First Events With A Familiar Face

“The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.” -W.M. Lewis

Once we disembarked the vehicle night had somehow crept upon us and it was significantly darker than before but not all the way dark. We were let out at what is known as Derelict Junction which sits between the various dorm buildings and 155 which is the main building. We then were led to our science building known as Crary for our debriefing. Crary is a bright, welcoming, multi-level building (by that I mean 2 levels). We threw down our large jackets on any hook available and proceeded upstairs to a large room with a pedestal at the front of it. We were welcomed by the acting station manager and a few of the other people of importance and were given instructions on how the next few hours should be taken. It essentially meant that we had to pick up our room keys and then report to our supervisors. They, in turn, gave us a pocket books (known as a green brain due to it's color) with various notes and then instructed us to get some food and sleep because we would be working first thing in the morning.

Once we were released we walked outside to a pitch black view of the sky and went to the Galley for dinner with a few people, one of which was Camille and she showed us a few areas of interest on our way to dinner. Once we were fully fed and the nerves had calmed a bit we picked up our bed linens and went to the post office to pick up our bags to bring to our new rooms. My bags were heavy and stifling after our long journey but luckily there was a shuttle service to make the trip significantly shorter. Once I got out of the shuttle I was on my own. I walked slowly up the stairs to the third floor of building 206 with my mind escaping to an innumerable amount of places. I waddled down the hallway gawking at the room numbers wondering where mine would be. 316...317...319? Wait a minute! Where's my room? After a few more steps I realized it was the next down due to the odd arrangement of doors.

I opened the locked door expecting my roommate to be there waiting for me but was disappointed. Her things were arranged on one side of the room signifying that she had arrived yesterday. I then began to tear my bags open and arrange my set up to suit my needs. With the blankets on the bed, toiletries in their appropriate areas and clothes tucked away in the closet I sat for a moment and marveled at my current situation. In the last few days I have flown partway across America, flew across the Pacific Ocean to Australia, then to New Zealand for three days, landed in Antarctica and am now waiting to start work the next day. Talk about an action packed week!

In the few moments while I was considering all of this I heard a key jostle in lock of the door and in walked my roommate Sarah Leonetti!

The History of Tom and Sarah:

May 4th, 2012 Cinco de Mayo.

I met up with my friends Andy Christopfel and Jodi Birkofer at a bar in Denver to have a few celebratory drinks on behalf of our freed Mexican friends to the south. After a beer they told me that our friend Rocco Sucato would be arriving with a friend of his from Chicago. The two of them arrived shortly and this is the first occasion I shook hands with Sarah Leonetti. Conversation progressed as it will and at one point my friend Jodi asked how my Antarctic application was going and Rocco lit up before I had a chance to answer. He turned to Sarah and said, "Oh! This is the Antarctica guy!" And she lit up in return. She then explained how she's been trying to get into the program without much luck. I explained that it's probably because the company had switched over to Lockheed Martin and she needed to reapply. I then told her that I knew two people who worked for the headquarters there in Denver and it might help to send them an email notifying them of her interest. After a few more drinks and more information being exchanged we parted ways promising that we would email each other within the next few days to ensure maximum possibility of her acceptance. This was the last time I spoke with Sarah for the next 3 or so months in person. We kept to our word and exchanged emails inquiring about each other's process and as luck would have it, we both got our offer letters to join the program! We then filed the proper paperwork to be each other's roommates.

I sprang to my feet to greet Sarah as she walked through the door in her big red. We had so much to talk about and not enough night to do so. Sarah then alerted me to an Outdoor Safety Lecture happening that night. This was important to attend so we would be cleared to do the various hikes around station. So it was back to Crary to the upstairs room for another lecture. The sign in sheet made me laugh because it asked me for information I did not know off the top of my head. Department? I think it's GSC...I'm going with that...Supervisor...shit...I have no idea...Well they have my name and room number, if they really need this stuff they can find me, people are waiting for this clipboard. Lucky for me there were two clipboards and so I snagged up the second one and signed it as well and also found someone else who worked for GSC and copied their information. I realized later that it unfortunately, was the wrong information.

Once this was over we went back to our dorms and though I was anxious for the next day I was also incredibly tired and fell asleep almost immediately. Now it was time to really get McMurdo life underway!