Farewell 2009

One more sleep! One more sleep!

I'm just back from dropping off the cats at their home away from home. It was so great to see them check out the place and settle into their Billings Bridge routine right away ( And a big thanks to Shelby for being an awesome surrogate cat lady for all my travels this year!). So now the rest 2009 will be spend packing and just chilling out. I will be celebrating New Years twice as usual... ringing in the Newfoundland New Year with Toni-Marie and all the superb NTV computer graphics. Then watching the names of all the towns in the province scroll across the bottom of the screen and having a drink for everyone one I've lived in or know somebody from!

I will try and post as much as I can over the next month. I don't think pictures will be possible due to limited bandwith at the station, but text I can do. Y'all just have to hold your horses for the pretty pictures! I'll leave you with this cartoon image of MY home away from home for the next month and a fantastically fun Antarctic themed video from one of my favourite Canadian bands.

Happy New Year everyone and as my Sis said to me last night "I'll be thinking of you down there, standing upside down and you can think of me up here, standing upside down."

xoxo
j

How's this for timing?

CBC Newsworld's Passionate Eye aired "March of the Penguins" tonight! How's that for a coincidence??? I had tuned in to watch a documentary on the dark side of pedigree dog breeding and saw that the penguins were coming on afterward (the dog documentary is eye opening and definitely worth the watch btw).

Anyways, I don't think the penguins and I will be able to coordinate our schedules, but the scenery... oh the scenery! I only hope I can capture a fraction of that beauty myself while I'm down on the ice.

(Photo Credit: Jerome Maison)
http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/specials/2008/marchofthepenguins/

Antarctica... seriously?

I decided to give the blog world a whirl after a few friends suggested it might be the easiest way to keep in touch with everyone while on my adventures in Antarctica.

To catch everyone up to speed, I found out in late September that I had been accepted as a participant in the 2010 Graduate Training Course in Antarctic Marine Biology. Basically, it's a trip of a lifetime and a comparative physiologist's playground! After reams and reams of medical and dental tests I've finally been cleared to go, or as all the cool kids say "I've finally PQ'd" (physically qualified). Flights have been booked and it's finally seeming real to me!

I begin the long journey south on New Years Day. What a way to bring in 2010!

Stay tuned for more info, updates and fun Antarctic themed goodies. To get the ball rolling I've added two weather trackers at the bottom of the blog: one for Ottawa and one for McMurdo Research Station.

Let the coldness competition begin!

j