It's the final countdown!

Hello everyone! There is a HUGE snow storm outside right now. My head hurt all day which usually means there is some sort of barometric pressure change.
So much is going on right now!
Lucas and I mailed out our Peace Corps medical packet a few days ago which means that we are done with the application process except for my polio booster that I will get in New Zealand. Once we send proof of vaccination in, we'll have to wait six to eight weeks and we'll know where we are going! Lucas and I hope it's Vanuatu, but we keep hearing that anything can happen-- for all we know we may be spending the next 27 months in Uzbekistan! Anyways, I'm excited to have work that is meaningful again.

Our time in Antarctica is coming to an end and I am having lots of mixed feelings. In so many ways I am really ready to get off this dead volcanic rock and ice block. I am tired of waking up at five in the morning six days a week and working ten hour days. I am tired of the sun always shining and having dry skin all the time.
Yet, the mountains in the far-off distance are so beautiful; i see them everyday on my way to work. I love walking to hut point after dinner and seeing seals and looking for whales and penguins with Lucas. Sometimes, I really like washing dishes and pots-- it's a great way to think and pray.
I've learned a lot about myself doing this type of work... It's been nice to laugh at myself--there are some things that are so very "me". I walk around the galley with the same cup of coffee all day and I raise my hand during stretch break to point out ways that our systems could run smoother even if I really don't want to care at all. I bring a backpack to work full of everything you can think of and I walk slow. My lunch lady friends can very easily believe that I drive a car slow too.

I've enjoyed my co-workers. Most of them are way younger than I am and it's kind of fun to be the old married lady that goes to bed at 8 p.m. Today I almost cried looking at their sweet faces--it will never be the same... not like this... ever again. Every ending always evokes every other ending for me... so bittersweet... I am so grateful for such a wonderful life.

Sometimes it's hard for me to be around all the different kinds of energy here. There are people who are lost and running from something either internally or externally; there are people who are bravely taking their lives into their own hands and having a big, wonderful adventure to the farthest corner of the world; there are people who are older tradespeople and journeymen making a living; there are orphans who no longer have families that they are attached to, and there is everybody in between. It's a like a bunch of peter pans and lost boys(girls) decided to come to Antarctica to see what it would be like . Every person here is transitory and outside of their every day lives... Lucas loves this-weird-antarctic-energy. He loves this community. Loves it. He likes that there are all these random people in such an isolated place...

It's the weirdest commune on the planet hands down.

I, on the other hand, don't love it. I don't love the culture--there's too much drinking and debauchery for my tastes... and I've met lots of people that I think are amazing and enjoy seeing everyday. There are so many of these contradictions that it makes my head hurt in the pot room.

I'm sad that Lucas and I probably won't come back. With all of it and everything, I would come back again. The amount of money we can save is fantastic and there is something special about this place... maybe because it is all about contradictions and hard edges... I don't quite know.

I'm so excited to see children and dogs. I can't wait to feel humidity and see trees and strangers. I can't wait for someone else to wash my dishes and to eat fresh food (most everything we eat expired in 2004)... and I might even miss this place... maybe a little. My love to everyone..Alex