Made it to the South Pole

I finally arrived at the South Pole on November 6, 2008! I can not believe that I have finally made it here! I am so excited!

I flew from McMurdo Staion on a small aircraft called a basler, that was made in the 1930s. Indiana Jones flew on this kind of plane in one of his movies (i am not sure which one), so the whole time i had the theme song from his movies in my head. The plane took 16 passengers total, and because the cabin is not pressurized we had to use oxygen for some of the flight. There were also some small windows we could look out of, but we often had to scrape the ice off of them before we could see anything! It was about a 4 hour flight, and when i stepped off the plane at the south pole James Brown, the executive chef, was there to meet me and gave me a big welcoming hug, and then let me into the station!

Once inside the station i was able to take off some of my ECW (extreme cold weather gear), and had to sit through a short orientation video about life at the south pole before i could go off and find my room. My friend Shelby was also waiting for me right inside the door and gave me a big hug as soon as she could! After the orientation I put all my ECW back on for my walk out to my Jamesway in "summer camp" where my room is. I will provide more details about my actual room in a later post, but its probably a little over 100 yards or so from the main station. Then i came back to the station for dinner, and after getting some food in me feel asleep on a couch in one of the lounges for about an hour before I had enough energy to walk back out to my jamesway to go to bed.

SO, the reason that i feel so exhausted from simply just walking around is because the South Pole is actually at an altitude of over 9000ft. However, with the air pressure it feels as if you are at an elevation of more like 10 to 11 thousand feet. SO it takes your body time to adjust to being so high up. Right now i feel so tired, and exhausted. Its like i was hit by a bus. They give us a drug called Diamox that is supposed to help with the adjustment, so I have been taking that and hope it helps. I have also been instructed to not do any more than i need to for the next few days (i.e. NO exercising!), and to drink lots and lots of water. I know my body will eventually adjust to this altitude, but i have never felt so tired simply from climbing a flight of stairs! its crazy the way it makes your body feel.

And even though i have been here for only one day, and i feel totally exhausted, i already love it here. They community is so small that people already recognize me, and I feel that i will fit in well here. IT was especially nice to arrive to a friend waiting to give me a hug and welcome me to my new home.

I will try and post some pictures from the flight here soon, and also of the trip i took to visit some ice caves near Mcmurdo station before i left. But the Internet is only available when the satellite is in coverage, which is for about 9 hours a day right now, and it changes everyday. But i will do my best to keep all of you updated and post as many pictures as i can soon!