Close to home

I could not believe my ears in one of the many briefings I had to sit through since I started the trip to the ice, that phone calls here from the South Pole (or McMurdo for that matter) are actually LOCAL calls within the Denver/Boulder area! Both stations are US American stations, and I knew that you would have to use US military aircrafts to get here, but that a call from the South Pole to Denver would only cost as much as a call from Boulder to Denver? Still blows my mind. 

I think the reason for that is that most logistics and administration for both stations have their headquarters in Denver, so the phone lines are somehow linked to them. But nevertheless, a local call?! That’s how close to home I still am!  

But I also learned that the cost for mail is the standard US price, although the postcards I intend to write will probably travel way further than a postcard from Denver to Boulder…