{"id":3961,"date":"2010-11-11T18:59:55","date_gmt":"2010-11-12T01:59:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/?p=3961"},"modified":"2014-04-05T10:05:41","modified_gmt":"2014-04-05T17:05:41","slug":"why-im-going-to-antarctica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/11\/why-im-going-to-antarctica\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m Going to Antarctica"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wasn’t really supposed to talk about it, but I wasn’t successful shutting up.\u00a0 I asked a lot of people about things like seasickness and the best boots for warm feet. I called my friend Sarah who worked at Palmer Station\u00a0 — I think her exact words were “OH MY GOD, THAT’S AWESOME!”\u00a0 I met the oh so appealing Andrew Evans, he’s the guy from National Geographic who took the bus to the little tail end of the planet where you board a ship to Antarctica, who spotted the ultra formal all black penguin<\/a>, and I asked him a bunch of questions about the edge of the map. I talked to my doctor about drugs for boats <\/span> ships and long trips\u00a0 and I spent a lot of time on the phone with the good folks from TravelWild<\/a>, and basically, I did a lousy job of keeping it under my hat. It’s not news to all of you, but today I got the green light to tell you here, and every place else I make noise on the web, that I’m going to Antarctica.<\/p>\n

Here’s the unglamorous back story. Some time back I hosted a tiny travelbloggers meet-up at C&P Coffee<\/a>, a very fine coffee house about a mile from my house. I don’t remember how I found the people that showed up there, but it was the first time I’d met Peter<\/a> and Kelly<\/a>, who I subsequently traveled across the US with on what turned out to be an excellent road trip. I also met Mark<\/a>, an SEO guy (he makes your website findable by the Google monster). There were about 8 of us, and now, it’s hard to believe I didn’t always know some of these folks.<\/p>\n

Mark, the SEO guy, called me a few weeks after the meet-up and asked if I’d be willing to meet one of his clients, Rick, to talk about why they ought to add a blog to his site. Off we went, back to the C&P, where the three of us had a very companionable talk about the hows and whys of blogging. I went away from that meeting feeling happy, but with very little expectation for work. Nothing happened; I was not surprised or disappointed.<\/p>\n

A whole year went by. (Please imagine a black and white movie with calendar pages flying off in the wind.) The day after the brakes were applied to another site I’d been working on for about two months, Rick appeared in my inbox asking if I’d remembered him and if I’d be willing to talk about doing some work for him on his blog.”Your timing could not be better,” I said. “I’ve just spent two months learning how NOT to do exactly what you want to do.”<\/p>\n

I say yes to about 90% of the work I’m offered. Only about 50% of ends up being real, paying work. It’s not that the clients don’t want <\/em>to hire me. It’s that the budget disappears or the nature of the project changes or something happens to make it fall apart. It’s no big deal, I don’t get attached until I’m a few weeks in.\u00a0 I met Rick for coffee and then, I went back to my desk. A week or so later, there were phone calls and some passwords created and then, about two weeks ago, I got a packet in the mail saying I had a reservation on the M\/V Polar Star<\/a>. I’d be bunking with a crew member and\u00a0 I wouldn’t be getting the branded windbreaker jacket, but for everything else, I’d be just like a paying traveler. Off I would go to stand surrounded by penguins. Rick’s company,\u00a0 TravelWild<\/a> — they’ve been booking and operating polar travel for 25 years — hired me to write for them. And as part of that, they booked me on a trip and are sending me to the ice.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s insane. I don’t like boats — I get seasick and I’m a little claustrophobic. I’m not crazy about the cold, after all, the destination I’ve written about most is Hawaii<\/a>. I like old stones and history, Borobudur and Angkor Wat are my kind of places.\u00a0 I’ve never considered Antarctica, not for a minute, as a place I wanted to go. But I’m preparing, researching, reading… and I’m crazy excited about the chance to see the last continent, partly because it’s such an unlikely thing to do and partly because really, you’d have to be dead to not be excited about penguins. There is no way I would miss this opportunity.<\/p>\n

Here’s how this is supposed <\/em>to work. I’ve got some stuff in the works for the TravelWild blog, I’ll start publishing there once a week in mid-November. I get paid for that work. Then, in February, I’m off to Ushuaia, and then, Antarctica. Because TravelWild is covering the bulk of my travel expenses — no small investment —\u00a0 I won’t be paid for my dispatch posts. I will post some unedited Nerd’s Eye View material about the trip here, but also, I’ll send you over to TravelWild to read more about my adventures — and what better word than adventure for this?<\/p>\n

It’s a work in progress. I don’t know if I can post from the boat, for starters. We’re currently figuring out the details around the simple yet epic necessity of getting me to Ushuaia. TravelWild won’t pay my bar tab, but they are covering my travel insurance. I’m trying to source good gear to both review and to use for the trip — they’re not providing that, but it’s okay if I get it comped. My plane ticket is paid for, but if it costs extra for that diversion I want to make to Santiago to see Eileen<\/a>, I will pay the difference. Everything is meant to be disclosed in full so there’s no confusion about my situation. Also, it’s worth keeping in mind that it’s not just about my trip, it’s about building a lasting resource for TravelWild’s customers. My work will continue after I’ve been and come home again. Finally, I wouldn’t be embarking (heh, I used a boat word) on this endeavor if I didn’t trust that that TravelWild would honor the way I like to tell stories.<\/p>\n

I’m thrilled about this opportunity for a number of reasons. I’m excited to work with a well established travel company on helping them build their presence on the web. It makes me hopeful that there are ways for bloggers like me to spin our skills in to more than just another press trip invitation. (Don’t get me wrong, I love the press trips. But there is no money in them.) I’m excited about the excuse to learn about a part of the planet that I don’t give a lot of thought to — learning new things keeps those synapses firing. And I’m stunned, honestly, stunned to find that guess what? I’m going to Antarctica.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wasn’t really supposed to talk about it, but I wasn’t successful shutting up.\u00a0 I asked a lot of people about things like seasickness and the best boots for warm feet. I called my friend Sarah who worked at Palmer Station\u00a0 — I think her exact words were “OH MY GOD, THAT’S AWESOME!”\u00a0 I met … <\/p>\n


…read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[744,141,745,746,33],"class_list":["post-3961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elsewhere","tag-antarctica","tag-blogging","tag-freelance-writing","tag-freelancer","tag-travel-writing","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3961"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9006,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3961\/revisions\/9006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}