The first weekend of freedom.

So it is the first weekend of freedom that me and the three others from Aber have and what do we do? I will tell you. We spend it mostly indoors apart from a brief outing on Saturday night to take some photos. This does not, however, mean that the weekend was wasted. No, far from it in fact, as we were able to get two full nights of sleep for the first time since we made it to Svalbard.
Waking up on Saturday afternoon to a slightly lighter post midday sky I was able for the first time in over 6 months to sit down and read my book. We had decided that as a reward for making it out of the exams alive we would play geometry wars and Guitar Hero on the Xbox. We played Geometry Wars first and I got a score of over 1,000,000 for the first time. We then played a fair amount of Guitar Hero World Tour before cooking dinner (fishfingers and chocolate paste sandwiches, again). After dinner and a bit more guitar hero we took a nice little walk outside to have a gander at the northern lights to see if we could get a decent time lapse.


This is when I decided that I would be very classy and take my glass of wine out with me. Unfortunately when I placed my glass of wine down on the ground, given that it was roughly -19 out, it froze rendering the drink completely useless. A good photo opportunity though.


Stu and I then headed up to our scooter to check if it was working and to see if we could take it out for a spin. After getting it all cleared of snow and ice we got it off the pallets and Stu had a go at driving it with me sitting on the back. We headed out for Longyearbreen glacier, however, we did not have face masks so did not make it far before turning back to avoid frostbitten faces. Getting it back onto the pallets we came to the conclusion that we would need to take it down to the sea garage to get some repairs on the cat, which we will do on Monday. We then headed back in to get our camera equipment again and head out onto the frozen river running down the back of Nybyen to get some photos of the town and the mountains. After we got cold we headed back in for the night to watch and episode of Lie To Me before bed (I have got Stu to watch it from the beginning).

Sunday nothing to report apart from the fun conversations between friends and family that seem to occur on Sundays (you know who you are!).

We're in the Fricking Arctic!

Okay so where did I leave off last time?
Thursday was a pretty standard day. Wake up, go to UNIS, fall asleep during really interesting lectures because you had zero energy, go home, procrastinate by baking. We made a chocolate brownie cake with chocolate dime pieces and chocolate paste filling as well as two new loaves of bread for the next week. Then revise for the next 3 hours, as Stu puts it “the most boring hours he has ever spent on a bed”. Get a huge stabbing headache, swear death pain against Maxwell’s soul after deciding he is the Shakespeare of mathematics, and go to bed as early as possible. So yeah, standard day!

On Friday after a lie in till 0930 we started on the revision again, taking a break to watch the new 30 Rock and then one for lunch to watch the new Bones (so happy the TV is back). We then headed down to UNIS for some seriously last minute revision before the exam started at 0200 (which is one hour before the guys at home had to take it). Sitting in the exam room Frances attempted some literally last minute revision while I ate some of the brownie me and Stu had made the night before. Let the exam begin! The exam started with laughter around the room (and the invigilators joined in. Told you more relaxed here) and for the next half hour I wrote like a mad man.

Frances left the exam first quickly followed by me, then Andrew, and Stu stayed till the end. During this time I had a quick meeting with the money group to sort things out for the Icebreaker party, which reminds me I have some tickets and posters to design. When we had all finished and met back at the couches by the cantina we headed to town for some dinner before the Sea Ice party down on the beach.
The beach in Longyearbyen is similar to beaches back home a couple of million years ago, if you can imagine that. The fjord is completely frozen across to the other side of the inlet and there is a thick layer of snow covering the frozen and iced over ground. There was a huge bonfire in the middle of an improvised seating area which was a two layer circle of compact snow with fox skin blankets covering the “seats”, a place to get hot drink and a BBQ where you could grill your own food. We quickly found some people we knew commenting that the only thing to top the image off was the aurora overhead which we were rewarded with just half hour later.

I spent a lot of the time changing my mind about going in the water or not (Frances, Stu and Andrew had decided that there was no way in hell that they were going in). Thankfully Stu knows some choice words that convinced me to just bloody well man up and go in the water. The tents that are used for people to change (and when I say change I mean we took most of our clothing off as we went in the water in just our swimming stuff), were really, really warm. When I went outside it was not as cold as I thought it would be, my feet taking most of the shock as it was not windy and only around -5. I ran down to the hole in the ice and climbed in. The rule was you had to lay down on your front and back in the water so that you were completely wet and I was surprised to find that the water was actually quite warm. This only lasted a little while, however, and I quickly got back out to run back to the tent.

We headed back to UNIS after this to start the Friday gathering with the intention of drinking a fair amount and having a go at tight rope walking (which they call slack rope) as we were now free from out Exams and ready to enjoy the fact that we’re in the “Fricking Arctic!”.

I am now going to go and make some more brownie mix for Stu to put in the oven for tonight’s Guitar Hero and drinking party.

Quantum II exam day

Just a short one today as I am sleepy and have lots that I should be doing.
Today was the Quantum Mechanics II exam. Oh joys! The day started at 0915 again with our first lecturer of AGF-304. The lectures were led by Prof. who was far too cheery for the mood that I was in. The lectures gave us an introduction to what radar was and types of arrays covering the Northern and southern poles.
The Quantum exam was at 1400 giving us two hours for lunch and last minute revision. Though having got the slugs from Flushed Away stuck in my head just an hour in cramming kind of flew out the window. The exam room had a nice relaxed atmosphere and with the papers being put in front of us at precisely 1400 the fun began.
Three hours and eleven pages later the exam was over and I was not sure if I should be laughing or crying. The questions were better than I expected and I had gone through them once very roughly within half an hour. This, however, does not really give that much of an indication of your success only a small outline of the sections you have a chance of understanding. I got seriously stumped by, what should have been a very simple integration which irked me no end. Though as we were told, at least we got out alive.
On the way home we once again stopped off at the shop. I think it might take a while for us to get into a food shopping routine. Then we headed up the hill back to Nybyen. When we got home we decided that before some revision we would watch the pilot episode of Firefly on the projector while we were having dinner. Fishfinger sandwiches and chips, also thought I would try fishfinger sandwich with chocolate spread it was surprisingly nice. This was all done with the intention of then getting stuck into some revision.
So here I am now procrastinating while watching the new NCIS and chatting on skype.
The next one will be after Friday’s exam and the Friday gathering so hopefully will have some videos of a fun night too.

“First day of school! First day of school!”

Monday 17th of January, day one of lectures at UNIS. Lectures started at 0915 so once again an early start and, it was going to prove to be a very long day. The temperature outside was a barmy -9 and you could happily walk outside with just a fleece if it were not for the small amount of snow falling from the sky. We got to UNIS with enough time to get a cup of coffee before the start of class.
The classrooms at UNIS are relatively large with two walls of windows. One that leads to the wide wooden corridors of UNIS and one that displays the outside, or it would if it were not so dark out there and all the light in the room was not reflected back into the room. Each room has a large blackboard that would make Martin Wilding rage if he saw them. There are only 6 people in our class so it really is an Aber takeover. It made it seem worse when we each had to introduce ourselves and what we had already covered on our courses we might as well have answered as one. Prof. Lorentzen was there for the first hour to introduce AGF-301 (The upper polar atmosphere) to us and go over the lecturers, reading list and course structure. The rest of the day we were taught by Prof. Jøran Moen from the University of Oslo and we jumped straight into looking at the ionosphere and particle motion.

We spent 2 hours before and after lunch going over single particle motion in the ionosphere and magnetosphere and finally all of the things that we did with Xing in 2nd and 3rd year made sense. The beauty of the course here is that it all applies to physical parameters that were are able to and going to observe. Although we had spent a large portion of the day in lectures it certainly did not feel like it. What would have felt a lot longer back in Aber felt quick and simple, though I am not sure if it is because we covered less in the amount of time than we would in Aber. There was a student council selection meeting at 1700 so we popped out to the Co-op to get some food and more supplies for the week also taking a gander around the shopping center while we were out.

At the student council meeting the student leader, Mari, informed us about the different groups that we could take part in at UNIS. I myself signed up as the leader of the Movie nights group, having already decided that Ice Age was an appropriate first movie showing. We were then told that we would have to organise and run an icebreaker party without the aid of old students each person having to sign up for a role in the running and organization. I will be making the posters, once they tell me the time and theme that is. By this point it was nearly 1900 and Stu was getting very agitated and hungry, when we were finally released he storm trooppered our way back to Nybyen to get some food. We managed to be back at home and have our dinner finished before any of our flat mates made it home something Stu is proud of, obviously.
The evening ended with revision in the living room with the projector playing The A-Team as Magnus and Oddy felt like watching a fun movie and I would be watching one anyway. After a long night of gruelling revision looking over some more things that Xing has tried to teach us it was defiantly time for bed.

Survival training 101 - The Exam

After an intense week of lectures, digging, constructing and, continuously having to add and remove layers of clothing. We also had to have an exam in it.
On the Saturday morning we met outside Nybyen at 0800 to head up onto Longyearbreen glacier where we would be performing the practical part of our test. The path leading up to Longyearbreen was formed of packed snow over rocks, however, at points the snow was well above my boots. When we got to the site of the exercise we were all separated into three groups. This meant that the group I had been in all week and the group that the boys had been in all week were put together allowing me to work with them for the first time. There were three tasks that we would have to do over the course of the morning; Emergency camp and first aid, glacier rescue and, avalanche rescue.
Our group was then sent down the ridge to a plateau where we would be tested on first aid and setting up a tent. The group was separated into different sized groups me and the boys being in one of the smallest groups. Stuart was handed the rifle and told that he was on Polar Bear watch while the rest of us were setting up camp. This left four of us to set up the tent. We quickly got the tent out of the big orange emergency kit and set about putting it up. We were given a snowmobile to use as a wind break and an anchor and as the wind was coming down from the glacier we made sure the door was facing the glacier. I really had fun with this task as I was able to take control of the situation and organize the group. As Stu elegantly put it, “Day 7: The subjects’ moral seems to be boosted by the fact that she has someone to shout at.” The tent was assembled quickly and efficiently as the group worked really well together. We used the rocks and the snow around us to hold down the tent as we did not have enough snow pegs and the tent was very stable. I told Andrew to get all of the equipment into the porch of the tent so that it would be ready for any injured people from the first aid group to arrive while I and Elaina set up the stove to be taken into the tent. Once the stove was set up and inside the tent Andrew and Oda started to set up the trip wire around the tent. Stu arrived a little later after handing off Polar Bear watch to someone else. We were then told that we had done very well and set up everything quickly and that we were to now take down the camp and get everything back into the emergency kit and be able to close it. Starting at the back of the tent and moving towards the wind we removed all of the poles and pegs. Stu and I folded up the tent and got it into the bag while I instructed the others to start trying to get everything back into the box as neatly as possible, as that is the only way that it can all fit back in. We had a quick debriefing and a cup of hot chocolate and were quickly sent off to the next station.
Glacier rescue. For the glacier rescue we were separated back into our original groups. As I had taken charge at the last station I volunteered to be the victim so I slid down the steep slope to await my rescue. There was always someone shouting down to make sure that I was okay and they quickly got the ropes rigged up so that Siena could be b-laid down to me. To simulate a real rescue I had to pretend to be unconscious so after being put in the ‘diaper’ with a blanket around me I lay down in the snow to be pulled up with Siena. The team at the top quickly rigged up a 6:1 pulley system and the ascent commenced. When we got to the top we were instructed that we were to do the rescue as many times as we could so we sent Karina to be the victim with Elaina to be the rescuer. At this point I was very cold having been lying in the snow so I sat on the snowmobile with the blanket to warm up. I once again took up my position as chief yeller and shouted down to Elaina every time we were going to be pulling her and Karina up. When they got to the top we were shown different ways of anchoring the rescuers on the surface so that they would not fall down the cravass as well. My hands, having stupidly only been in silk liners, had become freezing and I was unable to undo my bag let alone get my hands in my gloves so with the help of Stu I tried to get my hands warm again, him constantly berating me during this time. Finishing with Glacier rescue we headed over to the last station.
Avalanch rescue. For the avalanche rescue the group was split into two. We were shown the two avalanche areas and instructed that there were two victims in each area and that we had to get them out as fast as possible. Picking up an emergency beacon and turning it to search mode we all followed the signal quickly to the first victim. Using the avalanche probes we were able to find where he was and determine how deep he was buried. Setting up the shovelers we quickly dug him out locating his head and clearing his airway of snow. Leaving someone with the victim we headed off to find the second victim. There was a glove lying in the snow and setting up a line of avalanche probers we slowly but surely located the second body with the use of the signal beacons as well. This one was buried slightly deeper so we had a lot more snow to dig out before we could get to him. Having rescued both victims and re buried them for the next group we headed back down so that the instructor could show us what it felt like to hit a body when avalanche probing. They had constructed a hole in the snow where he could lay down and walking along the top of the ridge we could use the avalanche probe to see what it would be like to go through the snow and find a body. After the second group had reburied their victims we swapped round and once again rushed off to save them. The first victim was very shallow and I quickly followed the signal to find him letting the diggers know that he was only 20cm down and they had to be careful they did not harm him. The second victim was not dug out so easily, once we had located him we found that he was roughly 2 meters down and that would mean we would have to move 3m back from his position and dig towards him. This meant shovelling a lot of snow and it would take a long time. The group was organized well and we were able to set up a chain so that we could dig him out, however, one of the instructors was very pedantic and was picking fault with everything we were doing. After being thoroughly shot down we got back to work digging out the victim Stu located his head and stayed with him while the others were trying to dig out his body. Both of the rescues were completed in less than 18 minutes which is the critical time to find an avalanche victim so overall we did well. As we had finished early we were allowed to play around in the snow to warm up. The boys and I took this to mean, picture opportunity and a chance to act like penguins and slide down a glacier on our bellies.
After all of the groups were finished we congregated at the top of the ridge where we would get the opportunity to view a helicopter rescue. What made it particularly spectacular was the fact that the sky was lit by the northern lights as we were seeing a helicopter send down someone on a vertical line to the victim. The noise and downdraft created by the helicopter was immense and even affected us 1km away. Stu unfortunately did not bring his big camera with him so we only got pictures a few pictures.


After this we headed back to Nybyen to get the coaches down to UNIS to take the written part of the exam, which was really easy and did not require the two and a half hours we were given to complete it.
In the evening we were given pizza and beer staying in UNIS to have the weekly gathering. The night was spent talking to new friends as well as dancing singing along to Queen and generally confusing the Norwegian with the absurdity of our conversations. As we thought it would not be hard to tell that we all knew each other very well. The long week and tiring day ended in a happy and relaxed drunken state and hopes of what the term had to offer. That is after our bloody exams this week.

Survival training 101- Day 4

Today was the last day of training before we do the practical out on the glacier tomorrow.
I had a lie in this morning as we had the logistics class which is just a short walk around the uni and a look at how to do the paperwork. I woke up at 0830 but did not get up until 0910, so had a nice lie in. I find that the later you are allowed to sleep in the less time you give yourself to get ready, as this morning I had to leave at 0920 to get to UNIS for 1000. On the way down to UNIS I passed by the primary school where, what looked like reception children, were out in the playground. They looked only slightly bigger than Alf from a distance and they were each thoroughly wrapped up in their ski suits and fluffy hoods happily running around in the -17, which is positively warm up here, well it felt really warm today. Relatively speaking, of course. To avoid looking like I was staring, which I was I suppose; I carried on walking down through town to UNIS arriving perfectly on time. The class was totally pointless and was over within half an hour meaning that we could have had an extra two hours in bed. The whole group headed to the canteen to have a relaxing sit down and wait for everyone else to finish for lunch. Frances’ group was already there as they had just finished the sea-ice course so we sat with them and had a chat while watching the big screen TV from the sofas.
As I had rushed out the house this morning I had forgotten, or really just not bothered, to make lunch. The canteen is a very nice open space, however, has only a small selection of food each day. I ended up having broccoli soup with some bread which was very filling and, not too bad actually. The boys turned up just 10 minutes before the end of lunch so they quickly ate and we all headed to our afternoon classes.
There was only one more class that I had to do and it was the perfect class to end the week with. Sea-Ice. The class started off with an hour lecture about what to do when you are planning a trip out over sea-ice and how to get out of any situation you may find yourself in. I am sorry to say that I think I fell asleep about 5/6 times during this hour and in the 5 minute break we had before talking about going outside I did actually fall asleep with my head on the desk. At the end of the break Robert (horrid German, only kidding) shook me awake, not my favourite way of being woken up. We then had a chat about going outside onto the Sea-Ice to practice getting out of the water for real. Well when I say sea ice what I mean is Longyearbyen’s drinking water reservoir just out the back of UNIS. We all headed down to the storage room to put on a scooter suit, boots and mittens. As it was quite a warm day, we were all going to have to jump in. Once we had all changed and made sure that the suits and boots were as sealed as possible we headed outside to the track truck that would be driving us over to the hole in the ice. The truck was basically a big blue box with seats that was put on top of some tracks so it could go across the snow. The journey reminded me of going across the desert and along the streets of Dahab in Egypt to get to our dive site, which is kind of what we were doing. When we got there we all jumped out and headed over to the hole in the ice. There was a man leaning over the hole with an axe breaking the ice that had reformed on the surface of the water since the morning session where Frances had gone in. To the side of the ice hole were huge cubes of ice at least a foot deep which had been chain sawed out to form the hole. First the instructor showed us how to use our ice picks to pull ourselves along and hopefully out onto the ice from the water. We headed over to the hole to try it for ourselves. The first in was one of the women from logistics who was in the rescue suit (a bright orange waterproof overall for the ski suit). She sat down at the edge and eased herself into the water, the suit was filled with air and she floated easily putting her ice-picks into the edge and with the help of the instructor pulled herself out onto the side. Next up was the rest of us in just our scooter suits, not waterproof, and boots that when filled with water would be like concrete blocks (this would only take 10 seconds). Stupidly I decided that volunteering to be the first to go in was a good idea. So, having the rope tied around me I got ready by sitting on the edge of the ice hole. On the count of three I threw myself into the water and to the other side where I attempted to plant my ice picks in the side. The ground was rock hard and my boots had already filled with water dragging my legs down with them making it very hard to pull myself out. With what little upper-body strength I have and the help of the man on the other end of the rope I managed to eventually get out of the water and onto the ice where I was met with a happy cheer.
The temperature of the water cannot really go below -2 so it was not bad at all, however, the cold comes when you get out of the water the ground and the air around you at -17. The water in my boots at first felt like it had frozen into a solid block. I quickly started to move around and then settled to just wiggling my toes constantly so that the cold blood in my legs, which were soaked, would not get forced to my heart. After me everyone else in the group had a go at jumping in the hole Oddy (crazy man) jumped in three times until he was happy that he could get out by himself. I only managed one other jump in and out the other side just to see if I could do it by myself. I could not! We then piled back into the truck, I sat in the front this time where it was much warmer, and headed back to UNIS to get warm.

Survival training 101 - Day 3

I had high expectations for today, as today was the day I would do my rifle training.
The boys did not have to start till 10 this morning so I was able to walk to UNIS on time (0720) and listening to some music on my i-pod. I got to UNIS in good time and decided that I would wait outside instead of going in taking my vast number of layers off only to put them back on again when the coach arrived in 5 minutes. Soon some of the other people from my group arrived and waited with me. Thomas and Karina showed us a strange Norwegian dance, and then I demonstrated whet Robert has dubbed my penguin dance. This involves you standing with your arms down at your sides, your hands pointed outwards, shrugging your shoulders up and down and, swaying from side to side, all the while having a very large grin on your face.
The coach soon arrived and we all hopped on and headed to the rifle range which was just out of town in the mountain behind the airport which, is really safe considering if you turned around with your rifle you would have a perfect clear shot of any planes that would be landing. We all piled into a small room that was slightly warmer than the outside which we were informed was -27 and down to -33 with the wind chill. So, pretty damn chilly! We went through the basics of the different situations you may find yourself in with a polar bear, (eye, eye!) and how and where you should use a rifle. We then all headed out to the range, and it was bloody freezing, to learn how to half-load a rifle. This consists of loading the magazine with four rounds then sliding the bolt across without loading the chamber and locking it in place. The group then split into two, I being part of the first group got to shoot first while the others went in for hot chocolate. We first shot eight rounds lying down, four at a top target and, four at a bottom target. Placing the ear muffs on we were instructed to fire all four rounds in the chamber as we pleased. The bolt-action rifle is really simple to operate and much lighter than the shotgun that Stuart taught me how to use which, I am very glad of as it came in handy. You lift the bolt slide it back and push it forward locking it again in one swift motion and, providing that the rifle has not frozen, can be done very quickly. We started with the first eight rounds in the lying down position, and I had decided that I would shoot left handed as it did not make too much difference with the type of rifle being used. Lining up the sights on the target and breathing out slowly I took my first shot, quickly reloading the chamber and making sure the cartridge had cleared the barrel I took my second, third and fourth shot on the top target. Standing up to show that you are finished and displaying your empty barrel to the instructor, you could start your star jumps and penguin dances, to get the blood back to your hands, a place where it had swiftly become estranged. We the half loaded the rifle again this time firing the four rounds, still in the lying down position, at the bottom target. When we had done this we all headed down to the targets to see what we had hit. I was delighted and astonished all of my shots had landed in the black circles, two of them hitting the bulls-eye. We then went for a run around the range to get our blood flowing again. The next eight shots were done in the kneeling position. This is slightly less stable but more realistic for a situation you may find yourself in. This time my eight shots did not reach the bulls-eye. They were, however, in much tighter groupings and still well within the black target circles. We then headed inside for our hot chocolate while the second half of the group went out to shoot. The lesson ended with a demonstration of a signal pistol and how to load it, very much like a shotgun. The lesson was good fun and I had a good chat with the other people in my group getting to know them much better.
After lunch we had a basic first aid course which, having been drummed into my head over the past 12 years and having taught it just two days before leaving Aberystwyth was fresh in my head. I did however manage to make it interesting by being a smart arse. So, all in all good fun! This did allow me to talk to a lot of other people in the class and we seem to get on really well which also helps with making things fun.
The boys waited for my class to end and we walked back to Nybyen together talking about Tom Lehrer and Monty Python, specifically trying to remember the words to The Penis Song. Getting home Stu started on the dinner which I was supposed to help with but ended up falling asleep on the couch while we were watching Open All Hours. After dinner we set up Blinky in the living room to watch some Blackadder trying to introduce awesome British humour to the Norwegians we share our flat with.
I managed to get a fair amount of revision done while watching Blackadder, however, that is only relative to what I have already done so not so much actually. After being informed that I act too much like Queeny sometimes we all headed to bed to prepare for tomorrow.
Tomorrow I will be jumping in some Sea-ice so we will see how well my back holds out. Fingers crossed.

Survival training 101 - Day 2

Day two. Today on Arctic survival 101, learn how to perform an avalanche search and; how to navigate around the island using GPS.
The day started again at 0630 and my eye still seriously bloodshot, I think I could have done with a few more hours in bed. The four of us headed down to UNIS at 0730where we each went to our separate groups, the boys off to the rifle range, Frances to navigation, and I headed to avalanche rescue (after getting my cup of coffee, of course).
The avalanche training was run by two energetic PhD students and their presentation was fun and interesting. Every time you answered a question right you got a chocolate thrown at you, though few of us in the class answered, obviously prompting the Tom Lehrer quote “now let’s not always see the same hands.” Always good to randomly laugh to yourself in the middle of class people will not think you are weird at all. We learnt how to use our avalanche beacons and how to deal with different avalanche scenarios and situations. We spent the last hour and a half of the lesson outside, where it was very cold. One of the leaders taught me a way to get blood pumping into your fingers; basically you act like a penguin shrugging its shoulders (it really works). I worked with Robert and we each hid the beacon while the other had to go find it. We then split the group into two and ran off to hide a big box with a transmitter inside so that the other group would have to use their beacons to find the general location, the avalanche probes to pinpoint the position and, the shovels to dig it out. We started looking for the other group’s box quickly finding the region in the snow pile. We did, however, take far too long with the avalanche probes to pinpoint its location. The shovelling of the snow was done quickly and efficiently and we were the first to get the box out of the snow pile and back to the start. The other team did pinpoint the boxes location first however we managed to dig ours out faster so we won. As there was more time left we repeated the exercise this time learning from out previous mistakes and won by a big margin.
After lunch, and more coffee we had the navigation session. We looked through a few maps of Longyearbyen and the surrounding glaciers and fjords and learnt what different symbol on the map meant. We went through how to answer a radio and satellite call as well as how to set up a GPS route and load it onto a handheld GPS device. Once a short route had been programed into the device we were split into groups of three and given both a radio and satellite phone. Heading outside into the cold once again we headed off from UNIS up towards the hotel where we called back to Stephan using the satellite phone and followed the route back to UNIS. Once back inside we loaded the tracker from the GPS to see how closely to the route we stayed and to view the speed and altitude profile.
Now, after a long but swift walk back from UNIS to Nybyen, I am sitting in my room with Stu cooking the dinner, pizza, watching Lie To Me again as there is no new TV this week and contemplating what revision I don’t want to do next.
Tomorrow, SHOOTING!!!

Survival training 101 - Day 1

The day to be honest did not start out great. Well no that is a lie because, although I woke up way too late I did start the download for the two new episodes of Lie To Me season 3 and I watched the promo clips so that put a nice smile on my face.
The waking up late meant I didn’t really have time for, well much at all, to be honest. I made some sandwiches with the bread Stu and I had made the night before and quickly left with Stu, Andrew and Frances to head down to UNIS. We got to UNIS a little late and I ran around for a bit trying to find the room I was supposed to be in but eventually got there.
The first part of the day was spent in the UNIS store room learning how to use the emergency camp equipment and set up trip wires for polar bears. Within five minutes of starting, however, my vision started to black out and my hearing was going. I could literally feel the blood draining out of my face. I managed to get a seat on some nearby crates and in less than a minute I could not see a thing and my hearing had gone completely. When I had sat down my head started to slowly clear but I got really warm and pale and the nausea did not go for quite a while. If I am honest I am still feeling it now.
In the first hour and a half of the class we learnt how to set up the tent from the emergency kit and how to use everything and anything as a part of a first aid kit. After a sit down and chat with the rest of the people in my group we moved on to learn how to set up the stoves and safe practice. We then moved outside where the light from the hidden Sun could just be seen as a lighter blue glow in the southern horizon. Outside we learnt how to set up the trip wire in the cold and dark and how to use the snow to set the height of the wire. It did unfortunately get set off by a German Polar Bear called Thomos.
It was then time for a quick lunch with the boys before heading to the afternoon’s lectures learning about what to do if you fall into a cravas on a glacier. The afternoon lectures went relatively quickly as it was all done inside and I had covered a large amount of the rope work and knots in climbing when I was a child. Working as a team we managed to create a 6:1 pulley system to aid in the rescue of a person who had fallen down a cravas. I and a few others in my group ended up having a discussion about their English accents and Oddy expressed the fact that he would prefer to have a scouse English accent rather than an American one. Now I understand not wanting the American one but, Scouse!
Overall it was not a bad or good first day but I met some cool new people and even learn some of their names. My opinion on the illness is the extreme lack of anything my body has learnt to function on over its lifetime namely, large amounts of sugar, coke, caffeine from the coke, acid from the coke and sunlight (although I thought I was dealing quite well with the last one until today).
I feel that my revision may be suffering slightly but I’m in the fricking Arctic for crying out loud. That is just so totally awesome no matter how crap I feel.
Oh yeah and Lie To Me double bill was so totally wicked. Love the new episodes.
"Did she just call me sexy?...She did. She just called me sexy"

The first day

Today, Saturday the 8th of January, was the first full day that we spent in Svalbard. When i say full day however i mean that we all slept in till midday so we missed a significant portion of it.
I woke up feeling slightly more refreshed then I had the previous night (having a real bed does that). Having had my nice hot shower the night before, I got up and got dressed. This was followed by me climbing back onto my bed and talking to my older sister Amey on Skype of half an hour.
We had promised ourselves that today we would do some revision for the two exams we would be taking in two weeks’ time knowing we would not have much free time after Monday to do so. This, however, was an empty promise as they so often are when it comes to work so we went outside to hunt for Stu's snowmobile instead.
Stu and I raided Barrack 13 for a skidoo helmet, suit and boots to nab for the time we were there, easily finding ones that fit (we did get the boots wrong the first time, but we swapped and all was good). Having looked at a picture and description of what we were looking for the skidoo was easily found. We took the cover off of it and observed with trepidation the amount of snot that had taken residence there in the 8 months it had been sitting dormant on its wooden pallets. After some hunting and clearing of snow we found the reason why the back belt would not move and quickly set about clearing the snow from the variator belt and de-icing the track.
The track started to move. We did it!
Reversing the skidoo off of the pallets with the help of Andrew and Frances Stu was able to drive the skidoo in a nice small circle around a lamp post and back up to the pallets not really wanting to push it on his first time out. Having safely got it back in its bed and with its cover on we headed back inside away from the violent winds that seemed to be able to send the snow back up into the sky looking like it was falling upwards.
Later in the evening Andrew and Frances came round and we watched Monsters Inc. on my laptop in an effort to get the quotes out of my head, as they had taken up residence since i watched Pixar’s 25 magic moments, whilst we were in Oslo airport for the night.
Tomorrow we are heading into town to hopefully get some supplies.

Longyearbyen, Svalbard

The plane landed smoothly on the runway at Longyearbyen airport where a large number of excited students poured out into the single room airport to collect their luggage. Once the luggage was all collected we ventured outside to the coaches that would take us to our homes for the next 5 or so months. The sky was pitch black with a large sprinkling of stars which made it feel like the middle of the night, when in fact it was just gone 1300 (it didn't help that we had not slept the night before due in part to the large amount of light in the airport). Heading through the town we saw UNIS and the shops as well as the swimming pool and to my surprise both a primary and secondary school (which should not be surprising as there is a university on the island).
We arrived at Nybyen the student barracks for UNIS and attempted to drag or luggage to our rooms. As Sam was no longer able to come on the trip Stu took his room so we would be in the same barracks. Heading into the barracks you are required to remove your shoes and leave them in the 'cloakroom', however, the temperature difference is so severe you find yourself removing most of your clothing as well.
Heading up to our rooms we were pleasantly surprised to find we had sinks in each as well as a desk, table and two chairs with ample room left over. I quickly unpacked my room and gave everything its place then we headed back out and down to town.
I had decided that as it was the first day i would test how cold it was by just wearing my skinny jeans on my legs and a number of layers on my top. The temperature outside was -20 degrees and I can tell you now this was not sufficient protection for my legs.
The walk to the shop is a shallow 3km slope on a snowy road however is lit by bright street lamps. This did not stop it feeling like it was 1900 instead of the 1430 that it was. The temperature of the supermarket was much like those of the barracks so we removed our coats and hats and had a gander around what would be our only food store for the next semester. I and Stu had decided that it would be best to pool our resources and shop together as we would most likely be cooking together a fair amount. After some careful shopping and a look around the alcohol section for future purchases we headed back up the hill and home to cook some dinner.
We were informed that there would be a party of sorts in Barrack 10 just across from us as on Friday nights it is customary for different barracks to host a party in the kitchens.
After heading over to the party and having a beer it appeared that the lack of sleep had finally hit Andrew and he was promptly sent home to bed so he could get a full night sleep. The rest of us soon followed having being tired out by the last few days and wanted to be fully awake for the first full day in the Arctic Circle.

Oslo, Norway

I was lucky enough to get a window seat on the flight from Manchester to Oslo and my face was able to bask in the last rays of sunlight that it would see until a brief sunrise and prompt sunset on February 15th.
The flight to Oslo only took 2 hours; however, we were then going to be waiting in Oslo airport from 1400 on the Thursday till 0955 on the Friday for the next flight up to Svalbard. This left us with a lot of time to kill. We checked our baggage into their "hotel" for the night and made our way to the airports train station to catch the next one into Oslo.
Oslo was a really pretty city and it was covered in a blanket of snow making it slightly magical to these snow starved British eyes (the last month not withstanding).
We headed away from the station out towards the water, which was beautiful. We then walked around the water front to the main part of town again where we went in search of a pub to rest for a few hours. Selecting an arbitrary direction to walk and with the use of some maps Stu had on his phone we soon found ourselves in a pub called The Scots Man. We sat down at a table after getting our drinks and played a number of rounds of Shit-Head and Gin rummy. Getting bored of card games each of us did our own thing for a bit, Stu was taking pictures, Andrew was writing his journal, and Frances was playing a computer game, while I was drawing and building towers out of cards. We left the pub and headed back towards the train station catching the 2015 train back to the airport. When we got back we hunted out a place to sleep for the night ending up on a bench on the second floor near the bathrooms. Settling down for the night we watched some TV on my laptop and every now and then going for a wander around. The night was a long one and around 2330 the lights in the airport dimmed slightly. I managed to get a few hours’ sleep but found myself wide awake again at 0200 when I started writing my journal. At 0400 leaving Andrew still wide awake I went back to sleep for the rest of the night waking at 0530 when people piled into the airport for check in.
We collected our bags and checked into the airport going through security in much the same manner as in Manchester and I still set of the alarms. We sat down in the nearest café and got breakfast, I had a plat of very sugary waffles. At around 0915 we headed to our gate and soon after got on the plane that would take us to Longyearbyen, Svalbard via Tromso, Norway.

Airports - Oh such fun to be had

Check in, my favourite part of the airport, with its short queues, friendly staff and efficiency and handling baggage, there really is nothing like it.
To sarcastic?
It wasn’t really that bad. There was a short queue and the woman behind the desk was not entirely horrid, just slightly dense, and baggage is always a nightmare anyway.
The trip to Svalbard was taking us away from home for over 5 months and therefore it was not entirely unexpected that we had a very large amount of luggage each and with four of us there this quickly adds up. The baggage allowance was 1 bag at 23kg a second bag at 32kg and 1 piece of hand luggage at 8kg a limit 3 of us reached easily, still not sure how Andrews bags managed to be a good 20kg lighter than he rest of us.
The problem came when the excess baggage was under Sam’s name and Stu had to go back and change that, also most of the bags were considered oversized so had to be put back on the trolleys and taken over to baggage inspection. After a lot of hassle (in my opinion completely unnecessary) a great amount of luggage hauling, with a vast amount of help from Mhairi, we were just left with our hand luggage. We said our goodbyes, an understandably tearful one between Heather and Stu, and left to go through security. Each of us putting our bags on the belt and confidently walking through the gate. Wait, what was that, a beep? Damn it. So close. Out comes the wand, off come the boots, and what do they get from it nothing, what do I get from it; annoyance, frustration, and the irritating task of tying my boots up again.

Change of plans

On Wednesday the 5th the Journey to Svalbard officially started. Myself and my father set off from Old Woking at 2100 heading to Milton Keynes where we would be staying with Andrew before an early morning drive up to Manchester airport.
This however was not the original plan for the start of the trip, and as they say "there is nothing like leaving things to the last minute" (though i Can't say i have ever been entierly comfortable with this school of thought). Just a few days prior to our departure on the Sunday I recieved a call from Sam (another friend going on the trip). He had rung to tell me that he had Glandular feaver and would be thus unab;e to accompany us. It so happened that we were all supposed to be crashing at Sam's the night before going to that airport as he lived in Leeds. This, however was not my first worry, the thought that Sam, being one of my best friends, was missing the trip and he would not be there with us was disheartning. At Sams request i promptly made similar phone calls to the others on the trip to imform them of the situation as, understandably this was not a conversation Sam wanted to or had the energy to have four times.
New plans were made over the next two days and many discussions were had leading to Myself, my father, and Frances staying over at Andrews house for the night then my father driving us up to Manchester airport the next morning for our check in at 0830.