Here's the other thing

I think you need to spend more than one season in Antarctica to really get it. It's like...hmmm...Synergy. Not to say that Synergy is a hierarchical society in a confined space full of crazy people and too much alcohol. I love Synergy. But in order to feel like you get it, you need to stay for more than one year and assume a role in the place. Or at least in order for the crazy to really sink in.

When you get here to McMurdo, you are just off-balance, dealing with the way the sun shines all the time and your nose bleeds because it's so cold and your hands are cracked from the dry air and the mandatory hand-washing and there are almost 1,000 people you have never met leering at you (if you are female). And what you don't notice is that all of these people (who are naturally very interesting) are doing interesting things with their time all the time which isn't always just drinking. Often the drinking involves other things too. For example, in the past week or so we had an art party at the carpentry shop that was full of exhibits and food fights in tyvek suits, a funk concert in the waste barn, jello wrestling with the mechanics, a film festival in the galley, and a skinny-dipping event with the Kiwis. Now I was working for about half of these things and was therefore not able to attend, but I am seeing. The key may be to keep coming back, being more and more in the know, and not having to deal with as much social weird because you've already got enough friends.

Anyway I am back in a mood of appreciating Antarctica etc. Happy Sunday. Leaving the continent in a month to go hike New Zealand!