Ice, White & Blue

Redhead Amok in Antarctica

Orientation Schedule

We are happy to have you on board and are sending this memo and schedule to insure a successful Orientation as you deploy to Antarctica.  Please read it carefully and come prepared!

MAKE SURE YOU BRING WITH YOU:

--Your passport.
--An ATM card to get cash while at McMurdo. [No, really! McMurdo is the only one of the stations to be so equipped. As far as I can tell the only things we have to spend cash on are alcohol at the two bars: Southern Exposure (smoking) and Gallagher's (non-smoking), coffee at the Coffeehouse, and snacks/booze/souvenirs at the station store.]
--A voided check from the bank account to which you want your paycheck direct deposited.  (If you are a returning employee [that's me!] and your bank information has not changed, you will only need to sign a new direct deposit form.  You will not need to attach a voided check.)
--Receipts if you need to file an expense report. [I do, I am owed for the boots I bought for this year. As a Fuelie I get reimbursed, because the Bunny Boots just won't do.]

UPON ARRIVAL AT YOUR HOTEL IN CENTENNIAL, CO   

The day of arrival, check with the hotel for your shuttle schedule to and from RPSC Headquarters (HQ).
*Morning shuttles, from the hotel to HQ, will start at 7 a.m. Please check with the front desk at your hotel for their shuttle schedule.
*Afternoon/evening shuttles, from HQ back to the hotel, will run on the half hour, beginning at 5:00 p.m.

UPON ARRIVAL AT RPSC HEADQUARTERS (HQ):

At the receiving area you will:
*show your passport
*receive a visitor’s badge for building access
*sign for a password to use in the computer lab (IT Training Room)
*sign for receipt of travel funds
*receive a boot voucher (if applicable)
*receive travel documents including ticket information and luggage tags

AFTER CHECK - IN AND BEFORE ORIENTATION

Get fit for boots if applicable.
There will be a van parked near the entrance, stocked with program approved safety boots.  Intermountain Safety Shoe representatives will be available to assist you.

Check in laptop computer.
If you are taking a personal laptop computer to The Ice, it must go through screening.  You will drop it off with IT personnel in the Shackleton Conference Room.  It will be available for pickup at the end of the day.

Complete paperwork with Human Resources.
Report to Pole Auditorium to complete all required paperwork.  Allow 30 minutes for this process.  HR personnel will be available to assist you.

Visit Computer Lab.
There are three opportunities (see schedule attached) to use computers in the IT Training Room.  Staff from the Finance Department will be available to assist you with email pay stubs and on-line expense reports. 

Paper pay stubs will not be given out on the ice.  It you want to be able to view your pay stub while in Antarctica, you will need to sign up to have your pay stub emailed to you.  If you choose not to sign up, your pay will still be direct deposited and your pay stub (pay advice) will be mailed to your stateside address.

Expense reports are done online using the WebTE program.  If you need to file an expense report, to be reimbursed for allowable expenses, please allow about 40 minutes to complete this process on line.  You will need receipts to file an expense report.

 

Have breakfast at the hotel.
9:00 – 10:30 a.m.     Board shuttles at hotels;
MAKE SURE YOU BRING YOUR PASSPORT AND LAPTOP TO HQ

9:30 – 11:30 a.m.       
Receiving Area: Check – in, receive badge, travel documents, travel funds, etc. (EVERYONE)
Parking Lot: Boot fitting (if applicable)
Shackleton: Laptop screening (if you have one)
Pole Auditorium: Paperwork (EVERYONE)
IT Training Rm: On-line expense reports (if needed) electronic pay advice    set-up (EVERYONE)

11:30 a.m. – 7:30 p.m      
McMurdo Auditorium:    Orientation (lunch provided)

6:30 – 8:30 p.m.    (optional)   
IT Training Rm: expense report/pay advice

Have breakfast at hotel.
7:00 – 8:00 a.m.  
Board shuttles at hotels; LEAVE PACKED BAGS @ HOTEL LOBBY
Bags will be delivered to HQ by hotel shuttles and secured in a storage room while you are in training.  You will not have access to your bags until it is time to board the bus.

7:00 – 8:00 a.m.  (optional) 
IT Training Rm: expense report/pay advice

8:00 – 11:00 a.m.  
McMurdo Auditorium: Orientation (snack provided)

11:00 – 12:00 noon (optional)
IT Training Rm: expense reports/pay advice

11:00 – 12:00 noon       
RPSC fitness center:    pick up bags, turn in badges

12:00 noon           
Board buses for Denver International Airport

****

In the future, Raytheon will issue electronic ear tags once we sign away all out rights to privacy and independence, and we will be shunted through a special chute like cattle to the slaughter, stopping at various stations to be weighed, measured and drugged.

Doesn't this just sound like complete confusion? Imagine about 120 people per flight, there will be three flights worth of Ice folks wandering around, of which a good 30-45% will be FNGs. Holy crap, batgirl! Clusterf***, or what? Thank Crap I Ain't A FNG. This is gonna be mass befuddlement; hundreds of people milling around, hours of tedium interspersed by pee breaks, food breaks and caffeine infusions. We will be lectured to on Safety, Finances, Sexual Harrassment, Ice Behaviour, etc. ad nauseum.

Whoo hoo! Just issue me that ear tag and send me to the Ice! It's all worth it!

Cuz I'm A Fuelie. (I really like saying that.)

posted by: coldwish at 11:22 | link | comments (2) |
between 2006

SPole Hilarity Alert!

Click here.

Download the .pdf file Men Of The South Pole Calendar.

I'm getting that thing printed at Kinkos and taking it to the Ice with me.

Hehehe.

You never know what men are hiding under their ECW Gear nowadays.

Sometimes even a sense of humour.

posted by: coldwish at 10:03 | link | comments (5) |
between 2006

Bloggage

I have updated and added to my links. There are hundreds of Ice Bloggers out there, and I've added some. Go check it out.

I have about another hundred links to blogs and webpages of Ice folks from years past that I chose not to post, but if you are curious and would like my list, ask me.

posted by: coldwish at 18:53 | link | comments |
between 2006

Guess Who Got Her Itinerary?

So it looks from my itinerary that I will be in Denver from the afternoon of Sept 27th to the eve of October 1st. Sept 28 & 29 will be Fuels Training at the Sheraton, then I'll be doing Mama Ray's Orientation & Safety Training at HQ. Then outa there along with a few hundred other Ice souls to LAX where we will cluster with our multi-coloured luggage tags (I hear it's red this year) in the terminal. All the old home week greetings will take place in Denver if we are all doing orientation at the same time.

I definitely prefer the Denver orientation to the Christchurch Orientation thing we did last year. Doing that kind of mind-numbing boring presentation about insurance and finance and policies details on the heels of a LONG flight to a time zone 17 hours away, doesn't make any sense to me. Which, conversely, means we'll be more likely to stay awake for it.

Naw, I don't think we'll stay awake for it. We'll still be bored snotless. It's the function of corporate brainwashing and CYA policies to make eyes cross and gentle snoring sounds emanate from the burly fellow in the back row. It'll be all about seeing other Ice folk, and catching up on what they did over the Other Summer (northern hemisphere) as opposed to the Ice Summer.

What this itinerary doesn't indicate is the time between when we land in Chch on Oct 3rd, and when our flight to the Ice is scheduled on Oct 5th. We'll have to do the whole CDC (Clothing Distribution Center) gig again, and I think that's in the AM of the 4th. We may be able to get it over with on the 3rd, the day we arrive, because we are arriving at about 10am in Chch. There I will be choosing ECW (Extreme Cold Weather) Gear for my season. If they are anything like last year, the clothing in my 2 orange bags will reflect my job from my previous season (Housing Admin). I'll spend all my time exchanging it for more appropriate gear for a Fuelie. (Hehehe, I just like saying that word, "Fuelie")

Any remaining time between when we finish with the CDC and get on our flight (Second Flight of Mainbody, Oct 5th) I will spend hunting down Andre (and other WOs (Winterovers) who will have just decanted from the chilly bin), laughing at his paleness and maybe showing him too much skin just to see the look on his face. Then again, I have a lot of shopping to do: food (honey, chocolate, candy, teas, deodorant, sunscreen, miso, etc).

I'm sure everyone coming & going will be puddling at Bailies Irish Bar (to which I have never been) and Dux De Luxe, staying at the Y, visiting the Botanic Gardens and crawling all over Hereford St. Usually Raytheon gives us a per diem of $150 US/day for our days in NZ, out of which comes our hotel and food and any other expenses we may incur (transportation to & from the airport, drinking, eating sushi for the last time in however long). This is like free money when turned into Kiwi dollars, at a current exchange rate of $1 US = $1.56 Kiwi. I usually stay in the dorms for about $25 Kiwi per night, saving me a whole pot of cash for when I get off the Ice and start traveling.

Oh, and all those Fig Newtons I need to ship myself now. Relying on the station store's supply is always iffy, not only will they probably be rationed like the chocolate and the alcohol last season, but the cookies themselves are dessicated, crumbled remnants of their former selves after having taken an 18-24 month journey to get there. For the good moist "figgy goodness", as Pav described them after I shipped him a package from the US, they need to be less than a few months old. So I shipped two packages to myself the other day, and will probably ship a few more before I leave.  Packages of stuff for myself are taxiing up down the stairs and at my door ready for take off.

And here is the itinerary:

FLIGHTS

Wed, Sep 27:  AMERICAN AIRLINES, AA  1355     From: BOSTON, MA (BOS) Departs: 10:15   Departure Terminal: TERMINAL B Gate: To: CHICAGO OHARE, IL (ORD) Arrives: 11:50   Arrival Terminal: TERMINAL 3      Class: Economy Seat(s): 11D     Status: Confirmed Confirmation:   Meal:   Smoking: No Aircraft: MCDONNELL DOUGLAS MD-80 JET   Mileage: 858   Flight Time: 2  hour(s) and  35  minute(s)        Frequent Flyer: Please verify flight times prior to departure

Wed, Sep 27:  AMERICAN AIRLINES, AA  0601     From: CHICAGO OHARE, IL (ORD) Departs: 13:00   Departure Terminal: TERMINAL 3 Gate: To: DENVER, CO (DEN) Arrives: 14:30   Class: Economy Seat(s): 09D     Status: Confirmed Confirmation: Meal:   Smoking: No Aircraft: MCDONNELL DOUGLAS MD-80 JET   Mileage: 907   Flight Time: 2  hour(s) and  30  minute(s)        Frequent Flyer: Please verify flight times prior to departure

Sun, Oct 1:  AMERICAN AIRLINES, AA  1519     From: DENVER, CO (DEN) Departs: 17:10       To: LOS ANGELES, CA (LAX) Arrives: 18:35   Arrival Terminal: TERMINAL 4      Class: Economy Seat(s): 19D     Status: Confirmed Confirmation:   Meal:   Smoking: No Aircraft: MCDONNELL DOUGLAS MD-80 JET   Mileage: 845   Flight Time: 2  hour(s) and  25  minute(s)        Frequent Flyer:

Sun, Oct 1-Tue, Oct 3:  AMERICAN AIRLINES, AA  7337 Operated by QANTAS AIRWAYS     From: LOS ANGELES, CA (LAX) Departs: 21:40 Sun, Oct 1   Dep Term: TOM BRADLEY INTL TERM To: AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND (AKL) Arrives: 06:10 Tue, Oct 3   Arr Terminal: INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL      Class: Economy Seat(s): Status: Confirmed Confirmation: Meal: Refreshment - Complimentary , Meals   Smoking: No Aircraft: BOEING 747 JET   Mileage: 6522   Flight Time: 12  hour(s) and  30  minute(s)        Freq Flyer: Please verify flight times prior to departure

Tue, Oct 3:  AMERICAN AIRLINES, AA  7395 Operated by JETCONNECT/FOR QANTAS
From:	AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND (AKL)	Departs:	08:30
Departure Terminal:	DOMESTIC TERMINAL	Gate:
To:	CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND (CHC)	Arrives:	09:50
Arrival Terminal:	MAIN TERMINAL
Class:	Economy	Seat(s):
Status:	Confirmed	Confirmation:
Meal:	Snack	Smoking:	No
Aircraft:	BOEING 737 JET	Mileage:	464
Flight Time:	1  hour(s) and  20  minute(s)
Frequent Flyer:
Please verify flight times prior to departure

HOTEL & LODGING

Wed, Sep 27-Sun, Oct 1:  SI SHERATON DENVER TECH C
Address:	7007 S CLINTON ST	Check In:	Sep 27
	ENGLEWOOD CO 80112	Check Out:	Oct 1
Phone:	303-799-6200
Room Type:	SINGLE WITH BATH	Room(s):	01
Status:	Confirmed	Rate:	89.00 / night
Client ID #:		Corp Discount #:
Confirmation:
Guarantee:	Room is guaranteed for late arrival
Facts:	FAX 303-799-4828

posted by: coldwish at 22:12 | link | comments (1) |
between 2006

Minutiae: Packing, LL Bean & iPod

In my yearnings for the Ice I have been reading (and commenting) on several other Ice blogs, people I know. Some of them are down there now (Andre & Phil) and others are in the same state I am, packing to head back down (Sandwich and James). The ones headed down there as I am made me either laugh or smile in recognition: This particular entry from James was right on. Sandwich on the other hand is packing up for an entire year and her entry describing the snack packing process made me laugh, as she often does.

I am hip deep and mentally scattered with the pressures of packing up. I am unable to focus on my friends here enough to say my goodbyes properly; my mind is splintered off from them making more lists, remembering things I forgot. I must seem both very selfish and dim right now as I tilt at this windmill of packing.  You'd think, this being my third season, that it'd be a bit more familiar to me. Yes, it is, but it doesn't make it any less of an organizational nightmare.  I am not only packing for the Ice and my season there, but I am packing and shipping stuff to await me in New Zealand for when I get off the Ice at the end of the season to go hiking and backpacking. Then there is the unknown furture past NZ next year, where i decide while on ice what my travel plans will be. Should I go home after a few months in NZ and then fly from home to Iceland? I've always wanted to visit there. Then I've thought of packing my mother up and hauling her along with me to St Pierre et Miquelon. I'd also love to get to England and visit some friends there, or France to visit la famille francaise.

My mother has been very patient with the piles of open boxes and weird heaps of things that appear temporarily on chairs and tables and floors and hallways, obviously significant to my tiny splintered mind. The house has become somewhat of a puzzle, in which boxes move from here to there, and things in boxes move from box to box, each pile/box having a category, often one dependent upon getting something from one of the other boxes done before I can move it to its final destination.  My poor mother can barely navigate from room to room and I'm afraid I may accidentally mail my cat to Antarctica she is so enchanted by the boxes. That may not be a bad thing, as long as I send her Priority mail.

I am by no means packed, though everything I have decided to TAKE with me, as in haul across the continent to Denver, then to LA, then to Auckland and then Christchurch, thence to the Ice, sits on top of my new LL Bean duffle bag. Yeah, another duffle bag. The original purple one I bought had a few issues after only two trips to the Ice and back. On its first trip the bag must've got dragged pretty badly as it developed a hole in the bottom, thickest part of it. A hole big enough that I lost a pair of black panties and a sock in some airfield somewhere in North America. All I can imagine is that it fell off the baggage cart and got dragged. I repaired it by taping duct tape on both the inside and the outside. That worked well until during my last trip to the Ice something ripped one of the binding straps off the bag completely, against, whilst in the airline's delicate paws. Nothing but stitches left on it. So I returned it.

One of the sweet things about LL Bean is certainly their return policy. They don't bat an eye when I come in with my oiled canvas hat after three years of wearing it in sunshine, rain, and using it as a seat in Kiwi sheep pastures when I'm trying to reach in under the hut to find the key I need. I got caught in a 4 hour downpour in Picton, and the damn thing shrank. (I LOVED that hat. They no longer sell them, to my everlasting grief.) They barely squint when the boots I wore for an entire season driving shuttles, and hiking afterwards in NZ, are returned because they bruised my ankles when I made the switch to regular, and thinner, hiking socks from hefty winter socks. Not a twitch when I hand over the 5 other items I'd bought over the last 3 years and give my various reasons for their return. I get a full refund, and even, often, more than what I paid for it. Get this, I bought my purple duffle bag TWO years ago, at the factory outlet store for about $30. Cheap at the price, because someone returned it and it had someone else's initials sewn on it. Big whoop. Same bag, same lifetime return guarantee, I just picked the intitials off with a seam ripper and about 15 minutes.

I go back to LL Bean to return that same duffel bag, with receipt in hand (not even necessary!), after it proves to be not as tough as I need for these trips. I hand over the bag, show them the issues, hand over my receipt, and I get a refund for the cost of the FULL PRICE of the duffle bag because I may not be able to find a replacement in their factory outlet store this time round. Yeah. LL Bean is all that and a bag of ripple chips as far as I'm concerned.

So I go back to their factory store, they always have returned duffle bags. Indeed, there is the identical bag. But suddenly I am making a profit off LL Bean by returning this item, and I have enough money to UPGRADE to the wheeled version of that same duffle, with the solid bottom. With a stranger's initials on it.  I upgrade without hesitation. Despite there being no use for wheels in Antarctica, as there is no pavement, or cement to roll it on, just volcanic scree, dirt, snow and ice. It will make the moving of the baggage from Auckland International Airport to their Domestic Terminal about a 15 minute haul away much much easier. I was stunned just how much I had to carry my bags and walk between terminals in my travels back and forth to the Ice, mostly at LAX and AKL from the domestic to international terminals each time.

Anyway, kudos to LL Bean for making my life easier. It helps that I live less than a few hours away from the flagship store in Freeport, Maine. They have my loyalty.

So at the very bottom of my Carry To The Ice pile is my new teal coloured wheeled duffel (did you know that both duffle and duffel are correctly spelled? I'm just being equal opportunity here) bag, which is next to the box of camping gear I'll need for NZ after I redeploy next year. Next to that is the carry-on pile, much edited post the new TSA regulations for what can & cannot be carried on a plane nowadays. I can't take chapstick with me now, they will confiscate that. I am so gonna have chapped lips after the 11 hour flight from LAX to AKL. Then there's the Maybe Take, the Mail Down slow mail in a box that won't get there until Christmas, the Mail down faster in a flat padded mailer, to hopefully reach there within a week of myself. The laptop, the shampoo, the new work boots, the push up bra, the candy, the sundry items I may crave/need mid-season.

I WILL however be carrying on the plane the new love of my life: my iPod. How have I survived for so long without this convenience? I feel like I have been aurally naked for all the years of my life previous to this purchase. I am still uploading my music, ALL OF IT, onto this miracle device, and the result has been the birth of an addiction, and the oft startling musical shifts brought on by the shuffle function. I mean, in what world can one go from Dolly Parton's "Jolene" to Einsturzende Neubauten's "Die Interimsliebenden" right into Dusty Springfield doing "Son Of A Preacher Man" to Rammstein's "Sehnsucht"?

And podcasting, can I say how much I love podcasting? I have been able to pick up a few podcasts from New Zealand, just to hear the Kiwi accent and remind myself why I love that country so much (well, other than Tanya, Peg, Audrey, Pav, Rochelle, Mitch & Nikki, Jen, etc.) Then there's a Montreal punk show largely spoken in Joual (the Quebecois French I learned years ago) with which I struggle, and to complete old home week there are shows from CKDU FM in Halifax, N.S. I can download. In between these marvellous musical adventures I'm listening to CBC's As It Happens. Then there's all the other CBC shows I can finally hear again.

I love my iPod.

Oh, and hello? Audio books? I have John McPhee's Basin and Range (unabridged), an author who can make codfish and UPS seem both fascinating and somehow sexy, and Frances Fyfield's Seeking Sanctuary, an atmosphericly clever, mystery writer whose books always absorb me fully. Those'll keep me occupied in any airport I may find myself stuck.

Here's the odd thing: I resisted it for years. I felt somehow superior to the earbud infected souls I saw around me, deliberately choosing to aurally disconnect from the world. I was never a Walkman fan, outside of my last year of high school and first year of college when that was my only source of music. I didn't like the idea of not being fully engaged with the world around me, and then traveling to the most beautiful place on earth and looking out at Mt Erebus and having a soundtrack other than that inimitably Ice one of wind and crunchy snow. I sniffed at the people who divided themselves from the true Ice by so doing.

Yeah. Well, more fool me. After several years of not having a stereo and being largely on the road; the details of my life packed away in storage and my mother's basement, my plants living happily at Joyce's place, my cat with mother; I had given up on music being convenient, other than the radio in the car. I had lost the habit of the effort of choosing and listening to music. I am also more easily distractable, and find I can no longer read and listen to music at the same time. I wonder if this is a function of age? Music used to be a constant for me, I was forever navigating my life to a soundtrack of music, and it enhanced it greatly. But over the last 4-5 years, I have lost that habit, and exist much more in silence, less dependent upon a retreat into music to sooth my savaged feelings, less likely to seek out music to enlarge and extend a good mood.

Well, now I have, or will have, my entire collection of music with me. I can't tell you how great that feels. To have my music back, as a regular soundtrack when I want it, songs and artists chosen depending on my mood. If I want to shuffle through my eclectic collection, or steep myself deep in a single artist I can, and everything I hear will be stuff I like. Wow! I can barely turn it off at night. I love it.

Though I will not wear it outside. It's not meant to replace the natural soundtrack of the Ice, which doesn't need music. I don't want to endanger either it or myself. It will not act as a distraction from what I am there for, but it sure as heck will enhance my liesure time.

I can barely wait to get there, even as my mind shrieks But I'm Not Packed Yet!! Panic and anticipation both swirl through me deliciously. Will it ever get old? I hope not.

posted by: coldwish at 16:03 | link | comments (1) |
between 2006