Pizza Party and Happy Camper

Last weekend, I cooked homemade pizza and apple crisp for the shuttles crew. The boss came up with an ice cream maker and even with imitation vanilla, boxed cream, and powdered milk, it was still the best! It's amazing how special the little things are down here. We have such a fun group!
At happy camper school, we learned how to build snow shelters, work various kinds of radios, run camp stoves, find people in white-outs, along with helicopter safety, preventing hypothermia, etc. It was great fun!
People actually slept in these Quincies. We piled up all our bags, then shoveled snow on it. After a few hours, we dug out a hole, and the snow miraculously set like cement. Even though we all jumped on top, it didn't collapse. I felt instantly claustrophobic and slept in a tall Scott Tent instead.
We had to saw out snow blocks to build this wind barrier.
Anything that was not in your sleeping bag froze solid. My toothpaste and sunscreen were unusable in the morning.
Coincidentally, I went to Happy Camper with Robin, the lead scientist at AGAP, from Columbia University. Nice person, and clearly used to being in charge.
One woman woke up very cold and asked me for help trying to zip up her coat. She was almost incoherent, then she told me she felt like she was going to faint. Luckily there were 2 firefighters in our group and I asked them for help. An ambulance was dispatched to our site and she was carried off for treatment. It was COLD at night. I had to wrap my head in extra long johns to keep out the light and keep my face warm.

Um, I brought a pee bottle instead...

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Think of Elizabeth and Ben as they have their tiny little celebration with Carrie. They miss those big Graham clan gatherings we used to have. So do I! We don't get to celebrate until Saturday, but all of shuttles will be sitting down to a feast together. They have 5 different seatings for the big meal to accomodate everyone. Then everyone else volunteers at the other meal times. There is a running race that morning! And a craft show on Sunday, then something called Freezing Man (a play on Burning Man, Chris and Lara), so there is always something to do.

No word from Scott, although today the C-17 (big military plane that brought us in) is doing an air drop of supplies over AGAP. Can you imagine how thrilling that will be for Scott to see?