23°F
I have now been at McMurdo for a bit over 24 hours. I am pretty impressed with the food. It is a lot better than I expected. McMurdo has a cafeteria setup for dining and the "dining hall" or galley holds about 150 people max by my estimation. Meals happen at the same time every day for windows of 2-2.5 hours. Breakfast is from 5:00-7:30am, lunch is from 11:00am-1:00pm, and dinner is from 5:00-7:30pm. There is also a midnight meal for those on the graveyard shift. On Sundays, however, breakfast isn't served, brunch is from 10:00am-1:00pm, and dinner is from 5:00-7:00pm. Breakfast seems to be a variation of the same thing every day: scrambled eggs, meat, potatoes, omelet station, pastries and baked goods, and continental breakfast goodies (like cereal, oatmeal, yogurt, cottage cheese, and toast). Lunch and dinner vary and so far are tasty and creative. For my first lunch the menu included beef stew, turkey pot pie, vegetarian chili, mashed potatoes. Last night's dinner was pistachio crusted chicken, scallops in pesto, and manicotti. Both of those meals were delicious. Future menus are posted online:
Saturday, December 17
LUNCH 11:00 AM-1:00 PM
Sesame Braised Beef
Chicken Teriyaki
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| Lunch today! |
DINNER 5:00 PM-7:30 PM
Safety Dinner!
MidRat Meal 12:00 AM-1:00 AM
Card Holders only 12:00 AM-12:30 AM
Open 12:30 AM-1:00 AM
Sunday, December 18
CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST 6:00 AM-7:30AM
BRUNCH 10:00AM -1:00PM
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| Intranet site we can access here in McMurdo's network for weather conditions, the week's menu, etc. |
DINNER 5:00 PM-7:00 PM
Sliced London Broil
Herb-Roasted Chicken
Tempeh Stroganoff
MidRat Meal 12:00 AM-1:00 AM
Card Holders only 12:00 AM-12:30 AM
Open 12:30 AM-1:00 AM
Monday, December 19
LUNCH 11:00 AM-1:00 PM
Pub Cod
Blackened Chicken
Blackened Tofu
DINNER 5:00 PM-7:30 PM
Lemon Baked Cod
Beef Bourguignon
Bean Cassoulet
MidRat Meal 12:00 AM-1:00 AM
Card Holders only 12:00 AM-12:30 AM
Open 12:30 AM-1:00 AM
Tuesday, December 20
LUNCH 11:00 AM-1:00 PM
Fried Chicken
BBQ Brisket
Grilled BBQ Tofu
DINNER 5:00 PM-7:30 PM
Roasted Turkey Breast
Ginger-Beer Ham
Quinoa Toss
MidRat Meal 12:00 AM-1:00 AM
Card Holders only 12:00 AM-12:30 AM
Open 12:30 AM-1:00 AM
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| One of our lab rooms |
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| The view outside of the lab window |
I have several more orientations and training to before I am set here. I have communications and hiking training today, which are only an hour each. Monday morning I have a lab building orientation and a training course for working in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. Then on Tuesday and Wednesday I have "snow school," which is a day and a half long survival training course.
Our research group has two labs in the Crary building, which is where most of the chemistry, geology, and biology labs are located. I have yet to learn my exact analytical chemistry duties, but I think they will include helping make instrumentation work, processing water samples for chlorophyll measurements, and organizing gear for field work. I am in the analytical group of the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research (http://www.mcmlter.org/).
I shall leave you with some photos I took this morning...
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| I thought this ice on the side of the road was pretty |
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| Mount Discovery (almost 8,800ft stratovolcano across McMurdo Sound) |
OK. I feel better now . . . . civilized indeed! Mount Discovery I am sure was manufactured by Walt Disney. Unreal. Like brother like sister--food food food !! How about popcorn? That is my dinner tonight (again). Leah will be home any moment. Yay !!
ReplyDeleteHaha popcorn sounds great! Say hi to Leah for me! I shall post photos of my dorm here in McMurdo at some point. It's pretty civilized. Once I'm out in the field though, it will be less civilized...
ReplyDelete