heyyyaa! my apologies for not writing in over a month, no good excuses really, except it's hard to find the time to sit down and write for a long period of time.
I don't even know what happened to February! It went by so quickly. Daylight which lasts throughout most of the day has returned to Svalbard, which after almost a month in the dark has been amazing. In the next few days the actual sun should reach over the peaks and shine down on Longyearbyen. It's crazy how fast the daylight is returning! I think it is coming back at around 15 minutes per day which is much more noticeable than daylight returning at home. I am loving the fact that I can see all of my surroundings now. Being constantly amongst huge, snow-covered mountains with jagged rocks, avalanches, huge bowls, plateaus, cliffs, chutes, etc., makes one feel very small in the world. I was talking about it with a friend the other day, about how it is so quiet and peaceful here, but at the same time the land can turn on you at any minute, and can be truly destructive. Although I love being up here, sometimes I really believe that humans do not belong here, and I hope that everyone here can appreciate the opportunity and experience of living/visiting here.
I think I have been doing a good job of appreciating my time here. Even during lecture I get distracted every five minutes it seems like because of the incredible mountains staring down at my from across the fjord. Since the light has come back I have been exploring a lot around Longyearbyen and the surrounding areas. I ended up splurging for an entire new ski set-up, so I have been taking advantage of my new babies. About a week after I arrived here I realized that I needed to ski and it would be unbearable to live here in the middle of mountains for 6 months without skis, so even though my entire summer savings are gone, I think it was completely worth it. My new skis are HUGE! so they took a little getting used to, as well as the alpine touring set-up, but I am growing to love them! It can be a bit of a pain in the ass to hike everywhere, but there is definitely something satisfying about earning your turns. So many students have snow machines as well, so I have been able to get some rides on other people's sleds. Its actually crazy how many people have bought snow machines since getting here, but I am beginning to realize that money is not an issue for most of the Europeans here. Sure, it would be nice to have my own sled, but I am more than happy with my ski purchase!
I think skiing here has also made me a much more aware skier. Here we always take out an avalanche beacon, probe, shovel and rifle. We always have to take care to be aware of the snow conditions and the slope we are skiing on, and to be aware of polar bears as well. The polar bears may not translate to home, but I am more than happy to be gaining a better understanding about avalanches both from skiing and from our lectures as well. Another thing I am learning to be aware of is the cold. When I first got here it was unusually warm, but recently the weather has been freezing! It got down to -40 with windchill, which for a southeast AK girl is pretty darn cold! I have been getting some minor frostbite on my cheeks, so doing a better job covering up my face is a must.
Last week I got to go dog sledding which was really fun! My friend won a dogsledding/ice cave trip from a ski race he was in so we went last Thursday when we had a day off from school. The trip was so much fun! We drove out the road close to one of the mines here in Svalbard. The dogs were all insane. At the dog yard they were jumping around and howling at each other. We got to harness up a team and then headed off up to the Scott Turner glacier. The ride up was a bit of a struggle for the dogs, and we ended up having to push the sled up a bunch of the hills. When we got up the glacier we went down into an ice cave, which was awesome. This was nothing like going under the Mendenhall glacier at home; instead we climbed quite a ways down into the glacier through a hole in the snow and ice and then explored around in the tunnels. It was unbelievable down there! There were tons intricate ice formations and we could see old crevasses and fractures. Considering a lot of the glaciers on Svalbard randomly surge from time to time, it was also a bit unnerving. Another good example of a place where humans do not belong. The craziest thing was probably how warm it was in the glacier! I would guess it was probably 10 degrees warmer than outside. On the way back down the glacier the dogs didn't struggle at all. We flew down the valley, and at times we had to jump on the brakes to keep from crashing down the hill.
Other than some good adventures I have actually been going to school. Lectures have been good, we have been learning about glaciers, avalanches, permafrost, coal, different rock formations around Svalbard, etc. I have started my project on coal sedimentology and I am planning on looking for a correlation between coal seam thickness and roof sedimentology, hopefully working with people from Store Norske, the local mining company. For my other term project I am thinking about doing something on human interference with glacier formation.
Alright, that is all I can write for now, maybe I will get better about updating this. Hope you can see my pictures on facebook (although they really don't do this place justice!) and hope all is well with everyone!
Sara.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
hello from Svalbard!
It's been a week since I last wrote, and in that time the light has started to come back! I haven't seen the sun yet, and it won't come up for a while, but around noon there is a blue twilight and I can start to see my surroundings. The moon is also up for 24 hours a day now, it circles the horizon and helps to light up the landscape quite a bit. The last few days we had serious blizzards here, but today is clear and not that windy. The weather has been so bad that no planes have been able to land here for a few days. The mail plane actually slid off the runway, but no one was hurt. Many classes have been canceled, because the lecturers can't get in and the store is running low on milk. The plane today should get in without any trouble.
Classes have been good this week, but so long! I have had class from 9-7 with 2 hour breaks in between, but 2 hours is not long enough to walk all the way back to the barracks so I have been mostly staying at the school and walking around town. This week I have had the sedimentary geology class, the physical geography of svalbard, and the history of svalbard. I am enjoying all of the classes, though I think the sedimentary geology class will be really hard. It's been hard to get back into the whole school mode thing again. We should have some good field trips soon, so that should help. I think we are going to go watch seismic explosions for some kind of geophysics experiment sometime next week so that should be awesome.
Everything else has been going great as well, I am starting to explore Longyearbyen a bit more. I went on a short hike back behind the barracks to the mountains the other day and it was seriously breathtaking back there being surrounded by the mountains and in absolute silence under the stars and moon. Unfortunately my friend Wes and I didn't bring a rifle with us when we went and started to hear noises so I got a bit nervous. I am totally freaked out about polar bears. I also went cross country skiing the other day which was pretty fun, but I am definitely working on getting an alpine touring set up so I can really ski these fantastic mountains!
That's about all for now. I think I am going to take a nap, we had class canceled this afternoon because we couldn't get the sediment cores we are supposed to be sampling up yet from outside because of the blizzard. We never sleep here, too much to do, and it's not even light yet so I might as well try to get some extra snooze time when I have the chance before my history lecture this evening.
Overall, still loving it here and loving all the people! If any of you ever get the opportunity to come here, please jump on it, it's a once in a lifetime experience!
It's been a week since I last wrote, and in that time the light has started to come back! I haven't seen the sun yet, and it won't come up for a while, but around noon there is a blue twilight and I can start to see my surroundings. The moon is also up for 24 hours a day now, it circles the horizon and helps to light up the landscape quite a bit. The last few days we had serious blizzards here, but today is clear and not that windy. The weather has been so bad that no planes have been able to land here for a few days. The mail plane actually slid off the runway, but no one was hurt. Many classes have been canceled, because the lecturers can't get in and the store is running low on milk. The plane today should get in without any trouble.
Classes have been good this week, but so long! I have had class from 9-7 with 2 hour breaks in between, but 2 hours is not long enough to walk all the way back to the barracks so I have been mostly staying at the school and walking around town. This week I have had the sedimentary geology class, the physical geography of svalbard, and the history of svalbard. I am enjoying all of the classes, though I think the sedimentary geology class will be really hard. It's been hard to get back into the whole school mode thing again. We should have some good field trips soon, so that should help. I think we are going to go watch seismic explosions for some kind of geophysics experiment sometime next week so that should be awesome.
Everything else has been going great as well, I am starting to explore Longyearbyen a bit more. I went on a short hike back behind the barracks to the mountains the other day and it was seriously breathtaking back there being surrounded by the mountains and in absolute silence under the stars and moon. Unfortunately my friend Wes and I didn't bring a rifle with us when we went and started to hear noises so I got a bit nervous. I am totally freaked out about polar bears. I also went cross country skiing the other day which was pretty fun, but I am definitely working on getting an alpine touring set up so I can really ski these fantastic mountains!
That's about all for now. I think I am going to take a nap, we had class canceled this afternoon because we couldn't get the sediment cores we are supposed to be sampling up yet from outside because of the blizzard. We never sleep here, too much to do, and it's not even light yet so I might as well try to get some extra snooze time when I have the chance before my history lecture this evening.
Overall, still loving it here and loving all the people! If any of you ever get the opportunity to come here, please jump on it, it's a once in a lifetime experience!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
holaaaa
Just got done with my first week of school yay! My classes do not meet tomorrow, so 3 day weekend! Only one of my classes met this week, for two hours each day (the next one doesn't start until next week) so it was a pretty chill week. This week I had the sedimentary history of Svalbard. My teacher's name is Maria, she is super pregnant though, so we will only have her for part of the year. I am enjoying the class so far. There are about 20 of us in the class, all of whom I had already met, and I think it will be a good group. The first day we talked about what we are doing during the term. There are lectures, practical exercises, field work, overnight excursions, a research project and oral presentation, and a final examination at the end. Field work and excursions start in a few weeks when the sun comes back and I am so excited! On Tuesday and Wednesday we learned about the geological history of Svalbard. Svalbard actually started near Antarctica and has been making its way up towards the North Pole over millions of years. Because of that, Svalbard has experienced several different climates and has many unique kinds of rocks, geologic structures and tons of dinosaur and plant fossils. We also began to learn about the huge sedimentary basin (the Foreland Basin) on Spitsbergen and the processes that led to its creation. Today we split into groups and made dictionaries of geologic terms and made field guides for the different places we will be going to for excursions.
Next week will be more lectures, I will start my class on the physical geography of Svalbard, and a 2 week Svalbard history class. Of course it is not all about school here, I have been having so much fun with everyone here! Since it has been pretty bad weather and dark we haven't done a lot of outdoor activities yet, but there is still a lot of fun to be had. Monday night was Allison's birthday (one of the girls in my hall) so we had cake in one of the barrack kitchens. Tuesday night started out innocently enough with a few glasses of wine in the upstairs barrack, and ended up with four of us squishing into a child's play tent on the roof, passing around a bottle of whiskey; needless to say a super fun night, the next morning not so fun though haha. Last night I went to another barrack for dinner to have burgers with a bunch of the norwegian students. It's super entertaining to be with all of the norwegians, because they start speaking in English, eventually switch to Norwegian, and then freak out when they realize I can't understand anything they are saying. They are trying to teach me Norwegian, which is not going so well, and I am trying to teach them some "American" words. They think it's hilarious when I tell them it's "snow machining" not "riding my snow scooter" as they say here.
Anyways, enough for now. I am going to make some food, and check out Eiven's new bread making machine. Hopefully learning to telemark later tonight!
Sara
Just got done with my first week of school yay! My classes do not meet tomorrow, so 3 day weekend! Only one of my classes met this week, for two hours each day (the next one doesn't start until next week) so it was a pretty chill week. This week I had the sedimentary history of Svalbard. My teacher's name is Maria, she is super pregnant though, so we will only have her for part of the year. I am enjoying the class so far. There are about 20 of us in the class, all of whom I had already met, and I think it will be a good group. The first day we talked about what we are doing during the term. There are lectures, practical exercises, field work, overnight excursions, a research project and oral presentation, and a final examination at the end. Field work and excursions start in a few weeks when the sun comes back and I am so excited! On Tuesday and Wednesday we learned about the geological history of Svalbard. Svalbard actually started near Antarctica and has been making its way up towards the North Pole over millions of years. Because of that, Svalbard has experienced several different climates and has many unique kinds of rocks, geologic structures and tons of dinosaur and plant fossils. We also began to learn about the huge sedimentary basin (the Foreland Basin) on Spitsbergen and the processes that led to its creation. Today we split into groups and made dictionaries of geologic terms and made field guides for the different places we will be going to for excursions.
Next week will be more lectures, I will start my class on the physical geography of Svalbard, and a 2 week Svalbard history class. Of course it is not all about school here, I have been having so much fun with everyone here! Since it has been pretty bad weather and dark we haven't done a lot of outdoor activities yet, but there is still a lot of fun to be had. Monday night was Allison's birthday (one of the girls in my hall) so we had cake in one of the barrack kitchens. Tuesday night started out innocently enough with a few glasses of wine in the upstairs barrack, and ended up with four of us squishing into a child's play tent on the roof, passing around a bottle of whiskey; needless to say a super fun night, the next morning not so fun though haha. Last night I went to another barrack for dinner to have burgers with a bunch of the norwegian students. It's super entertaining to be with all of the norwegians, because they start speaking in English, eventually switch to Norwegian, and then freak out when they realize I can't understand anything they are saying. They are trying to teach me Norwegian, which is not going so well, and I am trying to teach them some "American" words. They think it's hilarious when I tell them it's "snow machining" not "riding my snow scooter" as they say here.
Anyways, enough for now. I am going to make some food, and check out Eiven's new bread making machine. Hopefully learning to telemark later tonight!
Sara
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Hello again everyone! Today I have been having an extremely (but much needed) lazy Sunday, so perfect for an update. On Friday we finished up the week long safety course. My group did CPR/first aide and logistics/lab on the last day so it wasn't as exciting as the other days but we did get out early so that was nice. A week of demanding classes from 8-4 definitely wore people out physically and emotionally from all of the drills/exercises as well as constant but necessary theme that Svalbard is an amazing place but a dangerous one also, where it is extremely important to be always aware of your surroundings and be prepared for the worst.
We had our safety test all day Saturday starting at 8am again, so no one wanted to get too crazy Friday night. I ended up going to the upstairs kitchen of my barrack, because I still have no one using my kitchen yet so it can get a bit lonely down there. Upstairs there were a lot of people around so we hung out for a while. That was the first time I have seen any television since I have been here, and man they really brought over the good stuff from the US to Norway. On TV there was The Simpsons, COPS, MTV cribs and the movie Dragonheart. Since that wasn't really happening we went to the other kitchen upstairs and played a game called Fantasy (its the same as charades) for a while. It got pretty rowdy and I really enjoyed the cultural mix we had going. There were mostly norwegians, but also people from Germany, Denmark, Russia, Canada and the US. I love being with such a mix of people from different countries all the time, definitely one of my favorite things about being here. After that we listened to music for a while and hung out, until finally going to bed around 2.
Saturday was safety test day. We woke up early and headed out. The weather was nasty; blowing hard and snowing, but I guess that was good, because it simulates an emergency situation. We hiked up about 20 minutes to the morraine of the Longyearbyen glacier behind the barracks. There were 3 different stations. At the first one we had to set up the emergency tents and perform first aide on hurt victims and get them into the tents. At the second station we set up crevasse rescue systems and lowered people down a steep slope with ropes, pulleys and a harness. At the third station we got beacons, probes and shovels and had to run around an avalanche and find the victims and dig them out. The exercises were actually pretty fun, and four hours went by quickly. We were able to do everything without too much trouble, although I can tell you I would not want to be stuck in an emergency situation with some of the people in my group. After we were done we hiked back down to the barracks and got on buses to go back down to UNIS. When we got there we had to take a written test and evaluation.
After we were done with all that I was exhausted, but the school had arranged a little party in the cafeteria (called the cantina here). There was pizza and tons of really cheap beer and hard alcohol so that was really fun. Everyone was drunk by 5 or 6 and it was nice to be able to let loose and hang out with everyone. We danced, drank and chatted for the next few hours. I met more people from all over the world which was really cool, although I couldn't tell you half of the people's names by now. Hopefully I will get those down soon. I actually met a girl from Whitehorse, who used to come to Juneau all the time to play soccer and knew a bunch of people from JDHS. She also may or may not have been the Whitehorse girl who broke my arm when I was playing soccer in middle school. At about 11 we decided to clear out of the school and head up to Huset, which is the local "night club". A bunch of people took a taxi up there because the roads were pure ice, but I decided instead to walk with a guy from Vermont. This was a huge mistake, we must have fallen a dozen times each and were both in some serious pain by the time we got to Huset. As soon as we got there it was no problem though and everyone started dancing. The crowd was hilarious at Huset. There were a bunch of us from the school, all dressed in long underwear and sweats and totally haggard from our long week. Then there were a bunch of little asian women decked out in dresses and clubbing attire, and a bunch of sleezy older guys in business suits. I had a lot of fun there. I finally headed back to the barracks around 2am with the guy from vermont, and a guy and a girl from Norway. I fell asleep as soon as I got back and was happy to finally sleep in this morning! I have been in a lot of pain all day though from falling so many times last night, so I have done absolutely nothing today, which has been much needed.
Tomorrow classes start so I am excited for that! Well that's all I have to report for now. Still dark out! I haven't gone crazy yet, but I would love to know what this place actually looks like. I have taken a few pictures so I will put them up on facebook and put up a link later. They are all dark though. Hope everyone has had a great weekend!!! Sara
We had our safety test all day Saturday starting at 8am again, so no one wanted to get too crazy Friday night. I ended up going to the upstairs kitchen of my barrack, because I still have no one using my kitchen yet so it can get a bit lonely down there. Upstairs there were a lot of people around so we hung out for a while. That was the first time I have seen any television since I have been here, and man they really brought over the good stuff from the US to Norway. On TV there was The Simpsons, COPS, MTV cribs and the movie Dragonheart. Since that wasn't really happening we went to the other kitchen upstairs and played a game called Fantasy (its the same as charades) for a while. It got pretty rowdy and I really enjoyed the cultural mix we had going. There were mostly norwegians, but also people from Germany, Denmark, Russia, Canada and the US. I love being with such a mix of people from different countries all the time, definitely one of my favorite things about being here. After that we listened to music for a while and hung out, until finally going to bed around 2.
Saturday was safety test day. We woke up early and headed out. The weather was nasty; blowing hard and snowing, but I guess that was good, because it simulates an emergency situation. We hiked up about 20 minutes to the morraine of the Longyearbyen glacier behind the barracks. There were 3 different stations. At the first one we had to set up the emergency tents and perform first aide on hurt victims and get them into the tents. At the second station we set up crevasse rescue systems and lowered people down a steep slope with ropes, pulleys and a harness. At the third station we got beacons, probes and shovels and had to run around an avalanche and find the victims and dig them out. The exercises were actually pretty fun, and four hours went by quickly. We were able to do everything without too much trouble, although I can tell you I would not want to be stuck in an emergency situation with some of the people in my group. After we were done we hiked back down to the barracks and got on buses to go back down to UNIS. When we got there we had to take a written test and evaluation.
After we were done with all that I was exhausted, but the school had arranged a little party in the cafeteria (called the cantina here). There was pizza and tons of really cheap beer and hard alcohol so that was really fun. Everyone was drunk by 5 or 6 and it was nice to be able to let loose and hang out with everyone. We danced, drank and chatted for the next few hours. I met more people from all over the world which was really cool, although I couldn't tell you half of the people's names by now. Hopefully I will get those down soon. I actually met a girl from Whitehorse, who used to come to Juneau all the time to play soccer and knew a bunch of people from JDHS. She also may or may not have been the Whitehorse girl who broke my arm when I was playing soccer in middle school. At about 11 we decided to clear out of the school and head up to Huset, which is the local "night club". A bunch of people took a taxi up there because the roads were pure ice, but I decided instead to walk with a guy from Vermont. This was a huge mistake, we must have fallen a dozen times each and were both in some serious pain by the time we got to Huset. As soon as we got there it was no problem though and everyone started dancing. The crowd was hilarious at Huset. There were a bunch of us from the school, all dressed in long underwear and sweats and totally haggard from our long week. Then there were a bunch of little asian women decked out in dresses and clubbing attire, and a bunch of sleezy older guys in business suits. I had a lot of fun there. I finally headed back to the barracks around 2am with the guy from vermont, and a guy and a girl from Norway. I fell asleep as soon as I got back and was happy to finally sleep in this morning! I have been in a lot of pain all day though from falling so many times last night, so I have done absolutely nothing today, which has been much needed.
Tomorrow classes start so I am excited for that! Well that's all I have to report for now. Still dark out! I haven't gone crazy yet, but I would love to know what this place actually looks like. I have taken a few pictures so I will put them up on facebook and put up a link later. They are all dark though. Hope everyone has had a great weekend!!! Sara
Thursday, January 14, 2010
first week in longyearbyen
Hello everyone!!
I've never considered starting a blog, but since I am living in the arctic for 5 months, (and because my mom told me to) I decided to start one so you all in the real world can have some idea of what I am up to.
I arrived here in Longyearbyen, Svalbard about a week ago. My journey was long, but pretty painless. The only hold up was at the airport in Oslo, where after waiting on the plane for about two hours, we had to switch planes because the de-icer wasn't working, which is a key part when flying to the arctic. The last daylight I saw was when we stopped in Tromso, Norway, and ever since we landed in Longyearbyen it has been dark! The darkness is really weird. It hasn't bothered me too much yet, but I have never have any idea what time it is without looking at a clock, and it would be nice to know what this place looks like. I guess I can wait a few more weeks though!
Anyways, Longyearbyen is a cute little town nestled in between a bunch of mountains and right in front of a fjord. There are a bunch of outdoorsy type stores, a grocery store, restaurants, a hospital, bank, post office, library, museum, police station, government headquarters, UNIS (the school I go to), an elementary school, workout club with a pool, and a bunch of houses. There are a few roads and everything is very well lit with street lights. It's about 3km long, with the school on one side of town and our barracks on the other side, so it's quite a long walk to school and back each day.
I am here doing two courses in arctic geology, but they do not start until next week. All this week we are doing safety courses. We are split into small groups for the week (there are 10 other students in my group) and we do two courses each day, 4 hours in the morning and 4 hours in the afternoon. The courses are great! I have learned so much, and they are all really interesting. Each lesson starts out with a lecture and usually a powerpoint, followed by practical exercises and practice. On Monday we had some lectures on the history of Svalbard, basic safety and good clothing to wear for field work and traveling. On Tuesday my group did sea ice training in the morning. During the winter you travel over sea ice quite often either by snow machine (called snow scooters here), skis, or by foot. We learned all about the different weights they can handle and the properties of the ice, etc. After the lecture we all got dressed up in snow scooter outfits, which are full body suits, big boots and big mittens. We then got into tractors (they are kind of like snow cats) and headed out to a frozen lake near town. The instructors drilled holes into the lake, and then we jumped in! It was a rush jumping into the freezing water, but with adrenaline pumping and the urge to climb out it really wasn't too bad. We had ice picks that hung around our neck so we could pull ourselves out of the water. In the afternoon my group did a camping exercise. We practiced setting up tents, small gas stoves, and trip wires with flairs around camping areas to warn us if a polar bear wanders into a camp site. On Wednesday my group did glacier safety in the morning. We learned how to set up crevasse rescue systems in case someone fell in one while traveling over a glacier. In the afternoon we did avalanche safety and practiced finding buried beacons out in front of the school with our own beacons, probes and shovels. Today (Thursday) we practiced navigation with GPS in the morning. They have a really cool computer program here called OziExplorer. There are topo maps of Svalbard in the program on the computer and you can map out the route you want to take on the map, then plug a GPS device into the computer and it will lead you on the chosen route. We tested our routes outside and also practiced making calls from satellite phones. In the afternoon we went on a bus up one of the mountains to the shooting range to do target practice. We used Ruger .30-06 rifles, and shot about 20 rounds each. Tomorrow my group is doing CPR and first aide training. On Saturday we are all heading up to a glacier near the barracks to test all of our new skills out in simulated emergency exercises.
So that is an idea of what I have been up to so far up here! Other than that, everyone here is very friendly. 50% of the students and most of the staff are from Norway, so a lot of Norwegian is spoken. It can be a little hard sometimes, but people are trying to teach me a bit of Norwegian, and usually someone will fill me in on what everyone else is saying. Most of the other students are also from Europe; I have met people from Denmark, Finland, France, England, Wales, Germany, Austria, as well as a few from "the states" as they call it here, and Canada.
I think that will be all for now... time for some dinner and maybe skiing later, although I am so worn out from class and sledding late last night! I will try to post often and put some pictures up!
Hope everyone is having a great winter so far!!! Sara
I've never considered starting a blog, but since I am living in the arctic for 5 months, (and because my mom told me to) I decided to start one so you all in the real world can have some idea of what I am up to.
I arrived here in Longyearbyen, Svalbard about a week ago. My journey was long, but pretty painless. The only hold up was at the airport in Oslo, where after waiting on the plane for about two hours, we had to switch planes because the de-icer wasn't working, which is a key part when flying to the arctic. The last daylight I saw was when we stopped in Tromso, Norway, and ever since we landed in Longyearbyen it has been dark! The darkness is really weird. It hasn't bothered me too much yet, but I have never have any idea what time it is without looking at a clock, and it would be nice to know what this place looks like. I guess I can wait a few more weeks though!
Anyways, Longyearbyen is a cute little town nestled in between a bunch of mountains and right in front of a fjord. There are a bunch of outdoorsy type stores, a grocery store, restaurants, a hospital, bank, post office, library, museum, police station, government headquarters, UNIS (the school I go to), an elementary school, workout club with a pool, and a bunch of houses. There are a few roads and everything is very well lit with street lights. It's about 3km long, with the school on one side of town and our barracks on the other side, so it's quite a long walk to school and back each day.
I am here doing two courses in arctic geology, but they do not start until next week. All this week we are doing safety courses. We are split into small groups for the week (there are 10 other students in my group) and we do two courses each day, 4 hours in the morning and 4 hours in the afternoon. The courses are great! I have learned so much, and they are all really interesting. Each lesson starts out with a lecture and usually a powerpoint, followed by practical exercises and practice. On Monday we had some lectures on the history of Svalbard, basic safety and good clothing to wear for field work and traveling. On Tuesday my group did sea ice training in the morning. During the winter you travel over sea ice quite often either by snow machine (called snow scooters here), skis, or by foot. We learned all about the different weights they can handle and the properties of the ice, etc. After the lecture we all got dressed up in snow scooter outfits, which are full body suits, big boots and big mittens. We then got into tractors (they are kind of like snow cats) and headed out to a frozen lake near town. The instructors drilled holes into the lake, and then we jumped in! It was a rush jumping into the freezing water, but with adrenaline pumping and the urge to climb out it really wasn't too bad. We had ice picks that hung around our neck so we could pull ourselves out of the water. In the afternoon my group did a camping exercise. We practiced setting up tents, small gas stoves, and trip wires with flairs around camping areas to warn us if a polar bear wanders into a camp site. On Wednesday my group did glacier safety in the morning. We learned how to set up crevasse rescue systems in case someone fell in one while traveling over a glacier. In the afternoon we did avalanche safety and practiced finding buried beacons out in front of the school with our own beacons, probes and shovels. Today (Thursday) we practiced navigation with GPS in the morning. They have a really cool computer program here called OziExplorer. There are topo maps of Svalbard in the program on the computer and you can map out the route you want to take on the map, then plug a GPS device into the computer and it will lead you on the chosen route. We tested our routes outside and also practiced making calls from satellite phones. In the afternoon we went on a bus up one of the mountains to the shooting range to do target practice. We used Ruger .30-06 rifles, and shot about 20 rounds each. Tomorrow my group is doing CPR and first aide training. On Saturday we are all heading up to a glacier near the barracks to test all of our new skills out in simulated emergency exercises.
So that is an idea of what I have been up to so far up here! Other than that, everyone here is very friendly. 50% of the students and most of the staff are from Norway, so a lot of Norwegian is spoken. It can be a little hard sometimes, but people are trying to teach me a bit of Norwegian, and usually someone will fill me in on what everyone else is saying. Most of the other students are also from Europe; I have met people from Denmark, Finland, France, England, Wales, Germany, Austria, as well as a few from "the states" as they call it here, and Canada.
I think that will be all for now... time for some dinner and maybe skiing later, although I am so worn out from class and sledding late last night! I will try to post often and put some pictures up!
Hope everyone is having a great winter so far!!! Sara
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