Journal

Hi Everyone and thank you for the great questions about where I live while I am here researching at McMurdo Station!

Ms. O'Connor's Class shoutout
Hi, Ms. O'Connor's Class!!!

Thank you for all your great questions! I wanted to share with you a few pictures of where I live here at McMurdo station. I live in a double room, what that means is there are two beds in my room, one for me and one for a roommate. There have been mechanical issues with the plane and it hasn't been able to fly from New Zealand for a week now. Nothing big, just a cracked windshield. So, I have not been given a roommate yet.

Dorm room bed area
Dorm room bed area

I also have a living space in my dorm room. It has a couch, a telephone (so I can call home, I have to use a phone card), a TV (It has a weather channel, a few movie channels, and a couple of sports channels) I also have a sink.

Dorm room living area
This is a picture of my door room living area

I share a small bathroom with the dorm room next to me, there are two people that live in the room next door. Our bathroom has a shower and a toilet, all we really need. We try to take quick showers to save water.

Dorm room shower
The shower in my dorm room

Dorm room toilet
Dorm room toilet

In our dorm building, we have two lounge areas. One is more for watching movies and the other is for playing billiards and hanging out. We can get the internet in these two rooms, we need to plug in our computers to an internet cable to get internet, there is no WiFi.

Dorm lounge for movie watching
Dorm lounge for movie watching

Dorm lounge for hanging out and playing games
Dorm lounge for hanging out and playing games

Thank you for your great questions! Keep them coming!

Details
Author
Bridget Ward
Date
Location
McMurdo Station
Expedition
Weddell Seals: Growing Up on Ice
Weather Summary
Sunny and windy
Temperature
-4 F
Wind Speed
23 MPH
Wind Chill
-29 F

View Comments

Comments

Fri, 10/18/2019 - 06:42

Jason

I'm Jason from Mr Penn's class. My class wanted to know how warm it is in your dorm rooms? Thank you.

Fri, 10/18/2019 - 11:03

Bridget Ward

Hi, Jason and every one in Mr. Penn's Class!
We can control our own dorm room temperature-ish, the thermostats don't work the best. I choose to keep my room around 70 which feels pretty warm after a day outside.

Fri, 10/18/2019 - 07:53

Sharon O'Connor

Thank you! We loved the message with the NSF plaque! My students think your living area is cute and looks fun with the billiard table. We were surprised at how built up the research center is. I had to explain about the old style phone. :) They had never seen one. One of my students noticed the water storage tanks from your video the other day. We made the connection about how you take quick showers to conserve water. Very interesting! We hope the plane gets fixed soon.

Fri, 10/18/2019 - 11:04

Bridget Ward

Thank you, we hope our plane gets fixed soon too. Yes, the phone is very old :). Keep your great questions coming!

Tue, 10/22/2019 - 04:08

patty

do you miss the comfort of your own home?

Tue, 10/22/2019 - 15:46

Bridget Ward

Yes, there are definitely some things that I miss from home. I miss fresh fruits and vegetables, we don't get any fresh food. I miss not having to share a bathroom, fast internet, and not having to get geared up and go outside for a cup of coffee :)

Tue, 10/22/2019 - 04:11

Alexis

I see that there's a lot of wind and it really brings the temperature down to much colder than it already is, is it that windy on most days? Does that affect your work?

Tue, 10/22/2019 - 15:51

Bridget Ward

Yes, it is so windy here. It has been extremely windy the last few days. It does make it difficult to work. If it is just -1 F, that is a fine temperature, we can just layer up. Yesterday the wind made it below -40 which was definitely too cold to snowmobile, so we took a big vehicle called the Pisten Bully, but it's maxed speed is about 8-9 MPH, so it takes us forever to get to where the seals live. Also, it makes it very hard to work. Sometimes I will be trying to walk forward and I am going backward and we really need to hang on to everything so it doesn't blow away.

Tue, 10/22/2019 - 16:54

Sharon O'Connor

It sounds like you have very difficult working conditions right now with those strong winds. We may have missed it in the video but we were wondering if all that wind is being harnessed for electricity. Are there wind turbines at McMurdo Station? Solar panels would not work out very well for those long winters with so few daylight hours.

Sun, 11/10/2019 - 17:10

Bridget Ward

Hello,
There are 3 wind turbines between McMurdo Station and Scott base, New Zealand's base. They receive 70% of the energy, their base is much smaller than ours, we recieve the other 30%.