Welcome to the Ice!

I love it here!

Welcome to Antarctica! This little guy was waiting for us when we stepped off the plane! It is rare to see them so far from the water, which made this even more awesome!

The weather here has been really warm which is great for walking around, but terrible for the runway. There was also a pretty bad storm that blew a ton of sediment onto the runway which keeps the snow too warm to refreeze, so getting here was kind of crazy. We ended up taking a herc which is basically a cargo plane with very small windows.

The Herc! About an 8 hour flight from Christchurch to McMurdo.

Our second time loading the plane- weather + technical problems = long day...

Our seats. This plane was crazy awesome!

Seating arrangements.

View from the cockpit.

At about six and a half hours in, everyone started to get really excited looking out the windows. I jumped up to see what they were looking at, only to be disappointed by a giant cloud. Uh, fail. I was on my way back to my seat before someone pointed out that those were mountains. I'm brilliant.

View from the window.

Please forgive all the pictures, I was super excited....

Ashley and I have our own, newly renovated, spacious room. Our entire group is jealous.

My excited face. I pretty much look like this all day, every day.