While working from 1989 to 1993 for the Marine Science Institute as a staff employee, Drs. Robin Ross and Langdon Quetin got to know me. They encouraged me to apply to go with them to Antarctica as a volunteer. I had never thought much about Antarctica before. During my first trip, I became fascinated by the abundance of life in Antarctica, particularly the zooplankton. A couple of years later, I chose to study krill for my Master's degree at UCSB. Since that first trip, I have returned to Antarctica as a volunteer for Robin and Langdon eight times.

There are many facets to the Antarctic experience. There is the science and the added challenge of doing science in a truly remote and isolated field location. Although the living conditions at Palmer Station are quite comfortable, you never forget that you are truly far away from everywhere. If you need something you don't have you either have to improvise it from things you have or figure out how do get by without it. This is one aspect of working in the field that I really like - figuring out how to do what you want to do with the materials you have. It was fascinating to meet and interact with other scientists also. It is interesting to find out what other people are studying, how they study it and what sorts of results they are obtaining. You can't get that type of scientific interaction through reading each other's publications or even from seeing each other at meetings. Being in a remote field situation together gives you the rare opportunity to get to know other scientists as people, not just researchers. We were just starting to get a collaborative effort going with British zooplankton biologists working at Rothera Base. It was really marvelous to have the opportunity to spend some time with them at their base and see the type of research they were doing. Ultimately we would like to standardize our research protocols so that we can directly compare our experimental results with theirs and see how the results compare between our different geographic locations.

Although there is a doctor on station, everyone is mindful of the fact that medical care for serious illness or injury is a three or four day boat trip away. We are also always mindful of the fact that a fire at the station would be truly serious and potentially disastrous. We have regular fire drills and training for the fire crew. Smoking is only allowed outside and candles and incense are strictly prohibited in the rooms.

I also enjoyed the fact that we travel to the Antarctic via South America. I speak Spanish and really enjoyed being able to talk to people as I travelled. It was also very useful to speak Spanish with our support staff in Chile and when trying to purchase things we needed in the local stores. Sometimes we had visits from Chilean or Argentine ships while we were in the Antarctic and I would have the chance to talk with their crews.