After exploring the grounds, I take over the lab and start my experiments. Floris, who was the ESA doctor for DC12 and who is becoming increasingly impatient to get back to his family and friends, shows me where all the equipment is. Eagerly taking notes, I watch him performing the last experiments on the blood samples from his crewmates (3 of them are “stranded” here until after Christmas because of bad weather). He has followed all the steps so many times he can almost work with his eyes closed! I hope that I will quickly become as proficient.
Early December Claudia from the Cho2ice-II Munich team arrives and is a huge help in getting everything on track, as well as trouble-shooting the flow cytometer. This turns out to be more complicated than anticipated, because of a combination of having to work with technicians who are in a very different time zone, being stalled by mind-boggling slow internet, emails which keep “bouncing” back, and the impossibility of downloading instructions any bigger than a few hundred kilobytes. We finally have to rely on WhatsApp even for communicating with the technicians!
We unpack and sort everything out for the experiments I will be carrying out. We put our Tetris skills to the test, fitting in my small lab: a scan, multiple big metallic Zarges boxes filled to the brim with pipettes, an examination table for the phlebotomies and 3 lab benches. Claudia also sorts out all the reagents in the outside containers by subject name and month of sampling, so that there is some hope I won’t risk losing my fingers when I go and retrieve them daily in the polar night and by -80°C.
Claudia is an invaluable help throughout her stay, and even more so when I am unfortunately stuck in bed for 5 days because of a nasty gastroenteritis followed by a bronchitis (and then a sinusitis… the whole lot, just like a kid!). We feel short of breath even when healthy because of the altitude, so with my bronchi congested, escalating down from my bunkbed and taking my shower becomes something of a perilous expedition. I had not been this sick for as long as I remember, and suffer from intercostal soreness for weeks after getting better, but I might as well get all the viruses out of the way now! I am annoyed at feeling unhelpful, especially as already there are rumors that I won’t stay for the winter… People don’t know how much I want this winter-over and my strength of will! We start the winter fire team drills, and despite formal instructions to stay in my bed, I just follow everyone sitting on the floor, intent on being involved as much as I can!
75 Degrees South 