photos of the week

[1/26(Sa) Finally met Tsuzuki-san, the first Japanese female skier to the South Pole!]
This morning I walked over to their tent again on my way to the lab, and ran into one of the skiers, John. He had just woken up and was going into the station to get a visual on the other group of skiers that they were waiting for to fly back on the same airplane. He said Erik (not the graduate student Erik) had shown them around the 10-meter telescope last night. I was disappointed that I didn't know about it. He said Sumiyo (the Japanese skier) had just woken up so feel free to talk to her. They were still inside the tent, and I didn't want to disturb them shortly after waking up, so I just started heading toward the lab, constantly looking back in case they get out of the tent. I noticed that my note was still there untouched.
During lunch I talked to many people in the station who had met the skiers. I wished somebody had told me about them, but I guess people here don't really see me as very Japanese... which is good in a way, but also somewhat unfortunate. I also heard that one of the station managers asked them to stay off the station and stay in their tent because they were hanging out in the station too much or something...
8PM This evening was the South Pole International Film Festival. It's usually a pretty unique collection of short pieces filmed here by various people, and I thought the skiers would enjoy it. I really hoped that they didn't feel like they needed to stay in their tent all day, so decided to go invite them. Plus, I still wanted to meet them. I walked up to their tent, saw the my note was still unnoticed, and said "hello, konnichiwa" from outside. I couldn't see them, but a voice said "Douzo, ohairikudasai" ("please, come in") as if I had just knocked on a friend's home in Japan. I was surprised that she didn't sound surprised at all to hear Japanese from outside the tent in the middle of Antarctica. I opened the tent and they welcomed me in. The 3 of them were just lying in their sleeping bags, apparently waiting to go to sleep. Tsuzuki-san seemed like she was not surprised at all to see a Japanese person come all of a sudden, and made room for me to sit. She talked to me very casually and friendily as if this was Japan. Turns out Carolyn (and probably others) had told them that "we have a Japanese guy here, although he's really an American". I was a little surprised to be considered an American. Anyways, I invited them to come see the film festival. They were hesistent probably because of what one of the station managers told them, but when I told them that the Site Manager Katie said they're definitely welcome, they agreed. I got ourselves seats very close to the screen and they seemed to have enjoyed it, although the quality of the films this year was not quite as good as previous years' (Actually, this is the first time I'm actually here for the festival, so maybe I've only seen the best ones from previous years). To make up for it, Tom Pi showed an excellent full-length film "Ice Cold Summer: A Documentary of Life at Pole" that he made for the International Polar Year. He had visited our telescope earlier this season and previous years to film us work. The manager (who suggested the skiers earlier to stay off) came by and welcomed them again. They must have been around the station quite a bit since many other people knew them and talked to them.
11PM The largest project on the station, Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory, was having a thank you party to celebrate their successful summer season, so I invited the skier to join. I had a chance to talk with Tsuzuki-san; she's a writer/journalist and said she's going to write a book about this trip. She was also fascinated about going to outer space and the Moon. She gave me all of her contact information so that we can meet when I'm in Tokyo. Her hand-writing was very similar to my mother's!
1AM The skiers were going to take pictures at the Pole, so I helped them. They seemed to like the Ceremonial Pole with the shiney ball, and went straight there without stopping at the Geographic Pole. It was windy and cold, but they took a bunch of pictures with many things; it again made me feel fortunate that I could come here many times for an extended time just because of my research. After almost an hour, they went inside to warm up in the galley, where they were showing the films for the night shift people. I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, so I was pretty sleepy, but waited for them since they had expressed an interest in visiting our telescope. Tsuzuki-san had brought from the tent a bag full of Japanese food from her food supply and gave it to me :) That was nice of her. I was happy to see many appetizing-looking food from Japan; it felt like I had just gotten a care package from Japan, all the way at the South Pole. She was curious what the berthings look like in this station, so I showed her my room even though it was not prepared for any kind of visit. She took some pictures of my messy room :)
3AM Then we walked over to our telescope for a visit. I didn't notice at first, but Evan was on the floor taking a nap. He woke up and didn't seem too happy about how his spectroscopy measurements were going. I felt bad about just giving a leisurely tour, so made it quick. My brain was not at its best from sleep deprivation and it was a challenge to try to explain things in Japanese, but it was a pleasure. Tsuzuki-san said she'll be busy for a while when she returns to Japan, but hope we can stay in touch. I found out that the station's DVD inventory includes the Everest IMAX film where she was one of the 4 climbers. I'm looking forward to watching it. She was a little embarrassed by it because she did not make it to the summit in this film, because her ribs broke from repetatively breathing too hard! That's unimaginable... She was my age, too. She then went back to summit Everest the following year or so as the 3rd Japanese woman to do so. It was a privilege to meet her; she was a very friendly and nice person, too. Their plane was coming to pick them up in several hours, so said good bye.
[1/27(Su) Moon came up above the horizon!]
6PM After working on spectroscopy, skied back to the station for ultimate frisbee, but we didn't have quite enough people; plus Nathan had hurt his knee during volleyball Friday. Carla suggested going for a walk since we were already dresssed up. She was preparing packages to ship to Palmer Station (where she will spend the next year), so I tried to prepare something to mail, too, but by the time I returned to the mail room she was already finished. We decided to go to the snow hill since she hadn't been there yet. We discovered an even taller hill (~10 meter) and after some experimentations on the shorter side, we sled down the tall hill. It felt just as safe, but even more fun! We got lots of snow inside our clothes, but climbing back up the hill kept us warm enough. It was really fun. Carla said she had a stressful morning, so it was nice to play outside. We weren't dressed warm enough, but decided we'll come back again another time.
7PM After a quick dinner, skied back to the telescope to fill liquid nitrogen. Then skied back to the station again to catch the 8pm lecture on South Pole weather (where Jeff said that the water content in the air here is equivalent to about 1% humidity), and skied back to the lab again. With skies, it's not too time-consuming to go back and forth.
The Moon had finally come up above the horizon again, this time when it's clear! During last month's pass, it was always overcast or cloudy, so completely missed it :( 1AM Back to the station and remembered to sign the big Dome Decommissioning photo. In group shots, I learned that trying to go higher in the photo seems fun, but being closer to the photographer helps you to be more identifiable. Kiwon in the front looks like a true hero. I laid out all the Japanese food Tsuzuki-san gave me :) Since the station has plenty of food, and these types of food are meant to be travel food, I might just use them during my time in Australia, although i feel quite selfish...
[1/28(Mo) Fell under the Moon ]:
At lunch, Cynthia wanted to take a picture of my colorful bowl but didn't have her camera, so I took one. By the way, my plant in my room is doing really well! I see those purplish little stingers, so it must be eggplant. It's amazing to think that the leaves and the stingers and everything are growing pretty much solely from water and the CO2 that I've been exhaling since 12/19...
6:30PM Carla and Kate joined me to work on the greenhouse for half an hour. In just one week, we again had a bag full of cucumbers to harvest. The tomato plants I planted with Karen had grown up, too =>
8:30PM While the sky is clear and the Moon is visible, Cynthia and I went on a photographic expedition, Cynthia with her camera featuring a zoom of up to 10x (mine only 3x).
This is the maximum zoom possible with my camera... :( For my next camera choice, zoom capability will be a more important criteria so that I can take better Moon photos. We tried to take a photo with me poking up behind our telescope, but the ladder was not quite tall enough.
Actually, maybe it was a good thing that the ladder was not so tall... I saw Cynthia walking closer to the lab, so I reached to see where she was going, when the ladder lost balance under me. I tried to lower myself quickly, but the ladder started falling forward. My left arm flung backward and I felt my shoulder pop out as I fell from about 2-meter height. I must have grabbed the top of the ground screen with my right arm since I landed without any pain anywhere except my left shoulder. As the thought of a possible trauma case raced in my head, I laid in my landing position for a few seconds, making sure that my shoulder is back in place and that I can move. I got up and quickly used my right arm to stand the ladder back up and moved it to the original location by the spectroscopy setup. I felt really stupid for not being more careful. Actually, my mother had warned me 19 days ago to be careful of heights, since she had a dream of me falling off of the telescope. As I headed down from the roof, Evan came up to see what the big noise was. I just apologized for disturbing the measurement and didn't say what happened because it felt so silly. Evan showed me the disturbance that our detector just saw, but I was glad it didn't seem to have affected the measurement much. Cynthia came in, and the 3 of us just talked about our graduate student business while I tried to act normal even though my shoulder was still in pain. I was really glad that I landed well, without hitting the head or anything. But I was most worried that this could affect my planned paragliding learning in February... My shoulder dislocates so easily that this was a concern from the beginning even without this incident.
Anyways, after we warmed up Cynthia and I went for another shooting on the roof. I wanted to make the Moon big using the zoom, but couldn't focus... It was very cold to pose on the ladder on the roof, exposed to the wind.
We had to go back to warm up a few times. Cynthia reminded me that we could take these Moon photos anywhere -- doesn't have to be in Antarctica. I realized that it's true we can do this in warm California, and quickly became happy enough with what we've got already.
I stayed up in the lab with Evan till early morning to start taking spectroscopy on detectors with different orientations.
[1/29(Tu) Shoulder, sauna]
When I woke up, my shoulder hurt more than last night, so I went to see a physician Leslie to be on the safe side. She said, seeing the way I move around, I probably have very flexible joints to the point that my shoulders easily dislocate... I need to strengthen the muscles around the shoulders to help keep the joints in place. She gave me an ice pack and anti-inflammatory pills. She had to file this as a reportable injury "while at work" and told me to inform my supervisor Bill. It's really not a big deal, so I thought to tell him whenever I see him next. Apparently Leslie wrote Bill an email informing him that I sustained an injury and a physical therapy evaluation has been requested, so he wrote me asking what happened and if i was alright. At dinner that evening, people were speculating all kinds of things about what happened :)
2PM I had to walk to the telescope for a change, instead of skiing :( I don't think I'll ski again, just to be safe :( I also won't be able to play volleyball or ultimate frisbee anymore :( Oh well, maybe this will help me be more cautious during paragliding... In the afternoon, I wrote up a weekly report for the team and a monthly science report for the National Science Foundation.
11:30PM Brad and Tom proposed a sauna night tonight and invited 5 others, but nobody else joined us, most of them saying that they don't like saunas -- they're missing out. I had been in sauna only couple times in my life, and didn't particularly like it, but I now see why people volunteer to sit in the torturing heat. I had fallen a sleep around 10pm, but Brad called me. This time I took my camera. After almost an hour, we went outside on the deck. It was -34°C with windchill of about -50°C, but was great. We went back to the sauna for another half hour, and went out this time to the South Pole side. It felt very warm and i laid on the snow again.
[1/30(We) getting ready for power outage & computer replacement]
[1/31(Th) many problems after power outage, Evan & Brian leaves]
[2/1(Fr) laid on snow naked at -43°C]

[2/2(Sa) Steffen arrives!]