Well it’s time for a long overdue first tiny letter from Antarctica! This is part 1/2 of my January.
Prequel
Getting here was the first part of the adventure. I flew from LAX January 1, where I said a tearful goodbye to Casey, to Sydney, Australia. 
His family helpfully picked me up from he airport, made a favorite from my visit (vegan pot pie), and gave me space to have a shower, chat, have tea and even take a walk. I met up with a family friend of Casey’s who loaned me some nice, unused photography equipment. I said a goodbye to everyone and headed to the airport. There I met Amy, my colleague for the winter, 
and Todd my trainer. We had an uneventful flight to Christchurch but arrived quite late. The next day we met for breakfast, I met my second trainer Charlie, and I reported to try on our “Extreme Cold Weather” (ECW) 
gear; those of us going to the south pole were issued Diamox, if we wanted it, to help combat altitude sickness (the South Pole is at more than 10,000 ft). The United States Antarctic Program (USAP) has a lot of acronyms, as I was becoming more and more aware of. That day we wandered around Christchurch
, saw some local sites (ate Thai food), and then met members of the SPT and BICEP collaboration on their way back from Pole (it turns out south is dropped from South Pole in Antarctic speak). We had a brief afterparty and got a good night’s rest for the next day’s “Ice Flight” (your flight to Antarctica, performed by the New York National Guard; ours was to be on a C-130 Hercules Aircraft.
The next morning we were ready, but at first the flight was delayed. then we went through security and went out there, only to bus back due to another delay. Then we went out again and boarded the plane, only to be delayed to to a mechanical issue (the VOR), which was fixed but we had to deplane to refuel. we replaned and finally took off.
We landed late in McMurdo, I got a short video of my first step in Antarctica and we rode “Ivan the Terra Bus” to the base
. After a brief orientation, we went to the cafeteria, got our rooms and then went to sleep.
The next day our flight to pole was delayed, and I went on a hike up observation hil
l. After some negotiation I got a last minute tour of Scott’s discovery hut
I then went on a hike around observation loop. At various points I saw many seals and birds, but no penguins. Had some nice dinner (there were vegan options but I still was unclear what would be available at pole) and went to sleep, after sending a brief email letting people know that I was OK, paying the last of my US bills and withdrawing as much cash as possible from the Wells Fargo ATM in McMurdo (there are no ATMs at pole). I had strong hopes to go to pole the next day, and maybe even see a penguin on my way. The more important of those two events occurred.
On the 7th of January, 7 days after I had left LA (or 6 if you don’t count the entire day I missed flying over the international date line I finally flew to pole!
I got a tour of the C-130 cockpit.
The flight seemed short. I arrived at pole, someone helpfully carried my carryon which was really heavy. I saw an informational video and took a tour of the station (which has a music room, green house “growing room”, cafeteria, quiet reading rooms/libraries, craft room, science laboratories, game and movie rooms and more)
where I would be living for the next 10+ months. I went into my room and unpacked. The rooms are dorm room like, with shared bathrooms. I had a nice large desk and plenty of storage space. It was awesome to have enough room for my stuff and plenty of outlets to charge gadgets on.
Pole
The 8th of January started out auspiciously, we were finally here! I could hardly believe it. Feel free to ask me any questions about the South Pole Telescope, which is looking at the cosmic microwave background radiation, the afterglow of the big bang. The South Pole Telescope, or SPT, or “the telescope” will likely be a major feature of all future newsletters, including this one. 
We snowmobiled out to the telescope (it is possible to walk and is only 800m from station, but we were taking it easy as we acclimatize to altitude). It was thrilling to finally “meet” the telescope I would be caring for over the winter, and it was truly the most impressive machine on station. Later, I started on my software training, and quickly became familiar with many of the elements needed to help keep the telescope running. There would be many days of this.
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