A week into my life at the south pole.

Greetings friends!

So I have been at the south pole for a whole week now! I am surprised at how quickly the time has gone by, it feels like I got here just yesterday. Since I have been here I have mostly been adjusting to my new life, and getting used to the altitude. My body still feels like it is craving oxygen at times, usually when i am walking up or down stairs or walking anywhere far. But, it has gotten better with each day, so it is only a matter of time until i feel like myself again at this crazy altitude! All of the people here are so friendly that I already feel very at home in this community. Currently the station population is at about 240, and it will fluctuate a bit for the rest of the season, but at most there will be about 260 people here at any one time.

I have been working in the kitchen since the day after i arrived here, and so far it has been a lot of fun. The other DAs (Dining Attendants) are all very cool people, and we make washing dishes fun by dancing around, listening to music and talking. My friend Shelby (who is the one who told me about this job) and I have not gotten too much time to catch up with one another, but we are hopefully going to get a chance to this weekend!

Currently, I am working the "midrats" shift in the kitchen, which means my hours are from 9pm to 7am everyday. There are 3 working shifts here at the south pole because of the short summer season, so there are 4 meals a day. So far its been pretty quiet at the midnight meal, and I am definitely in the adjustment period of trying to sleep during the day. While i am working the "midrats" shift this is what a day looks like for me:
7am-get off of work, check e-mail, eat breakfast, leave the main station for my jamesway, and go to bed
3-4pm: wake up (if i am not already awake), head back to the main station, hang out for a while until other people get off of work
5-9pm: dinner, catch up and hang out with friends, go to the station store, sometimes i take a nap during this time
9pm-7am: working in the kitchen.
I find that at about 2am is when I feel the most tired during my shift, but by the time 4am rolls around, and another DA comes into the kitchen to help I am much more awake and perky. People who eat at the midnight meal recognize me in the morning and usually say something like "man, you are still here? do you ever go to sleep?". I usually laugh and tell them that someone has got to wash their dishes so it might as well be me!

I have not made it out to the official "pole marker", but I hopefully will get around to that in the next few days. Time just seems to go by so quickly here that all the sudden another day is over and I have not done nearly all of the things I want too! I have been horrible about taking pictures, but i will try to get some of the station and my room, and of the surrounds here (which is just vast amounts of white..) so stay tuned!