CHAPTER 2
Cruising along at 40,000 ft, we just flew over one of the strangest temporal oddities you’ll ever experience- one minute ago it was 6:23am on Friday morning, but somehow as I typed this sentence, I have been transported through time to 5:24am on Saturday. It is a little discomforting to think that a whole day of my life could be taken from me so abruptly… but no worries, I know I will get it back when we fly home.
The last few days have been a whirlwind- packing and running last minute errands, saying farewell to family and friends, exchanging gifts for Christmas in October, and then repacking to try to get everything to fit. We spent all day Wednesday at the Raytheon Polar headquarters in Centennial, Colorado meeting our fellow workers and sitting through a bunch of long orientation presentations. Another long safety meeting on Thursday morning, and then we were off to the airport promptly at noon. And here is where our first, and I am positive not last, rather embarrassing moment of this trip was laid out in front of 50 of our new coworkers.
For all the packing and repacking we had done, we were still grossly over burdened by a total of eight suitcases and backpacks, most of which were over 50lbs. Everyone else, for comparison, typically had only a small carry-on, and one loosely packed duffle bag or suitcase. To be fair, most of our baggage consisted of camping and biking equipment we plan on leaving in New Zealand for our post Antarctic adventures, but none of these people knew that, and the combined look of shame, pity, and disgust that fell on us as we pushed and pulled our obese herd of luggage past the long check-in line was palpable.
Fortunately, even though they probably are all wondering how these two greenhorns are ever going to make it at the South Pole, they are an extremely nice and welcoming bunch. About 30 of our group going down right now are returning South Pole workers, or “Polies” as they are called, but the people Kacey and I will be working with in the kitchen, since our positions are pretty much the bottom of the ladder, are all newbies like us. Everyone we have talked to so far is incredibly interesting in their own right, some with almost unbelievable backgrounds, and I can feel that a special camaraderie between this season’s 250 Polies will be quick to form and long to last.
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