Thursday in Antarctica

It's Thursday morning, almost 6:30am. I start work at 7:00am. I am dressed in my insulated overalls, insulated work boots and long johns. I am sitting in the computer lounge in building 155. The dining hall is in this building so it's by far the busiest building on campus. It's still pretty quiet. There are plenty of folks in the hallway that appear to have just gotten out of bed; but plenty of night shift workers too, who have been up all night and their working day is now coming to an end. Folks in the computer lounge are mostly checking emails or facebook, keeping in touch with the rest of the world. Some are searching the internet for after-ice travel plans.

There are lots of new faces in town: folks who have been in field camps/South Pole station all season and are just in town for a few days on their way home, folks who just arrived to help unload the supply vessel, and the first of the "winter-over-ers" that will be staying all winter.

The post office has advised us to tell friends and family to not mail us anything else, as it may not arrive before we leave. We have just less than three weeks until we are outta here.