I never realized how much I would miss fresh vegetables.

I was under the impression that the food down here was going to be terrible (because this is what I was told *cough Lizzy cough*). I half believed that I was going to be eating out of a tin can. This is not at all the case.

The food here is really good. There are always multiple options for food, including vegetarian and sometimes vegan options. There’s the hot line buffet, there a pasta line, a salad line and an egg line. Additionally, the waffle makers are always available as are the cereals. And don’t forget about the pizza! They make pizza 24/7 so even in between meal times you can still get hot food. And there’s a deli area where you can go make yourself a sandwich, complete with a panini press.

Freshies are a huge deal here. Freshies = fresh vegetables. At first I wasn’t too phased by them because I had just flown down from New Zealand and had recently eaten vegetables. The first week I was here, a lady in my office asked us newbies to go light on our freshie intake so that people who had been here since winter had a chance to get some. I didn’t mind, but also having just arrived I couldn’t empathize.

I now completely comprehend this feeling.

We had been getting weekly shipments of freshies: lettuce, tomatoes, onions, avocados, etc. Now that the bigger planes (C-17s) have stopped flying, we rely on the smaller LC-130s for shipment of people, cargo and mail, thus not leaving enough room for freshies, and sometimes not even mail. It hasn’t even been that long since I last had freshies – I had some avocados earlier in the week. It’s just the fact that I know I’m not going to have freshies for at least another 3 or so weeks that makes me itch a little.

I’m sure that I’ve gone periods of time in my life before where I haven’t had fresh vegetables. Not three whole weeks, but I’ve probably gone at least half of that. It’s mostly just the mental block behind the fact of knowing that I can’t have them. I can’t just walk down the street to the grocery store and pick up some carrots. [Sidenote: there’s a drawing someone made of what McMurdo would look like if the Antarctic Treaty ever ceased and it involves a Walmart, ugh.]

The day that I arrive back to New Zealand and I CAN just walk down the street to a supermarket I am going to have a freshies feast, where I gorge myself on as many vegetables (not fruit of course) as humanly possible until I pass out and have freshie-filled dreams of living in Freshieland forever and ever.

For now I’ll just have to miserably eat gourmet meals, freshly baked bread and soft serve ice cream while quietly sobbing until we get a new shipment of freshies sometime mid-January.