The 13th Annual Women's Soiree

Every season I've been here, I've been involved in the Women's Soiree. This is an event put on by the community that showcases the talents of the women in McMurdo. It's only women performers allowed, though the volunteers are both men and women to help put the performance on. In the past three years I've stepped up in to a lead board member role in helping to organize this event and though I'm a crazy person running around for about 4 weeks before this event, it's all worth it in the end. This year was no exception to that- and it's amazing how each year we out-do the past years!

This is the 13th year that this event has occurred, and the theme this year was A Night With Old Hollywood. There are several committees involved in this event- decorations (all the backdrop, and pre-event decorations), publicity (advertising for the event via signs, posters, TV scrolls, announcements), prize collection (we give away prizes in a raffle drawing at the event), donation collections (we collect donations for a charity in Christchurch New Zealand each year), pre-event social (there is wine and food provided in the lobby before the event for attendees to go to), set-up crews (they turn the galley in to the theatre- all the set-up and take-down of the stage and chairs and tables and lights), sound and light techs (they deal with all the sound and lights), videographers (this video clip wouldn't happen without their efforts- they actually recorded the entire event and made a DVD which we sell and then donate the proceeds from), stage crew (they deal with all the needs of the performers), the performers (which are always amazing!!), and all the miscellaneous things that have to get taken care of someone always steps up to fill the role as well.

The event is held in support of a charity in New Zealand, and this year we selected Women's Refuge. We choose a different charity every year, and they are always so excited to be the recipients of the proceeds from this event.
http://www.womensrefuge.org.nz/
“Liberating Women, Children, families and whanau from family
violence through the provision of quality services and social commentary.”

So last year, the Shuttles girls and I did the dance from Napoleon Dynamite which was hilarious, and we had to come up with something to top that this year. We've been told that we have succeeded! The song and dance performance you see in this clip is "Don't Tell Mama" from Cabaret. We all choreographed it and sang- and we had a great time!! The audience was great too- I don't think I'd have the nerve to get up and do this anywhere else. :) Thanks to everyone who made this night happen!!!

Scott's Historic Hut at Cape Evans

Add placed in newspaper to solicit persons for Shackleton's first Antarctic Expedition.
Scott's Hut at Cape Evans. I helped organize multiple trips and train all the guides to be able to get out to Cape Evans to see the historic hut out there where Shackleton and his men first stayed, followed by Scott and his men. The trip out takes about 2 hours in a delta across the sea ice. This trip happened back in October, so I'm a little late on pictures. These trips have ended because the sea ice is too thin to drive out on now, and the ship is here breaking up the ice right now.
Mount Erebus in the background with the hut in the foreground. Mount Erebus is the highest point on Ross Island and is an active volcano. There is often a small plume coming from the top.

Inside the hut- this is the dinner table. This is somewhat eerie as it seems like Scott's men could have just been sitting at this table yesterday. The cold weather and dry conditions preserve artifacts here very well. The Antarctic Heritage Trust has been spending a lot of time working to preserve and clean items in the hut, as well as around it.

There is a lot of food that was left- it's odd to see Heinz ketchup containers and cocoa stacked up in the hut.

That is an emperor penguin on the table that they were dissecting and a newspaper next to it. The penguin has been preserved in the same condition since they left it there.

A view of some of the bunk beds, and the table.

The kitchen area from what I can observe- all the food items are stacked on shelves here along with dishes and bottles. Some of the bottles still have frozen liquids in them, but I'm not sure what they are. There are stables on the outside of the building, and their is also a stack of seal skins in the stables entrance that can definitely start to get smelly when the weather starts to warm.

This snow is on the side of the hut, the wind had blown through causing the waves in the snow and the overhang, it's interesting and beautiful to see the formations the snow and ice become because of the wind.

My sad attempt at a snow angel- the snow was pretty frozen solid, so I barely made an impact. That's Taryn laughing at me and taking pictures in the photo as well.

An excellent site to check out if you want to learn more about the hut and historic items about Antarctica:
http://www.heritage-antarctica.org/AHT/

Icestock 2009- Ringing in the New Year

Every year there is an event for New Year's called Icestock- which is the Ice version of Woodstock. There are several bands here that practice together and anyone can form or join a band, which provides the community with an amazing amount of live music entertainment at various events throughout the year. Typically Icestock is held on New Year's day, but this year was a little different and instead was held the evening of New Year's Eve. It was an excellent way to ring in the New Year dancing to the awesome cover band Porn Spill.

This is Porn Spill playing. The name comes from an "interesting" story- every year there are milvans shipped off the continent back to the states that contain all the garbage from here. In one container a few years ago there was a lot of pornographic material and when it was being unloaded off the ship, it apparently came open and spilled all over the place, needless to say there was quite the rush to clean it up and get the container closed back up. Hence the name "Porn Spill." They do covers of several different artists- including Isacc Hayes and Brittney Spears.

This is Father Time and Baby New Year ringing in the New Year and leading the countdown for us.

Porn Spill playing- they are a favorite band here.

Me, Josh, Lisa, Danielle, Amy sitting up on the flatbed of the truck watching some of the bands play.

The Wasties (people who work in the waste barn sorting all the trash to get recycled and shipped back to the states) come up with something creative each season to wear/do at Icestock. They made these costumes that you could put on with a backpack type frame. That's a Skua, some weird alien, a butterfly behind the alien, and then a bluebird.

Sitting with some friends still- not sure who the person to the left is, I'm sitting on Josha, then Emily, and Megan.

My friend Josh and I in my new warm fuzzy hat from Kelly (thanks Kelly!)

A shot from above of the venue for Icestock.

Ben- one of the Wasties- hula hooping. They bring out big hula hoops- which I did for a little while- it's like riding a bike- I don't think I've done that since elementary school. That's me up in the upper left corner in the green coat.

A shot looking out from the stage in to the crowd.

Christmas Eve

A Very Merry Christmas Eve at the Town Party.

Yes, Santa even makes a trip to the Southern Hemisphere so we can all get our pictures with him.



Me,Taryn, Jackie.

Ildiko the hairdresser here this season did my hair for the evening- I could never get it to curl like that!



I went home from the party at a decent hour, but on my way I ran in to Brandon who works for me with a group of people and when I went to hug him, I got picked up and carried off to the party again by this crazy kook. It was a fun evening and I'm glad I went back out again! Hope you all had a good Christmas Eve- and don't worry since I'm living in the future one day ahead of you, I know that Santa made it to visit you all in time!!

A Shuttles Holiday Gathering

Every year I've been the supervisor in Shuttles, we have a big holiday party and I cook dinner (along with help from several people) for the crew and we have a gift exchange. This year was no different and we had such a great evening together.

This is Joe monitoring the Ice Cream Maker- someone left this to me this season and we've used it a few times. Keep up the good work Joe!


Shuttle Bill on the hunt for which gift he wants to open. Poor guy had his gifts stolen from him several times during the exchange game.

Shuttle Bob opening his gift, I think he's giving an oratory speech on how great this chocolate bar is that he's received.

I think this is what Bill finally ended up with- a bag handmade by Taryn. I'm pretty sure his wife Carole will be enjoying that soon enough. :)

Having us all crowded around together makes me realize how fortunate I am to have so many wonderful people in my life. I have a great family of friends both here and at home! And I'm extra lucky because I get to have both here- that's Auntie Nancy in the red jacket in this pic- she stopped by to say Hi to all.
Jojo is opening her gift right now, which was from Kelly, and there's like 20 things in this bag- she took forever to open them all.


Jojo opened up this strawberry lotion and obviously thought it smelled good enough to eat! Probably indicative of how long we had gone without freshies at this point....

This is the gift I ended up with. I love my new water bottle and use it all the time. Audrey actually won this first, but I stole it from her.

Kathy and her woolly mammoth puppet she got. She was also the temporary bow holder.

Kathy hiding her woolly mammoth puppet so no one tries to steal it from her.

Shuttle Joe doing a little dance on his way to pick out which gift he wanted. This was hilarious to watch, I'm still trying to get the video loaded to my blog, but it's not cooperating right now...

Anyways, a great evening, and a perfect way to start my New Year! I truly hold every one of you close to my heart and am so fortunate to have each of you in my life! Thank you!

"There's more, much more, to Christmas,

Than candlelight and cheer;

It's the spirit of sweet friendship

That brightens all year.

It's thoughtfulness and kindness,

It's hope reborn again,

For peace, for understanding,

And for goodwill to men!"