8/17
Today was a very sad and emotional day. A plane came, and all of our friends got on it. It's the last Air National Guard flight until next April and the last flight, period, until the end of October. It was super sad to see my friends go, especially Thano, Kathy, and K-dub. They will definitely be missed. It was an emotional day, and after they left I felt pretty sad. I know Elissa did too. She was crying often.
So now it's just me, Elissa, Storm, Nate, and Marie (she's the new manager). Things will definitely be a lot different here, other than just the emptiness. We'll have to take on more different camp tasks that normally others would do, like cooking, building trash pallets, water runs, etc. People say, the small crew is the best, but at the moment I'm not convinced. It will be nice to have extra space and to have my own room (but I will miss having Thano as a roommate) and to have more of the run of the place, but still... I think I liked it best when there was the 11 of us. Then it was small and we had space, but there was still enough people. It seemed like people were the least stressed then and had the most free-time.
I think all our friends on the ops crew that left were very ready to get out. Elissa told me that k-dub posted 2 funny things on his instagram.
-Down by the fuel pits, they have a line up of about 10 dead birds. For some reason the birds are attracted to that area. Maybe the color and the waving flag. But he took a picture of them and wrote "this is what eventually happens if you stay at Summit too long"
-Then he also took a picture of the plane and said. "There's an old Antarctic proverb that says: 'if you see a plane, get on it'" Elissa said, "I guess we missed out on that memo"
So yea, it's going to be interesting now. We'll see how the group dynamics go. I'm sure we'll eventually settle in and the loss of our friends won't be so fresh. But today, just walking around, different things would remind you of a person, and you'd feel sad that they are gone.
This is definitely interesting though...stuck high up on the top of the Greenland icesheet in the middle of nowhere with just 4 other people and with no air support.
8/18
Definitely lonely and empty on station. Will for sure be an interesting experience with just 5 of us. I think it will sort of become a family feeling. It's definitely nice to have the extra space, but I will also miss the diversity of people. Hopefully the 5 of us all get along and that there are no problems. I could see if you had the perfect group of 5, it could be the time of your life. Seems like most of the people in this group are pretty quiet and reserved, so I think it will just be very chill.
Still eating Kathy's Indian leftovers. Kathy will be sorely missed!
Big storm rolled in today. Lots of snow. Felt like a storm back home, first real significant snowfall we've had. And this means that yesterday was probably my last run on the skiway. They won't maintain it now and I'm sure the drifts are huge on it.
Today was a very sad and emotional day. A plane came, and all of our friends got on it. It's the last Air National Guard flight until next April and the last flight, period, until the end of October. It was super sad to see my friends go, especially Thano, Kathy, and K-dub. They will definitely be missed. It was an emotional day, and after they left I felt pretty sad. I know Elissa did too. She was crying often.
So now it's just me, Elissa, Storm, Nate, and Marie (she's the new manager). Things will definitely be a lot different here, other than just the emptiness. We'll have to take on more different camp tasks that normally others would do, like cooking, building trash pallets, water runs, etc. People say, the small crew is the best, but at the moment I'm not convinced. It will be nice to have extra space and to have my own room (but I will miss having Thano as a roommate) and to have more of the run of the place, but still... I think I liked it best when there was the 11 of us. Then it was small and we had space, but there was still enough people. It seemed like people were the least stressed then and had the most free-time.
I think all our friends on the ops crew that left were very ready to get out. Elissa told me that k-dub posted 2 funny things on his instagram.
-Down by the fuel pits, they have a line up of about 10 dead birds. For some reason the birds are attracted to that area. Maybe the color and the waving flag. But he took a picture of them and wrote "this is what eventually happens if you stay at Summit too long"
-Then he also took a picture of the plane and said. "There's an old Antarctic proverb that says: 'if you see a plane, get on it'" Elissa said, "I guess we missed out on that memo"
So yea, it's going to be interesting now. We'll see how the group dynamics go. I'm sure we'll eventually settle in and the loss of our friends won't be so fresh. But today, just walking around, different things would remind you of a person, and you'd feel sad that they are gone.
This is definitely interesting though...stuck high up on the top of the Greenland icesheet in the middle of nowhere with just 4 other people and with no air support.
8/18
Definitely lonely and empty on station. Will for sure be an interesting experience with just 5 of us. I think it will sort of become a family feeling. It's definitely nice to have the extra space, but I will also miss the diversity of people. Hopefully the 5 of us all get along and that there are no problems. I could see if you had the perfect group of 5, it could be the time of your life. Seems like most of the people in this group are pretty quiet and reserved, so I think it will just be very chill.
Still eating Kathy's Indian leftovers. Kathy will be sorely missed!
Big storm rolled in today. Lots of snow. Felt like a storm back home, first real significant snowfall we've had. And this means that yesterday was probably my last run on the skiway. They won't maintain it now and I'm sure the drifts are huge on it.
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| my roommate and me on his last day |
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| hugs all around |
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| the last of the summer crew leaving |
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| the 3 remaining summer folks beside me (+1 new winter managers) looking sadly as our friends leave |
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| those who remain |
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| the fallen: Hunger Games Style |
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| heavy frost these days |
1 comment:
The fantastic 5
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