Antarctica Exceeding Expectations

 I thought Antarctica was flat. 
That it wasn't actually land, but a massive ice floe.

That an excursion to walking on land would be walking across a vast flat snowy field and everywhere we went would look exactly the same -- a great white expanse.

I also thought it was generally circle shape and hadn't pictured inlets or bays, how huge the continent actually is or the existence of islands or even the peninsula.

And hadn't visualized that the other side of Antarctica is close to Australia and Asia.

I'm going to blame all of my ignorance on only ever seeing Antarctica on a map, 

that I have a very literal brain,

 and my lack of creativity never gave flat-map-countries dimension.

After reading Endurance the week before we left (thanks Rosens!),
I had a MUCH better understanding of what to expect geographically, the sheer size of the area and the difference between land and ice. (But you can walk on the ice, as if it were land--several feet thick, but it still moves with the current. Fascinating!)

I didn't realize that the glaciers were a hundred feet thick and there would be such a variety of color.

There are no polar bears in Antarctica. Only in the Arctic.

I didn't see any Orcas. But they are there.

I didn't realize that there are so many varieties of penguins or that I would be able to tell the difference between them within a couple of days in. But Emperor penguins live farther in the interior.

I didn't realize how much life was in the water and how tiny amoebas were so important in the food chain.

In preparation for our trip, we of course checked the itinerary for our daily excursions. But they were the same each day: Kodiak tour, walk on land, or kayak.

When people asked, "What do you do when you go to Antarctica?"

I didn't know.  "Walk on the... tundra?" (Remember, I thought it was all flat and would look the same), 

"Tour around the land perimeter in zodiaks?" (Imagining the perimeter of all the land to look the same).

I had no concept of the variety of scenery and how the ice and glaciers changed.

As Chad told Dan when he reported our thrill at seeing icebergs on our first day,

"It only keeps getting bigger and snowier."

Finally, I was shocked that Santiago, Chile was four hours ahead of Mountain Time.

In my mind, South America was directly under North America, making Chile in our approximate time zone. Not so.