Galley McMurdo Station Antarctica 2021-2022 (eBook)

Angelo J. Bovara (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2022 | 1. Auflage
300 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-6678-4580-7 (ISBN)

Infos

Journal documenting the 2021-2022 austral summer in McMurdo Station Antarctica as one of the cooks feeding a station of 700 people for 5 months.

Textauszug

6 December 2021

Day 55

What a place to be alive. I can’t wait until I live in an old folk’s home. What’s the minimum age for those things?

Today I:

Did laundry.

Spent about 3 hours in the Crary Science building.

Wandered around station.

Drank wine.

DJ’ed a radio show.

Drank wine.

Almost told a very pleasant lady that I would like pursue a relationship with her.

Talked about station politics.

Watched an intense backgammon match.

Reported the match outcomes to friends and coworkers.

Crary is the headquarters of science in McMurdo station, and de facto main science hub on continent. There are posters of different science projects from over the past 20 years lining the hallways. Some are layman summary slide presentations; some are ultra-specific complex technobabble. Some are arranged nicely with an abstract (summary), and outcome; and even sometimes an applicability or impact statement of results. I’ve been wanting to read these for a while and I finally got to on my day off. There is a lot of LSU research here that doesn’t mean anything or have any impact on anyone. I wonder if that kid from Mamou paying tuition that funds this research is interested in any of this stuff. Maybe.

I also watched one of the scientists watch people dance on YouTube for 20 minutes. He was just clicking through and watching videos. First hallway on the right, second or third office on the left. This is why the scientists have the priority for internet. This is why it takes me 7-15 minutes to log into Facebook, so that the scientists can keep up with the latest YouTube dance sensation. I’m not exaggerating about the 20 minutes either. I sat down in the hallway across from his office and timed it. I only got up and left when I heard someone coming down another hall way. He was watching when I showed up and when I left.

Whoever discovered wine needs to be given a bonus, and also shot. I saw Anne Alise after she got off work, on my way to the radio station. While I was in there, I built the courage and just the right amount of inebriation to tell her I would like to pursue a more intimate relationship with her; conditions permitting. Of course, my non-drunk section of brain matter said “We will tell her, as soon as we finish the radio show.” Then, by the time I finished the show, there was somebody else working in the craft room with Anne Alise; and no amount of wine could put her or me in that sort of embarrassing position.

-----

I ran into one of the stewards, Kelsey, on my way back to the room. She was on her way to the first match in the backgammon tournament. I’ve been wanting to cheer Niko on, but Kelsey is also a Galley team member so I switched to her side. She was playing some rando named “Steve”. This is the first experience of any kind I’ve ever had with backgammon. If reports are to be believed, they’ve played each other once before. She came back from a deep deficit in points (?) and backgammoned him (?). I was running a little late for the match and she was already down 2 sets to 0 when I got there. She came back and beat him! Three sets in a row for a dramatic finish to push her into the next round. I’m gonna see what I can do to get a cheering crowd together for each of her matches. Kelsey and Niko are on different sides of the bracket. What a thrill it would be for them to meet I the finals!

This is what counts for a good day at McMurdo Station.

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7 December 2021

Day 56

I was speaking to Rachel today and she said something interesting and oddly accurate. “It’s like they are trying to hide Antarctica from us.”

This seems true. However, it may be that they are trying to hide us from Antarctica.

When I return people are going to want to hear all kinds of stories. They’ll expect stories of adventure on the ice. They will not get those. There are snippets and sniffs of it. But not many. We are simply functionaries in a place.

==============================================

8 December 2021

Day 57

I took what Rachel said yesterday and ran a test today. I asked a dozen people, “Where are we right now?”

Not a single one of them said, “Antarctica”. They said “The galley.”, or “155”. Most of them looked at me crazy and said “McMurdo”.

Nobody thinks of the scale of where we are. I prompted one guy and he eventually said, “Oh, Antarctica. And I’m tired of being here. Antarctica sucks. I’ve done all the hikes and that’s all there is to do. This place is boring. They don’t let us see any of the adventure out here”. This is the sad state of things. This is how it is coming to work in Antarctica, to “support the science”. I will not let this tamp down my excitement for where I am. I am here because I want to be. The simple adventure of being here in the first place, regardless of what I’m doing, is a wonder. I am here. I will always have been here. No matter how common it is to others. No matter how unnecessary the things we do are, it’s all the price of admission. I should start drinking more.

-----

I cooked 364 grilled cheese sandwiches today. I had to also slice them into sailboats for these adults. After four hours of doing this some woman came up and started talking about how cute the little triangles were. I gave her a look that very few people have actually received. If you are reading this and you’ve seen the “I’m considering if it’s worth ruining both of our lives to respond appropriately look” then you know what I’m talking about. As my lungs were filling with air to express my contempt for this woman, an angel of heaven smiled and shone down upon me under the guise of Joey, in his dumb young man voice that’s not actually loud but sounds too loud, saying “Hey Angelo give me some of those fresh ones.”

I want to find out where these people work, come in and out of their office all day, rummage through their things, and leave their stuff a mess; all the while commenting on their work.

“Your spreadsheet formatting sucks.”

“That’s a cute summary paragraph.

“Why haven’t you gotten your stuff off the printer yet? It looks old.”

==============================================

9 December 2021

Day 58

Zeke, does it again. He was assigned some weeks ago to Willy Field, an airport several miles from here on the ice shelf. He’s the sous chef/head chef out there. He sent me an email with the shuttle schedule so I can go out there on my day off. He knows I’m always looking for something to do and a way to experience this wonderful place a little more intimately. Thanks, Zeke.

Immediately after work I went and hung out with Beth and Anne Alise. Then I remembered I had a photoshoot to get to. That’s right, a photoshoot. Dave, the media guy on station, was told to get some images of the DJs doing our stuff in the station room and vinyl room. I went and played around in there a little bit while Dave took pictures. I hope they use my words and image (!!!) in print. That would be so rad.

I met Aisha and the puzzle crew tonight for a little bit before bed. I like doing the puzzle thing. I may start staying up a little later on puzzle night.

==============================================

10 December 2021

Day 59

After work I finished my present for Secret Santa. There are some old pins from past seasons at the store, such as “Antarctica 2007-2008”, but there are none for this year. So, I decide to make a 21-22 season pin for my gift receiver. I bought one of these old pins and went to the shop to grind of the years. Then I wrote the current season years in Sharpie on the pin. Nice.

I walked Observation Loop today. First time I’ve been on this path since the last sunset, 48 days ago. It was nice and warm. About 30 degrees Fentagrade. We took the walk nice and slow, exactly my pace. It was a good time. The horizon was clear to Mount Discovery. An entire herd of seals were out. I ran down passed the point of where we are supposed to be. Apparently, breaking the treaty and causing all-out war in Europe. I got about 200 feet or so from a seal, it didn’t notice me. I was on a good angle, so I got some pictures of me looking like a seal with other, actual, seals in the background. It’s fantastic. At one point a skua bird flew by us. As we walked there was good conversation, and significant amounts of laughter. This is a person I hope to keep in touch with after we leave here.

We came upon a notable amount of...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 4.5.2022
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Ethik
• ISBN-10: 1-6678-4580-2 / 1667845802
• ISBN-13: 978-1-6678-4580-7 / 9781667845807