End of Season Rant

It's Sunday 08 Feb and I have 11 days left in Antarctica. I'm ready to get back to civilization for a little while. A lot of the things we take for granted I'm ready to experience again: colors, smells, humidity, grass, plants, mammals with legs, stars, night! It's been too long without them. I've also been ready to get away from the clutches in which Raytheon as me (as well as everyone else) ensnared. For 5 months I've stared at mountains across the Ross Sea (as well as on Ross Island itself), I've read climbing, skiing, and snorkeling magazines, I've talked to friends that are enjoying their lives throughout the world doing the things that they (and I) love, and I've surfed the internet into the far reaches of third-world countries websites just to get a taste of adventure somewhere else. My friend, Heather is traveling around SE asia doing nothing but climbing, yoga on the beach, and living the good life. I, at one point, was seriously thinking about rendezvousing somewhere to climb for a week or so with her but now with my financial situation I won't be able to. My friend Sitka whom I'm visiting in Australia in a few weeks is dying for me to take her out climbing. My friend Dan is already climbing in Zion which has me aching to hit up some of the big walls there. While flying over the Transantarctic Mountains, I was looking at every ridge, peak, and glacier for anything that resembled a line that could be climbed or skied. My mind is crazy right now with things I'd like to do but there only so much time I can do it in this year and I'm still under two weeks away from getting out of this place.

The season is definitely winding down. It's getting colder and colder every day. The sun is dancing towards the horizon practicing for it's winter retreat. Today, I think the sun actually made it behind the Royal Society range. The first sunset of the year is only a couple weeks away. I'm ready for a break from traveling. I'm ready to start (and finish) school. At the same time, I can't wait to be able to come back down here again. Antarctica is definitely on the business end of a love/hate relationship. I was excited at the beginning of the season and (no surprise) I'm now ready to get the hell out of here. Oh well, 11 days to go...