This week I have been pondering how I am going to readjust when I get home, back to real life and normality.  It has been six months of isolation from all the influences of our western culture; no t.v, limited internet and magazines, no shops or shopping, no clubs, no restaurants and pubs… While it has been kind of scary to feel like I am losing my goal posts on ‘normal’ it is also liberating.  An opportunity for a new set of normal to appear as I readjust and review what is important to my life.

There are lots of different aspects of life that define our interpretation of normal, our sense of fashion and how our friends and peers dress, our profession, the type of house we live in, our family structure, the food we eat, these are all important markers of ‘normal’.  In Antarctica and for the year before in Saudi Arabia all these things have been turned on their heads.  I have had the opportunity to reflect on the influence culture has had on defining my view of normal.

Normal is always situational and this last six months has been an extended period were all the social cues are lacking.  In most other contexts I have adapted to the situation, been a chameleon.  I love it, the challenge of figuring out the differences in a cultural or social setting.  I have working in Indigenous communities across Australia, in Saudi Arabia and have lived in a variety of subcultures around Australia, but I have always had regular access to my goalposts or touchstones.

The goalpost or touchstones in my life are my partner, my family and all those subconscious cues that impact everyday life when I am in my happy place ‘home’.  Home means Melbourne.  The fashions, from the hipsters of Fitzroy to the floral dresses of Collins Street and the edgier looks of the laneways to the beautiful people jogging around the Bay.  The food, the fusion of cultures that have resulted in so many different types of food to try, noodle bars and pork buns, pasta and red wine, peking duck and Oolong tea, fromagerie and wine bars, slow food, fast food what ever you feel like food.  The energy, the can do activity that pulses around the city.  All these ‘things’ that just happen around me and inform my sense of normal.

In Antarctica there is a lack of easy access to these touchstones, the unique culture of the Antarctic community changes every season dependent on the individual personalities that are mixed together.  Some years are high energy with people out and about every weekend, climbing mountains and photographing penguins, others are more relaxed and chilled with people happy to read books and watch movies.  Granted we are a predominantly mono-cultural group of white Australians so our underlying cultural norms are present, but those subcultural cues are missing, fashion is non-existent, food is out of necessity different to home, the energy levels are chilled, and there is only one other female.

My own grasp on cultural identity has slowly slipped a little over the last couple of years away from home and I have increasingly been challenged to define what normal really means to me, just me, with limited social and cultural influences to sway me…

It is an interesting exercise to face up to your ideal and challenge them, I guess that is one of the joys of travelling.  Coming up against new ideas and exploring them, seeing how we are different, enjoying the experience and learning new ways of looking at our lives.