Merry Christmas (again)
Merry Christmas to everyone. Today has been a pretty laid back day. I woke up in time for breakfast downstairs. When I got downstairs, there were a couple familliar faces; Justin and Chuck. Justin, as I mentioned is a grad student working on IceCube at Berkeley, and Chuck a Raytheon guy who is on his way to Hawaii from the ice. I had flown to McMurdo with Chuck last year so we recognized eachother right off.
After breakfast, I tried tracking down my baggage. Unfortunately, it seems like there are a lot of people in a similar situation, as the line at the baggage desk was almost always busy or not answered. Eventually I got through to someone who said they had found my baggage arrived in Melbourne, and was to be loaded on a flight to Chrischurch that afternoon, so I would get it some time after 4:00 that day. What a relief! It all arrived safely by cab a little before 6:00.
I was supposed to meet with Tom Gaisser, the principle Investigator for IceTop, when I was here in Christchurch, but when I tried to call him at his hotel last night, his wife answered the phone and informed me that Tom was stuck in McMurdo for the last week, waiting for a part for one of the planes. Looking for some company for Christmas dinner, Justin and I joined her at a nice restaurant, which was a lot of fun. Afterward, Justin and I went to “The Bard on Avon,” a favorite bar of mine, and talked over a beer. After that, I was pretty sleepy and we called it a day. Not a typical Christmas day, but not so bad.