Blog . Eli Duke . Com

recently i’ve been getting this question a lot:

what’s the deal with going to antarctica?

every time that question popped up i did my best to explain the who, what, where, when, and why in about 2 paragraphs (spoken or written). i figured that the question will probably not stop popping up (now OR after i get back), so here is my response… please bear with me:

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every year between august and february (the southern hemisphere’s summer) hundreds of scientists from all over the world (and maybe even Al Gore!) go to antarctica to study and do research; they study climate (past and present), astronomy, the atmosphere, the oceans, etc etc. some of them do this on a boat, some at the South Pole, but most of them study at McMurdo Station (the largest community on the continent). Here’s what wikipedia has to say:

McMurdo Station [operated by the United States] is Antarctica’s largest community and a functional, modern day science station, which includes a harbour, 3 airfields (2 seasonal), a heliport and over 100 buildings, including … a bowling alley with an antique Brunswick manual pinset machine. There is even a 9-hole disc golf course on site. The primary focus of the work done at McMurdo Station is science, but most of the residents (approximately 1,000 in the summer and fewer than 200 in the winter) are not scientists, but station personnel who are there to provide support for operations, logistics, information technology, construction, and maintenance.

WOW! bet you didn’t know that, huh? well, that is where i’ll be this coming winter, from about October 10th to February 28th! sounds like fun! you can at least take some comfort in the fact that while i’m down there the sun will never set (24 hours of daylight) and the temperature will average about 25 or 30 degrees. that’s not so bad.

so… how did i get this job?

two years ago a friend of the family, doug leen, went to antarctica as THE dentist and lived to tell about it. my aunt and uncle had a little dinner party at their house a while after he got back, and he told stories and showed slides and it was great! i happened to be living with my aunt and uncle at the time (having just moved to seattle), and i was completely enamored with the idea of going to antarctica. i talked to doug afterward and got the information i needed.

all of the research at Pole and McMurdo is orchestrated by the United States Antarctic Program (USAP), which is a branch of the National Science Foundation (NSF). so, the USAP and NSF deal with finding the scientists and organizing the research, but i won’t be directly working for them. i’ll be working for (enter creepy music): RAYTHEON!! AHHHH!! you know, the evil space-laser contractor making millions off the war in iraq.

well, technically i will be working for Raytheon Polar Services Company (RPSC) which is a subsidiary of Raytheon (but that’s splitting hairs). RPSC exist for the sole purpose of providing support for the USAP: they build buildings and boats and hire cooks and janitors and order all the food and deal with all of the infrastructure. every april they host a 1-day job fair in denver for anyone who might be crazy enough to actually want to go to antarctica and work like a dog five months.

being that crazy, this past april i loaded myself into a van with meredith, morgen, cedar, marie, and bookis. we left seattle at about 7pm on a wednesday and drove through the night, arriving in denver just in time to pick my brother up from the airport at 6pm on thursday. next, we picked up peter at the bus station and then found a hotel for the night. we woke the next morning (friday), checked out of the hotel, and went to the job fair from about 9am to 5pm. we talked and talked and waited and waited and bullshitted and bullshitted with as many hiring managers as we could: the cooks, the janitors, the garbage collectors, the cargo handlers, and even the shuttle drivers.

when it was all over we loaded ourselves (now eight) back into to the van. we dropped nate off at the airport and peter in boulder, and then drove through the night, arriving back in seattle at about 4pm on saturday (less than 72 hours later).

then we waited. we waited for a call or email. when that came (about a month later) we did a few phone interviews, they checked references, and then we were offered a job. i (along with meredith, morgen, and cedar) were offered jobs as “dining attendants”, which means that we will be working in the kitchen (but not touching the food). we will be washing dishes, mopping floors, and tending the buffet.

after we accepted the job offer, they sent us a shit load of paper work, which we’ve been working on for about 3 months now. we’ve had full dental exams and full physicals, and we’ve given blood once and urine twice. we are just now finishing with all the paper work.

meredith and i will be boarding a plane on October 5th (the others +/- a few days) bound for Denver. we stop there for 2 days of training and then we are off to Christchurch (New Zealand) for another 2 days of training. there, they give us all the cold-weather gear that we need and then pack us into a C-17 and fly us (for about 7 hours) to antarctica.

and the coolest part is that they pay for EVERYTHING! they pay for round-trip airfare, room and board, all the doctor visits, AND they pay about $400/week for the work. considering that there isn’t much to spend that money on while you’re down there, you can save close to $8000. THEN, they fly you back to New Zealand and give you a voucher for a plane ticket home when you feel like it. i definitely plan on traveling for at least 2 months after we are done working.

still got questions? send me an email or comment below.

Filed under: travel, work