Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 02/26/2012 - 10:29
Forums
Seafloor Organisms and Changing Ocean Conditions in Antarctic

Hello!

We hope that your time on the South Pole is getting better each day! You must be learning so much.

The journals you have posted seem to be getting more and more interesting in terms of experiences and research! Do you think that the more time you spend there, the more you want to learn about the surrounding and ocean acidification?

How is it to live and spend time in the Antarctic as opposed to Pennsylvania, or any part of the U.S. at that? We miss you here!

Enjoy the research and experiences!

Jennie and Kyra

Sun, 02/26/2012 - 13:24

Nell Herrmann

Hi Jennie and Kyra,I'm not actually at the South Pole; in fact I'm about 1,700 miles from there! I'm on the Western Antarctic Peninsula, that little bit of land that juts out toward the tip of South America. I'm glad you are enjoying the journals; I'm certainly learning more every day. Yes, the longer I'm here the more interesting everything becomes.
Living here is different in many ways, particularly because it's such a small community. There aren't any roads and everything is more or less contained in just 2 buildings. If I "drive" anywhere, it's on the water in an inflatable boat called a zodiac. I share a small room with the station doctor and I haven't had a roommate (other than Mr. Beck) since college, so that's a big change too. I'm here with about 40 other people who are either scientists or support staff. I'm the only public school teacher here (many of the scientists are teachers in the sense that they are university professors). Living in such a small community is fun- everyone is nice- but it's also very different than living in State College.
I'm having a great time and learning a lot. Thanks for asking!
-Ms. Herrmann