MØRKETIDA (THE DARK SEASON)

Picture of the week: Longyearbyen entering the dark season.

This week we transitioned into the dark season, where only a faint hint of illumination is evident from the sun well below the horizon (6˚). I think last week was the hardest for the family, with the loss of light and the time change.  For the most part, we have become used to spending the day in the dark. It also happened to be a full moon. At this high latitude the full moon races around the horizon and doesn’t set, so it was brighter than usual.  It was also mild for our bones with snow, hovering between -1 and -10˚C. 

The near full moon rising above UNIS.

Nicole on a stroll downtown.

Replay of a goal Anders scored against me on FIFA World Cup Wii.

A highlight of the week included a class party in Anders’ 5^th grade.  The class had all the families to the school for hot dogs and soup and they put on a few skits, sung songs and had a raffle.  Anders ended up winning the “big” raffle prize that night, a little polar bear rug (fake of course).  Anders continued his party streak with his birthday party on yesterday.  One of his friends in class had a birthday earlier in the week, so we decided to combine efforts.  We had a pizza/music party at the youth club downtown with almost his entire class.   It was really a fun party with lots of room for the kids to run around, laugh, and be loud.  Thursday this coming week is his real birthday, so we will have the family party then. It seems like in the last few years this has been the norm for the boys, with essentially two parties for each birthday.  I am not sure why I’m not fully comfortable with it… likely latent jealousy as this was unheard of when I was growing up!

Balloons hanging outside the youth club

Time to eat at the birthday party.

The birthday boys, Anders and Hilmar.

The rest of the week was pretty much the routine; Norwegian class, the boys activities, website work for Nicole and a lot of writing for me at UNIS.  Thursday was a full day for me with a successful REMUS mission in the dark, 3 meetings and basketball.  The data we are collecting in and around the fjord is looking exciting, challenging some current understanding of the circulation patterns in the area. We have expanded the collaborative group at UNIS that will work on this data and should yield some interesting results. This week, we also firmed up the timing and the experimental approach for the winter cruise in January.

Our walk to Norwegian class.

I am off to basketball and then later tonight we have dinner with some friends at one of the more fancy restaurants in Longyearbyen, the Brasseri Nansen.  We can count the number of times we have gone out to dinner since being here on one hand, so this will be a treat!