say that Thailand has some of the best diving in the world (I really don't know what to compare it to but what I saw was pretty spectacular. The great thing about Thailand is that you can dive and it won't cost you a fortune. In the US to dive the dive courses are usually over a six week period and can cost quite a bit once you add up some of the basic equipment costs and the course material itself. Ko Tao is the worlds most popular place to get a diver certification. There are at least 50 dive companies all over this small little island and the cost of the certification is the same no matter which dive operator you go to.

I haven't always wanted to get my diver certification. In fact I thought I never would have the opportunity to get my certification because I sink when I am in the water. I see other people in the water and without moving anything they are able to stay afloat in the water. Not me. I am immediately sinking as soon as I'm in the water. In order for me to stay afloat I have to use a huge amount of energy and before long I am just way to tired to stay in the water. I would consider myself to be in pretty good shape and it kills me that I can't stay in deep water very long. For a little while I thought it was just a fear and I had to overcome it. Not so, there are other people out there who sink like me. My body is just different than those people who can lie and float all day long without using any energy up.

As I have traveled these last couple years and have met many people with dive certificates I started to ask some more questions about it. Turns out you don't have to be all that great a swimmer. Once your underwater you do have to be in good shape to get yourself from one place to another but you don't have to worry about drowning since you do happen to have a oxygen tank strapped to your back. Seems pretty obvious now but before I just couldn't see myself surviving underwater with the way I swim.

As I learned more about it and have seen some spectacular footage of diving on the TV it became one of those things I need to cross off the list in my lifetime. And since I arrived at the dive capital of the world it seemed it was now or never.

I signed up to dive at a place called Scuba Junction to get my Scuba Schools International Diver Certification. Over three and a half days and 9000 baht (about $240) later I would get my certification. Scuba Junction was recommended by some friends who had done the same course a year earlier. Scuba Junction is a great place to get the certificate done as they keep the class size to four people or less. Some of the dive sites have classes of 10. For me who was nervous to begin with I was happy to sign up to get a more hands on instructor. The timing was actually pretty good for me in signing up because the day I started it was just me and the instructor. I got one on one instruction and that was huge to calm my nerves. The first day I was party thinking it would be great to meet some new people while I get the certification and spend three days with them. After the first day I was pretty happy to have the one on one as it definitely helped me get through the class a lot easier.

Over the three days of water instruction I was in the water six times, twice to just learn some skills necessary to be able to dive with one other person. The next four times were dives around Kho Tao coral reefs practicing those skills and enjoying the beautiful underwater scenery.

Time to Blog

Ok, so it is about time I get to doing some serious blogging. It has been a while and I am really not sure if there is anyone out there that still reads my blog since I really don't write that much. In any event I have some motivation now to start blogging and to write about more random moments, describe more of the things I am seeing, and just some general what I'm up to. So for those that are following get ready for some blogging.

I am not a good blogger

So it has become very apparent I am a lousy blogger because it has taken me forever to post between blogs. I'm traveling this time with Kris, a friend of mine from the ice. She is a master blogger. While I get online and check e-mail and check a few sports scores and news stories she has blogged a couple times. So I thought I might was well put a link to her blog because all the things I am doing and seeing, Kris has been doing and seeing as well. I am attempting to be a better blogger but it is not likely going to be as frequent as Kris. Here is the link to her blog. Enjoy!

http://icanseemyselffromhere.blogspot.com

Reached my Fifth Continent

I've been traveling in Southeast Asia now for a couple of weeks. I'm really glad I chose to travel to this part of Asia above all the other parts. Thailand is an amazing country. Very modern, friendly people, great history and architecture, and great beaches. My goal since I started traveling was to reach all seven continents by the time I was 35. I'm well on track to do that now. I've only got Africa and Australia to go and I don't see it being too hard to get to them in the next three plus years. If things were to work out perfectly next year I would hop over to Australia at the end of another season on the ice and then off to South Africa in the summer to see the World Cup in 2010. This might not be possible though given money constraints and that I'm looking at the possibility of spending a winter season in Antarctica. If so, 2010 is pretty much all dedicated to the ice. There are also many great places I want to see still and so they may take priority over traveling to just get the continents in. The top of my list includes traveling on the Trans-Siberian Railroad from Moscow to Beijing and also hiking the Inca trail to Machu Picchu. Also, there are so many great spots in New Zealand that are still there to explore. I know one thing for certain, I've still got the travel bug and won't be settling down permanently for some time yet.

The Challenge of Knitting

Being a Shuttle Driver in Antarctica pretty much requires you to attempt knitting. Some days we have a lot of down time and since the beginning of the shuttles department one of the best ways to pass the time is to take up some needles and work on a project. Last year I attempted to knit but it was a very sad attempt. I learned a little bit before going to nights. Once I went to nights I never really picked it back up. This year I decided I would give it a lot more time and try and get good at it. Turns out I am really really slow but do have some skill for it. With the help of a lot of expert knitters in the office I was able to knit a hat for myself as my first real project.


This is outside the Shuttles office with the four of us all working on knitting projects

After that hat I decided I'd make something for my new niece Abby who was born just a month before I started the hat.

This is me working on Abby's hat. At first I got very very focused when I was knitting to the point that any distraction would result in a mistake. I was also a full body knitter and would use my arms to wrap the yarn around the needles. Over time I have definitely relaxed a bit but during the knitting of Abby's hat I always looked pretty tense.

The following is the pattern I used to make the hat. I selected the blue because Abby has blue eyes. The pattern itself was picked out by my friend Kris. She is a kitting guru.


A Soft Baby Hat

Using the 24" (60cm) circular needle, cast on 224 sts.

Round 1: *p5, k9, repeat from * to end

Round 2: Repeat round 1

Round 3: *P5, ssk (slip to sts kinitwise individually, put left needle through front loops of both stitches, and k them together) k5, k2 tog. repeat from * to end

Round 4: *p5, k7, repeat from * to end

Round 5: *p5, ssk, make double vertical decrease (sl1k, ktog,psso), ktog, repeat from * to end

Round 6: *p5, k3, repeat from * to end

Round 7: *p5, k3 tog, repeat from * to end

Round 8: *p5, k1, repeat from * to end (96 sts remain)

Repeat Round 8 until piece measures approx. 3" in length from the beginning of the "stem" that grows out of the bell-shaped ruffle

Shape Crown:

Round 1: *p4, k2tog, repeat from * to end

Round 2: work even in pattern as established

Round 3: *p3, k2tog, repeat from * to end

Round 4: Work even

Round 5: *p2, k2tog, repeat from * to end

Round 6: Work even

Round 7: *p1, k2tog, repeat from * to end

Round 8: Work even

Round 9: *k2tog, repeat from *to end

Round 10: Work even

Round 11: *k2tog, repeat from * to end 8 stitches should remain

Round 12: *k2tog, repeat from * to end

Work on 4sts for 2 rounds, run yarn through live sts and fasten off

This is the finished product. It took me quite a long time to finish. Probably at least 20 hours of work. It wasn't the easiest pattern and and I was still learning as I was going.

Here is Abby with the hat. She is absolutely adorable!!
Another one with Abby wearing the hat.

A special thanks to all the Shuttle Drivers who taught me, helped me as I made mistakes, and gave me encouragement the whole way. Without you all I would not have been able to give my niece this great gift.

The return of a good friend

This blog is a little bit late since the events of the blog happened the week after New Years. However, it was huge news and warrants an entry all by itself.


First, some back story. This year in the Shuttles group we had been operating with 4 less people and in order to do that we cut some services out of the daily schedule because we just didn't have the people to do it all. The season started and there were a lot of complaints that we were not offering the same services as we had in the past. Other departments were supposed to pick up the slack but didn't. We didn't have the staff to support it on our own.


Leading up to the end of the year the Shuttle crew was informed that we would be getting two new drivers for the rest of the year. Once we all got this information we were all pretty excited because one of the most liked shuttle drivers from last year was an alternate to come down here. This was Jami. Jami and I became great friends last year and I was able to visit Jami in Cincinnati last summer when I was home. She is the funniest person I have ever met and a ton of fun. Last year she kept the group together by her ability to make every event a fun one. Originally Jami was going to be back again this year but a few months before the season started Jami decided to stay in Cincinnati as things were going exceptionally well for her there. The picture below is of all the Shuttles from New Years 2008 on my first season. Jami is there at the top looking at me. She was the most certain of coming back at the end of last season out of all of this group. She was the only one who didn't come back.






Unfortunately, shortly after we were all informed it was a possibility for her to come down we also found out that she didn't have all her paperwork in and the company was pressing for people and wouldn't wait for the paperwork to be processed and would go with different alternates. So it was a bit sad when the news hit that she would not make it down.


A few days after New Years my boss Kris and I were talking about the morale in the office and how some people were having a hard time this season. I was worried about some of my friends in the office. Kris decided to crack and told me that she had a big surprise and that Jami was in fact coming down and that I could not tell anyone about it. Kris arranged it so know one new and that we all believed that one of the new drivers was a totally different person. I had to deal with the knowledge for a week and almost cracked myself a few times. I was pretty excited for the return of Jami because she really is a fantastic friend. In the office I would sit there with a big smile on my face and tell the rest of the crew that I had a really good feeling about the new guy and that I thought that Friday would be a really good day. I just couldn't resist a little bit of cracking. Here is a picture from this year of Jami, Kris, and me in the Shuttles office after Jami arrived. Welcome back Jami!

The Polar Plunge

The Polar Plunge is a huge tradition here in Antarctica. Some people will go out and find a hole just big enough in the ice to fit themselves and jump in. Others will do it while dive tending or on private trips. There is also the option to do the organized plunge at Scott Base (the New Zealand base) and jump in with a medical team all on stand by. Whatever option is chosen it is a pretty crazy thing to do. The water is a frosty 29 degrees. Due to the high salt content it is colder than the normal freezing point of water. Being in the water for just a few minutes will create some serious risk of hypothermia and the possibility of becoming an icicle. You would be an idiot to stay in the water any longer than to plunge in and jump right back out.


I did not do the plunge last year even though I had the opportunity to do it. This year it was on my list of things I needed to do. I really didn't feel like plunging in a dive hut or in a random hole on the ice so I was waiting for the Scott Base event. Last year they had a warm up hut, robes for all the jumpers, and a hot tub to warm up after the event. It was pretty nice hearing all the good stories about it from last year. My experience this year was slightly different.


The start of the event was 2:30 in the afternoon and was expected to go until about 5:30. From 2:30 to 3:30 it was only women, from 3:30 to 4:30 only guys and after that it was open to all of them. I arrived right at 3:30 and the women were still jumping in. From those that finished it sounded like it would be about 5 minutes per jumper. I looked around and at the time I arrived there were at least 60 guys and more coming every minute. I was thinking I was going to be there a very long time. The women who had finished also mentioned how they were walked to the ramp and that they had time to get the courage to jump into the water and then had a chance to walk back to the warm up hut before the next jumper went in. It was nothing like that for the guys. Not even close.


A good number of people do the plunge naked. I had planned that I would do it naked if everyone else was doing it. However, as soon as we were cleared to go to the warm up hut and fight for the blankets and the harnesses (they strap you into before jumping) I noticed that pretty much everyone was wearing some type of suit or shorts to jump in. This was alright by me because I really didn't feel like getting naked with the now 80 guys hanging around. There is just something I feel is really wrong about all that man skin showing and not a female around. Call me crazy if you want, but I'm glad I had my swimsuit with me.



Because of the number of men who showed up the plunge was a slightly different experience than the bonding experience the women all got. I was lucky enough to get a harness rather quickly in the fight to be in the water quick. As soon as I got dressed down and got the harness on I went outside in the cold and waited my turn behind the other 8 guys who already had harnesses. The kiwis running this show were some of the most efficient people I've ever met. They could easily run an assembly line at a car plant. They would quickly hook up a guy to the harness, walk him to the ledge, let him jump in, let him climb out, and unharness him and quickly harness the next guy. All was done in what I swear was less than a minute.



So my experience wasn't all that warm and fuzzy but I did get to jump into the ice cold water, swim a couple quick strokes, and get unharnessed like some peace of machinery. I am extremely glad I did it and I might be crazy enough to do it again.

This is me right before I jumped in. I've been harnessed in for just a few seconds at this point.

Me in Mid Air about to be frozen.





Me in the water and thinking that this isn't so bad.

Me rushing as quickly as possible to get out of the water because it finally hit me how cold it is.

Getting quickly unharnessed so the next guy can jump in.

And there is me moving quickly back up the ramp to the warm up hut. At this point the water still on my body has completely frozen and there are some good pins and needle fun. Notice the other guys waiting there turn in the background. Within a few short minutes they all had jumped.

I know I sound a little critical of the experience in the above. I do want to say though it was an awesome thing for me to do. I enjoyed jumping in and I will never forget it.

And now I am #1

This is a blog entry with the only purpose to be the number one status on my friend Kris's blog. Here's to you Kris!! :)

Another Month Passes by......

....... without a blog entry. Oh well, no excuses this time. I'll just get right into an update. It is going to be a general update again or it will take me days. I'm also pretty sure if you are interested in reading my blog you probably don't want to read a book.

Life on the ice is really really great. Already counting down to the end. I'll be leaving Feb 18 which is now just four weeks away. I remember this point last season and not really wanting to leave. I am ready to leave despite all the fun I am having again this year. I think I'm just so pumped to be traveling Southeast Asia after I'm done here that I am anxious to be done with the next four weeks. I know there are going to be great times left here so I'm trying my best to not think too far forward and live for these next four weeks.

So here are the best moments of the last month.

McMurdo Softball

- The below pictures were from the Softball game right before Christmas. In years past they used a wide open space in town aptly named the ballpark to host the game. Four teams signed up for play with the Shuttles Department as the definite underdog. We don't exactly have the most athletic group of people working in the Shuttles department. Some of our players had never played the game before. So we were not expected to do all that well. Game day weather turned out to be perfect, as almost every day in December was perfect. There was no wind and the temperature was above freezing. There were hotdogs on a grill, bear, and stands for the fans. It was a really good time. As the game started out we took an early lead and we couldn't believe it. Unfortunately we had some bad innings with some errors and gave up an 8 run inning that ultimately resulted in our defeat. However, in the top of the ninth down six runs we rallied and if it wasn't for a perfect throw to third to stop the triple we had a chance. We lost 14-13. Oh, and it would have been tied if it wasn't for a ridiculous call at home plate where the runner was tagged but the Ump missed it (they were roommates so a little conspiracy was hatched).

The Shuttles Softball team - We would could have been contenders

Playing Third Base

I think the above is right after I struck out at my first at bat. Pretty embarrassing but at least I redeemed myself later without getting out again.

Soccer at McMurdo

One of the greatest things about McMurdo are the recreational activities offered here. There is soccer, volleyball, dodgeball, basketball, a cardio gym, a weight room, yoga classes, guts and buts, body pump, boot camp, Spanish club, and four organized runs outside. I do a few of these with soccer as the most important of all of them. At the beginning of the year I decided to form a team since I lost Deb, Matt, and Jami from last year's team. I recruited Shuttle Brandon, the boyfriend of another Shuttle Driver Nick, and the brother of a former Shuttle Driver Whit. I asked without knowing how good they were. And they were all good. Before the season started we had a pick up game and also asked another Nick to play on our team because he was good too. Turned out we had a team that just dominated. Over the 10 games we played we scored into the 40's while our opponents were in the teems. Last week was tournament time and because we dominated so much the other players decided to break up our team and randomly draw teams. The pictures below are from the games I played at tournament time. Yeah, my hair is getting really long and shaggy. I kind of like it so I'm going to keep it until it gets too be too hot in Asia.

Scott's Hut Run

The first Sunday after New Year's was the Scott's Hut Run. It is a 5.25 mile run to the historic Scott's hut and then up the big hill towards Scott Base, back down the hill too the hut, and then back into McMurdo for the finish. It was a good weather day and I had a good run. It has been nice to be able to participate in the runs McMurdo has to offer. This year I was able to volunteer my time and help out with all four runs. I ran in only the Scott's Hut and the Turkey Trot.

This is obviously me running the race.

Broken Down Delta and the Worst Transition In Years

This year we have had to drive the Deltas a lot more than we did last year. The Deltas are alright to drive but not for a full six weeks straight. The weather this summer season was warm and sunny. For at least two straight weeks the weather was over the freezing point. The sun also does not help at all as it warms up the ice, especially the spots that got dirt from town dropped on them from the vehicles. As a result of the warm weather the transition turned into a swimming pool. The transition is the area between the land and the Ice Shelf. New holes were forming every day and nothing could stop it from deteriorating. A lot of drivers got stuck in the mess and it was almost a guarantee that the schedule would get messed up and shuttles would take much longer. Most of the old timers here said that it was the worst they had ever seen. It added a little bit of stress, grumpiness, and drama in the Shuttles office this year. Thankfully we have had a few days of colder weather and we are back to driving some light vehicles.

This is the Delta I was driving that broke down before getting to Willy Field to drop of a bunch of pole passengers.
This is a look at the transition puddles. I had to drive over or through these puddles sometimes as much as 8 times a day with the threat of getting stuck each time. Somehow I didn't not get stuck so far this season.

A stuck Delta driven by a another driver

Icestock New Years Eve

New Years at McMurdo was rung in with Icestock and Friends. This year was a little bit different and Icestock was actually a night concert as opposed to a day thing in previous years. I liked it much better this year as I was on nights at this time last year and didn't get a whole lot of time to enjoy all it has to offer. I think there were six different bands who played from 6pm on to midnight. It was great fun to sing and dance the year away. Not only was it a fun night with friends it was just a great end to a really good year for me. 2008 started with me here on ice and the first few months were outstanding as I hung out with a lot of the Shuttle crew in January and February. March, April and May I traveled New Zealand. June and part of July I was back home visiting with friends and family. July and August I was in Ecuador. September back home and was there for the birth of a niece. October - back to the ice and reconnecting with all my ice friends and meeting new friends. So a really great year with the last two months of 2008 being the best of all of it because of friends like Kris, Taryn, Audrey, and Gretchen.

Gretchen and me at Icestock

Audrey and me at Icestock

Kevin and me at Icestock

Audrey and me again before Icestock

The icestock stage

Room with a View or more appropriately Tent on a Hill

Can I get a boondoggle??? The program down here allows people to go on morale trips throughout the year. This year the morale trip that I got was to go to room with a view. This trip takes you away from town and on to some ski doos. You ride up along the ice shelf out toward the base of Mt Erebus, which is an active volcanoe with it's peak only 40 miles away from McMurdo. Some 9 miles away from town you reach the base and have a chance to see the Erebus glacial tongue, a closer look of Erebus, and the sea ice edge. The previous 35 days here at McMurdo were sunny and beautiful so I was expecting it to be the same for my day. Not the case and the trip was more of a ski doo ride to a tent on a hill than it was a room with a view. The cloudy skies and low ceiling resulted in some poor visibility. Nonetheless it was a great experience to be riding on the ski doos. It was my first time riding on one and I was able to drive most of the way there and all of the way back. I liked driving them a lot. Below are some of the better photos from the day.

This is the tent on the hill. I did get to play some Frisbee at the top. A white Frisbee probably wasn't the best one to bring this day.

This is the group photo at the tent.

One of the better photos from the day
Me on the Ski Doo

Annual Rugby Game

These pictures are from the Annual Rugby game. This is a big event for the station. It is the New Zealand base vs McMurdo station. We historically get crushed by the kiwis every year. This year we fielded our best team and lost 9 -0, but almost scored for the first time in years. It was a fun day to watch a game and I thought I'd include the photos below. I didn't play but am seriously thinking about playing next year.

Alright, so that is it for now. I swear there will be more soon. I can't seem to get any more photos uploaded right now so I will post another blog soon for a few more major events that have happened these last 5 weeks. Kris - this is for you since you bug me so much - I'm now #1 on the blogs you follow:)