November 18, 1998
South Pole, Antarctica
Day number three. The temperature was -30 °F but the wind has been blowing pretty good making it a -81 °F wind chill. It's funny, it doesn't seem as bad as it sounds. All those clothes they gave us were for a reason. Here is a picture of the area that I'm staying in. The buildings are called Jamesways, basically just a canvas covered tent. I stay in the wooden one on the right. It is heated very well. Almost too well. You come from -30 into a building that's about 75. More than a 100 degree difference. The living situation to me seems like summer camp. And that is the name of the area we're staying in, Summer Camp. These types of buildings can only be lived in during the summer season. In the winter it's just too cold. The bathrooms are in the blue building. You can't tell but it's a separate building for all the Jamesways. Water is hard to come by thing down here. The only way to get it is to melt snow. The snow melter is the wooden part of the bathroom. Melting snow is expensive though. Here is an interesting comparison of the cost of fuel down here. McMurdo Station $1.23/gal South Pole $11.88/gal How does gasoline cost where you live? Since water is so expensive, we have to conserve it. We can only take two 2 minute showers a week, and they are pretty strict about it. The only thing about water they don't care about is how much you drink. The air is very dry here and you get thirsty a lot. They don't want you to get dehydrated so they want you to drink all the water you want. Otherwise you have to be careful not to waste it. I also took a picture of my room, if you can call it that. It's just a curtained off area that is 6'x8'. Pretty cozy. There are nine of these rooms in my Jamesway. By the way, I took the picture outside of the Jamesways at 11:15 PM. I want to say 11:15 at night, but the sun is always up here and usually very bright. Good thing I brought my shades…..
The buildings or Jamesways where we stay. It's called summer camp. The blue building on the left is the restrooms and showers.
My room inside the Jamesway. About 6'x8', just enough room for the dresser and bed.
