I'm Here!!

Just a note: My blog is blocked up here, so my friend Andrew is going to be making the posts for me as I e-mail him the information. I'll still be able to recieve your comments on the blog itself, but feel free to e-mail me directly at my Gmail account or post on my Facebook wall if you want to talk. Due to the super-slow internet I'll also be limited in the number of pictures that I can attach, but rest assured that I'll post a few, and that there will be many, many more once I get back to the South.

Well, I have arrived safely in Alert and have quickly gotten into the swing of things here. As there is so much to talk about, I'll keep things simple and start off with my first post from Alert talking about my trip up here.


The drive from Waterloo to CFB Trenton went well, only 2.5 hours door-to-door. Getting onto the base itself through all the security was a hassel...the unmanned guard hut made me feel realy secure :P Rooms on base were basically a hotel, except that they were only $40 a night. Dad and I went out to dinner, and about 20 minutes after the sun had gone down we realized that that could have potentially been my last sun for a long time. Since I had to wake up at 3am to get to the hanger for 4, I wanted to get to bed in good time. Unfortunately, the World Junior game was on (Go Canada!) so I only got a few hours sleep.

My first alarm woke me up just fine, so the 5 backups that I had set were unnecessary (I didn't even KNOW you could set an alarm on a microwave...but I did). Got a taxi to the terminal and checked in. After an hour and a half of waiting we went through standard airline security...although there were only 4 of us. Waited a bit more, then were shuttled out to the plane. I don't have many outside pictures at this point, as everything is dark, but I'll try to get some good plane pictures on the trip home.

The C130 Hercules itself was very cool. Big open plane, little fabric seats, lots of cargo, big drop door at the back. With only the 4 of us, it was quite spacious. It was also a training mission, so there were probably 8 or 9 flight crew. The warning that the plane was "deafening" was quite accurate, and my teeth are still chattering from the vibration. My in-ear ear plugs were working ok, but one of the crew offered me an aviation headset to wear, so that worked better (as I could even plug my iPod in underneath it to listen to music). We were able to wander around at our leisure, and I got some great pictures of the cargo, loading bay and even the cockpit! The sun did come up for an hour or two, but as we were traveling due north, at around 12:15pm we crossed the Arctic Circle and the sun dissapeared for the next 2 months.

We landed in Thule, Greenland after a 7:10 flight. It was really cold, really dark and I was tired as hell after not sleeping on the flight (due to nerves and exitement). We didn't have any customs or security screening, which I would have expected upon arriving at a foriegn (American) military base, but we were shuttled to our rooms for the night. The next morning we hopped back on the Herc for a [relatively] short flight almost due North 1.5 hours to Alert. The previous day had seen a storm with winds reachind 120km/h, but it had calmed down and the landing was a great one. We were shuttled to the main building, and when we all entered a big group of people had gathered to cheer us onto the station.

Well, that sums up my trip in a lot more words than I was intending. I'll leave it at that for now, and my next post will talk about my work, or maybe living up here.

Miss you all,
Graham