Time is flying

It’s been a while since my last post.

Not much has happened at university so far so this entry is going to be a more personal one.

Time is flying like crazy. It is not that life here is particularly fast, rather the contrary is the case, yet, the days are sprinting by.

View onto Adventfjorden just outside our student accommodation in Sjøskrenten.

Daylight is back! Finally! Just a few more days and the sun will reach the Longyearbyen valley. The darkness wasn’t fun, at least not for me. It was nagging on my state of mind and that wasn’t a pleasant experience for me. Time became slurry somehow. The days were elusively long and that kicked me off my framework.

Being here also has major effects on my contrivances; they aren’t always pleasant though. A very close friend of mine here suggested that this might be due to the darkness, which I consider to be partly true, but also the power of this environment is pivotal. It is somewhat magical! There are only four places that have had the same effect onto my sentiments in my life so far: An alpine pasture in the Italian-Swiss Alps, the Cheyenne River Reservation with the plains, the Badlands and the Missouri River in the US and the underwater world of Dahab in Egypt.

All in all, I really enjoy being here and although it’s been ‘only’ nine weeks so far, it feels like an eternity already.

There is so much to discover, going on hikes, all sorts of social happenings from our Friday gatherings, to concerts or to Wednesdays knitting and waffles for example. Yes, I started knitting again. Those primary school skills are coming back. I’m still practicing ... and slowly improving. My next projects are baby socks and a hat.

Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony, op. 110A at Mine 7.

The start of a headband or maybe just another practicing patch ... 

Also, I continued with my training sessions from back home, which I execute twice a week. Additionally, I started swimming, which I try to do twice a week too. Plus, every Thursday there is a Lindy Hop beginners course that I really enjoy. It feels good to be moving that much!

Etienne being the last one to dance after the class was held at UNIS.

And lastly, we are cooking a lot for ourselves, backing bread and when old apples are on sale, for example, making tons of crumble pies. I really enjoy that aspect of being here. Having time to cook and adding new recipes to my cuisine repertoire. However … I still haven’t figured out how to afford food! I started working as a waiter in the Svalbard Hotell’s Restaurant Polarfareren to kind of cover my costs to some extent. And I'll stay a little longer in summer to earn some money.

Finally, our courses took up in pace and regularity so I will talk to you more about that in a week or two. I was frustrated as many lectures got canceled. You might be asking, what are you complaining about? Well, I want to learn and I kind of need that pressure because I tend to get lazy in my brain otherwise. We got pushed to a level last semester at SAMS that was unmatched to anything we had before - I was current-carrying 24/7. I got lots of grey hair in that three months process (not kidding) and was a wreck afterward. Although I liked my topics a lot, it wasn’t fun. Yet, I was kind of expecting it to be moving at the same pace here and that was not happening. So that will hopefully change soon with our field trips, excursions, presentations and scientific posters!

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Simon