Santa Claus, Seal Furs, Wet Boots, Reindeer, and the Jewish High Holidays

The last two weeks were fairly light. After several weeks of fieldwork,  we had a four-day weekend and the preceding school days were not particularly strenuous. We had a field report based on our field work to work on, and I also was (and still am) in the process of applying to a Gates-Cambridge grant for the Scott Polar Research Institute masters program. But those things are boring, so I procrastinated on all this by doing other things. I have been busy exploring Longyearbyen and the surrounding area as well as cooking. 

On Tuesday afternoon after school I wandered across the road to the large red pillar behind the UNIS building. There is a metal statue of a polar bear and a "Welcome to Santa Claus Town" post box (?), at least I think it's a postbox. There's a small slot in the front. I have no idea what the purpose of this is, as I can't imagine people coming all the way to Longyearbyen in order to send a letter to Santa Claus. It then started raining, so I went back to the UNIS building for another couple hours. 

The next day, I went to the Svalbard Museum, the museum that takes up the other half of the UNIS building, with my friend Sisi and her visiting boyfriend Conor. The museum was equal parts history, science, and an excuse to display furs and taxidermied animals. The English text along the outside told the story of whaling, hunting (why would anyone hunt a walrus?), immigration from the Pomor areas of Northwest Russia, Norway, and the Netherlands. The captions and photos made the fur trapping business seem senseless and antiquated. And then you turn your head and see a comfy reading corner completely made up of seal fur. Seal fur rug and seal fur pillows. 

Pictured: Senseless whale hunting

Pictured: So many seal furs

The rest of the museum talks about the geology of the island, the stories of coal miners and fur trappers in the late nineteenth through twentieth centuries. In the center of the room, there were a number of interactive flip panels with fur, seeds, taxidermied animals, mock-cabins...a lot of fur with all the information in only Norwegian.

Ah yes, the endemic floating hands of Svalbard

At the very end of the museum, there was a couple panels about the recent history of Longyearbyen. I didn't realize that the airport was only built in the 1970s, and that it along with the Norwegian government's investment in the town dramatically changed Longyearbyen from a depressed company town into a normal (-ish) town. The museum is clearly funded by the Norwegian government.

On Friday, through some confusing turn of events, my friend Mariana and I were allotted one of the UNIS rifles from the weekly lottery and we needed to demonstrate how to properly half-load in order to actually be able to check out the rifle. Any time I need to do anything with guns, I get extremely nervous. So when it was my turn to show half-loading procedure, I was sweating and my heart was pounding. During a proper procedure, you are meant to check that there are no bullets in the chamber three times: once at the beginning, once after putting the ammo into the magazine, and once before closing the bolt. I checked I think at least five times. I also was unable to get a click when I tested the gun by pointing and firing at the ground (yes, you need to shoot the ground at the end of half-loading).  The trigger won't click when you don't close the bolt all the way. So the supervising logistics officer told me to do it again. I was finally able to do it. The officer told me that I passed, but I was very unconfident, so I should not be the one to carry the gun on the excursion. 

What do you know? Mariana didn't pass her rifle test because she didn't check whether the barrel was empty enough times. So I was the only one who could carry the rifle on the hike. I had to wait outside the outdoor store while Mariana bought us nice new thermoses because I couldn't go inside while with a rifle. I then had to go immediately home so I could lock the ammo and bolt in my room's safe (every room in the dorm has a safe for this purpose). 

 On Saturday, me, Mariana, my friend Sarah, and her visiting Swedish friend Sandra,  were driven by another friend, Julianne,  who works for a tour company past the border of town (marked by a polar bear warning - guns required beyond this point sign). It was a bit foggy, but the area we were in, Adventdalen, was really beautiful. It is the main fjord valley that extends out from Longyearbyen and includes the tributary valleys of Endalen, Todalen, Bolterdalen, and a number more. There were a number of vacation cabins that dotted the valley sides, so we never felt particularly distant from town. But man, those cabins are remote, out past the last outpost of civilization.

A very remote vacation cabin

We spent several hours walking through the valley,  finding a lot of reindeer bones and reindeer poop. I don't know if I have ever mentioned how much reindeer poop there is in Svalbard. A lot.

A wall of sediment that is slowly being pushed down a valley

We didn't see any glaciers, though we knew that Foxvanna, the glacier we visited the week before, was very close. We crossed a number of glacial rivers, and saw cloud-shrouded mountains. We stopped for lunch on top of a hill, and we were soon misted by a cloud passing by. The clouds here are so low, you can easily walk up to them if they are resting over a mountain. 

After lunch, we saw a herd of reindeer and decided to follow them for a little bit. So we trekked across the marshy land at the bottom of the valley until we had taken enough reindeer pictures.

Reindeer!

Us following the reindeer 

Around the area where we were taking pictures of reindeer, there was a big pile of wooden pallets with a sign saying it was part of a study of geese breeding. Of course, what else could it be? We then started to work our way back to town. 

Obviously, this pile of pallets is related to geese breeding

Taking a break for a photoshoot with the rifle. Of course the ammo and bolt was in my pocket so it was just a heavy stick. 

                              

The decision to walk back via the center of the valley quickly proved to be a poor choice. The ground was very muddy and wet, sometimes causing you to sink up to the ankle. My boots are water resistant, but can only take so much. I thankfully got to dry land before my socks got wet. Sarah wasn't quite as lucky. 

 The walk back along the road was long, but I entertained people by telling stories from Norse mythology. Scandinavians don't know Norse mythology as well as I thought they would. At around 5:30pm, we finally got back to Nybyen, our dorm building. I wish I could have relaxed in town, but of course, while carrying a rifle I had to go straight back to the dorm.

We saw a rainbow as well.

The next day was Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, so in celebration I made round challah bread from scratch.

Yeast and water

the start of the dough

Dough after kneading for a while

After one rising. 

Punching it down to rise again. 

Braiding it into a circle to represent the circularity of time, or something

Baking it in the oven

Beautiful challah

My Rosh Hashana meal of challah, dried fruit and chicken stew, and honey

 I called my family that night, and while it was great to see and talk to everyone, it really made me miss home. Everyone had friends and significant others visiting, and it was hard to be alone on a holiday that I've always been around to celebrate with my family. They were having fresh fruit and delicious brisket, and while the food I made myself was tasty, it couldn't beat a meal shared with my family.

This past week has been good: I've only had lectures in the mornings, and the afternoons have been spent working on my field report and applications, which is normal for me coming from UChicago. Our guest lecturer, Prof. Julian Dowdeswell from the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge is a great teacher, and I'm even more excited to apply to the masters program there. Honestly, not having much homework was making this all seem like too much of a vacation. Well vacation is over. On Tuesday, I'm leaving on an 8-day research cruise and then afterwards I have two term projects and numerous grad school applications to work on. I also am on the Party Planning Committee, need to help Sliced Bread magazine from afar, and I will hopefully be invited out on another hike soon!