Stephen_trumble's Blog
Final thoughts from Dr. Steve
Posted By: Stephen_Trumble, Dr. Kanatous on Monday, December 18, 2006
When we met nearly 3 months ago in the LAX airport, some of us had never met before. A brief introduction is the best one can hope for in this line of work and the next thing you know, you have a new roommate and lab mates and are thrown together in the extreme environment of the Antarctic. You have to trust these strangers with your life at times. We landed on the ice in early October and after a couple weeks of preparation our field season started in earnest. The days were long and sometimes very harsh but our team made the best of every situation, including frozen fingers, enduring the aches and pains of field work, frozen equipment, very harsh winds, low visibility, bland food, no “frosty boy”, less than adequate ping-pong competition and let us not forget Karaoke night. We ended up sampling 31 seals, which in itself is a great accomplishment. But this number does not begin to describe the memories that one takes away from Antarctica; the bluish hues of the ice ridges on sunny and not so sunny days, the blinding whites of blown snow that can make you squint even through the darkest sunglasses, the cold (need I say more?), the solitude amongst the never ending sunlight. However, there are real memories for me. The real memories like going to the “gerbil gym” each morning and riding for an hour and then figuring out how to get back to your room without your sweat freezing, the memory of playing football on the ice and reminding Jay that it is not tackle, the penguin costumes, the memory of hiking Ob Hill and talking Shawn down the hill and through her fear of heights, the missing of loved ones, the long snowmobile treks where Shane and I would drive for hours on windless sunny afternoons, the memory of answering tons of blogs from interested students and possible future scientists, the memory of Shane trying to shoot a jump shot over me (big mistake), the memory of Linnea having the patience to show me the intricacies of lab work (thanks Linnea!). So, we ended up with 31 seals and from this we will produce some good results and hopefully advance our careers but I will remember all of the stories and laughs that we shared around the meal table and miss that each and every day. Thanks Muscle Beach!!
Steve
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