Hotel South Pole (1) - my room

Comparing the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station to a hotel is a diminutive.  The living quarter are better than a 5-star hotel.  We have private rooms, a large cafeteria, fully featured gym, sauna, basketball court, lounges, game rooms ... all complemented with views of the Antarctic continent.  When I stop and think that all this is at the South Pole, where life was not meant to be, then I realize how unbelievable this all is and what a privilege it is to be here just for a day, let alone a full year.
Today I will write the first of a series of blogs to take you inside the station, and I will start with my own room.  The room itself is small (6' 9" x 9' 8" = 2 m x 3 m), but has everything I need, and more.  The bed is raised, leaving plenty of space underneath for a chest of drawers and extra room for storage.  I have a desk with a phone and an internet connection, plenty of power outlets, a desk lamp in addition to the reading lamp on top of the bed, room to store my skis, a nice carpet, and, not seen in the photo, a dresser to hang my clothes.  Note on the window the radio, plugged into its charger - the radio is a necessity on station, as it alerts us of emergencies, and it allows us to quickly find each other, as we spend more time working around than sitting in the office.  The room also has its own independent thermostat.
The bathrooms and showers are shared among the people living in each wing (approximately 30 people).  We take turns to clean them and we keep them spotless.

My room at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station.

View from my room.

The smoking pipe on the right is from our power plant; the cardboard boxes sitting on the ice hold our recyclables (we have a dozen categories of recyclable materials, and we recycle upward of 70% of our waste)