Not exactly camping the back yard

Thursday evening I was checking my email for a few minutes and I found out the good news. I would finally be going on the Field Safety camping trip! I was told that I had been accepted into the program to get to do some outdoor survival training sessions, and this was supposed to be the most fun. I couldn't wait to hit the field for a few days, brave the weather for a night, and get paid for my regular work days. After getting to sleep in a bit I met the ten others and our Search and Rescue trainer that would be taking us out. We talked about a few things in the building and headed out to a field hut in a Snow Cat. The field hut was where we got our supplies, an orientation, and a hot cup of tea. The hut was cozy, even heated with a small stove, and would house our instructor for the night. We would learn a lot about building snow structures and establishing camp the first day, spend the night, and then focus on rescue techinques and other emergency procedures the next day. Getting out in the field was a dream come true! We built quinzies, igloos, snow trenches, and snow caves to sleep in. After our instructor gave us the directions we needed to survive the night we were on our own. Being the only one who had any snow shelter experience, I was able to spearhead a lot of the building and get dinner ready. Our camp was composed of a huge wind wall made of igloo blocks dug from the ground with a row of emergency mountain tents behind it. About six people decided to sleep in the tents and the other six decided to build other stuctures. I helped two others build a quinzy (a dug out mound of snow) and I built an individual snow trench. A snow trench is about three feet deep, seven feet lont, and is covered by blocks leaning in over the middle like an A-frame. After some hours of hard work our camp looked more like a village of snow. before dinner I decided to begin some domestic work and build a kitchen and dining room. About two hours later we were chilling in a small round ampitheater where we sat, cooked, and hang out. It was complete with stadium seating, cupboards and a cooking platform, and a slide down into the quinzy. There is probably nothing i love more on any camping trip than sitting around with hot drinks enjoying a hot dinner in a dining room made of snow. The weather was quite nice, for Antarctic standards at least, and the wind died down for most of the time. Even when our skies were a bit grey the sun was shining on the Mt. Erebius, Terror, and Terra Nova all all their glaciers with brillance. Although we were not more than twenty miles from McMurdo we were in a different world. Before heading into my trench for the night I made a lounge chair for myself, complete with foot stool, and sat behind the wind wall taking in the views of the mountains down the range. This trip was exactly what I pictured before coming down here. It was one of those moments when it really sunk in that I am living in Antarctica. Not many people ever get to come to this continent, and very few of those people ever get to camp out. I am a lucky guy, that's all I've gotta say.