Stories from Antarctica

 The past month has given me a lot of opportunities to try new things, get stretched and feel more settled in Antarctica.  

I had my first bartending shift here on the base.  I was lucky enough that I was training with a friend of mine, Travis.  Earlier in the day the janitorial team cleans the bars before opening them up for the night.  I told the two janitors that were cleaning the bar to leave me some presents to find while I was working that night.  


When I first walked into the bar I found a note with a joke on it to welcome me to my shift.  Then while Travis and I were setting up the bar, our manager comes in and says “ Gillian, I didn’t know it was your birthday.”  For someone whose birthday is in April I was pretty surprised to hear that too.  Mark, our manager continues, “There is a note in the men’s bathroom on the stall that says- It is Gillian, the bartender's, birthday today and she does not want people to know but wish her a happy birthday.”  I rushed into the bathroom to confirm the story.  Looks like my fellow janitors left this note after cleaning up.  I looked to my friend Travis and we both quickly agreed that we are going to play this off all night.  




So the rest of the night I had guys coming up to me wishing me Happy Birthday, tipping well and letting me know that there was a note in the bathroom telling the world it was my birthday.  But the icing on the cake was that the next day at work I still had people wishing me happy birthday.  


This season with Covid there are less science projects going on but one that has continued is monitoring the weather here with weather balloons.  I had the opportunity to let one of the balloons off last week.  There are over 800 weather balloons let off around the world every day twice a day.  These balloons monitor pressure, temperature, wind, precipitation and a couple other factors.  Rebecca, the science tech, that gave me the tour and let me set off the balloon is actually another Canadian.  She has been working in this field for 8 years.  4 in the Arctic and 4 here in Antarctica.  I let off the balloon at 11:30pm.  The information from the weather balloon is used to help the airplanes land and let the meteorologist figure out other weather factors for Antarctica.  Furthermore the information is shared around the world letting other scientists compare weather patterns around the world.





One fun activity I started practicing for this week was a manhaul.  You might be asking what is a man haul?  This is an activity where four people get tied to a dog sled and pull the sled for 5km.  It is a race between the Kiwis and Americans that has been a tradition for many years.  I am excited to participate in an activity that is so unique to Antarctica.  We have a good group of guys and girls participating.  The actual race will not be for a couple more weeks but we are racing against the heat…the sea ice is melting and we need to race before the ice becomes the ocean.  


Those are just a few stories of what can happen when you are isolated in Antarctica.  


Lot of joy, Gillian 


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