Work work work...

So I realised I haven't updated this for a while, but I promise there is a good reason... with two term projects and presentations due in the next two weeks it's been a pretty busy time!
But there is still some time for fun! last week for example we spent friday evening in the UNIS sauna... (and possibly broke the fire alarm)... apparently Europeans love being in a hot room on uncomfortable benches sitting innapropriately close to sweaty naked people, but if you cant beat them, join them!

This week is the "legendary" kitchen to kitchen party... like a bar crawl through the student barracks! but with these deadlines looming it looks like it might be a pretty tame affair, but still an excuse to dress up!

In other news I have bought a coat (see photo)! which is definitely the most extravagant purchase of my life, but so worth it! can go out in just a t-shirt in -12! might be a bit much for the british "winter" though!

Hope you all enjoyed "corduroy" day yesterday (11/11/11)?

HA DET!

Ice Ice Breaker...

Wagwan? So it's been a pretty busy few weeks, with the fleamarket followed by last weekends epic IceBreaker party! which was organised by Team Reading! with help from some Russians! (all the stereotypes about Russians and Vodka are true it seems).

As it was organised by Reading people it was no suprise that it was so late in the term, but I think ice was successfully broken still, it was great to see so many creative efforts at shipwrecked/underwater themed costumes. Unfortunately I couldn't be bothered to take any photos of the party, and it seems that even a week on there are very few on facebook, but I'll post one here... here's it is...

(Thanks Fran for the photo)

Unfortunately from this photo you can't see my fabulous homeless-Jesus-esque shipwreck victim outfit. What you can see though is a lot of crazy (messy) Europeans! and a ship made of cardboard! which provided us with a pretty long job cleaning up the next day!

Other than that its been getting dark! today we had just 4 hours of sunlight, but it seems to help with productivity, especially as the work (and evil dissertation progress report) is starting to pile up... much like the snow :D.

Tonight is "THE BIGGEST DUB-STEP party on Svalbard EVER!!!"... which should be an experience, and quite a contrast to the Dark Season Blues festival which is going on at the moment, I'll keep you posted.

Ha Det!



FleaMarket!

'Sup? so as "leader" of the student environmental group at UNIS (which is us guys from Reading) we were told about two weeks ago that we were responsible for running a fleamarket to raise money for charity (TV-Aksjonen - a bit like Norwegian children in need, but they clear landmines rather than give money to corrupt governments). And so this weekend just gone we raised 38,509.00 Krone... £4299.85 by selling other peoples old crap! (and some coffee and cake) so yeah Team Reading! We also bagged ourselves some retro gems as you can see (pictures below).

In other news... it's getting pretty cold, this week the maximum temperature has been -4.7! but that means snow... and a frosty beard! We only have about two weeks left of sunlight now so had better make the most of it! The Icebreaker party next week will be a great way to see in the winter!

So... Peace out y'all!

Ha Det!

As you can see I am a very adaptable model...

Snow!!!

So I guess it's not really a suprise considering I'm in the Arctic but still... It's snowing!Gotta be the first time I've ever had a snowball fight in October!

Hope you are all enjoying the Indian summer?

Brew, Banana, Bread...

Yo! So it's been a while since my last post, But it has been pretty exciting since the AG-211 field trip! Last weekend we went on a hike trying to reach an abandoned Russian mining town of Colesbukta, but ended up being stranded (due to the tide) at a different abandoned Russian mining town, which could only be described as a horror movie set! With no tents we were pretty much forced to sleep in a decrepit old hut (don't tell Sysselmann!) on saturday (17th) night! and then treck back (all the way uphill somehow!) on sunday trying to avoid a potential snow storm!Last week we chilled in the lab wearing white coats and weighing beakers, which is far more fun than it sounds. Me, Mike and Oscar are also brewing our own cider, which is due any day now... I'll update y'all on the success of Frosty-Nips Arctic Cider, hopefully not from the confines of the bathroom...
Talking of yeast... I made bread! and also banana bread, see the pictures!
Other than that this weekend was a bit of a write-off after friday... so yeah time to catch up on some sleep!
Ha Det!

Frosty-Nips Arctic Cider (with "Ghetto Air-lock")

White Bread!

Banana "Bread"

Ahoy! Land-ho!

Hey hey! So finally back on solid ground after an epic 11 days aboard (thats a nautical term) the Helmer Hanssen research ship for our AG-211 field trip! The majority of time was spent eating and sleeping... a very welcome routine! And I managed to keep most of it down...mostly.

We did do some work/learning whilst being the most expensive students in the world (around £120,000 for the 11 days... cheers Norwegian government). Gravity coring (thats a geological term) and box coring (also a geological term) were what we spent our days doing/picking apart and looking at lots of mud! We were also responsible for making sure the swaffle bathymetry data (thats a made up term) was collected properly, which essentially meant sitting in an important looking chair surrounded by important looking screens showing important looking information... and then just clicking the mouse occasionally!
No P-Bears this time, but lots of food and errr...
we also looked at Foraminifera down a microscope... ermm....
Check out the photos! I'll post some here! maybe even a panorama or two... we did see some stunning sunsets, well at least one, but also a crazy light beam thing that is yet unexplained... something like a distant sunset.
So ja, enjoy! I now have to work off the svalbelly...
Ha Det!

Winter's coming...

'Sup?! So its been a pretty quiet week recovering from the epic AG-210 fieldtrip... by quiet I mean drinking, eating free (very good) pizza, and err more drinking!We have managed to squeeze some work in between sleep and drink... presenting our field report to a very tired class! And also preparing for the AG-211 cruise! 9 days on a luxury(ish) research boat heading to unchartered waters... Cant wait!
Also the beard is coming along quite nicely, should be ready for the looming winter, especially as the nights are drawing in, well two hours of sort-of darkness...
Ha Det!