Scott Nicholas

Everyone's first question was "See any penguins?" Well I have now. I was riding into the runway town this morning on a shuttle and saw them out the right window. I broke the silence with a "PENGUINS!" hah. The 3 other passengers looked. I went into the shop and told Greg. They were just at the edge of runway town, we took snowmobiles over quickly and took some shots. Then Greg walked back, took some more. That was at about 7:50am. There were 4 of them. Someone from the tower next door just came in and asked for a …

Today was actually the first time I got to ride on "IVAN" The Terra Bus. A picture is 1000 words. Here is the picture of the modern marvel. I exchanged light conversation with someone else who was also waiting for the shuttle while smoking a cigarette, who called Ivan the Cadillac of shuttles. hah. it is a luxurious beast. the inside has new fake wood paneling covers and the seats aren't even torn! Hell, the DELTA we rode in yesterday had nothing covering the door in the roof used to load cargo on the top racks. hah!

So was it …

photo album: Cape Royds

So the trip planned for Friday to goto AWS 106 was made today, Saturday. I went with PJ and DJ. Got a pic of the same ice berg as during the sea ice training, from the helo. Was a short trip out, left at 9am, and wasn't to be picked up until 1:40pm. PJ had the stuff ready to go, and we swapped out the radio and installed a webcam in minutes! So now what?? We walked to the water. Some of it was open (unfrozen!) and we saw about 5 seals. 1 was a …

Usually the most asked questions, aside from if I've seen penguins yet, has to do with temperature and sunlight. I don't pay any attention to it, but here are two great pics I found on the intranet here that ain't too hard to understand. I have seen the sun start to go down, but I never was outside when I couldn't see it. As you see, temp at the end of the year may reach above freezing! I hear it's already a bit warmer this year than average, and at least one person here has predicted open water to come …

so i took the day off after that camping, and find myself back on the internets. kinda boring. anyway. for those interested, find below my contact information. as said on facebook, they've small selection of expired goods here. i enjoy marlboro menthol lights, butterfingers, rolos, kit kat, starbursts, nerds, etc. :)

Scott Nicholas, SOPP McMurdo Station PSC 469 Box 700 APO AP 96599-1035

I have no incoming phone number here, but you may leave a voicemail. I enjoy hearing familiar voices. My google voice mailbox # is (720) 984-2576. It's a Denver number because I can call out to denver for free …

I just finished uploading the picture to my facebook photo album.

It was a lot more fun and easier than I imagined. I kept warm. My toes surprisingly gave me no problems. My hands, of course, had a little. Because you have to take your mittens off to do some things. I had thin glove liners on tho, so they were never completely exposed.

We started with setting up the two big Scott's tents. next were the little mountain tents, and then a wind wall to protect them. at the time we built the wall, wind was actually perpendicular to …

i didn't do survival training where i stay out overnight yet, so shhh... but we went to a weather station about 16mi south of base. quick operation of just turning a screw and headed back. it took forever though at 12mph in a pickup truck with the wheels converted to tracks. heh. Gab sucks at driving, i think he hits every bump on purpose. seriously, there are flags every so many feet to mark the "roads" and he'd stray several yards from them to where the ice was bumpy... anyway.

it was really really windy but i was dressed up …

i just got back from snowmobile training. we didn't ride long, but boy was it fun! my only complaint is the full face shield didn't work so well for me. either it or my glasses were fogged up, so i kept it open, and wasn't wearing anything over my face. so next time, i think i'll elect for the open face helmet with tinted goggles and my ski mask:) so i've not blogged anything because i've only been online since yesterday, and with the work computers. i got my laptop back just now from the IT folks who checked it …

It's 4:41 Monday here in New Zealand. Almost noon on Sunday back home. I guess I'm not use to to time change yet. Actually, I'm just boring and went to bed early... heh. 7deg Celsius ain't as bad as it sounds. Went walking with just my inner jacket on, got to the first intersection and turned around. It was raining. I guess it does that a lot here. I bought a pack of cigarettes at the hotel bar. =\ I got NZ$50 from airport ATM (Visa is more fair than the exchange booths, silly people). I paid just under …

Tomorrow I'll board at 12:36pm in Charleston on a 2h14m flight to Chicago (ick!). I'll be there about an hour, and head to Los Angles, CA at 3pm on a 4h31m flight. Then, four hours later, I'll leave to Auckland, NZ. This flight will take 12h55m. I'll arrive at Auckland at 6:25am on October 4th. Woo that's some time travel. Then it's just a skip on over to Christchurch at 7:25am for 1h20m and I'll be chillaxin there for a couple nights.

Definitely a lot of flying. The round-trip ticket was purchased yesterday for nearly $2400. :)