Let it go! The cold never bothered me anyway.

Everyday life at Svalbard is mostly consisting of going to UNIS - eat - socialize. For eating they have something called Saturday beef at "Huset" where you buy beef and you can eat as much as you like from the baked or grated potatoes. Every bar and restaurant has in addition their own burger, e.g. Barents Bar has Barnet's burger. For socializing you can go to one of the five bars in town, and almost every bar has a funny name playing on something from the Arctic, such as Svalbar. Longyearbyen also has a cinema, at least six sporting shops, and one food store containing the liqueur store "Nordpolet". During my "regular" school weeks at Svalbard - my life mostly consisted of this, in addition to movie nights, parties and dinners at Nybyen. I also went to the museum, where I finally met a polarbear. Though, it was a stuffed one...

From top left: My plate at the saturday beef night at Huset, the local news "Man tries sleeping in shed, may be kicked off the island", our team "Liggerunderlaget" at the monday quiz at Barents Bar, POLARBEAR!, our kitchen after Caitelins birthday - there is cake everywhere, me working at the student office, some one has given the miner a sweater and a bycicle - is it the local "russ"?, Coffe! not a day without. 

The last weeks on Svalbard has mostly consisted of uni work. I am finishing my masters - so there is a LOT of writing to be done. Luckily it is midnight sun now, so the sun is always up - never setting. So after a looooong day at uni I can put on my skiis, go hiking and feel free.

One movie that most Svalbard people are extremely fond of is Frozen. I think this scene shows exactly how I feel when leaving the student office and heading out into nature.

From top left: Penny, Michael and me on Larsbreen, The view from Trollsteinen, Trollsteinen, me after skiing, me and Trollsteinen 11:30pm, Ella, me and Ribanna on our way to Trollsteinen, me on Sarkofagen "letting it go" ;), happy me, everyone getting ready for a hike!

Thank you so much Svalbard and all of the wonderful people I have met the last six weeks. Until next time :) See ya! Vi sees. To be continued...

Don't want to grow up? Become a Geologist!

The last week at UNIS we spent inside. No worries - we were still allowed to play. We did some serious science alright! Playing with colourful sand, Vaseline, flour, linseed and water, also known as sandbox experimenting. What we did was to use a huge amount of time sieving sand in evenly distributed layers so we afterwards could use an hour to look at it slowly being pressed up against a wall. EXCITING!

From top left: Cleber, Sami and Mark work'n the Vaseline, me doin' some sprayin', sandbox experiment vol. 2, sandbox experiment vol. 1, merry chaps sieving flour, me sieving blue sand

I also had some time to play outside. Me and Siri Anne went up Longyearbreen (glacier) by skies. You know why it is called Longyearbreen? Because it is terribly long! But at the end we got up. There we watched a dog sledding competition, drank tea, eat chocolate, and skied down with the last competitors.

From top left: In the lead, dogs :), Siri Anne on her way down the glacier, Siri Anne watching the dog sledding competition, dog sledding down the glacier, my skies <3

Wegener, Efterklang and Rando

After two weeks with field work most of the time was spent at UNIS (the university). There I randomly ran into Jørn Hurum again (post from last time I met him). He was the TA for my mum when she was studying geology, and when I told him that he said he felt really old. This time around I told him that I was studying structural geology, so he showed me and my classmates this neat video:

It is about the man that came with the theory of continental drift - which now rules how we view the evolution of the Earth. Apparently nobody believed him - and he died :( Fun song though!

On Friday after the cruise on Isfjorden it was Friday Gathering. Some students had arranged to show the movie "the ghost of piramida" in the big lecture hall. The movie is made in corporation with the band "Efterklang". It is about them collecting sounds in the abandoned Russian settlement "Pyramiden" on Svalbard. It is also showing the story of one of the miners who previously worked there.

During the weekend I tried out my new Rando skies. Soooooo cool to be able to just walk up steep slopes with your skies - and it looks like it takes no effort at all. It does though - but it is less exhausting than walking up the slopes by feet, and it is much much much more fun on the way down.

 From top left: The people in my kitchen on their way to Larshjerta, me posing with my rando skies, Tine leading forwards, Oda on her way up the steep slope, tired people walking by foot.

Me and the people from my kitchen went to Larshjerta, a mountain further SW, behind Sarkofagen (my first day at Svalbard last year, when we went to Sarkofagen). On the way down I felt the powder flow with my skies and I felt free :D

Cruising on Isfjorden

The conditions in the Arctic are harsh and almost unbearable. How people can survive here in the first place is unknown to mankind...

workin' hard

Already three days after returning to Longyearbyen we sat out on a new adventure. This time we were boarding the sailing ship "Noorderlicht" (www.oceanwide-expeditions.com) for a two day cruise around Isfjorden to look at the faults and folds in the surrounding mountains. The ship was manned with the captain Ted, first mate Mika, and the cook Jackie. On the ship was also one dog called Cha Cha and two cubs Styrmann and Matros.  

From upper left: Elin, Siri Anne and Heidi showing of their new "svalbard" thermoses, our view, me pointing towards an inverted basin showed by a monocline, me and Noorderlicht, Alvar and one of his structural interpretations, Mark and his snowman, Gard interpreting the structures of the mountains, Gard snapping, me sunbathing on a cruise in the arctic

The boat was originally a lighthouse on the sea, built in 1910. Ted, the captain, bought the ship and rebuilt it. They where sailing around the canary islands, but after a while they decided to sail in the arctic. Then they got the offer of being the boat frozen into the sea-ice in Isfjorden. Every winter from then on the ship has been frozen into the ice with visitors sleeping over, enjoying dog sledding and trips on the ice. Unfortunately, this winter has been too warm, and there hasn't been enough sea ice in the fjord. We came along, and now they are cruising again :)

From top left: when we arrived we got coffee and cookies, Mika showing how to use the life vests, the first course of our lunch the first day, posin' in the mirror, me and Siri Anne's room, inside Noorderlicht, a picture of Noorderlicht, schedule for the beginning of the second day, happy girls :D

 The trip consisted mostly of eating, sleeping and looking at the fantastic geology and scenery around Isfjorden. After two days here I felt like I could roll of the boat. Lunch was consisting of two courses, dinner of three, and in between we where fed with cookies, cake, hot chocolate and coffee. I was especially happy for the desert "apple crumble" which I last ate on Herron Island in the great barrier reef.

Back on land I had "sea legs" feeling like the ground was rocking back and forth. Wouldn't mind feeling the boat lull me to sleep one night more, and be awaken by the motor starting. Thanks for the ride!

Barentsburg baby!

Only two hours after landing I was yet again back on a snow scooter. We were heading towards Barentsburg, a russian settlement west of Longyearbyen. On the way there we looked at huge outcrops showing faults and folding. Tipp topp tommel opp!

From the top left: Me and Heidi, reindeers, Alexandra and Alvar showing our current position, me and snow scooters, a drill hole into an anticline, me showing my flair gun.

When entering the city of Barentsburg it was clear that we no longer was on Norwegian territory. The style of the buildings, and the atmosphere was totally changed. The women working at the hotel looked like "typical" Russian women with purple aprons and strict makeup. We had to make an effort to make them smile, but eventually we made it :)

From top left: Lenin and a new building in the background, an older building from 1958, a little church at the front and an official building in the back, our hotel with Mark as scale, me posing like a Russian man, old house, the front of the school, people in my class; Jonas, Elin, Saami, Fredrik, Heidi and Siri Anne, the inside of the little church.

At the hotel we were fed with a lot of meat and vegetables with extra butter. You need carbs and protein in the Arctic! The whole next day we drove around in the area and looked at geological structures inside the HUGE monocline of the west side of Svalbard.

 From the top left: a fault propagating fold with Jacob as scale, the view on our way to spring bay, students in the arctic, me jumping, scooters, one of Alvar's geological drawings, Alvar showing the HUGE monocline, student taking a picture of the view, the view!, students climbing up a top, Alvar drawing a geological interpretation of the mountain in the background.

For lunch we ate dry-tech food. As no one wanted the fish type everyone jumped onto the box with the dry-tech to fetch something else. I ate lamb stew and cattle stew. Jummy!

From top left: Marita pouring water into the dry-tech bag, Siri Anne proudly showing of her lamb stew, mixing the content, students cooking.

GROUP PICTURE!

Everyone say "structural geologyyyyyy"

Back, and back and back again

I landed at Svalbard in the middle of the night with temperatures around -10, ice wind and people with beards. It felt like home. After settling in, I went to bed at 2:30 with my alarm set at 6:30 due to safety training.

Left: only 4 hours of sleep - good times. Right: ripped one of my three pants here on Svalbard.

Safety training was a lot of fun. First we had a theoretical introduction with Jukka from logistics, the same guy that had safety training last time I was here. Then we had shooting training. SO MUCH FUN! We shot with rifles. First three rounds sitting, and than one round standing. I did well, and shot bull's-eye several times.

Safety training: How to make a human wrap

The day after I only had half a day with lectures, then I flew back to Oslo for a job interview. Then I flew back to Svalbard on Thursday morning, and went straight on a field trip on scooter to Barentsburg. To Oslo I flew only with carry on, which apparently was so suspicious so both me and my carry on was searched. When I was going back to Svalbard I managed to go in to the international section because I thought it was a direct flight. It was not, and I had to go all the way out, through toll, through security and to the gate. I made it in good time and sat down and watched all the people queuing.

People queuing

On my flight back to Svalbard I had a more expensive ticket due to their being no cheap ones left, so I got everything I wanted of food and drinks free of charge, and was seated at the first row with space to stretch out. I got: wrap with mozzarella, sandwich with roast-beef, juice, 2*coffee, chocolate, energy bar and nuts.

Nam nam nam nam nam...

Svalbard - we'll meet again

In only 10 days I will yet again place my feet on the arctic island Svalbard. 

This will be my very first moves: