John called the other day from McMurdo - and it didn't cost him anything!
The week before he had me set up a Google Voice account for him (entrusting me to his gmail account) with very explicit instructions: it had to have a Denver area code. I needed to do it because Google could tell from *his* IP address that he was accessing the Google site from a non-US location and wouldn't let him do the setup. Normally when people at McMurdo make phone calls they are routed through Denver (Raytheon Polar Services' headquarters) and they use calling cards to make calls from there. By getting a Denver area code on Google Voice, the call to it is a local (non-toll) call. There is a very informative post that explains in detail how to do this, which probably documents what is tribal knowledge among everyone on the ice.
The weather is beginning to warm up as they move into spring. The highs have been above zero, (today's high was 25 degrees), which is almost bearable. Now that he's done the safety orientation, John can go out to the marked trails. He said they go sledding (I would imagine it's not hard to find lots of good sledding runs there) and he was considering getting some skis.
Work: he's been alternating between dining hall duty and washing dishes, putting in 10 hour shifts, 6 days a week. It sounds like there may be other assignments he can take on as well -- I'm waiting to hear more. One thing about John: he's never been afraid of hard work.
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