antarctic andrea

Omer: "A place is inside you - like a part of your body, don't you think? Like a liver or kidney? So how could you leave it?"
Liyana: "...do you think you can get your kidney back?"
from Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye

At the beginning of this adventure, Marty, Tia, Michael, and I talked about how to identify places we've truly "been." Marty explained that it is a place that becomes part of you; a place where we have spent enough time to run through the circuit of our personal emotions, and truly experienced life.

I now know why Laura was so excited to come back to this place, Antarctica:

When I got off the plane and looked out the door, I didn't know how I would like it on The Ice. It would be cold. It would be perpetually sunny and bright outside. It would be endless white. It would be a place to form unknown relationships with little-known people and working a strange new job, wearing awkward layers of clothing.

But, I love it! There is adventure here and spirit in places and people you wouldn't expect. It is a fascinating micro-society that I belong to where opportunity knocks almost every day by means of the lenticular clouds flowing over mountain tops and the fatamorgana crossing the horizon, or where I can hike over Sea Ice and drive around distinguished visitors.
I can understand, now why Laura wanted to come back: To see this indescribable place, reconnect with the community, and be part of the excitement of science and life on The Ice.

It has, now, become part of who I am and who I will be.