14 November, 1997

Friday Nov. 14

Hi Everyone,

Made it in fine. Our group got lucky and were able to fly on the C-141 jet. Made the trip from Christchurch in 5 and a half hours. It was the last trip the big jet will make this season because the sea ice run way is beginning to get thin (at the moment it is 9 ft thick) and unsafe for the big jets. There were at least 80 people on our plane approximately 25 were Russians going to their base. I ended up in a dorm with mostly Russian people. Once again I'm lucky that I do not have a roommate at this time. The bed is made up but no one has been here. The dorms are really crowded because the weather has been bad and not many people have gotton out to their final destination. So far there have only been two planes in and out of South Pole station because of the weather situation. My dorm room is small but like I said, so far it is a single. I was so tired the first night that after supper and getting unpacked and squared away I just put in my ear plugs used on the plane, covered my eyes to keep out the continous sunlight and just zzzzzd away. I'm doing fine.