Ahhhh, slept in today! Felt rather nice after all those 6-7am mornings to catch a bus! I am in Queenstown, the “adventure capital” of NZ, trying to do anything but adventurous…

The trip here was very nice, the bus went from Lake Tekapo to Mount Cook first, where we had an hour to take pix or just sit and watch the immense valley and the South Alps. However, the summits of Mt Cook and others were veiled, dark grey clouds hung very low on that day…

Yesterday, I went for a daily trip to Milford Sound. Which is a misnomer, since it is not a sound, but a fjord. It was almost 9 hours in the bus for a 2 hour boat cruise, but well worth it. On the way there, the bus stopped at half a dozen or so pitoresque places to let us stretch our legs and stare in awe at the beautiful landscape.

Today, things are a bit relaxed. I gonna go on a wine tour for a few hours, and then plan the next few days.

No more 2006! If that isn’t good news… The eighth year of the 21st century (you might be one of those people who prefer to count seven, which is fine by me…) might bring some new perspectives and challenges into the game of life. Who knows? For sure, the Antartica clock is slowly ticking down, with less then two weeks to go things start heating up a bit. Or are they slowly cooling down? Hmm

For those of you who haven’t heard: The date is Jan, 13th. My travels will take me through all major airports in the US and NZ. Fun, eh? Anyway, if things go the way they supposed to, I will be on ice Jan. 19th. Stay tuned on this channel for a 60/60/24/7 as the events unfold in 90deg south!

In the meantime, I have posted some pix from my holiday travels. I finally visited The Italian Stallion at the Philly Museum of Art and had a chance to go to the Met in NYC (no pix here, though!). Otherwise, things were quite and relaxed, just the way I like it.

So, let me round up this little post with all the best new year’s wishes for everybody!

Finally, fall’s struggle with the unrelenting summer is over! After temperatures hit 20C last Friday (warmest November ever…), the mornings now greet them with crisp and fresh weather below zero. In other words: the Antarctic training season has started! Mere six weeks till deployment, I can finally start getting used to “cold” weather. Well, there is still a huge difference between cold here and cold down there, but one needs to get started somewhere….

What else? There are some new pix online. These I took in Montauk before Thanksgiving. Otherwise, there isn’t anything to report. So, keep warm!

Now, how did that happen? Has my life reached a certain stability and balance? Or have I lost the touch?

No, none of the above! It has been just very busy lately, so please apologize my procrastination in regard of these matters…. I will make it up to you in the very next posting! Really!

Otherwise, I am back from quiet stressful yet satisfying trip to Germany and Sweden. I visited friends of old and places long forgotten. I also enjoyed the more fulfilling parts of being home: Wiener Schnitzel, Currywurst, Döner im Brot, and Matjes Hausfrauenart. Yep, being back home is a neat thing… 😉

However, being back home here isn’t too bad either. I did actually miss this place a bit, isn’t that odd? I wonder how it will feel the next time….

So, here it is, just sending you guys a life sign from the other hemisphere…

As you might have noticed, I started to organize the blog a bit, putting some categories on the right. I also posted some very old entry which I started in April after my trip to Baton Rouge. It is unfinished but gives a few impressions from my first long journey through the States in a car.

Here, the meeting is slowly creeping to its inevitable end. Tonight, the big conference dinner will be held, I am really psyched about that. Tomorrow, the whole circus moves to Berlin for the last sessions and some sightseeing, which I might just skip.

Anyway, so much for now.

Every year, scientist everywhere listen intensely to the announcement of the Nobel Prize laureates. Everybody knows this most prestigious award that is given for outstanding achievements in a handful of disciplines.

The nobel prize has a brother, or sister if you like: The Ig Noble Prize. Its focus is rather different, as you might have guessed. Awarded by Improbable Research, they are given to “Research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK”. So, if you wanna know, why fingernails scratching a black board make people uneasy, why spaghetti break at more than one place when you bend them, or you wanna know how many photographs you have to take before no one is closing their eyes: Then you should check out the Winners of the Ig® Nobel Prize 2006

Wow, it has been (again) more than a week since my last post. Boy, things are a bit rough right now. Only a few days left before I leave for good ol’ Germany and so much to do! Therefore, I didn’t do much lately…

Except: Last Saturday we had a little get together at Serap’s to bid farewell to out summer exchange student, Matt. He spent, oh, at least three months with us and did a tremendous amount of work. Now he is off to work on his career… Godspeed, Matt! The party itself was fun, the BBQ great, the amount of food overwhelming, the selection of drinks even more so! Needless to say, my over indulgence cost me dearly, especially on the next day, which I spent almost entirely in bed. When will I start to realize that I can’t do this excessive drinking parts anymore?

What else? The South Pole is coming nearer, another rounds of medical tests were done last week. Things are still go, so let’s hope it stays that way. Meanwhile, I started reading a good deal about the eploration of Antarctica, a fascinating subject in itself. Maybe I write here a bit about it? Will see….

I am quite aware that I haven’t written anything about my first anniversary here. I have to admit that I deliberately avoided that topic. Let’s face it, counting events in life based on months and years is as arbitrary as it can get. What does it matter if I have been here 11, 12, or 13 months? The differences are certainly minute in comparison to my first three weeks over here. So, what can I say? Things have certainly calmed down, so much everyona can tell by comparing my blog output now to then. Life is somewhat different than before, working on a thesis and all, then again, it isn’t. Some things might have changed for the better, some for the worse, and some deamons that haunt me are old acquaintances. So, in some sense, “all quiet on the western front”. Or better: no news from the new world.

I just got this picture from Marek (thanks, dude!). It was taken during the WASA farewell workshop.

From left to right: Jan Greiff, Mikhail Bashkanov, Tatiana Skorodko, Marek Jacewicz;
Front: Florian Kren, well, you know who, Christian Pauly, and Samson Ketela.
Not on the picture: Filippo Cappellaro, Inken Koch, Jens Pätzold, Henrik Pettersson, Karin Schonning.

It brings back a lot of memories. Assuredly, it was the best and the worst of all times. Things didn’t work out as expected, and then, Alas!, they didn’t work out even more. I don’t have to go into detail here, the poor horse was flogged long and hard enough. Sufficient to say that we all worked long and hard to bring it to a decent end. And that we did. Therefore, those five and a half years do and will always have a special place in my memories. It was a time when I faced desparation and disappointment and still prevailed… *cough*

Well, sort of. A certain damage to both my cognitive abilities and my personality cannot be denied. Which turned me into the (almost) bearable person I am today. Not too bad for a science experiment, isn’t it? So in best Skapesperian manner, let me cry out to all of you who have been there:

From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood
(or shares his PAW macro;
or spends time on night shift;
or has a “Frustburger”) with me
Shall be my brother;
– (mainly) William Shakespeare, “Henry V”

Hi folks,

well, what can I say? One way or the other, I made it back safe from the wild South. It was a wild trip, with tons of dangerous encounters with degenerate locals and ferocious beasts, but at the end the calm mind of the scinetists prevailed!

It is gonna take me while to sort things through and write it up, so meanwhile do enjoy the pix I took down south, they are in the usual place….

Cheers, Levent

… ahead full of Fear and Loathing! It is going to be a BIG year, since a lot of adventures await me. There is the driver’s licence, for example, which still scare the big j out of me! Or there are a many cities and places to explore. Last weekend, for example, I went to visit Longwood Gardens, a beautiful place, check out the pictures.

Anyway, stay tuned for upcoming gibberish at the usual place. Take care for now, Levent