I am currently living/working at the USA's smallest Antarctica research station. AMA (with pictures!)!

How much trash do you produce and what do you do with it?

Good question!

Most of our garbage and recyclables is sorted, packaged up and taken out of station on the monthly resupply ship, and disposed of in Chile. Hazardous waste (such as motor oil, solvents, paint, and lab debris) is stored on station, and then once every two years the resupply ship takes it all the way back to the USA where it can be processed and disposed of safely.

Human and most food waste goes through a primary treatment process and is dispersed into an active tidal zone near station. (Translation; it's diluted, ground up and dumped into the ocean). Our impact is very minimal; it's only organic matter that is dispersed this way, and it's not a large volume. I think the ballpark is something like 80lbs per day for the whole station; by comparison, the penguin colonies on the nearby island of Torgeson produce 3-4 tons of guano per day at the peak of the season.

Any poultry food waste (chicken bones, egg shells, etc) and human medical waste is stored separately, and incinerated on the resupply ship once a month. This is due to concerns about any bird-born diseases infecting the local penguin and seabird populations.

Do you ever pretend that you are MacReady from 'The Thing'?

I'd totally do that all the time.

Well that was set at McMurdo, a different station, but there are flamethrower jokes made frequently enough. :)

At least once a season we'll have "Bad Antarctic Movie Weekend", where we'll all watch "The Thing", "Alien vs. Predator", "Virus", and whatever other terrible Antarctic-related movies we can find. Usually while inebriated and throwing popcorn at the screen.

About this inebriated thing and I guess supplies in general. In another comment you talked about the supply ship, so do you put in your order ahead of time and you pay to have stuff delivered to you or is there a commissary in your outpost?

A few other general q's:

How far away from other stations are you? Is it possible to visit back and forth?

Do you ever get cain fever? Ever see anyone freak out because of the isolation?

thanks and thanks for doing this AMA.

There's a station store that's about the size of a closet, and sells tolietries and booze, along with some tee-shirts and postcards and other trinkets for the tourists when the cruise ships stop by later in the summer. Oddly this is one of the few things I can't provide a picture of, as we usually keep it locked outside of the hour or so a week that it's usually open for.

The nearest station to us is Vernasky, a Ukrainian station (they used to be British) about 30 miles to the south that's only 13 people. Aside from that, I think the closest outposts would be at King George island, roughly a day's sail on the resupply ship to the north. So no, it's not really possible to visit. If it were a DIRE emergency, we MIGHT be able to take a zodiac boat down to Vernasky, but that's 30 miles of open ocean in a 12 foot long inflatable boat.

Honestly, we don't really get much cabin fever, because it doesn't feel that isolating. The internet's good enough, and there's enough to do and enough going on that it helps break up any monotony. And later in the summer the cruise ships will start stopping by station, which is a LOT of fun. That really helps break up the season, it's like a mini-vacation.

What do you do when the cruise sips stop by?

Smaller ships (<200 people) we'll bring them on shore and give them a tour of the station. The larger ships, we'll go out to the ship and do a presentation/Q&A.

I never even knew cruises ventured that far. That's awesome. So is it the Polar Bear crowd, like everyone's ready to go for a swim, or what?

Nah, it's mostly wealthy people who are . . . "very experienced at life".

Does it feel surreal at times looking around seeing almost nothing but an empty and barren frozen land? Like you're on a different planet? How do people cope with this feeling of isolation?

It's EXTREMELY surreal, but probably not for the reasons you think. It doesn't feel isolating at all.

This place is anything but barren; we're in a small archipelago and it's teaming with wildlife. Not just penguins, but also seals, whales, and many different flighted seabirds. A could of Weddell seals have just given birth to pups a quarter mile from station, and we've been keeping track of their progress with telescopes and binoculars.

And for the most part we're all friends here and all get along really well, and do a good job of supporting each other if someone is getting homesick of having a rough go of things.

How big is the team there? What do you all do to socialize?

There's ~25 of us here right now, maximum we can hold is 44. We do the usual things you'd expect; play a lot of Mario Kart, hang out in the bar, go for hikes, go boating (later in the summer once the sea ice melts).

You have a bar? cool!

It's a beautiful place: http://frozennerd.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-palmer-station-bar.html

What about your sexual needs? Are there any women in the station? If yes, how often you folks mate?

. . . how often do we "mate"? WTF?

Male/female ratio is pretty even, but it depends on the time of year and how many scientists are on station. We mostly focus on marine biology, which is a VERY heavily female dominated field.

It fluctuates between 70/30 and 50/50 male/female. Dating happens, maybe not as freely as in the real world, but it happens.

How'd you get your job? What exactly do you do?

I got my job the same way you'd get any other job; I went to the website and applied. (I don't think I can link directly to the job boards as there might be some weird legal thing due to me being employed by them, but I will say that if you google for "Jobs in Antarctica", it's literally the first result)

I'm a Utility Mechanic/guy with a wrench who fixes things. Most of my day-to-day stuff is building maintenance, but this place is so small that job duties are vague and ill-defined. If something breaks, I'll fix it or help the other mechanics and technicians here fix it.

Does fixing things take up all your day? If not, what do you do for the rest?

Do you ever get breaks from work, such as weekends/holidays? If so, what do you do during them?

For the most part, yes, that's my job is to fix stuff.

We work 9 hours a day, six days a week. Sundays are off, as are federal holidays.

There's LOTS to do in the down time. Hiking up onto the glacier or onto the islands around station is always fun. Or going out in the zodiac boats and taking pictures of all the wildlife, or going into the carpentry shop and making stuff. Lots of people knit and sew, or do woodworking, or just zoning out and watching movies/TV shows bought off iTunes.

What kind of wildlife is there around there?

Aside from the penguins, there's LOTS of flighted seabirds. Albatrosses, Skuas, Mollymawks, kelp gulls, sheathbills (nicknamed "Sh*t Chickens), petrels, etc.

Also plenty of seals, whales, and occasionally Orcas.

Or doing AMAs on reddit. :)

What does your resume look like? I applied through Raytheon a few times but they told me it was tough without naval experience.

My resume is a strange mix of random jobs here and there. Mostly IT.

It depends what sort of job you're trying to get here. Getting a job here is VASTLY easier if you have hands-on experience in a skilled trade; we ALWAYS need plumbers, electricians, carpenters, welders, pipe-fitters, etc.

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We sign on for ~6 months at a time, usually for a season; either the whole summer, or the whole winter.

We don't get to leave, but during the summer cruise ships will stop by and often they'll let us go out and run around on them for a day, which is a cool mini-vacation.

Is the pay enough to support you comfortably during the off season?

Also, what kind of qualifications would i need to get a job at one of these bases?

Be able to work with your hands; we always need skilled tradespeople. Carpenters, electricians, plumbers, mechanics, welders, etc.

And yes, the pay is enough to support me well enough in the off season, however I'm not trying to maintain a house or car or something year round. For the most part I just travel in the off-season, I don't really have a home.

That sounds incredible! So no official educational requirements? I'm gonna have a degree, and I can definitely work a wrench (motorcycle maintenance). How's the training?

They're pretty flexible with the "Or equivalent work experience in lieu of a degree" part. But if you don't have at least a few years of actual solid work experience as a mechanic, be prepared to take some some sort of helper or assistant position for a few seasons.

There is no training; this is a job like any other job. You're hired and expected to be pretty functional and independent from the start.

I'd love to see more pictures of the place to get a feel for your living/working conditions and the station as a whole.

Well the widest lens I have is on my iphone, but here's a few basics:

Our coffee line/galley: http://i.imgur.com/kELMELL.jpg (That inlay of the continent on the front of the cabinet is an example of the pride that the people who work here take in this station. That was done a few years ago by a carpenter over the winter; one of the popular things to do outside of work hours is projects such as that, to make the station just that little bit nicer for future generations of researches and workers)

Kitchen: http://i.imgur.com/XkFrKhH.jpg

Berthing hallway: http://i.imgur.com/cjeiRpP.jpg

My room: http://i.imgur.com/ZPaBhXv.jpg

View out my window: http://i.imgur.com/0yorOJ7.jpg

Lounge/TV room: http://i.imgur.com/LAwcK6n.jpg

View looking out over the pier: http://i.imgur.com/ix9477G.jpg

Gym: http://i.imgur.com/O0EMd5W.jpg

Are those all movies on the shelves in the Lounge/TV room pic?

Yup, we've got about 2,000 DVDs

Don't lie...you took down your Farrah Fawcett/Cindy Crawford/Natalie Portman, and Transformers/TMNT/Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers posters.

Oh god, you caught me! I'll never stop being a Belieber!

Have you ever considered ordering a 3D printer, so you can fabricate/print a missing part instead of waiting for it to be sent to you?

The idea has been mentioned, but often the parts that we direly need and don't have are not something that could be 3D printed. It's often things like ceramic seals, or gaskets that have precision mated surfaces, or water pumps, or filters, or electronic actuators or ball valves and all sorts of things like that.

Off topic, but I often roll my eyes when I hear people crowing about the upcoming 3D printing revolution. They're great for some things, and I've ordered plenty of stuff from Ponko for my own personal projects, but the sort of things that usually break in a tradesman's world are not something that a 3D printer can help with.

If you direly need something, how long before it can be sent to you?

Up to a few weeks. Last season the compressor on our walk-in fridge crapped out, and it was about a month before we could get a replacement.

What does Penguin taste like?

I don't know, but if they taste ANYTHING like they smell, I've got no interest in finding out.

Do you ever go out flying kites?

For science, of course.

Sure, all the time. The doctor last season was a big kite fanatic and was always making kites out of whatever scrap materials he could find around station.

Two questions:

1) What "time zone" are you on, what with being closer to a pole than most people?

2) How do you follow the events going around- news, sports, entertainment, etc.? Do you have TV or just an internet connection or what?

We're on the Atlantic time zone.

We've got no TV service (by choice), but we have reliable internet access. We've got a really nice 110" screen with a 1080p projector in the lounge, with about 2,000 DVDs, and we can always buy stuff from iTunes or Amazon's digital services.

How fast is the internet? I would imagine its pretty bad?

3mbit with very high latency.

Netflix?

Not enough bandwith for that, not nearly.

How do you receive shipments of essential supplies (boat, plane, etc.)? And how long does it take?

This station is TINY, we could fit the whole place on a football field with plenty of room to spare, and there's no airstrip. So all of our supplies, and people, are brought in on the resupply ship that stops by about once a month. The ship docks in Punta Arenus, at the southern end of Chile, and depending on the weather it takes anywhere from 4-7 days to get from Chile down to our station.

What are the phenomena that are exclusive to Antarctica and not the rest of the world ? If any, did you get a chance to experience it/them ?

What's the most profound thing you went through or experienced till now ?

Hearing a humpback whale singing blew my mind the first time I heard it. The only people who don't care about saving the whales are the people who haven't been up close and personal with them in the wild.

What is the most dangerous situation that has happened while you've have been there?

Honestly, the company is very good about ensuring a safe work environment and everyone takes safety very seriously here. There's many things we do that could potentially be dangerous (small boat operations especially), but we take every precaution we can and have regular training in emergency response scenarios.

Do you have a contingency plan for pirate raids? This is actually a serious question.

No, it's not realistically a threat. The oceans around here are very treacherous and we are extremely far away from any sort of port that pirates could base out of. You need a serious, solid ship and a lot of experience to make it across the Drake Passage.

May I send you a letter?

Not easily. You'd have to send it to our corporate headquarters in Denver, and then someone who's coming down on the next resupply ship would put it in their luggage and hand-carry it down.

Do you have your own room or do you have to share?

It's dorm-style living, two people to a room with bunk beds and communal bathrooms.

How's your roommate?

^{If he doesn't use Reddit, be extra honest.}

I'm awesome.

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Yes, he is. He's our station electrician.

1.How do you deal with your sexual needs?

1. Are their any Sexual tensions between male and females?

2. Are their any sexual relationships where you work?

3. Are you allowed to keep a porn stash?

shrug There's some dating that happens, there's a few pre-established couples that came down together, some married and some not, and as the season goes on there's bound to be some people that get into ice-relationships.

Official National Science Foundation (NSF) policy is that government and work computer systems or internet services may not be used for any illicit or adult uses. But whatever you bring down on your own laptop is your own private business.

"ice-relationships" So, common enough there's a name for it.

The relationship exists only for the period of time that the two of you happen to be at the same station. As soon as one party moves away, it's over, clean and simple.

I just need to know how many blankets you use at night.

Just one? It's plenty comfortable inside the buildings.

Then why the hell are there ten on my bed with it's in the seventies outside?

I'm sending this to my damn fiancee.

HA. Turn your A/C down. We keep it around 60-70 inside the buildings, depending on people's personal preferences.

How much do you make? How did you get your job?

I make probably 1/2 to 2/3rds what I'd make in the states doing this same job. The upside is that almost everything is provided; I don't pay for food, housing, transportation, etc. The only way to spend money here is at the tiny little station store which sells toiletries and booze; other than that, every dollar you make just sits in your bank account.

It's amazing how easy it is to save money when you don't have to pay for rent, or a car, or gas, or insurance, or a phone bill, or food, or on and on and on.

I got the job like you'd get any other job; I went to the website and applied.

Would you like a pet penguin?

Oh, good god no. They STINK and they're filthy animals.

And for as cute as they are, they're some of the dumbest creatures I've ever met.

I dont know if you are allowed to discuss this, but what kind of biological research (if any) is carried out at this facility? I am a molecular biologist and I have been very interested in working on one of these facilities considering they are now finding submerged lakes with life in them.. Just to be able to sequence an absolutely new and unknown genome sounds like a great way to use my skill set!

Oh I can discuss it all I want, but all my knowledge is second-hand from what I've learned over lunch/dinner conversations with the scientists. :)

Most of what we do here is marine biology, especially micro marine bio. LOTS of stuff regarding alge/plankton, coral, krill,that kind of thing. We do a little bit of research on penguins and the like, but I'm pretty sure that's just because people expect us to. We keep track of the colonies, and how well they're doing, but to be honest there's not much we can actually learn from penguins.

Most of the really important work is in ocean salinity, how much and what types of gasses are dissolved in the water and at what depths, how much biomass is in the water at various depths, etc. The Antarctic ocean is one of the few places on the planet where the surface water is actually colder than the deep water, and this causes huge convection currents that move massive amounts of nutrients through the water column. This mixing is very critical to the health of the worlds oceans, so more than anything that's what they're studying here.

Man I so want to work there I would do anything too bad you don't need former infantry soldiers with 2 year programming degrees.

You mind washing dishes or carrying heavy things from point A to B?

nope not at all i have carried many heavy things from point A to B in my infantry days

Apply for a job as a GA (General Assistant) or as one of the various "Tradesman's Assistant" type gigs. I think they give preferential hiring to veterans.

Have you pissed and then your pee froze while you were pissing? I'm really interested.

Nah, it's not nearly that cold here. :)

Did you bring any boardgames with you? If so, which ones?

Someone brought down "Cards against Humanity" this year, which should make for some interesting evenings. We've also got "Settlers of Catan" and all the expansions. Mostly we play a lot of card games (Wist, Hearts, Gin Rummy, etc).

Does everyone get along?

Generally, yes. It's sort of like being at summer camp when you were a kid, but smaller. You've got your friends, and people you like but aren't as close to, and maybe a few people you're not fond of, but you can get along as needed to get a job done. Places this small can get toxic quickly if there's too much animosity between individuals, so as a community we put a lot of effort into making things work.

What happens in a medical emergency?

We have a doctor on station, and a small clinic with good diagnostic and keep-the-guy-alive capabilities. X-ray and ultrasound capability, bloodwork, good supply of medications, things like that. If we really have a dire emergency, and the resupply ship is in Chile, they can be here on station in as little as four days, and then it's a day's sail up to the airstrip on King George Island, where they could be flown to South America.

as little as 4days? might not want get appendicitis or anything that require fast surgery

We had that happen during my first season in 2008, and it's something that the doctors do worry about. But generally they can pump a patient full of enough antibiotics, and if necessary put a drain into it long enough to keep it from rupturing until they can get to South America.

Hi TotallyToast...I wintered at Palmer in 2005, and we actually managed to medevac a person out who had appendicitis via air. The glacier in the backyard is just large enough for a twin otter to land, and we were lucky enough that the British had just opened Rothera for the year, so they had planes available. I wrote about it on my blog...sorry for the crappy images..they didn't survive a random wordpress upgrade at some point in the past.

http://theglobalguy.com/world-travels/antarctica/medevac

Yeah, I heard about that! Sketchy, and the glacier has melted back a LOT since then. They probably wouldn't be able to do that again.

What exactly does your job entail?

How many other people live in the base with you?

My job is "Fix stuff that breaks". :) Official job title is "Utility Mechanic", but because this place is so small, on any one day I could find myself doing anything imaginable. Mostly it's trades-related, but some days find me shoveling snow for 9 hours. It depends what's needed at the time.

The maximum capacity of the station is 44; right now we've got around 25 people here.

What's with the Stonington, CT marker? Seems like a random small town to be measuring from.

Honestly, I'm not sure. I think someone that works here is from there, so they just whacked up that sign for fun. Or it's possible that one of the universities or organizations that we work with is based there.

EDIT It's actually the birthplace of Nathanial B. Palmer, for whom our station is named. :)

Is there a way for spouses to live at the research station?

No, unless they manage to get a job here as well.

How fast is your internet?

3mbit, up/down, shared by the whole station. It's over the Iridium satellite network, so the latency is high but it's very useable. Youtube can be pretty slow, but we've got a very effective packet shaper doing QoS, and it keeps things prioritized well.

You mentioned tourists visiting the outpost during the summer. I live in a cruise ship town myself, and we accumulate lots of fun and also cringe worthy stories of tourists. Any wacky stories? Funny or silly questions they asked? Hawaiian patterned parkas?

Also, how can you call John Carpenter's The Thing a bad movie!?

Most of the cruise ship passengers are . . . uh, "Experienced at life" as our manager so delicately put it. One time we had an older gentlemen ask if all the women are station were "the domestic help". (Ironically, almost all the women on station are scientists or grad students; the men are mostly the help)

Do you often go outside, on walks etc? What do you do in your down-time?

Oh sure, all the time. I spend the vast majority of my day working outside.

The hiking here is a bit limited, but it's beautiful.

What are the average temps in the "summer"? How long can/do these hikes actually last?

High 30s and low 40s in the summer. You can go hiking all day if you want.

What was most surprising about living in Antarctica, i.e. what did you not anticipate at all before you arrived there?

I had a pretty good idea of what to expect from the job before I came down, I'd done a LOT of research and reading of people's blogs before I applied. So I had a pretty good idea of what to expect from the work, and what I'd be doing.

But what really surprised me is the strength of the culture and community of people who live and work here. I guess I expected it to be like an oil rig, full of gruff surly guys only here for the money, but it's so not that.

What is your meals situation like? Do you get good variety and how accommodating is the station to different diets- vegetarian, gluten free, kosher etc?

Cafeteria style, and the food is quite good. Freshies are in perpetual short supply as we only get resupplied once a month, and the majority of the ingredients are frozen, but the cooks do amazing jobs with what they have. It's mostly a function of the small size; unlike at huge stations where they have to cook for hundreds of people at once, here they're cooking for 20-40 and can have much more leeway and variation in their meals.

The cooks are as flexible as they reasonably can be regarding special diets, but they give much more heed to intolerance and allergies (Someone who's SEVERELY allergic to common ingredients would probably not pass the medical screening to come down here in the first place). And every meal there's always a few vegetarian dishes, and they do a good job of letting people know if something has dairy or nuts in it.

If someone is strictly vegan or kosher, the cooks will do the best they can to accommodate that person, but they have to worry about feeding everyone else as well. If someone is a really picky eater, they're welcome to cook for themselves as long as they're not getting in the way.

Which way does the water flow in your toilet?

Uh, down. They're all using flush valves, not tanks, so it's just water pressure doing it's job. :)

I've always had this hectic fantasy of going down to the South Pole/North Pole while holding a compass. Have you ever done that?

The geographic south pole is about 1700 miles away from our station. :)

And a compass at the geographic south pole will still point south in the completely wrong direction; the magnetic south pole is just off the coast of the continent, due south of India.

What does everyone do to stay in shape? I can't imagine there is a lot of space. Unless you guys cross country ski or something.

Most of our jobs are very physical, lots of hard labor and tradespeople, but we all fight a losing battle against the cooks who are doing things like this every night: http://i.imgur.com/E8fcV3g.jpg http://i.imgur.com/FxEpyGJ.jpg

So we do have a decently equipped gym, with a small handful of stationary equipment and free weights. http://i.imgur.com/O0EMd5W.jpg

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Getting parts is always a nightmare. We try to keep as many spare parts on station as we can, but inevitably something will break that we don't have a replacement for, and we have to bodge something together or just do without until the resupply ship gets here.

Sometimes it can take upwards of 3+ months to get parts, or longer, and sometimes the parts never show up at all. As anyone who's ever worked for a government agency can tell you, ordering and purchasing is a convoluted, time consuming and maddening process. Most of the things we need have to be bought in the USA, and then moved south through the USAP's cargo system until they get to the southern tip of Chile, and then put on the resupply ship which only stops by once a month.

What do you think about Antarctic tourism? Does the extra exposure and support make up for the pollution and trouble?

Assuming you're against it, would you be more okay with it if numbers were restricted to a fairly low number each year and everyone had to visit in an icebreaker/Class-A hulled ship?

And do you see any hope for a treaty that would do better at preserving the nature of Antarctica?

Personally, I like the tourism. We get a bunch of the cruise ships stopping by our station during the summer, and for the smaller ships (<200 people), we'll bring them on shore and give them a tour of the station. Usually in the evening they'll invite us out onto the ship to do some Q&A and generally mingle, and it's like a mini-vacation.

And even in the big picture, I think tourism to Antarctica, as long as it's handled responsibly, is a good thing. You'd be shocked at how many people I've spoken to in the real world who can't locate Antarctica on a map, or don't even know that it's a continent. So anything we can do to encourage the general population to be more interested in the Antarctic, and to care more about the environmental impact that the rest of the world is having on the polar regions is a good thing.

As it stands, the ACA seems to be doing a good job of preserving Antarctica. I'm not sure any additional legislation is needed.

Is everyone that works there a scientist or researcher of some sort? Is there any form of hierarchy among the 44?

Nah, it's usually about 50/50 split between scientists and support personnel here at this station. And there's no hierarchy to speak of, this place is too small for that. Everyone eats with, hangs out with and goes hiking with everyone else, it's all very communal.

The other much larger stations (such as McMurdo, which is over 1,100 people sometimes) are very different. There, the support to science ratio is often as high as 10:1, and there's much clearer divisions of labor and responsibility.

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I love living down here. It's much quieter, much simpler, and I get to feel really good about what I do every day. There's so many fewer things to worry about here; no bills to pay, no grocery shopping, no commute, no traffic, no cooking, etc.

I was raised in Chicago, but I am not a city guy. Even when I'm back in the real world, I still seek out the wilderness and nature, I have no love for urban environments.

You should totally post some more pictures. Like of polar bears and penguins! And maybe of whatever research you're doing... but mostly of cute animals.

Well most of the animals are still gone for the winter, but they should be showing back up very soon. We did have a Weddell seal give birth to a pup just a week ago: http://i.imgur.com/WRpvowe.jpg

ლ(◕ω◕ლ) LOOK AT HIMMMM!!!!! HE IS SOOOO CUTEEE

When the penguins start to hatch, I basically turn into a squealing ball of goo for like a month. :)

What's the red thing on the baby seal? Is it bleeding??

That's the remains of the umbilical cord. That guy is perhaps a week old.

polar bears live in the artic...

(I've gotten so tired of correcting people about it that I've given up)

Start telling people that if they lived in the Arctic and the Antarctic, they'd be called bipolar bears.

That's actually the first funny polar bear related joke that I've seen in this thread. :)

How long is the average contract there? Or can you stay permanently?

No, you can't stay permanently. Some people have done a full year, but after that they FORCE you to leave, because you've probably started to go a little crazy.

The usual contract lengths are ~6 months; you sign on for a season, either a winter or a summer.

Is it possible for someone to take a boat there just to say they went to Antarctica?

Sure, there's plenty of cruises that come down here during the summer (Dec-Feb), and a lot of them stop by our station for a visit. They're VERY expensive though, upwards of $8,000 per person for a week long cruise.

I want to live and work in Antartica, but I don't think I have any special skills to offer even though I have a Masters degree (liberal arts). I don't even mind being a cook or a janitor for that matter. What are the chances of me getting a job down there? What can improve my chances for getting a job down there?

Do you get Internet access down there, so that you can watch stuff like Netflix?

To be a cook you need actual culinary and industrial kitchen experience. You could be a DA ("Dining Attendant". Dishwasher), but that job really sucks. Being a janitor isn't a bad gig though, no real pre-reqs, you just have to be fast.

There is internet, but it's quite slow. Our station has 3mbit shared by ~40 people, and the big station (McMurdo) has a 20mbit connection, shared by 1,100 people.

So you have medical facilities, and I read that sometimes your job requires you to shovel snow for hours on end. But is there a fitness place at the station?

How is your room for personal stuff? I read that you can bring a laptop, but how much stuff can you actually bring? (A Laptop, camera, and an external HDD would probably be enough for me tech-wise)

Sounds like a unique job.

Yeah, we've got a decent gym: http://i.imgur.com/O0EMd5W.jpg

I've got two laptops, a dSLR with a small pile of good lenses, three external hard drives, and iPhone and a Kindle. Most of what you're limited by is the 2x 50lb bag limit on the airplane.

What has been your most unexpected or strange experience while there, so far? And if you want to answer another, what do you miss the most about life at home?

I'd say the strangest is walking around the luxury cruise ships when they stop by to visit; that's REALLY surreal. You go from the usual station life, where things are simple but functional, and then suddenly you're on these opulent cruise ships. White-gloved butlers waiting on you hand and foot, gold-rimmed fine china, chilled salad forks with your meal. That's a real mind job.

I miss my motorcycles, and a larger/more active dating/hookup scene. There is dating that happens here, but you have to take things slowly and be very careful. If you try to date someone and it doesn't go well, you still have to live/work with them for the rest of the season, you can't just avoid them or something.

Palmer Station is the smallest? Really? I was stationed at the Black Island Communication station in 96, and it was just me and one other person. Heres a link for you... http://www.adventure-journal.com/2011/04/weekend-cabin-black-island-antarctica/ And I have pictures and blog address if you would like them too.

I think Black Island is technically considered part of McMurdo, and it's not manned year-round. Palmer is the smallest of the year-round independent stations. There are many summer-only stations that are much smaller than us.

How are food and alcohol rationed out? Do you pay for it or is there some kind of distribution system? Is there enough of it?

Food isn't "rationed" in any way. Hot meals are prepared three times a day and hot snacks twice a day, and there's perpetually leftovers in the fridge that you're welcome to help yourself to. Or just grab something out of the pantry if you want to get ambitions and cook something on your day off, or outside of usual meal times.

Alcohol is sold in our little station store, and prices are mostly in line with the US. We run out of stuff frequently enough and what we do get is unpredictable, but there's usually enough decent liquor and wine to keep people happy.

How's the Internet connection? It's wild to me to think you can have Internet in Antarctica and I barely do in my state's capital.

3mbit, both ways. It's not cheap; last I heard, our internet bill is something like $10,000/month. It's over the Iridium satellite network.

PLEASE tell me you have seen a penguin

By the thousands. There's over 2,000 breeding pairs within a two mile radius.

Is it possible to live in Antartica as a vegetarian (I eat eggs and diary though).

Sure, no problem with that. Allergies are a bigger deal due to extremely remote location and distance to medical services.