Because it seemed like a good idea at the time....: Arrival At the Bottom of the World

Like any good Americans we found our jobs through Google. No crazy connections, deep conversations with someone we met on a train, or a distant family relative that referenced us for a position. We simply googled "jobs in Antarctica" applied and a few short months later (plus viles of blood, full medical and dental checkups, and more fax machines than we've ever used prior to this point in our life) we were on THE ICE!

We each left separately and a day apart from JFK airport, after receiving our flights a mere 5 days before take off. I flew through San Francisco with only mild visa issues. Some nonsense about not allowing me on the flight because I didn't have a round-trip ticket or a visa. (This is not the first time immigration has had it in for me). Finally dropping the words, “I’m moving to Antarctica”, seemed to move the process along and I was soon on a flight to Auckland and then Christchurch. The following day Chris arrived in Christchurch as well after experiencing much more turbulence than I had. We had orientation and were given our Extreme Cold Weather Gear and instructed to be back for the boarding of our flights down to the Ice a day later. I had the experience of taking an AirBus down to Antarctica, not quite as cool as the Airforce C-17 Cargo Plane but it did have some great window seats with epic views over the Transantarctic Mountains and aerial views of McMurdo and the frozen Ross Sea. Chris arrived the day later by C-17. We arrived almost 3 weeks ago, landing on the frozen Ross Sea and shuttled into some Delta vehicles (dubbed the Delta Death Traps due to the high number of manufacturing flaws) and were quickly thrown into life at McMurdo Station!