Brett's Southern Crossing

It’s probably obvious by now that my blog updates are 1-2 months behind.  I’m working to catch up, and doing the blog posts is a great motivator for me to sort through my photos.  I returned to Austin the first week of September, and during my last week in Colombia I got an interesting call from Raytheon Polar Services, who I had submitted an application to a few months earlier.

They had a contract employee back out at the last minute due to a medical problem and offered me a job working from October to February at McMurdo Station.  I’ve only barely spoken with the manager who hired me about the job, but it sounds like what I’ll be doing is field work for the on-ice portion of a research project an Army lab is working on.  The base has 3 airfields they’re trying to combine into one, but there are a number of engineering problems due to  varying ice conditions throughout the .  The Army lab is collecting and analyzing data to see if they can engineer one airfield that will work for all types of aircraft, during all times of the year.

At this point I’ve filled out and submitted mountains of paperwork and had tons of medical and dental tests. I’m amazed there’s any blood left in my veins after all the tubes they collected for tests, and I discovered there is a definite limit to how many cups I can pee in before running dry.  My doctor also carefully noted all my unusual traits, like a slight pectus excavatum, which looks completely normal to me and nothing at all like the photo on wikipedia.  The EKG machine decided I had Pericarditis, which is an inflammation of the heart lining…the doctor walked into the room, grabbed the printout from the machine and said “That can’t be right.  You’re not experiencing extreme chest pain are you?” Since the only pain I had experienced was when the nurse ripped the EKG contact pads off my legs (taking a patch of hair with it) he consulted a cardiologist and they decided I have a variation in my heart’s electrical pattern called early repolarization.  About 5% of the population have this kind of heart, especially young people, males, african americans, and athletes.

Despite my numerous deformities and birth defects, the medical department at Raytheon Polar Services has signed off on me.  I’m leaving tomorrow morning for 2 days of company orientation in Denver, followed by 2 days of travel to Christchurch New Zealand, a day there to get my extreme cold weather gear, and my ice flight is scheduled for October 8th.

The title of this post is how my friend Leslie reacted when I mentioned all of this on Facebook.  Thanks for the support Leslie!  I’ll have you know I checked the weather the other day and the windchill was only –68F, if I just take the absolute value it’s practically shorts and t-shirt weather!

Crux - the Southern Cross

My original thought for naming this blog Southern Exposure was that since I’ve spent almost my entire life in the northern hemisphere and I’m moving to Australia and spending an extended time in South America, it would be my exposure to the southern half of the planet.

My TPunk friend Nick suggested a similar name that I liked even better…so I’m now calling it a southern crossing.  It makes sense since I’m traveling from Argentina to Australia.  The Southern Cross is also a famous constellation, visible year-round in the southern hemisphere.  It features prominently in flags of Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and a few provinces of Argentina.  And it has cultural significance to Argentine Gauchos, the Maori, and the Aborigines:

A tradition that is widespread in Australia is that of the “Emu in the Sky”, a ‘constellation‘ that is defined by dark nebulas (opaque clouds of dust and gas in outer space) that are visible against the milky way background, rather than by stars. The Emu’s head is the very dark Coalsack nebula, next to the Southern Cross; the body and legs are other dark clouds trailing out along the Milky Way to Scorpius.

Cool.  Thanks Nick!  I like it.

Final part of a three-part series about what I’ve been up to and what I plan to do next year.  Part 1 was about my time in Australia.  Part 2 was about my time in South America.

I’m back!  It’s been a busy couple of weeks.

So here’s my plan for next year.  After my trips to South America I decided it was about time to finally learn Spanish.  So I’m planning to move in January to Buenos Aires.  I’d like to spend 4-5 months learning in a full-time school, and there are lots of them available.  Most are private schools, but I’m most interested in the Espanol para Extranjeros (Spanish for Foreigners) program at the Universidad de Buenos Aires.  (I also need to learn how to type accented letters!)

The UBA program only accepts in-person registrations so I’m going to have to just show up and see if there’s any space left.  Another odd thing about the university program is that it has 4 month-long courses, but they’re run in January, February, June, and July.  So there’s a weird gap there.  After the first two months I’ll have to decide if I want to travel and return, switch to a private school, or something else I haven’t considered yet.

After that I’m going to backpack through South America for as long as my money and interest last.  I’m guessing I’ll return by the holidays and spend Thanksgiving and Christmas in Ann Arbor.  And finally, I’d like to then look for work in Australia…what an end to a great plan!

Of course everyone is welcome to visit me.  Family, friend, acquaintance, whatever.  Just figure out a way to get to where I am and I’ll show you around.  I have a few suggestions on how to afford a trip too, so keep your eyes out here for that.

I never had a lot to say before, but I’ve got quite a bit changing in my life over the next few months so I thought it was finally time to start a blog.  What I’m planning to put here:

• My plans for travel next year, and why I’m doing it
• My solutions to some of the logistics involved in relocating (which might be useful to others doing something similar)
• Reviews of gear and other things I buy for my trip
• Info on how to keep in touch next year
• And of course plenty of pictures/videos/experiences while I’m on the road!

I’ll try to keep it from being completely boring and tedious….