This week mid-winter officially arrived with the solstice. Mid-winter's Day is an official antarctic holiday, and one that warrants another banquet, similar to the one for Sunset Dinner (the next one is Sunrise dinner). So the table cloths and candles again adorned the galley and all but the 10 most recluse of us dined together with a special meal prepared by the cooks.
Mid-Winter's Day is celebrated around the entire continent, and we sent/received greetings from all the other stations on the continent. Inexplicably, we received greetings from MacQuarie Island, Amsterdam Island, and Crozet Island - which on the map aren't even part of antarctica. Vostok of course, gave us no winter's greeting at all. Regardless, the station greetings we did receive were put up next to map of the continent in the galley, allowing us to glimpse the staff and station designs around the continent.
Mid-Winter's dinner was followed by our winter open-mic night (available here and here). Mid-Winter is also the time where people start to get more edgy from the isolation and having to see the same people day after day. Inevitably, certain people don't get along and cliques start to form. However, spirits for our crew certainly seem better than some of the stories from previous winters. Reading also helps.
- Mid-Winter dinner was a choice of beef filet, lobster ravioli, or the veggie option (plus lots of wine)
- NSF inexplicably sent down boxes of presents to be opened mid-winter, which included star wars/star trek snap-tite models, chocolate, and socks stuffed with body oil and chapstik.
- The night before we completed another midwinter tradition by watching The Shining in the gym.
Next Week in Pole: Five ways to make the most of your NSF/ASC gifted body oil and socks.
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