END OF A CHAPTER

Picture of the week: Ice flows on the train ride to Trondheim.

Anders enjoying the view on the voyage from Trondheim to Oslo.

The forecast today is clear, sunny and 21 C.  Yes, we arrived back in California late last night after a 24 hour sequence of flights against strong headwinds (117 km/hr at one point) and moderate turbulence.  The flight back was after a fantastic week in Norway.   From Lillehammer, we took the train north for just over two hours to Trondheim.  The tracks weaved through the valleys along the mostly frozen rivers, over the high plains and passes in the center of the country and then down towards the coast. The experience was great for the boys (all three of them!).  We stayed in a hotel in the center of town that had been converted from the old cooperative bakery until the turn of the century.  I met up Geir Johnsen at the Trondheim Biological Station (see second December 2011 entry) to go over a report we were working on.  After a few hours, Nicole and I joined Geir and his wife along the Nidaros River for a wonderful Italian dinner.  I visited the NTNU campus the next day with Geir for some additional work and a meeting (the purpose of the trip to Trondheim) which lasted the rest of the work day.  We then picked up the family and went over to his cozy house in Trolla for some homemade pizza and some good conversation and laughs. We were up early the next morning to catch the 7 hour train ride back to Oslo.  Clear weather and sunshine followed us the entire trip back along the same track we had arrived on.  After settling in at the hotel, we strolled down the main boulevard from the place for dinner.  The following day, I met at the Fulbright office for lunch with the office staff and my Norwegian Arctic Chair counterpart, Joystein Bakke.  We all then walked over to the foreign ministry and both Joystien and I gave presentations to our generous sponsors highlighting the research, teaching and cultural exchange during our respective Fulbright experiences.  After goodbyes, I returned to the hotel for a few hours of down time.  The boys were not interested at all in going out that night, so Nicole and I capitalized on the opportunity to grab some time together for a walk and a movie.  Oslo was alive with activity, restaurants, night clubs etc., a large contrast to Longyearbyen!  After a slow start, we just managed to catch the right bus to the airport, and our flight to Germany.  Leaving Norway was more difficult than I thought, but knowing I will return for further collaboration etc. made it easier.  In Munich, we were treated with a visit from our good friends the Wilds at the airport for some beer and brats before our trip back to the US.

The viking ship museum in Oslo.

Visiting the Wilds in Munich airport for dinner!

I will miss the isolated routine that we established in Longyearbyen, free from many of the diversions from a larger city and University.  I will miss our many new and old friends and the stunning beauty of Svalbard and mainland Norway.  I am taking with me a new sense of the Norwegian culture and traditions, what it means to be Norwegian, and a bit more of its language. I hope this blog has given some of that flavor.  How very fortunate I was to experience these last 7 months with my family and I would like to thank the Fulbright Foundation and the Norwegian Foreign Ministry that sponsored my stay. 
As this journey comes to an end, the next one begins.  After unpacking and resettling in at home I will be off to the Republic of Palau for 3 weeks working in a place that is a stark contrast (to say the least) to Norway.   Time to break out the sunscreen!



Myself and Ian Robbins in Palau in March 2011.

This will be my last blog on this topic, but follow Ian Robbin's blog of Palau at

http://calpolymarine.blogspot.com/

I have enjoyed writing and hope you have as well ... ha det bra!





HA DET BRA SVALBARD!

Longyearbyen early in the week.

Picture of the week: Ice was forming on the fjord as the sun almost touched the tops of the mountains.

After seven months full of life long memories, we said goodbye to Longyearbyen and Svalbard.  The temperature dropped to where it should be this time of year to bid us farewell (-15 to -20C), the clouds dissipated and it was light from eight thirty till 4 in the afternoon (with the sun still not over the horizon).  Our days were full of packing and finishing at UNIS.  I had severely underestimated the amount of time to pack as usual, so the last few days were not as calm as I had hoped.  We had a nice  dinner with our neighbors on Sunday, finished packing and while dropping off our boxes, Nicole and I were treated to another northern light show right over the town.  Monday night Nicole and I went to Mari-Anne’s for dinner.  The restaurant is in a glass room full of vegetation and humid.  For a few hours, we felt like we were somewhere else.  On Tuesday, the biology department treated me to a couple of cakes and presented me with a really beautiful piece of art.  They have been great colleagues and I will miss our interaction.  While the UNIS professors I worked with are very good in their respective fields and are productive in terms of students, course, research etc., they have a health approach to their work environment and I hope to bring a bit of that back with me.  While I worked at UNIS and the boys were having goodbye parties, Nicole did an amazing job with the cleaning.  Wednesday morning we finished up with the apartment, picked up two sad boys from school and checked in at the airport.  Pink was on the horizon when we took off and the sunset followed us to Tromsø.  We had a spectacular view of Svalbard on the trip south with blue light highlighting the snow covered peaks.  We made it to Oslo that night and it felt great putting our heads on the pillows! 

Nicole and Anders boarding the flight.

The view to the east on the way south.

The next morning, I went to the Fulbright office for the Fulbright seminar, hearing about everyone’s wok to date, while Nicole took the boys to the Nobel Peace Center.  The talks were really interesting from silicon crystals to predicting conflicts around the globe.  An amazing group of people!!  We then went to the US Ambassador’s residence for a reception and I and two others gave our presentations there.  We were honored to be hosted by the Ambassador and his wife and to have the Foreign Minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Støre, as the guest of honor.  Jørgen Berge from UNIS also attended and it was good for him to see the extent of the Fulbright program in Norway.  He later walked back with me to the hotel and said goodbye to Nicole and the kids. 

Anders with the plaques of the Nobel Peace Prize recipients.

Friday morning we hauled our bags across the palace grounds to meet the bus at the Fulbright office, loaded up and headed to the mountains for 3 days of skiing.  It was fantastic to spend more time with the Fulbrighters as they are called, downhill ski with Nicole and the boys and enjoy some good food.  The weather and snow conditions were fantastic.    We are in Lillehammer tonight and will take the train to Trondheim tomorrow. 

Arriving at the slopes... the view from our room.

The Fulbrighters haviing dinner at the resort.

Nicole took this shot on her walk through Lillihammer.

One more week in Norway before heading home and trying to soak it all up.

LIGHTS OFF, LIGHTS ON

Picture of the week: Moonlight bathes the mountains across the fjord from our apartment.  We are going to miss this view! 

The sun closing in on the horizon over Longyearbyen.

The smile of victory!

After a dark, wet and gloomy couple of weeks, the cold is back, the light is painting the surrounding mountains for about 6 hours a day, and the snow is starting to accumulate.  The mood in town has shifted from one of disbelief to one of urgency to get out skiing, snowmobiling and hiking.  While we are transitioning to leave, it is bittersweet.  We are looking forward to getting back and getting resettled, but at the same time, I know that March, April and May in Svalbard is magic and really wanted the family to experience it.   We will simply have to come back!  It has been a week of packing, dinners with friends and trying to wrap things up at UNIS.  We had friends over for dinner on Monday and Friday, dinner with the Rasmussen’s on Thursday night after basketball and dinner tonight at our neighbor Kjersti’s.  People have been so welcoming and we will miss them all!  The highlight of the week for me was a crushing victory over the Russian settlement, Barentsburg, on Saturday.  Back in October or November (I should read my owe blog!) Barentsburg came to Longyearbyen for a sports tournament. Because there was no ref for the game, I volunteered, was unable to coach the team and we lost by 2 points.  In January, the team went to Barentsburg while I was on the cruise and they lost by 1 point.  Last night, I was able to coach and play and we won 50-24! It was great to see the players really cherish the feeling of winning.  I only realized what it meant to this mostly under 25 group (half still in high school) until after the game and it looks to me they are now motivated for a repeat in March.  It was great to be a part of.

Trying to soak up the last few days in this special place!

Mathea says goodbye to Nicole at Kroa.

 

The practice before the big game.

The team after the 50-24 win!

Celebration dinner at Kroa.

The after party with some of the team.

THE BIG THAW

Picture of the week: Longyearbyen's airport in the distance was closed most of this week. 

Longyearbyen was a wet slippery mess for most of this week affecting everyones mood.

While weather is a fairly generic topic to start out with, it dominated this week’s activities, events, and the mood of the community.  While the rest of Europe is in a deep freeze, almost the entire week here was above zero, with high winds, and rain, Longyearbyen was subject to multiple airport closures, avalanches, rescues, and very slippery roads!  The avalanches struck on Monday.  First was one in the side valley along Longyearbyen that took out the bridge we regularly take to the school and sports hall.  Luckily it happened at 1 in the morning, so no one was hurt.  The second was along the road to the airport, closing it for much of the day, stranding the passengers at the airport and delaying the outbound flight (this was one of the few days the airport was open as the ice on the runway was completely melted).  These were slush avalanches, with a tremendous amount of mass behind them and bringing rocks and stones down the gullies.  There was so much melting and rain, that the river in town and the river in Aventdalen were flowing again.  This prevented snowmobiles from crossing over the valley.  The conditions also closed the road up the valley for 3 days and put snowmobiling to a halt (although some still tried… see picture below).  This is the time of year that people can get out of town and explore on snowmobiles and dog sedges.  The weather has changed those anticipated plans and you can see that many of the people in town are not in the best of moods.  Even the seasoned veterans of Svalbard have told me this is one of the worst stretches of weather they have seen.

A slush avalanch took out the bride heading up to the school and sports hall early Monday morning.

Clearing the slush avalanche from the airport road, which was closed for almost a day.

Some still tried to snowmobile around town, but didn't get too far!

On Friday, I went to a concert as part of the annual Polar Jazz series.  I saw a classic Norwegian band called deLillos.  An interesting cross in my opinion between U2, Rush, the Allman Brothers, the Stray Cats, and Bob Dylan.  They rocked the house until late and really got the crowd of 3-400 going.  After being here for over 6 months, it was interesting to be able to identify “townies” and “tourists”. 

deLillos during one of their jams.

deLillos rocks the house with demands for more!

Last night we had some friends over for Mexican food (burritos, tacos, and fajitas). Great tastes, company and the boys had a good time playing.

Anders mounding chocolate syrup on his ice cream at last night's dinner.

Jason at UNIS working on his new coding passion and a little Minecraft.

Students are back at UNIS, so are the shoes and the added scent in the entrance!

Panorama of the walk down the hill to UNIS.  The light was really evident this week after the storms blew through.

With the stormy conditions, we were not able to see the increasing light, until a brief period today.  There is a blue glow from 10 until 2:30 that is lighting up the surrounding mountains and the range across the fjord.  Today was also the first day I have seen the glacier since November. 

Contrast with a blue background.

Light across the fjord.

Still dark on the horizon.

NORDLYS (NORTHERN LIGHTS)



Straight overhead.

Over the house.

I am writing this installment on Sunday night, after basketball and shopping, with the weather howling outside.  It is an unseasonable +5C, strong winds and rain!  The rain on top of the icy permafrost makes the entire town a skating rink.  It is beginning to rain so much there are streams forming.  This obviously makes it hard to walk, drive and even want to go outside.  The flight in was canceled due to a slippery runway and is likely to be the case tomorrow if it doesn’t change.  This has ripple effects as to what is in the store etc.  The winter has been about 10 degrees above normal this year, so the locals are not too happy… limited snowmobiling, limited skiing, and no ice on the fjords for easy access to the mountains or their cabins. This has been quite a change from the beginning of the week when it was -10 and still.  On the day of the solar flares, Tuesday, it happened to be clear here in Longyearbyen and Nicole and I stood outside for a few hours and watched the light show to the southeast.  Although the brightest locations were northern Norway and Canada, it was still fascinating to see the streams of light right outside our door. 

Over the town.

Looking up Adventdalen

Across Orion.

Green and red.

Picture of the week: Green and red in two directions over Sukkertoppen.

The boys both had colds this week, Jason first and then Anders, so the house was busy all week.  I used the week to finish my part of the cruise report and to pack and send off some of my equipment that I will no longer be using.  It is one thing to get boxes, it is another to get them ready for shipping…labels, shipping invoices, packing, delivering them etc.  I got a number off though and it feels good to have at least part of the process done.  Last night, neither Anders nor I could sleep, so we went for a walk at about 1am. This was before the switch to rain and there was a light snow.  Anders has not been to want to go for spontaneous walks, but the stay up factor was a great motivation.  We had a good time walking around the quite town. 

Longyearbyen early Sunday morning.

Anders looking at the east side of Longyearbyen

The governor's building.

The old coal receiving station.

I am off to a movie at the kulturhus, “Mission Impossible”… no great expectations… just a short diversion.
P.S.  It was pretty good.

RETURNING HOME

Arriving back in Longyear after the cruise.

Helicopter lowers line over the ship in a medical emergency drill.

The cruise continued this week with another 36 hours of steaming from Moffen Island through Isfjorden to Longyearbyen with windy and rocky weather.  We let a few people off at Longyearbyen that were flying back to Tromsø and picked up a few people that were to take part in the 36 hour campaign in Adventfjorden.  While in the fjord, we did more collections of water and organisms at different depths.  We also went to Coals Bay for bird collection, but it was not to be.  On the way back we had the governor’s office conduct a helicopter rescue drill repelling and lifting people on and off the ship.  Arriving back in the Longyearbyen port, it took about 2 hours to offload the gear, say goodbyes, move the equipment back to UNIS and then open our front door of the house.  It was great to be home and see the family!

Picture of the week: Noon glow.

Nicole and I welcome the light!

This week also was the first week the surrounding mountains began to glow with the sun moving higher up towards the horizon.  It is hard to describe the blue glow that blankets the valley… stunning!  Nicole and I were taking pictures outside and I mentioned that the only thing missing were Northern Lights and just that moment on queue streaks of green flared up from behind the mountains. A ptarmigan also kept us company as we walked out behind the house.  This weekend, Nicole went to the World International Female Arctic Lutefisklag (Lukefisk team or society). Everyone wore hats, ate lutefisk, drank aquavit, and she came home late. We have less than 4 weeks left here in Longyearbyen and are trying to soak it all up.

The annual World International Female Arctic Lutefisklag participants sporting their hats.

Yes... Lutefisk.

"Let the celebrations begin!"