Winfly

Winfly is drawing to a close here. On tuesday we will get our first planeload of new arrivals from Chch.
Winfly has been a very laid back experience. With 400 some odd people here it has been very slow and quiet. You can always get a computer, do your laundry and find some private time whenever you want it. This is all about to change drastically.
In about 10 days the population will roughly double in size. This means that the base will be active, really active, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Some new folks I have talked to have expressed an anxiety with the approach of a tidal wave of people. All I know is it will be crazy. This is a particulary busy year for the NSF it seems. There is a new project being started this year here called A.M.A.N.D.A. or atomic muon and neutrino dector array, I think.
It will be packed with people up and about all the time. I am working at the burger bar here on station a couple of nights a month and with all these people here I could be potentially make $100 bucks in tips a night.
Also we get 2 more roommates sometime this next week, and we just finished rearranging our room to accomodate the new guys a little more. It's very cramped but we still have single beds (no bunkbeds) and have managed to carve a lounge space out of the remaining space.

I will have my first voulenteering experience in a couple of weeks as a janitor.
I am pretty sure that this is the job I want next year. I really like the independance of the job, and since I know 2 janitors this year it seems the most likley. For backup apps, I think I will apply for the greenhouse tech. That would be my dream job, or maybe somthing is housing (dealing with resident housing issues in some capacity) or possibly supply (there is cold supply for food, central supply for office supplies and other things, and some other supply I dont know yet). I realize that it is only 6 weeks in, but I really want to come back, so the sooner I am sure I can come back the happier I will be.

The weather has been beautiful here the last couple of days. Yesterday I went X-country skiing up towards Castle Rock, a formation up on the Ross Ice Shelf side of the island. It was windy and cold, but unbeleivably beautiful. Everything was pristine glorious sunshine, and you could see all the Royal Society Range crystal clear. It was fun to be on skis again, if only for a short while. We got pretty cold fast and had to turn back after only about 45 minuites.

Well, mainbody should be crazy, but fun. I think if anything the time will just fly by even faster. The weeks seem to be flying by so far. I start the week and before I know it it's saturday.