Community Is Everything

Palmer Station was built on Anvers Island in 1968 and has beckoned adventurous people ever since.  Most workers stay for deployment periods lasting three to six months so that only 45 people live here at any given time.  The buildings themselves are extremely well-kept, the amenities are surprising, and the food is fantastic.  As I mentioned before, it is a small station that is diminished even further by the powerful beauty and enormous size of the glacier piedmont and mountains directly behind.  There are two main buildings connected by a network of wooden walkways raised six feet above the ground to overcome winter snow.  As for the amenities, we have a hot tub that sits at the edge of the right-hand inlet and a gym with floor to ceiling windows and a flat screen tv that overlooks the bay to the left.  Need I say more?  No, but I will!  Our lounge has what are possibly the most comfortable couches I have ever laid buttocks on.  Ping-pong, darts, or pool, anyone?  The station is also well-equipped to support recreational activities such as glacier hiking and camping.
      But it's not the board games, books, great magazines, or musical instruments that really boost morale or make this place so great.  It's the people themselves and their landscape-inspired enthusiasm that truly foster what I have now recognized as the most positive community environment that I have ever participated in.  Researchers and support staff alike, people simply love it here.   This strong community mindset is not just in spirit but exists in practice as well.  There are no custodians here and still things are spic and span!  That is because each week, every resident is assigned a household chore at "House Mouse" and each person is also responsible for one night of GASH.  Don't ask me what it stands for, but directly after dinner each night, a group of people start a thorough cleaning of kitchen and dining room areas.  But, the most interesting part of the whole routine is not that it happens, but how it happens.  One night I was eating a later dinner and suddenly, wham bam, enter the ultimate GASH crew.  Goodbye Norah Jones, hello Metallica.  They sign up as a unit each week and race efficiently through the tasks, followed promptly by some whiskey. 
            Imagine a place where everyone lives, works, plays, and even cleans together in what must be called happy harmony.  I would never have guessed that that place could be found at a research station in Antarctica, but maybe those were my own poorly conceived expectations.  Perhaps what I am experiencing is biased because it is summer, but everyone is so welcoming and helpful for such an isolated place with so many icebergs.  I really think that it is all derived from the awe-inspiring landscape.  Palmer Station, you never cease to surprise and entertain.