Some Lighter Notes

It has come to my attention that my posts are getting a little too deep and
I am obviously spending too much time alone with my thoughts. I dont think
the person meant it as an insult or questioning of my mental state, but
anyone who knows me knows that I dont like to get too serious with things.
So these will hopefully be some lighter, more fun notes.

We are in the final throws of science on the Cape. Just two more weeks of
seal and penguin work, then we stop all science and just focus on packing
things up for a week. Less than a month from now I will be sitting in a
cushy hotel room with running water, flush toilets, and a real door
separating me from anyone I damn well want. Should be pretty magical. Until
that time though, I am trying to really soak in where I am. I climb at
least 4 large hills everyday to look for seals, but sometimes I kind of
forget to look out at the view while I'm up there. Or more often than not
these days, its too foggy to see anything anyway, so you might as well look
where you are going and avoid tripping over a rock or bitey-end-up seal.

That being said, occasionally we get that freak gorgeous day with sun,
mostly blue skies, and ideal little to no wind. In truth, that almost never
happens (you can have sun or no wind, rarely both), but a couple days ago
we got about as close as we have come to it since December. It was sunny,
relatively non-windy, and visibility was good enough to see most of the
cape from my high perched vantage points. So I went right up to the edge
and look out, doing a full 360 to take it all in. After nearly losing my
balance and falling down the cliff, I really did take that deep breath and
just kind of feel myself relax. It was pretty nice I have to say. This is
one of those places most people will never ever get to visit and that makes
it very special.

So of course, my next move was what I assume comes naturally to every male
(and probably some females, though physical and safety restrictions might
come it play more). I unzipped and peed right off the cliff. As my mom can
(and readily will) attest, I have always enjoyed peeing outside. Its one of
those simple pleasures of being in nature and being free! If you have never
peed off a cliff especially, I highly recommend it. This is one where wind
can actually be beneficial, though you have to make sure you don't get
blown off as well. Nobody wants to end up bloody and broken at the bottom
of a cliff covered in their own pee. Guys- just do it. Girls- find a way,
because if peeing off cliffs is wrong, why does it feel so right? Its the
ultimate bout of freedom, that perfect combination of exposing yourself to
the world while simultaneously marking it as yours in a cascading stream of
human dominance over nature. Or something like that…

Thats my main story for tonight. In other news, we have our 4th and final
round of pup weights tomorrow, where we go out and catch/ weigh 100 pups.
100 doesn't seem like that much but the leopards have been hitting us hard
this year and finding all 100 is tough (at one point I suggested it might
be easier to just weigh the leopards at the start of the season and again
at the end and figure out the difference). Not to mention, the puppies are
officially getting kind of wise to us, especially when they see a crew of 6
people approaching with a small wave of other puppies running out in front.
That and their freakishly large size all of a sudden that gives them added
speed and maneuverability is going to make it quite the spectacle. I'm just
a little excited. Its like the rodeo with adorable baby seal. I will have
lots of banjo music playing in my head and don't be surprised if I end up
diving into a tide pool after one. Sometimes you just gotta do what you
gotta do.

Immediately following the puppy weights we have penguin chick banding (well
ok its the next day). This should be equally entertaining in that it
involves corralling piles of penguin chicks, who are, to be extremely
generous, "uncoordinated" and slapping some bands on them. One of the
highlights these days of heading out to the penguin colonies is just
watching parents come back from sea and having their chicks chase them
around the colonies trying to get food. Sometimes its not even their
chicks! You might get a whole herd of chicks chasing one adult. They're
also in the process of molting, so most are part downy softness, part real
bird. Often this results in very confused looking birds with a feathery boa
around their neck or mohawks on their heads. I also saw one trying to nap
on its belly the other day but it was so fat its wings and feet barely
touched the ground so it was mostly just superman-ing and dreaming it was
soaring through the air. Or whatever it is that penguins really dream
about…

Ok thats it. Not challenges, no big life questions, just what do you think
penguins dream about? Write it down. Maybe walk up to a complete stranger
and tell them your answer and then try to describe the confused look on
their face.

Privacy

A major challenge of living in a remote field camp with 5 other people is
privacy and personal space. Its a little like being back in the college
dorms, except now I have 3 roommates instead of one. When you are forced
into a situation like this, you begin to lose any concepts of true privacy.
The curtain separating me from the world feels like a wall, even though
every cough, fart, toss, turn, or accidental bang of the head on the
ceiling is easily heard. This small box, the size of a twin bed is my only
escape.

Now thats not to say that I am never alone, or that there aren't places I
can go to be alone. When I am out working, I am generally alone. When I
shower, or go to the outhouse, or work in the lab, its usually (hopefully)
just me. But these places aren't "mine." My bunk is mine and I have grown
to appreciate it.

That being said, coming into this situation, I had no expectations of
privacy. Its amazing how accepting you can be when your initial
expectations change. It is routine to stand in your underwear in full
public view, or to be stepping around other people's things to get to your
own. You minimize the amount of stuff you have out at all times because
theres just nowhere to put it. In addition to the general clutter of this
many people living on top of each other (literally- the beds are bunked),
you have to remember that these 5 other people are literally the ONLY human
contact you have for upwards of 5 months. Trust me when I say you get to
know each other real well. You know when someone isn't feeling great, when
they had weird, expired boxed indian food for lunch, or when they have to
go pee twice in one night. Its very personal.

The nice thing about people who live the field camp life routinely, as
everyone here does, is that nobody cares about privacy. Usually you know
someone's stomach is upset not just by the extra stench in the outhouse but
because they come back and tell you all about it. We have frequent
discussions about whether or not dinner last night caused anyone to get the
"meat sweats." Arguably, some of this likely also has to do with biologists
generally having pretty strong stomachs- we also frequently discuss seal
scats (worms and all!), penguin puke, and dead animals around the dinner
table.

So likely none of this is really all that surprising to anyone. Most of us
have been to summer camp, or spend time in a college dorm, or some similar
social setting where you couldn't escape the people around you and you felt
like your privacy was at best compromised. What is sometimes a surprising
revelation is to say that this is actually THE MOST PRIVATE I have ever
been in my life. My phone has not been connected to the internet or any
kind of cell network in 3.5 months. The computer I am currently typing this
on has NEVER once been connected to the internet. In these days of NSA,
Google, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, etc. it is rare that anyone can say
that you are completely unconnected. Our satellite phone can't track my
movements. I haven't seen an online ad since before Halloween!

Of course, I can connect to a certain extent (phone and email), and I
suppose is someone really were inclined they could read these emails, but
nobody is spying on me here. When I hike up my hills looking for seals, I
can look around and not see a single person. Whats more, even though I know
5 people are hiding somewhere, those are the ONLY people for nearly 100
miles in any direction. Its a little trippy.

So i would challenge anyone reading this to look at your life and ask
yourself, how much privacy do you really have. This isn't a comment on the
benefits or dangers of the Google empire, I don't mind a certain amount of
my information being known and apps like Google Now can actually be pretty
handy. But just look around and ask yourself when was the last time you
were truly alone. I would also challenge you to try disconnecting sometime.
Even if its just an hour, or an afternoon, or a day. Leave the phone and
computer at home and just go outside, as far away from anyone else as
possible (without too much work, and maybe tell someone where you are going
ahead of time just in case…). And when you are out there, remind yourself
that for that brief moment, you get to just be you.