The Whole Wide World

Despite the rinse and repeat nature of the days down here, there is always something to keep it interesting. Yesterday was Sunday, which means brunch, which in turn means a thirty-minute earlier start to my work day. A handful of us were invited to have coffee with our station manager in the morning. For most on station it’s lazy Sunday, but for me it’s a normal work day, well what seems like a long normal day since the store is open all afternoon on Sundays. I was able to get all of my normal morning routine in, plus coffee with Karen before brunch. She has a Nespresso machine in her room, so I had a fancy coffee which was a treat. Oh-la-la.

A perk of being station management (that’s Karen, not me) is their living space. What is normally two different rooms for two different people with a shared bathroom, is a bedroom, bathroom and then the other bedroom is a lounge for station management, who get to enjoy their own room year round. For us in general population, we all get our own room during winter, but summer is a different story. We share a room with anywhere from one to four roommates during summer. Karen’s lounge overlooks Winter’s Quarters Bay, which is a really nice view in the summer and shoulder season and even in the winter she can see the stars and possibly even auroras from her lounge. Fancy shmancy.

After work, I joined a handful of friends in what is known as the BOG, which stands for back of galley. Acronyms are huge down here, which doesn’t always bode well for my memory (i.e., AH when I was trying to view the auroras two nights ago.) During the summer, the BOG is just additional dining space, but in the winter the dining room furniture gets moved and couches are brought in, along with a large TV and it’s another communal gathering space. I used to hang out in the BOG during the summer months for board games with friends after work. My favorite game we played is called Decrypto. It’s a word game played in teams that is a lot of fun. 10/10 recommend.

Now that the BOG space is a movie theater, I’ve gone there to watch a couple films. The first was the Clue, filmed in 1985, almost as old as me. Clue piqued my interest because when I traveled with the food truck/carnie team last summer, we often played Clue in the evenings, so I liked the carry over into my Antarctic life. Sunday night’s films are hosted and chosen by my friends Foxy & Garrett. Last night’s film was one of the first rom-coms ever, the 1940 His Girl Friday featuring Hugh Grant and Rosalind Russell. Both films were great and it’s nice to watch things with friends occasionally, too. I haven’t gone to all of the Sunday features as sometimes the film choice doesn’t appeal, but I think I am going to try out expanding my viewing horizons and making Sunday nights in the BOG a regular commitment from now on.