The last northbound ship for the season has departed. Each time a ship leaves, it takes friends with it. Those left behind pay homage to those who are leaving. The water is cold.

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Taking statistics seems like a strange thing to do as a hobby, yet for hundreds of men in the Antarctic it makes perfect sense.

Going to be at McMurdo station Antarctica in early October? Head up to the carp shop break room during flight operations at the ice runway for a glimpse into what I mean. A handful of leftover winter carpenters and a few that have been on Ice since August will be gathered around, vying for their turn on the binoculars so that they can proudly proclaim “I saw her first!”. The computer savvy among these gnarled and randy boys will have already done their homework, perusing the flight manifest to determine the ratio of M:F (which is typically 3:1 by the way). Early October is an exciting time despite, or perhaps because of this strange ritual.

If you happen to go to a smaller station, or as the population decreases in preparation for winter, this phenomenon grows ever stronger and the ratio becomes THE hot topic for a short period of time.

At Palmer, the winter population is actually dynamic so the hobbyist statisticians here get more than one chance to examine the inbound manifest. An apparent typo made April’s ship manifest into something quite fun. One of the astute statisticians happened to notice that one of the passengers on the list was neither M nor F but rather ‘R’ and the speculation as to whether or not “Megan” was a pirate led to countless hours of fun and frivolity. I know, I know, doesn’t take much.

Megan showed up and….well, she is a pirate…ACK!!! a pirate. Somebody summon a ninja!

theRRRe she is on the left, posing with the science group she is here with. Turns out she is a teacher from an Alabama high school here on an outreach program and her school’s mascot is a pirate. She keeps really good daily journals and has posted quite a few pictures on her school’s website: http://www.fairhopehs.com

WTF? you might ask. I’m pretty much asking the same thing….sometimes this place is so odd, so quirky, so weird that it defies explanation or definition.

I’ve really been trying to explain the quirks and oddities that are Antarctica (at least for those of us in The Program). It’s tough to explain to someone who hasn’t been here. It’s tough to understand even when you’re right in the middle of it. Perhaps this photo will help a little. This is a picture of a snack that our station admin made up yesterday. Now, making penguins out of olives, carrots and cream cheese would go over well anywhere, I’m sure, but here; something like this goes far beyond cute or even creative and ends up being definitive of the culture and atmosphere that surrounds us.

Oh…and I still haven’t explained “Booty Jeans”…I fear that is because I have no explanation, but here goes anyhow. This morning, after waking up a couple of hours later than normal due to the day off and all, I felt a bit odd about the fact that it was still dark outside. Not twilighty dark, but full-on nighttime dark still at 8:00 AM-ish. With my head not fully wrapped around that yet I made my way into the galley for a hot cuppa and a bowl o’ cereal (this is the price to pay for a day off, the chef gets one too). Anyhow, upon sitting down at a table with a few of my comrades, the station doc said, directly to me, “Today, his name is ‘Booty Jeans’!”. I have no idea why that was funny but we all laughed our asses off. This is Antarctica.

Sometimes things get weird.

First, there is a fishing group on station who decided to provide some dinner theater to promote their upcoming fishing cruise – they promoted the presumably once-in-a-lifetime chance to spend the night with “not one, not two, but three women in rubber suits” – it was definitely entertaining and their bravery for doing this was much appreciated by all.

Second, our chef has a family member who gets involved in a HIV/AIDS awareness and education charity. The chef showed his support by organizing a hair cut raffle. The original intent was for him to offer his head as a fund raiser. He managed to get a couple other people to join in and….well, you’ll see the results in the accompanying video.

Third, the whale tagging crew came in from their ten-day cruise and some of the members of the support staff on the ship requested karaoke. Somehow or another this event got dubbed “boat girl karaoke” and…well, again here are the results all mashed up into one video.

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From the obvious to the not-so-obvious my re-assimilation into the society that most people consider to be normal is going quite well.

Obvious:

Though I’ve never been one to have strong opinions on fresh fruit or vegatables (freshies), many “Ice People” have very strong opinions. Regardless of where I stand or how much I missed (or didn’t miss) freshies on The Ice, I’m very grateful to have access to these little taste treasures now – and quite frankly, they have never tasted so good.

Having to make choices is rather overwhelming. Faced with a cornucopia of things to eat or see or do at first caused me to cringe and was extremely tiresome but after a few days the feeling of freedom to choose has become preferable to having my decisions made for me.

Sunrises, sunsets, stars, rain, animals – all welcome sights and experiences. Children freak me out a little.

Background noise really bothers me now. Normally I don’t feel that my nerves are being grated on until I reach LAX, this time, I found the Aukland airport to be rather unnerving.

Not-so-obvious:

For a few days I simply refused to accept that anything was real. I had to feel, smell and where appropriate, taste just about any natural thing I encountered – and would often still challenge its reality even after experiencing the same. Weird.