Sunday, January 24, 2010

Beneath the Southern Cross

Yesterday I crossed the equator for the first time ever, and if it were not overcast in Christchurch NZ I would be able to see completely new stars!  The flights were long and tiring but not too bad.  After living in NYC for such a long time I got used to being able to fly direct to almost anywhere so the four leg trip to Christchurch was pretty grueling.  At least all my bags made it with me, which was not the case with some of my USAP traveling companions.


Every year the Antarctic Program hands out luggage tags to participants and here is a picture of this year's purple tag.  They aren't just gifts and we are required to put them on our bags so the airline can give those bags special consideration.  That's the theory anyway.  The handing out of the luggage tags is one of the minor high-points of the orientation in Denver every year.

We arrived in Christchurch at 2:30 pm yesterday and made it to our hotels around 4 pm.  We then had the rest of the day off.  (!)  I managed to stay awake until about 10 pm.  Later today we all go to the clothing distribution center to be issued all our ECW gear, then tomorrow we leave at a very, very early hour for Antarctica!

2 comments:

bjv said...

Enjoyed reading your update! Thanks...am still smiling.

Mindy said...

Hey! Crazy coincidence, Jellie has the same luggage tag! What are the odds? :)

Post a Comment