“Pleasure is foolish people’s happiness, happiness is wise men’s pleasure ” Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly

Cool! Now I’ve got the confirmation that I’m crazy cause I’m having a lot of pleasure here! sometimes… but enough knowing World isn’t perfect!

What’s up guys??? How is life in Merced, or around the world for the lucky ones who are traveling?

As you can se I’m more jovial (hehe, a French word you see Marco!) than usual, forgetting my traditional depressive tone! Why? simply because I spent one of these magical days on Earth yesterday and because I’m becoming more and more stressed with the field incoming, normally in 2 days…

So let’s explain a bit. Before all, I met a ‘magical’ guy one week ago (no I haven’t turned to gay, sorry!). Magical cause thanks to him I joined 2 or 3 times his team, a good way to escape from the too much quiet life of Mc Murdo. No surprisingly this guy called Francois is French (national polarity), and he’s working with some divers who are studying the sea below the ice with a little submarine ( http://scini1.mlml.calstate.edu/  if you want to have some information). Their job and the things they are seeing/living is simply incredible, and I’m wondering if looking at the sky instead of the sea was a good orientation for myself finally

Yesterday, they invited me to help them for a dive, just with one condition: finishing my breakfast and being ready in 4 minutes no more!! I’ve never slipped on my 3 or 4 layers of clothes so quickly!!! And what I lived after just made me come back a little 2 years ago…

First, after all this time without seeing any animals except few skuas, I saw seals with their pup. And it was simply so cute… I just regret to have forgotten the big lens to take better pictures, but the most important is what you live not what you record. The pups are already quite big, I think they may be 1 big month for most of them cause they were already ready to swim and the females were less stressed than they can be when the pups are just born. It was also cool to see 1 male, from the big hole of the divers, just having an eye on its territory. Cause if you don’t know, they are organized in a harem, with one male for several females (OK, I know, it’s enough to be jealous, but you don’t know all the story…!)
From 6 people, 4 dove, and Scott and I stayed at the surface to help them going out of the hole 80 minutes later. They were all looking frozen but so happy of this dive cause they went into ice caves with the seals’ company. The most beautiful dive for Francois! Jealous, Scott decided to go naked to this hole just for a down and up of some seconds, while I was fighting to not doing the same, convincing myself it was better in Dumont D’Urville so that I don’t have to do it here. But finally as you saw previously on the picture I gave up and went into this ice bath too. Longer than I thought, can genetic evolution/adaptation be so fast?

It was really cold but so so so good… unfortunately I can’t explain why, probably because during the 30s-1min bath, your body is just fighting to survive, releasing some hormones… maybe… I don’t know! But you don’t have to be in Antarctica to do the test, you know! Let’s figure it out by yourself in Yosemite this winter for example and give me your impressions!

Finally after the 2 hours road to come back with the vehicle (it was a total white-out outside, a real bad weather), we arrive in McMurdo where we had an aperitif before going to the Thanksgiving dinner. A huge quantity of good food, it was really good! And I probably ate too much, but I had a good excuse with the iced bath!!!

Otherwise, life in Mc Murdo is going to an end for us cause we should leave on Tuesday. It will be nice to go finally to the field, going to the continent, ‘lost’ in the middle of the white nowhere. Impatient to go to live something new and be closer to the real Antarctica, but also scared about the beginning of the experiments knowing I shipped everything before it was ready, so the big problems will arrive soon!
And unlike most of the other fields, I have normally a time limitation due to the limited volume of kerosene we will have, so we have to be operational asap… and also because my supervisor still wants to leave in the middle of December, letting me alone until the end of the field (personally I like this idea cause I like solitude, but for the work it’s maybe not the good idea… but personal feelings are most important than work no?)

OK, I think it’s all… only few lines written finally!!! Given the field conditions, emails will be less sent these next weeks and no more picture will be uploaded. But you need a break too, so it’s OK for everyone!

I just wanna say something special for the lagunitos: sorry but I didn’t have (or the word ‘take’ should be less hypocritical) the time to send you an email… don’t forget to eat the 2 chocolate brioches before Ale’s coming back if it’s not already done!!! And above all ENJOY THE TIME TOGETHER and MAKE PLENTY OF PARTIES!!!!

The best for all of you,
smiles