A quick update

I talked to John a couple of time yesterday (thank you again, Google Voice).

The weather has been a bit stormy, according to him. The change of the seasons are stormy here, too, but where as we get rain, they get blizzard-like conditions. Since he spends most of his time inside, that's not a big deal. Just for fun, here's some storm footage someone shot several years back just to give a little flavor. Again - this is not what John saw.



He's been on the later shift (working the galley and washing dishes) from 10 AM to 8 PM, but is trying to get on the morning shift which ends at 4 PM, so he'll have more time to hang out with some of his buds in the evening.

There's quite a bit of programming in the evenings - lectures and what-not - that's available to anyone who's interested. I gather there's entertainment as well (movies, etc). So far he hasn't done a lot of that, but an earlier shift would make that more of a possibility.

Right now he said there's around 400 people at McMurdo. The winter crew is only about 100 people but by mid-October there will be closer to 1,200 there. Another 17 staff for the food service will be arriving as part of the Mainbody (John was part of the Winfly: the earliest group to return after winter).

In addition to his regular duties, John's been picking up a little work at the local rental shop, which is also managed by his employer, NANA Services. Since he's worked as a bartender in Toronto, he's also looking at picking up some hours behind the bar at the local watering hole.

The room he's in now is a suite (they live in dormitory-style housing). The rooms don't have internet access, but there are publicly available computers in some common area that are on the internet, although some sites are blocked - such as YouTube; this is probably a bandwidth issue. If he gets his computer scanned, he can get on the internet using it, though the blocked site would still be unavailable. Facebook must not be blocked because I see occasional updates from him there.

So that's the news from the coldest continent on earth. More when I hear it.