More work

Here are a few more glimpses into my job as a Trades Helper here at Summit.

It was always a total mystery to me how these elevated buildings were kept level...

...so it was a total thrill to me that I actually got to learn how to level the Big House at Summit.

There is also a huge amount of digging holes and filling them back in. This sounds ridiculous but it's so often true. Sometimes we have to dig a trench for a new cable, or dig up any number of things that have gotten buried in the snow as it accumulates. I have lost count of the number of holes I've already dug that I could stand in up to my waist at least.

And Summit is largely a walking station; there are some snow mobiles but people are encouraged to man-haul things whenever possible, so the sleds are our friends.

All this manual labor is made possible by our morning stretch sessions, which mostly consist of belly laughing.

We have a particularly awesome construction crew this spring, I'm told, and I know for sure that it's been an hilariously fun time. I'm so grateful to have gotten to know all these people. (I'm sounding nostalgic because we're not done yet, but we only have a week left...)

Sun sun and more sun

There have been some really amazing sun moments during the spectacularly amazing weather we've been having in the month I've been here. Here are a couple since my last posting of pretty landscape pictures.

I have NO IDEA what was going on with the sun in this shot, but I LOVE it.

And then, even after all of the sun dogs I've seen here and at South Pole, I never even KNEW that a FULL sun dog looked like this. Un-freaking-believable.

Randomness

Here's a random collection of pictures for you that--with explanations--hopefully gives you more glimpses into life at Summit camp.

At Memorial Day, we flew the American flag in camp, which also involved (either out of respect for our hosts or by official agreement, not sure which) flying the Greenlandic flag. Which is when I learned that any time the Greenlandic flag is flown, the flags of Denmark and the Faroe Islands must also be flown. So this was our Memorial Day scene.

We had a nice dinner on Memorial Day to mark the occasion, and someone from the construction crew had brought up to Summit some musk ox meat, which was grilled up for that dinner. I'm not much of a meat eater, but I did try the musk ox, as something new and typically Greenlandish. It was fine...not sure I'd eat it again, but now I've tried musk ox!

Also notable recently: at the very end of May we saw a sight we hadn't seen for the 3.5 weeks since we arrived here: a plane! The first weekend of June was very busy at camp, with seven flights, visiting scientists, safety inspectors, and some personnel turn-over. When the dust settled on Tuesday, we had a new group of scientists staying here, but with departing personnel the balance landed with only about three more people on base than there had been before the flight period. It was a relief to have camp feeling quiet and insular again.

One of the planes brought in three more fish huts (yes, the kind that people use for ice fishing in northern North America) as berthing mods, so that now there's a little village of fish huts that looks so cute and colorful against the stark white and blue of the landscape. (There's also a red fish hut, but it's set apart from the others at the back of the station because it's where our overnight bear watch sleeps, and we want her to have the greatest chance possible of getting decent sleep during the day.)

I also FINALLY took a walk on the runway last weekend, which I've been wanting to do since I got here, but which I'm always too tired at the end of a work day (and on Sundays) to actually do. But I think I'm finally well-acclimated to the physical labor of my job and the altitude and all else, because taking a walk on Sunday with one of my friends here and appreciating the quiet and the gorgeous day was exactly what I wanted to do.

Recreation

We spend most of our time here working (basically 10 hrs/day, 6 days/week) but not all of it.

So the rest of the time (when we're not sleeping) there are various recreation possibilities. We have had an arts & crafts night and a Texas Hold 'Em tournament, and Thursday nights there is always a Bollywood movie playing.

I've found bunch of friends to play a LOT of card games with...

...and there are just enough other women on station for us to have some girl time/talk.

There's a sauna for warming up after a chilly day of working outside...

...and then there are the games and traditions that are specific to polar life--often invented in Antarctica and transported to the northern polar region. For example, this game, charmingly called "Ass Ratchet." Basically, two people each hold opposite ends of a cargo strap wrapped around their rumps and then use one hand to try to yank the other person off balance. The first person to move a foot loses. It sounds stupid but we have spent HOURS playing this game and watching each other play this game. We even had a tournament one weekend and crowned an Ass Ratchet Champion for Spring 2019.

This is the kind of thing that makes polar contract workers unfit for the rest of society after a while. Not sure how close I am to passing the point of no return? Or have I already?

Wildlife

This is a bit of a sad one. Like what would happen if another polar bear made it into camp, we get all excited to see birds here (there have been a couple so far), but it means pretty certain death for them. If they stop here, it's because they're exhausted, and it's too cold for them to stay long but there's no food that would allow them to move on. Everyone is taking pictures of the stoic fliers when we first see them....

But inevitably a few days or weeks later we find them frozen among our cargo crates and have to have a little moment of mourning.

RIP, little buddy!