Life in the cold

I think one of the hardest things to get used to at the South Pole is the round the clock sunlight. I work a swing shift, meaning I start as 2 p.m. and go till midnight. Only, it doesn't matter, because it's just as light at midnight as it is at 7 a.m. The sun is just in a different spot on the horizon. It makes it especially tough when you plan on going to bed "early". I have planned on doing so evser since I started working, but it's hard to when you know it's light out, and there's so much commotion outside. My room is pretty dark, but I can still see pinpoints where the light comes in, and almost feel that sunlight! Most people here it seems, live on about an average of 6 hours of sleep a night. A lot of light sleepers get less. Once you're up and going though, it hardly seems to matter, because that sun that seems to rob you of sleep, just seems to give you endless energy here, like the energizer bunnies, we go,go,go... Until we get back to New Zealand, where we sleep for a week!