Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Thanksgiving

The people living at the South Pole are predominantly American and pro-Thanksgiving. This past Saturday was the big Thanksgiving celebration, and it was quite the party; there were hors dourves, live music, a candlelight dinner and very attentive wine-servers. They even put heavy curtains on the windows to keep the blinding sun out and create a nicer ambience for us.

After a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, some youngins put on music and started dancing right there in the galley. Soon the older and more responsible contingent of the crowd went to bed, and we were left with a full-on Thanksgiving dance party. At some point the galley sound system went out, and it seemed that the party would soon end. Instead, someone initiated a drive to move the party to "The Smokers’ Lounge" , which is essentially just a bar in the Old South Pole Station. Despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that the path to the Smokers’ Lounge was through a frightening, non-heated industrial tower, the party was successfully brought back to life.

Anyway, Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. The next morning all of us SPT guys got up early to do a live webcast with the Exploratorium science museum in San Francisco, which went just fine. The rest of the day was spent lounging around the station and hanging out in the sauna. You might get the impression that every weekend at the South Pole is so fun-filled and relaxing. More realistically, this was probably the last full day of rest I will have until Christmas or New Year's. The telescope has to be built!

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