October 28th

I had homegrown lettuce (from the greenhouse) with the evening meal. The sunday evening science lecture series was about building a road between here and the south pole, I had no interest in sitting through a two hour lecture of some guy bragging about how he can bulldoze Antarctic's natural landscape. Instead, I went to what is locally known as the 'gerbil gym'. It's the gym that has treadmills, stairmasters and the like. It's one of three gyms on campus.

The evening was cold. I've finally learned how to check the local temperature (which is a lot more difficult than one might expect.) It was -23C before the windchill, and it was a windy day. I've noticed that I am now able to tell the varying degrees of coldness. When I first arrived, everyday just felt freaking cold and that was about it. As I've spent more time here, I can tell the difference between a -5 and a -15, whereas before they just both felt extreme.

Myself and a coworker were 15 minutes late for the midnight meal this evening because we wanted to finish cleaning one of the restrooms before the meal. The boss lady insisted that we stay an extra 15 minutes on break to balance the late arrival. I said I would just work really slow for the next 30 minutes, which she thought was an excellent plan.

The Spanish words of the day were for 'pen' and 'pencil'. Another of my coworkers is from Thailand and taught me the Thai word for 'dirty'. I have apparently failed in committing any of these words to long-term memory as I can't recall any at this moment.

The day ended with a long and delightful phone call home.