When I was in college, I spent all four years in the dorm. I figured I had all the rest of my life to live in apartments and that it would continue to be a unique experience for me. Well now I wish I could go back and tell 2014 Todd that it's not as unique as he might have thought. I've compared McMurdo to college life before, but when it comes to community living, that's where it really feels like dorm life all over again.
Since coming down here in August, I've been living in Building 155—Big Blue—in one of the dorm rooms. There are a number of dorm buildings on base, probably more than I know about considering I just learned about another one the other day. The dorms of 155 are set up to accommodate 4–5 people, while the others are for 2–3. My dorm has three single beds and a bunk bed, spread out in the four corners, each with their own standalone closet, with a fifth closet in the center of the room for the unlucky last man. Housing tries not to fill rooms with five, at least this year, and the only times they typically do is when someone will be here temporarily. This is usually people stopping over before heading to the South Pole, one of the research stations, or a visitor of one form or another.
Roommates really are the make or break when it comes to living in confined spaces. When I first arrived, I was the third man, and really didn't end up talking with my roommates too much. But I will always appreciate that one of them let me use his phone to text my mother that I'd arrived safely. That roommate situation lasted only a week or two as those of us who came in on the Winter Fly In had the option to move to one of the 2–3 person dorms. My two roommates did, but I decided to stay in 155 since that's also where the galley is, and I didn't feel like walking outside to work every day. So for over a month I actually had my room all to myself. It was a better time.
The downside to roommates is if there is a lack of respect for each other. When the summer season began, my room filled up with four of us total. One of my roommates worked in the galley with me and we actually got along quite well. The other was pretty quiet and we didn't talk much. But the third was where I started to feel the strain of community living. By this time I was on the midrats schedule, so I slept from 2 p.m. until 9:30 p.m. and then had my shift starting at 10:30 p.m. This roommate, however, liked to come back to the room from his shift with his girlfriend and sometimes another person and flip the lights and carry on like they were the only ones in the room. Every day for almost two weeks I was woken up like this. Thankfully, there are workarounds for these situations. Housing can be pretty accommodating if there are "personality difficulties" in a living situation. Luckily it didn't need to escalate as he and his girlfriend apparently were approved to move in the couple's dormitory. The guy we had move in later was similarly quiet as the rest of us, and the season went by with little issue there. In fact, I've said that all four of us could be in the room at once, behind our various privacy curtains, and none of us would know he wasn't the only one there.
While rooms might be where the tensions arise, other areas in the dorm are where competition begins. I could probably make a tier list of the best showers in the men's rooms, since I've had to use all of them at least once. Showers are one of those prime territories where their availability isn't always ideal to your schedule. The showers in the bathroom near my room are always the ones I go for: they're the tallest, have good water pressure, and don't change their heat based on other people's water usage. But that also makes them the most popular, and if you're not on a schedule that lets you take advantage of weird times, getting the good shower might be a rarity. Surprisingly, toilets aren't usually an issue. I've never been in dire need and not been able to easily access one.
Laundry, however, is another one where time needs to be on your side. If you're on Town Hours and your day off is on Sunday, the competition for a machine is fierce. And if you're not on top of your times, don't be surprised if you see someone's piled your clothes on the dryer and put their own in. Of course, there's not anything truly malicious. I haven't seen a frozen pair of pants outside from someone who didn't empty the washer or anything of the kind. But we're all working a lot, and having to carve out time for these means you have to keep a tight schedule. Just don't use too much of the detergent concentrate; management hate that.
As you can imagine, a bunch of people living together in close proximity tends to be a bit messy. Thankfully, we have an excellent janitorial team that handles most of the public spaces. But to keep from working the "Janos" to death, each of us will get assigned some chores from time to time. Known as House Mouse, for reasons I'm sure are very clever but have not been explained to me, this is a bi-weekly schedule that gets sent out letting us know who is cleaning what. It's on a rotating schedule, so everyone will likely have a few turns doing something over the season. Since I arrived, I've had three House Mouse tasks to attend to. These chores are typically something fairly easy, like cleaning the laundry room, shoveling and sweeping one of the entrances, or vacuuming a hallway. Ostensibly, this is to encourage us to have "ownership" of where we live, but I think it's mostly so the Janos don't feel like everyone's maid. Luckily, the House Mouse work is considered part of our contracted position, so typically you get an hour or two off of normal work on your House Mouse day to attend your chore. So if you get out of work early and finish your cleaning quickly, that's a little extra free time.
The mechanics of living together are always pretty straight forward. Respect is what carries you through the time, and if you're not giving it, you can't be surprised if you're not getting it from your roommates. But it all seems to work pretty well. I've written a few articles about all the parties, events, and gatherings that happen down here, and those wouldn't be possible if we were all at each other's throats. So while living tightly packed like this has its ups and downs, it keeps you from feeling totally cut off from the world at large and is part of what makes life at McMurdo unique.
But seriously, respect the Day Sleeper signs.
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