old digs, new digs

We had some volunteers do a "burger bar" last night, doing to-order burgers and fries in the absence of cooks working on the 2-day weekend. Every weekend we at least fend for ourselves, as even the cooks get a day off on Sunday. At McMurdo when they have burger bar at Gallagher's Pub you actually get to pay for your food, which never made sense to me-there's free food in the galley for 4 meals a day, why pay? Anyhow, these good Samaritans didn't have any duplicitous pecuniary intentions; that's how at least some of us roll at Pole.

OK, I'm living in this big station. I have my own room, and definitely got to upgrade from this summer to this winter. I went from the room on the left to the room on the right:

As you can see, I've got a bit more space in the winter room (it's about 2 feet wider, which actually makes a huge difference), my own window (with a nice view out overlooking "Destination Zulu" and on beyond to where the flight line buildings used to be and out to the horizon now that they're gone), and enough shelf space to accomodate my own little library:



Books definitely make a place seem like "home", or at least much more personalized, in my opinion. Roughly the right half of the shelf of books are all World War II history books that one of my uncles was generous enough to donate to the cause of keeping me entertained throughout the winter. I have read loads on WWII throughout the years since pulling "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" (by William Shirer) off a shelf in my parents barn back in high school. The one history class I took as an undergrad was on WWII history, and I've kept reading about it ever since.