Week 4: Thanksgiving!

McMurdo celebrated Thanksgiving on the 26th and 27th by giving everyone a two day weekend!!

The Friday before the Thanksgiving weekend, the PASSCAL crew headed out to our test site near Castle Rock to demob the previous seasons' tests that Avi and I installed. Demob = demobilize = remove.

Parking PistenBully 315 next to the test site.

Suze, Alan, and I brought out two Morale Trippers with us. We had one stewie (she works in the galley) and one jano (janitor) who got a break from their normal jobs to help us dig for the day.

They first helped us dig out the seismometers that were installed last season. We made sure to mark them with bamboo so that we'd know where to dig -- the snow had completely erased any trace of buried equipment.

Starting to dig holes to find the sensors. We dug out rectangles with the corners marked by 2 bamboo.

Suze demobing her very first seismometer!

We made quick work of the test site, making sure to label all the equipment as we dug it out, and will download the data once we get back to McMurdo. We made sure to leave early to give our Morale Trippers the afternoon off before Thanksgiving!

It can get quite warm while digging -- but luckily the bamboo poles make great coat hangers!

A normal work week in McMurdo is 10 hours a day, 6 days a week, with Sundays off. On holiday weeks, however, we get both Saturday and Sunday off! Saturday morning started out with the Turkey Trot 5K!

The PASSCAL team in our matching tie dye for the race.

I ran pretty fast towards the end of the race (trying to beat Alan... who I think let me win). When we got our times back, mine was 24 minutes. I was astounded. Never in my life have I run that fast. But then I found out later.... they had marked the course slightly shorter than a 5K. They accidentally marked it at 2.5 mi, to be exact. Still, that's a fast time for me, and I had a lot of fun!

I am speeding ahead at the last minute to beat Alan.

Crossing the finish line!!

The galley was closed for lunch to prepare for the Thanksgiving meal. So I had an excellent bunch of assorted snacks instead!

Thank goodness for fresh fruit! And bubbly water -- we are rationed to 6 cans a week of sparkling water.

The PASSCAL team then met up for Thanksgiving dinner in our "nice" clothes, which featured a flannel for me. We had a delicious meal and then watched What We Do In the Shadows in one of the dorm lounges. I HIGHLY recommend that movie; it was so funny!!

The next day, I took it easy by reading and going on some nice walks. I rounded out the evening by watching the seals on the sea ice! And I actually got some ok pictures this time.