The drillers have also run into some problems with the drill. Two days ago they sprung a leak on the drill hose which caused all the hot water to spray out of the hose on the surface which meant that the drill head which was 200 meters down wasn't getting any hot water. The drill head ended up getting stuck in the hole about 190 meters down as the hole froze in around it in a matter of minutes. It was our only drill head and apparently it was on loan from Australia. They used the reamer to drill another hole about 70 meters deep yesterday and were able to pump it dry, so they are going to try to drill our holes starting later today. When they are done with that I believe they will try to get the drill head out of the ice and then the station has work that they would like the drillers to do.
In other news, I finally found out why everybody burns popcorn here. The majority of the popcorn packets that the station has have been here long enough for the low humidity to dry out popcorn kernels to such an extent that there isn't enough moisture in them to cause them to pop when heated.
I know some of you may be interested in seeing a photo of me, so I've included one even though most of you know I really don't like having my photo taken. This photo was taken after the ceremony with the Norwegian Prime Minister. As you may recall, it was about -44F out at the time with windchill, but I will say that with the sun shining it really wasn't much of a problem for the half an hour that I was out there. I regretted not bringing the glove liners with me as the camera got pretty cold during all of it. As long as the wind isn't blowing to hard and there isn't much cloud cover, I've been able to go around in shorts for a while outside and because a lot of what I do is a mix between indoor work and outdoor work, it works out well so I don't spend too much time suiting up and taking it off again.
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