SLC and Antarctica

I'm having the time of my life. My flight to Salt Lake City was fast...less than 45 minutes. I met some of the firefighters I'll be working with for the first time at dinner that night. It's pretty cool to be working with people from all over the country and the world as is the case for the two Kiwi's that will be working with us. So far, everyone I'll be working with is pretty cool. Thursday was spent familiarizing ourselves with the LC-130 we'll be working with down on the ice. We went out that night to a bar called Port O Call which actually turned out to be a pretty cool place not to mention a big ass bar with 3 floors. One thing I can say is that so far, I'm really not that big a fan of Salt Lake City. I've come across a lot of sketchy people...more than I've seen in the same amount of time in D.C. Friday, we hit the ground running. We were burning within 2 hours of starting class. It really didn't dawn on me earlier but this is it: this is where we're building teamwork as well as professional and personal relationships with each other. Down on the ice, there's only two shifts: A and B. We'll be working together for 5 months straight, for some even longer. It was pretty cool to see us all come together and make drastic improvements on how we operate by the end of the day. One thing that really dawned on me was that this was really happening. I'm an employee of Raytheon. I work for the Antarctic Fire Department. A lot of the guys that had been down there before had so many stories and information to share with the majority of us that hadn't. It makes you more and more excited to get down there as you listen on. Friday and Saturday nights were both spent back at Port O Call. Surprisingly, I behaved myself and didn't drink too much. Some of my coworkers got plastered however. We all are bonding friendships which was pretty cool to be a part of those nights we were at the bar together. This goes back to show the importance of building friendships, relationships, and connections through everything I do. I now know and work with people from Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Colorado, Alaska, New Hampshire, Texas, Georgia, and New Zealand. I know people that are dying to come visit me in D.C. to experience the city and do some fishing and backpacking with me. It's a great feeling being a part of all this. A few of the hours out of the two days we've been in class so far was spent going over administrative stuff regarding Raytheon. We handing in our uniform information sheet and I'm planning on ordering about $120 worth of extra uniform stuff. The possibility also exists that I could get rotated down to the South Pole Station to staff their crash trucks down there for a month or so and then get rotated back to Mcmurdo. Needless to say, I'm pretty excited for October..