We got an update from our very own Antarctic correspondent! Jeramie appears to like the chilly down-under Down Under:
The Antarctic continent is very beautiful if you love snow capped mountains and smooth frozen ocean as far as the eye can see with spots of water from the summer melting season that's just beginning. In a month or so the ocean ice will melt and a supply ship from Seattle will be brought in full of containers for the year. I haven't seen any wildlife yet, but I'm told I will if I go hiking just outside of the station. All there really is to see are penguins, seals and a type of bird called a Skua. I share a small room with 5 other guys (it's where they stick the first year people). Next year I'd likely have a room with just one other roommate if I choose to return. There is about a 65:35 ratio of males to females here with a total population around roughly 1,050 people. There's a contractor to scientist ratio of about 5:1 here. The U.S. research stations in Antarctica exist solely for the advancement of science here according the Antarctic treaty signed by several nations. There are a large variety of jobs here for people who just want to have the opportunity to say they visited and lived in Antarctica. My job is pretty cool. It's mostly dealing with cargo and loading pallets that get put onto the aircraft. I spend half of my time in town and the other half on the airfield. There are opportunities few and far in between to fly out to other stations for a day to help out. I'm hoping to to go on one of those assignments later on in the season so that way I'll be able to see more of the continent than just McMurdo Station. The food is not too bad here given we're in a remote location. We do get fresh vegetables contrary to rumors that there weren't any. The only down side is no pasteurized milk here :(
Anyhoo, he brings us photographic evidence he's not just chillin' in New Jersey:
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| Mt. Erebus, site of a horrific plane crash and home of 1 of the 5 lava lakes of the world. Shorter than Rainier! |
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| This is probably Jeramie Farnes. Note either Mt. Terror or Mt. Erebus in the background. Oh yeah, and the C17. |
I'd just like to point out that our man Farnes is on a distant continent and still insisted on having a home teaching route. I gave him two, and he's doing them. That man is a stud.
About Mt. Erebus: it's awesome! It has a lava lake in its crater, perfect for destroying the precious or perhaps for disposing of a robot from the future.
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| Terminators like their hot tubs on the toasty side
Anyway, there is a point to this: Mt. Erebus came up in a conference talk by none other than Elder Uchtdorf some years back - one of his better ones, in my opinion.
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