KillKenny, Kiwis, and C-17 Pilots.
Part of the fun of this place is the people you meet. While to most of you I may seem traveled, placing me in that same category seems almost sacrilegious in comparison to a majority of the people here. One guy on one of my shuttles has worked on every continent, Antarctica was the last one he needed to step foot on, and has spent the past 5 years as the climbing master for Denali National Park. Others have worked in every imaginable place you could create, doing any job that you could imagine.
I have had the good fortune to meet some really amazing people so far. Even my little group of friends, whom I have been with since Denver, are all very different and have taken totally insane paths through this world. It's no wonder that we all fell off of the map and ended up here together. I couldn't imagine any better people to be with. From someone working for a traveling santa, to a dive instructor living in the Keys, to intellectuals, to chefs and rafting guides. We all are so different that we find ourselves fitting together like a puzzle finally complete.
We have laughed together for each part of this journey thus far. Once the time came for our “bag drag” we goofed off at the air field all decked out in our ECW gear (extreme cold weather) buzzing off our mutual excitement. Also flying with us were members of the military, mostly Air Force, and several participants of Scott Base, the New Zealand ice station. Snowball became an instant star, and I probably became labeled as the biggest geek to ever walk the earth because of his constant presence.
A leg of our journey was a 5 ½ hour flight on a C-17 from New Zealand to here. The crew was US Air Force, some National Guard, some full time, all cool. After a few hours they opened up the cockpit for us each to go up into and check out. True to form, I brought Snowball with me. We were lucky, we were sat in the second row, so we were able to move around rather freely and check everything out. A few Kiwi's sat behind me whom I shared frequent smiles with, being too big of a coward to just strike up a conversation, although with the engine and the ear plugs a conversation would have been a bit difficult.
We landed, we freaked out at the beauty, we settled in, and we went to work the next day. I work the AM shift, so 430am-230pm. Every other day or two I work the egg line. Fresh eggs, omelets and scrambles made for the growing population. I've learned a few names, and thanks to name tags, they all seem to know mine. One morning, a super cute clean cut guy says to me, “Julie, how are you? You're awfully quiet this morning.” I laughed and told him I was busy thinking about all the cool things I was going to do on my day off the next day. We started talking and I asked what exactly he did down here. He was a C-17 Pilot.
No Shit!? Was about all I could manage to say. “Were you my pilot?” I asked, “I don't know, when did you get here?” was his reply. “I have no idea” was my honest answer haha. He asked if I got to tour a cockpit on my flight in and I told him that not only did I get inside, but my stuffed bunny Snowball also got to check it out. Suddenly he burst out laughing, “I totally remember you!!” Snowball, the famous world traveler makes another friend. Today he told me it was his time to go, they rotate for about 6 weeks then return to their permanent duty station. It was sad news to be sure. I had grown used to having him around, and our wee chats in the morning, sharing jokes as we pass each other in the halls. I still don't know his name, I know he was a Major, so I always just called him Sir. Last night I told him I still found it really weird to have the conversations I did with him because of his rank, I couldn't quite get it out of my head. His crew just laughed, told me it was ok, and that they too had a hard time with it but it was all good. Hopefully some of his crew will still be around. So today at lunch, when he told me he was leaving, I ran upstairs and got Snowball so I could take a picture of them all together, and they loved it! Haha.
As mentioned, Scott Base is the Kiwi polar station, it's only about a 10 minute drive away, or an hour and a half hike. It's a tenth of the size of McMurdo, and while we currently have a population of about 850, they sit at 58. The Kiwi's can come here anytime they want, but we need an invitation to visit them. On Thursdays they have American night at their pub, so last night a few of us decided to go check it out. Wow! So different!!
Our base is set up much like a small town, lots of buildings with roads and stop signs, recycling dumpsters, loaders, heavy equipment everywhere. Scott base is a jigsaw puzzle of converted mil-vans, connected by hallways, on the edge of the water like us, but with a much better view. The other day a few of their chefs came to visit us in the kitchen to check it out, and a tall skinny guy saw me and stopped, then yells, oh yeah hey! I remember you. I was in the process of taking out the trash so I offered him my wrist to shake as a substitute for the hand he offered me. I'm James he chirped, I remember you from the flight! And your wee bunny. (snowball strikes again) So you need an invite to go to their base outside of American night, and everyone is quite keen to spend some time over there, so I was pretty stoked, when on my second or third day of work, while taking out the trash, the new chef James yells in my direction once I returned from taking out the trash, Oh yeah, Julie gets an invite for sure! All I hear was my name and invite though so I turned and waited for someone to explain what just happened. We all just sort of looked at each other. I was like what? And one of my bosses said don't worry about it, we're just talking about you. I just laughed, said ok, and returned to work.
I must have made a decent impression because while at Scott Base last night a guy who I had never met asked, hey you're a chef yeah? I've heard about you. Haha I was like how the hell have you heard about me? Apparently one of their chefs thought my little display of misunderstanding while taking out the trash was funny to her, and her and I had talked a bit in the bar earlier. She gave me a tour of their kitchen, which is TINY compared to ours, and most restaurant kitchens really. I asked if it would be cool if I came by sometime on my day off to cook with her and she was well keen.
So we all hung out, drank beers, met new people, and enjoyed ourselves. They are notorious for having a better beer selection then us and true to legend that they did. KillKenny in a can, but KillKenny none the less. I spotted the beer I loved just after I noticed the tall handsome Kiwi that I shared smiles with on the plane. And of course, I was too much of a coward to just go up and talk with him. So I popped around the bar, having fun with my friends, making new ones, and eventually just rocked up and was like hey mate, remember me?
He did, we properly introduced ourselves and our job descriptions and such, and he asked where snowball was, hahaha, snowball strikes again. So we talked, and I met another woman who has worked with him for a few years, but who is American from Montana. They will leave on Sunday to a field camp 500 miles away out in the middle of nowhere until February. As the KillKennys continued down smooth my words became a bit smoother, as well as my delivery haha.
Hope this doesn't become habit!
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