Station Tour: A pod upper level - A1 the galley

Coffee bar

The last major public space on base is the galley. Over the summer, it is divided into a giant dining hall for 150 people and a small coffee bar. During the winter, we only have to sit 41 folks so we divide it in a smaller dining hall, Club 90 South, and the Coffee Bar.

Club 90 South has the best couch on base. We run the fake fireplace on the TVs to give it a homey feel.

The smaller seating area.

The smaller seating area rarely has more than 20 folks in it. It's a bit like the school cafeteria. Some people sit in the same seats every time. Other folks move around. My favorite part of the seating area is the view outside when the windows coverings are off or the art and photos we have printed on the coverings.

The kitchen, where we are allowed to cook our own food on the weekend if we don't want leftovers

Kitchen staff preparing the Midwinter dinner.

Drink station with milk, 2 coffees, lots of tea, and 3 juices.

Without a doubt, one of my favorite parts of being down here is not thinking about food. That applies to cooking or to going shopping for it. On Sundays, the kitchen staff gets the day and we all eat leftovers. We have the option to be trained up on using the kitchen, which I happily skipped. I'll just go for cereal and microwaved leftovers on the weekend.

The dish pit

On the way out of the galley, you drop your dishes off. The kitchen staff cleans the dishes during the day, but everyone else takes turns washing the dinner dishes. I spend a bunch of time in here so I can keep my skills sharp for when I move back home. Kin-Ling has to keep me around for something.

My next to favorite spot in the galley is just past the dish pit on the way out, the Pet Wall. Some folks put up new photos every week. I just put up a few of some of my favorite past pups. Sabah and Casper are on right there. The little pick me ups that we hang up around station go a long way for keeping morale up.

The Pet Wall

This last photo is of the galley all fancied up. The biggest holiday we have down here in the winter is Midwinter dinner. At that point, the sun is as far away as it is going to get. From that day forward, the day the sun is going to show itself again just gets closer and closer.

Setting up for the Midwinter dinner celebration.