“I am heading to Antarctica this fall!” Even when I type it and read it over, I still have a hard time thinking that it is really going to happen. This has all happened so fast, I still feel like I am in somewhat of a daze.

It was only six months ago that I realized I no longer wanted to go to medical school and just how much I enjoyed my biology classes and the people who taught them. I guess it helps that I go to a school that offers biology classes in the Bahamas and Costa Rica.

I have always been one who likes to travel and am up for most challenges. When I found out that there was an opening in the graduate school for a student to go to Antarctica and do research, I jumped at the opportunity.

Antarctica — a continent that few people even dream of going to — is where I will continue my education and start my research career.

After a couple of weeks of letting it set in, I started to ask more questions about what I will be doing and who else is going. I was told that one of my jobs would be to “tend” the divers. What this will entail is me helping the divers put on their protective dry suits before they enter the water and help them out of the water and back into the boat.

I thought that this would be no problem until the first time I went to help Chuck and Maggie do some dives in the relatively warm water of Blue Water Quarry. I had to pull rubber hoods over the faces of these two people that I did not know all that well, and in the process I was pulling their hair and apologizing every few minutes.

Well, after their second dive, I understood what that job would take to accomplish and had confidence in my ability. But then I realized that I had only done this practice “tending” in the 85 degree temperatures of Alabama and not the 30 degree temperatures of Antarctica while sitting in an inflatable Zodiac boat amid ice and freezing water! The first time I get the job done out there will be a happy moment for me.

Tending the divers will only be one of several jobs that I will have while on the ice. Another job will be trying to figure out if properties of the algae (e.g. toughness, nutritional quality, chemical defenses) have any relevance on whether they are eaten or not. I will run many bioassays to determine if these distinguishing characteristics of macroalgae make them either more or less attractive as a food source.

One test that I will be doing is to test the toughness of the algae by seeing how much pressure is required to break through it. This will be significant because the hypothesis is that the tougher the species, the less likely it will be eaten because the eater (e.g. fish, snail, etc.) will have to expend more energy to break it off and chew it up.

Until I get down to “The Ice” I am unable to do these tests so I have been reading up on ways to test the toughness and some of the problems that I might face running these tests.

There is one thing that everyone has said to me once I tell them where I am going: “You are going to freeze!” I have stopped trying to explain to them about all the warm clothing that I will be issued and how it is their spring to summer season while we are there.

There is one part of the trip that I am not so sure about, and that is the actual travel down to Antarctica. I have no problem with flying, but at the same time I have never been in a plane non-stop for over 12 hours. That isn’t even the part of the trip that is the most exciting. This would be the boat ride lasting four days across the roughest seas in the world!

Once I get down there, I will be working hard but at the same time seeing some of the most beautiful sites in the world. I can’t wait to see the wildlife that is down there like the birds (penguins and albatrosses), seals (leopard, elephant, weddell, and more), and the whales as well.

All of these things should make this one of the most rewarding adventures of my life and I hope that you will continue to follow my journal entries as I tell you a little more about “The Ice” once I actually get down there.

Feel free to send me some questions, and I will do my best to answer everyone to the best of my knowledge.