Joyful sorrow: Time flies and this adventure is ending

A sunset. Note this picture has been edited (foreground darkened, and house lights brushed out.

I cannot believe that I it is just a few days until I am home. Time has been flying by (in most ways). I am so close to getting to be home, to see Nicole and Jax,  and to see family.

I have been working on a draft of a paper about the work I have been doing here. The deadline is approaching quickly, but I have an extension, I need my co-authors to read over the draft, improve it, etc. Being almost done also means I have been getting ready to leave, packing, laundry, cleaning and moving out of the apartment, submitting forms, and starting to say goodbye to people.

Saying goodbye is bitter sweet, it is sad to leave friends, but I think I will see many of them again, and or work with them in the future. It also means I made friends, something I do not do that often.

Looking back, I feel positive about my fellowship experience. It was not without difficulties and frustrations but that is always the case.  But I really think the people I have met and friendships I have made, not to mention the work I have done and been a part of, have been worth it. I have had the opportunity to join many project meetings and get involved in other NPI work. I have attended some meetings that have given me insight into how large projects are planned and managed. The people at NPI have really welcomed me into their group and community and it has made it much easier.
I had a chance to watch some proper football (i.e. soccer to all my North American friends), join in Friday beers with colleagues, see some movies, an opera and a couple of symphony/orchestra/choir performances.

 I am very thankful for the Research Council of Norway funding that made this experience possible. The Leiv Eirikssen mobility programme has given me this wonderful opportunity to work with world class researchers at the Norwegian Polar Institute,  and on a personal level, allowed me to meet and get to know some people that I hope (and expect) to be lifelong friends and even collaborators. If you are a Canadian or a Norwegian looking to go to Canada or the US on a LEMP, I strongly encourage you to apply and am always willing to answer some questions.

And I really need to thank my wife, Nicole. Of course when you go somewhere people always have questions and are excited for you and when you go somewhere you have this excitement of being somewhere new, doing new things, meeting new people. But it wouldn't be possible without the love and support of my wife who manages everything back home, easily handling everything plus the little bit that I used to do.

Yesterday was a great last day in Tromso, considering I worked. But there was Christmas lunch and then I went out for some drinks with the few friends who were still around (Angelika even came out after just landing from a vacation in Turkey!). Sebastian asked me what was my most unexpected thing, and I gave an answer, but I really still cannot decide, most things I was expecting.

I was expecting it to be expensive here, but really not fully prepared or understanding of how expensive some things are. I was expecting the wonderful access to nature, to enjoying hiking and hoping to do some fishing, but really not appreciating just how great it is, how accessible it is and how beautiful it is here, though I am not a fan of the amount of rain they get here, which now turns the roads and snow into giant skating rinks. I was definitely not expecting it to be so hard to find a place to live, this was probably the most difficult part of the entire trip, and really, it was not that terrible.
I was not expecting to make such good friends with people as I tend not to anymore, maybe that is changing.

Well that is it for this adventure.  I am at the airport in Tromso now (9:45), but I don't leave for a few hours. I guess I could have gone to work but I felt it would be an easier departure just to leave from my apartment. Here I can get some work done and write this blog post. I fly to Oslo around noon and then go to Amsterdam.  I will spend one night in Boskoop visiting family before leaving Amsterdam tomorrow morning.  I then fly to Warsaw, Poland, then to Toronto (on the new 787 Dreamliner), and then finally to Edmonton. I get to Edmonton Friday at 1am edmonton time, so about 48hrs from now.
The short visit with my family will be very nice and also breaks up my trip a little bit.

It is shaping up to be a busy semester.  I have to prepare for fieldwork that will begin in the middle of March, in a part of the Arctic I have not been to before! This will mean a lot of work but I am very excited for it. At least there will be a bit of break with Christmas, depending on how much work I try to do on my paper.

Nicole's Visit: Tromsø

Well it is Friday, I have worked more than 70hrs in the past 6 days (Sat-Thurs), so I am going to write a short blog post about the last bit of Nicole's visit while I take a break for tea. Admittedly we did not do as much as we probably should have in terms of site seeing or hiking and so on, but we had the opportunity to spend some time together, even just chilling out watching a movie was very very nice.

After arriving back in Tromsø from Bergen we had one week left.  Saturday night we just hung out, got some groceries, etc.  On Sunday we did more of the same but we went to the Tromsø TIL vs Rosenborg game. Rosenborg was ranked number 1 and Tromsø is doing pretty badly this year but because Rosenborg is number 1 there was a lot of Tromsø fans hoping for an unlikely win, and TIL delivered. This was a good game to watch because we were near a section of die-hard TIL fans who were chanting and singing the entire game.  The officiating was pretty terrible (linesmen made several incorrect off-side calls, but hey they can't always be perfect). That was really nice.

On Monday and Tuesday we did a bit of shopping and looking a round town, but we did a lot of relaxing, reading a book, sleeping in late, it was great. On Tuesday night we picked up the fishing rods from Gunnar and Gabi and quickly said hi to Mats who was celebrating his birthday at the bar.  On Wednesday it was my birthday so we decided to go to Hellastua (Hella) to spend some time outside fishing.  We fished for several hours and had a nice hour bus ride each way. We did not keep any of the fish we caught, they were mostly too small, but Hella is such a beautiful spot, it does not matter.

We cooked ourselves a nice supper that night and watched a movie.  On Thursday we had a great dinner with Gunnar, Gabi and Jen. It was fantastic! On Friday Nicole and I joined people from work for an end of the week beer and we looked at the Tromsø food festival but decided we felt like cooking ourselves and enjoying our last evening together. On Saturday morning Nicole left.  

It was a great holiday and though it was very sad to have Nicole leave again, we will see each other in 3 months at the latest though there is the possibility I will see here before then (will let you know if it happens).

Well that is it, enjoy your weekend, as I mentioned yesterday I am hoping to go fishing but am definitely going to another TIL game with friends. Apparently it is an important match because TIL is doing so badly that if they don't win this one, they drop down a division...ouch.

Thoughts and Musings: Being in Norway, my blog and more

My wife Nicole was just here for a visit, we had two weeks of holidays together and it was fantastic. We saw some great sights and most importantly, we spent time together in person.  Even with video and voice chat and nearly constant access to email, it is simply not the same as physically talking to each other.

It was amazing to me that when Nicole came here, the apartment where I am living for the rest of my stay suddenly felt so much more like home, like it was normal. Nicole said she noticed it too. It is hard to describe, it felt like home, it felt lived in, it felt full.  The opposite feeling is easier to describe and I think most people can relate.  As soon as Nicole left (about a week ago now) the apartment felt empty and very quiet, like it was missing something.

As the person who does most of the traveling in our relationship I do not notice this feeling often, the few times Nicole has gone somewhere without me, I have noticed this bit of quiet, but then I was in our home and it did not feel so bad.  Plus I had Jax, my dog with me, and well I can at least play with him, and heck even talk to him (if that makes me crazy, so be it, at least he doesn't answer me back).

Now don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm not having a good time here, I am, I love it here, I could easily live in Tromsø. It's beautiful, close to mountains, small and friendly. It just was very nice to have Nicole here.

On a more positive side, this weekend I will go to another Tromsø TIL football (soccer) match.  TIL is doing terrible in their league so in order to make sure they have fans at the game they have lowered the price of all tickets to 50 NOK (less than $10).  In contrast, tickets are usually between 150 and 300 NOK.
Also, Tromsø did make it into the UEFA Europa league this year, albeit on a technicality.  Another team from Turkey was removed because of match fixing, so TIL advanced. But this means we will have three international teams here in Tromsø to play, one from Russia, one from Moldova, and the Tottenham Hotspurs from the UK.  I splurged and bought a ticket pack for all three games.  The crazy thing to me is that right now it is getting cooler, highs are around 8-10C during the day and maybe 4C at night, and right now it gets dark pretty early.  The first UEFA game is next week, but the last one is at the end of November. It will be dark and cold, and everyone hopes for snow, as that is the game against Tottenham).

I still find Norway expensive, but have gotten over it a bit, at least in terms of just accepting that everything costs more here. I still don't have a good sense of standard of living in the sense that I don't know what salary bases are.  I hear a bit from fellow scientists that the wage curve flats out sharply at the PhD level, i.e. a post-doc will make the nearly the same as a permanent junior researcher.  PhD students also seem to be paid adequately.

I keep following the news from the U of A back home, and I am really wondering what kind of university I will return to.  Post secondary institutions in Alberta received an average of 11% cuts (once you factor in inflation and a promised 2% funding increase).  As a result, the University has to slash its budget and it has been doing a terrible job on explaining how that will happen.  Grad students and undergrads will definitely be affected, loss of TA positions, increases in tuition and fees are not out of the question.

And finally I have been musing about my blog.  I wonder how it is perceived.  I'd love to talk more about my science and my work, but really I find it hard to a) make the time to write a blog post (write now I'm waiting for the oven to warm up, it's 9pm and I just got home from working a 12+ hour day). I need to eat yet, and if I don't take a little me time, I won't sleep well. The blog is sometimes me time, but othertimes I feel like I need to post and I should post.
I also do want to post more about my work, but honestly, it can be a bit dull, do I show figures I'm working on? Do I try to talk about news in the science field? Do the people who read my blog actually want to see this stuff?  Mostly I think not, maybe a little or something big where I am involved, but otherwise, I think the answer is no.  The blog really was started for my family to follow my life a bit while I travel, and I think they make up my primary audience.  Though I seem to have friends from other countries who read as well (thank you Google for tracking the country of the people who visit my blog). I think it could be fun to do a more sciency blog, and I hope that once I am back in Edmonton and start playing with my arduino I can do that, I will scrap the separate blog and just make the posts here.

Well that is enough on my thoughts for now.  and just because that was a lot of text, here is a picture:

Johnston Canyon, Oct 2012.

Bergen via the Norway in a Nutshell Tour

On Thursday Nicole and I went to Bergen with the Norway in a Nutshell Tour.  This tour takes you from Oslo to Bergen on the Bergen Railway, the Flam railway, through two fjords on a fjord cruise and then a bus trip along Norway's steepest road and then back to the Bergen railway for the final leg to Bergen.

It was very touristy but okay, what can else can you expect.  The Bergen Railway was very scenic, fjords, mountains, lakes, small towns, really pretty.  But the Flam Railway was spectacular.  This 20km railway line descends 850m through through 18 or more tunnels including some loops inside a mountain.  It is quite steep but offers great views of the Flam valley. Once in Flam we boarded a ferry for a 2 hr fjord cruise.  We had found a great spot to sit and look out but it was so great that everyone else was constantly walking by us, in front of us, it was a bit irritating, but oh well.

Waterfall we stopped at with the Flam train

Looking across the valley through the train windows (my window would not go down).

Flam Valley from the Steepest Road in Norway

While on the fjord cruise

It was a bit of a long day, we left Oslo at 8am (which meant getting to the train station at around 7:30 so up quite early) and did not arrive in Bergen until 9pm, but it was nice.
In Bergen we stayed at the Skansen Pensjonat, a beautiful B & B (with Breakfast included) on one side of Bergen with a great view).  We had a fantastic late dinner at Escalon, a tapas restaurant, that was a really nice meal.

We had all day on Friday to look around Bergen.  We checked out the Bryggen (old Hanseatic Merchants warehouses), saw the theater, looked at Rosenkrantz Tower and Haakon's Hall (only the outside though as it did not open until noon).  We also went to the Natural History and Cultural History museums at the University (free for students).  That was nice and interesting but I saw more stuffed animals than I ever wanted to see, pretty much one of everything from mice to lions and giraffe's.  The Cultural History museum showed some things from Bergen in the past as well as a small Egyptian mummy display which was pretty great.  Nicole and I were still feeling like we'd had enough of museums though.  We checked out the fish market, and had another nice meal.
Then on Saturday morning we had to fly from Bergen at 7am so we were up around 4:30 or so (had to catch a bus at 5:15)

The Bryggen

Theater

A church

All in all our holiday to southern Norway was very nice. I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Up next: Tromso.

Nicole's Visit: Oslo Day 2 and 3

After our first day of walking around Oslo we decided the next day to take in some of the museums.  I don't have pictures from all of them but we visited the Viking Ship Museum where they have three viking ships from the 9th century AD, as well as a lot of viking relics, was really nice. The ships were found in burial mounds. There is so much detail on everything, on gold, wood, iron, just fantastic.

Detailing on the prow of the ship

Dragon carving found in the burial chamber on the ship. One of them had rope in its mouth.

One of the ships

Another one of the ships.

After this we headed over the the Fram Museum where you can see the ship Fram that Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Sverdrup, and Roald Amundsen used in several of their Arctic and Antarctic expeditions in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Check out this Wiki page for some general information on Fram (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fram).  For more information on Nansen, Sverdrup and Amundsen, check out their Wiki pages.

We definitely saw some other site that day, the Maritime Museum (was not amazing).  We saw  the Munch Exhibit at the National Gallery, but maybe that was on Day 3. But I must confess, I don't really "get" paintings/art.  I find most paintings to be just okay, very few grab my attention or invoke any real thought/feelings.  I am much more interested in history and I do find photographs great.  Photographs may be because I take photos so I can appreciate the difficulty of finding the right shot, the right light, etc. Architecture interests me but paintings, not so much. Oh well, was nice to see.

Of course we ate at some point and also took our time to just relax and enjoy things too.  We sat down with a cup of coffee on the boardwalk just looking out over the marina/harbor. This bird came at one point and got quite close so I could take some nice pictures.

In the evening of Day 2, Nicole and I went to a World Cup Qualifying match, that's soccer. We saw Norway vs Switzerland.  I was hoping that because we were in Norway there would be a large contingent of die hard Norway supporters, and while there was more than 10000 people at the stadium, the Norwegian fans were very quiet.  There was not much cheering from the Norwegian, but the Swiss, oh boy were they loud.  There was not that many of them, though they did fill one section and you saw them everything throughout the day, all wearing red and white.  They chanted just about the entire game and that was great.

Now by the final day Nicole and I were starting to feel a bit tired of museums, but we had a few more we wanted to see and really could not think of much else to do.  First we went up to the Holmenkollen Ski Jump.  This ski jump is set on a big hill in Oslo and so has a great view of the area.  It also has a ski museum.  We spent some time there looking at the evolution of cross country and downhill skis and went to the top and had a look around.

Holmenkollen Ski Museum

View down the ski run

After the ski museum we looked at the Cultural History Museum but were really not feeling it.  We also had done some walking around and had a bite to eat, but by the time we got to the Cultural History Museum we were really done with museums.

Overall, I really liked Oslo, it is a capital city but it does not feel that big, it feels accessible and cozy.  Public transit is amazing, food was okay (pricey and fairly standard) and felt safe.

Next up: the trip to Bergen on the Bergen Railway, the Flam Railway, and a Fjord cruise (with a bus ride on Norway's steepest road).

Nicole's Visit: Tromso and Oslo Day 1

I have been on holidays for two weeks! And the best part was that my lovely, amazing wife Nicole was here to visit me for my holidays.  I was really starting to feel like I needed some time off away from work, so it was good timing, a chance to relax and reset. Sure I am now quite behind on many things and have many things to do in the next little while, but that's okay, it will keep me busy now that I am back to being on my own.

Nicole arrived on Sept 7 around mid-day.  We headed back to my apartment so she could drop off her bag and have a shower.  We then took the bus to town and just walked around a bit, checking out Tromsø's downtown.  We did some minor grocery shopping since the grocery stores are not open here on Sundays and then an easy supper at the apartment. Nicole managed to stay awake until 8:30 or 9 before she needed to sleep. She did not sleep much on the plane ride over, despite taking a gravol ( a motion sickness pill which tends to make you drowsy).

On Sunday we went for a short hike in the afternoon up Fløya, the mountain with the cable car (I think). We walked by the Arctic Cathedral, a beautiful church in Tromsø.  It was nice to do a short hike and get outside on a beautiful sunny day. I even managed to find some wild blueberries for Nicole to eat.

Tromsø's Arctic Cathedral. Photo by Nicole

Looking out over Tromsø. Photo by Nicole

Wild blueberries are so good!. Photo by Nicole

Again we had a simple supper and then did some packing for our trip to Oslo. On Monday morning we flew to Oslo, grabbed the train downtown and then a tram to our B & B.  The B & B (Frogners B&B) was a little disappointing, but mostly because we did not know what to expect.  B & B's in North America  tend to be someone's large home where there is a very personal touch to everything and they include breakfast.  Here breakfast was available for an additional cost (so not really a B & B then). Don't get me wrong, the room was nice, the house nice and had a good location, right by to Frogner Park/Vigeland Park, but it just lacked that personal touch.  We did not order breakfast when we booked and then we never saw the people who lived/ran the place again until we left, so there was no chance to get some insider information on places to eat, visit, etc

Anyway, we dropped our bags off in the room around 2pm and decided to go walk around and have a look in the Sentrum. We walked past a bunch of sites, stopping for a few photos but not really going inside anything but the main church (quickly)

National Theater.

Royal Palace and Gardens...open to the public!

Parliament?

Church

National Opera House

We ended our day in the sentrum at Aker Brygge, an old fish warehouse area converted to numerous restaurants, shopping and apartments.  It has a nice long boardwalk that you can enjoy and plenty of patios.  We ate a nice meal at Olivia's and then had an ice-cream cone and walked along the boardwalk.  It was great day, and then we went to Vigeland Park, right near the B & B, and it was great.  Now, neither Nicole nor I are all that into art (in general).  I find sculpture a bit more interesting so this was nice.  It was also just a beautiful evening and a good way to cap the day.

Vigeland Park Obelisk

Vigeland Park Obelisk

T - 24 hours until I see my wife!

Well it's been a bit over 3 months, but now it is less than 24 hours until I see Nicole. As you might imagine I am a little excited.  Will be nice to see her and visit with her. We have some exciting plans, a trip to Oslo and Bergen (by train, bus and fjord cruise), a World Cup qualifying match, and an important match for the local Tromsø IL team.  Otherwise we also have a week with no fixed plans yet, maybe we will do some hiking or exploring, or who knows, I will let you know.

Well off to the second day of the CoreSat kick-off meeting.  Have to leave work a little early today, need to do some laundry, pick up a few items for Nicole's arrival, and I want to make sure the apartment is clean.

A hike and some fishing: is there a better way to spend a sunny afternoon?

This past Sunday I went hiking and fishing with Gunnar and Gabriele, and Jennifer King, a new post-doc starting at NPI.  Jennifer and I actually met back in 2010 on the NPI cruise I joined.

Gunnar and Gabriele are participating in the Tipp A Topp program, a local program to get people out to hike and be active.  If you complete X out of 20 hikes (X=7,10,15,20) you get a prize.  At the top of each hike is a guest book and a number that you fill out in a book you purchase.

They picked a relatively easy hike this time, but it was also near to some fishing spots so we decided to do both.  The hike was very nice, not too difficult (only 250m elevation gain or so) and quite short (2km).  We added a bit to it on the way back by going around the lake at the top.

After all the hiking, we went for some fishing nearby.  It really did not look promising, but it was another beautiful spot and a gorgeous day so it did not matter that we did not see any fishing jumping. My feet/shoes were quite wet from the hike (was just wearing some sandal style shoes) so I stopped fishing to dry them out.  Gunnar and Gabrielle  kept fishing and all of a sudden Gabrielle had a fish, and a good sized one.  That was exciting.  We fished for a few more hours and kept one more larger fish, both were saithe.  We caught many smaller saithe, they seemed to just be hanging out offshore near some weeds, and there were some smaller minnows around so perhaps they were hunting.  It was pretty exciting.

Well here are more pictures of the hike since I did not take any pictures while fishing or watching fishing.

Fishing from Shore: Not as easy as from a boat!

I am behind on writing blog posts, luckily it's been awhile since I have backed up my data and since the scripts read from the folder I work in, I can't work in that folder without causing some problems, so I will take a short break (luckily I wrote a Mac Automator script that does synchronous backups instead of just copying the entire directory each time).

So two weekends ago, Gunnar and I decided that we wanted to do some fishing.  I was only half serious at first, but the more we talked about it, the more it sounded like fun.  So on the Saturday Gunnar and I bought fishing rods and some lures at the Co-Op, a grocery/everything store somewhat like Walmart.  The stuff was even on sale (40%off!).

So on Sunday, Gunnar, Gabby and I went to Hella, a well known local fishing spot. Here the fjord is quite narrow as there is a small island in the middle of it.  Because it narrows, there are strong currents and this apprently makes the fishing good.

When we arrived you could not see many fish but after an hour or so suddenly the water looked like it was boiling because of all the mackerel flopping around.  That said they often did not bite our lures, maybe we were using the wrong ones or the wrong size.  Gunnar and I lost a couple lures to the weeds but did pull in some fish.  However, we really did not know how big they should be before we kept them so we probably put back at least one or two that we could have kept.  In the end we only had the one fish to take home, but it was tasty.

Lucky for Gunnar and I, Gunnar's wife Gabrielle is not squeamish and was willing to clean the fish for us.  We both can do it but I at least find it tough.

WHOA! IT'S BEEN THREE MONTHS!

Today while walking to work I realized that it's now been more than three months since I left Edmonton, and more than three months since I arrived in Tromso. That is three months that I have not seen my wife or my dog. Of course it has also meant I haven't had to do many household chores either (I vacuumed a couple times, and have done some cleaning and lots of dishes, and cooking and even walked a dog (Yukon)). At least with Skype and Apple FaceTime Nicole and I can video chat, still not the same as being with each other but better than a phone call or a text message or email.
But Nicole comes on Saturday, that will be nice (understatement).  We will do a bit of traveling within Norway and just enjoy some time together. Jax is spending a couple weeks with Nicole's parents.  He likes camping with the camper van.  Nicole said he hopped right in, no concern at all.  We met with Nicole's parents once at Lake Louise and even I can admit as a die hard fan of tenting that it can be awfully nice to sit in a warm dry place....Jax fully agreed, and I think he liked that the camper van had windows while the tent does not.  Nicole mom did say the he wimpered a bit once he realized Nicole wasn't with them and wasn't joining (which makes me quite sad), though we know he will have an amazing time.  Jax loves Nicole's parents and their dog tupper (who doesn't want a border collie for a best friend).

Things here are progressing nicely and I am finally starting to feel a bit settled in.  On Monday I went to the police station to get my temporary residence card (which will come in the mail). And this past weekend I moved into my apartment, so I am no longer relying on the extreme kindness of my friends....who now have a place to stay if they ever come to Canada... My apartment is okay, it will do for the next four months but isn't somewhere I'd want to stay long term. It is not that there is anything wrong with it but it is a bit far from work, and is in a massive apartment complex.  Here on Tromso there are many small apartments, rooms for rent in houses that it would be a shame to live in a complex when you could get something with character and soul (and fewer neighbors).

That said, Tromso has about 10,000 students and in a town of 60,000-65,000 people that is quite something.  So when the students start looking in June and July, the rush is on and it is difficult to find something.  There have been plenty of newspaper articles about students unable to find a place to live and last year some students were living in the fire station for a few months.

I still find Norway expensive, but just don't think about it as much.  It is best not to price shop too much and while I was going to do a little blog post on costs of groceries and so forth, I decided it would just make me think more about how expensive it is here....we will see...maybe in a few weeks as right now I am way behind on blogging/posting.

I feel that I have made some lifetime friends here, already, hopefully this is true. It has been great to meet you people and strangely I often feel more in place here at NPI than I do at the U of A. Maybe this is just because NPI is friendly and filled with people who study the same thing as me. Back at the U of A, my office mate and fellow PhD student Alec Casey are some of the only people studying sea ice in the Arctic (there are a few others though we never really meet with them).

When I was staying with Gunnar Spreen and his wife Gabrielle I was working slightly different hours than I am used to, sleeping in a bit and starting work at 9 but then staying until 7 pm or so. This was kinda nice, and I had a really great time staying with Gunnar and Gabrielle (more on that in another post).

Friday afternoon usually means a beer at the end of the work day at 4:30pm, which is nice.  We go to Olhallen, which is a very old pub in Tromso right next to the old Mack brewery (it is closed).  The pub closes at 6pm so it is a good place for an after work beer.  I am not much of a beer drinker but these Friday afternoon beers are helping.  I usually get a Blanding (spelling may be incorrect)..it is a mix of a light and dark beer.  You can get it at most bars in Tromso but the amount of light beer vs dark beer changes with each bar. I'm still not crazy about it, but at least the second one always goes down smoother than the first.

Oh, and work is going okay too.  Met with Christian (my supervisor) yesterday as he is here in Tromso for a meeting this week.  It never ceases to amaze me how valuable his insight is and how quickly he can provide some ideas that take me from not being confident of what I am thinking or what to do next to having a plan.

Okay, well I want to write at least one more blog post this morning before starting work, so I better get to it.

Sorry there are no pictures in this post.  I think my monthly summary post will be text....unless there are some great summary pictures. But there should be a post on my weekend trips the past couple weeks and hopefully I will share some of my travels with Nicole.

#SunsetSunday Sunset near Skulsfjorden

Cruise Aborted (For Now): The past week in review

Okay, so by now you know that the cruise I was on was aborted, at least for now. So far I have not had a chance to provide a full overview of the cruise or what I have been up to for the past week.

Last week Thursday I flew to Longyearbyen on Svalbard. As Tromsø is already at  69.64N and Longyearbyen is at 78.22N, the flight is only 1.5 hours and on a regular Boeing 737-800. And it is actually very affordable, especially in comparison to a similar flight in Canada.

I spent Thursday and Friday helping Paul and Matts with setting up an automated water sampler.
The water sampler is programmed to collect a bottle of water each week for an entire year. It only collects water from the depth it sits at.  You could also use this sampler to collect water from different depths if you were to raise and lower it.

Top down view of the water sampler.  Each of the blue caps is the top of a bottle that gets filled.

On Friday afternoon, most of the other cruise participants arrived. I helped Matts and Gunnar with finding, repacking and sorting the sea ice equipment. Friday night we had the cruise dinner so that everyone (or most people) could meet and start getting to know each other.

I ate dinner with everyone and then went for a few drinks with a friend, the helicopter pilot who flew the me and the EM-bird on R/V Lance in 2010.  It was a bit of a late night for me but was nice to see him and catch up.

On Saturday we had shooting practice and a bit of polar bear safety theory. Then spent a bit more time sorting out things and shopping to pick up some junk food and drinks for on the boat.

On Sunday morning everyone was at the ship at 9am. We had a quick safety/operations meeting with the First Mate and stuff was moved around the ship a bit (brought some things up from below, put other things down).  I started putting the bird together.  We started sailing around mid-afternoon, something like 3pm.

On Sunday night we were to drop off a group of 6 geologists onto Prince Karls Forland, a long island in Svalbard.  However, large waves and strong winds meant that we could not really use the helicopter from the ocean side of the island, so the ship had to circle around.  The weather deteriorated and soon using a helicopter did not seem like an option.  When I went to sleep at 11pm, the helicopter was going to do a test flight, otherwise they were considering using small zodiacs to get the geologists and all their gear onto the island.  In the end, it was decided just to wait a few more hours as the weather was improving. By about 5:30am the geologists and their gear were all off the ship.

We then began heading to the first oceanographic mooring.  A mooring refers to an anchor and rope and in the case of scientists a suite of sensors attached to the mooring.  NPI has maintained a series of moorings across Fram Strait for many years now.  Each year the Fram Strait cruise heads out to go to the moorings, bring them up, collect the data, service or replace the instruments and then redeploy the mooring.

Now, if you have been following my blog for its entirety you may remember that I get seasick, and I get seasick very very easily, I mean, very very easily. This time was no different, while heading to the mooring the wind was up a bit and the waves for a few meters, more than I could handle, so I just took a motion sickness pill, no big deal.  I find they leave me pretty drowsy, and I still can't look at a screen or read a book. Since we had already put some of the EM bird equipment together and the sea ice equipment was largely ready to go, I decided to kill the time by sleeping, something made easier by the motion sickness pills.  I slept all Sunday night, most of Monday (getting up only for meals) and all of Monday night.

On Tuesday there was a bit more work to do putting together the bird (attaching the tail and putting the two halves together), and a bit more sorting of sea ice equipment. We finally reached the ice and it was starting to look like we could do a sea ice station and maybe an EM bird flight.  Unfortunately, our pilot was not feeling well.  The first mooring was found and retrieved and we started heading to the second one, hoping that when we got there the pilot would be feeling better and we could do a sea ice station and flight after the second mooring was recovered.

Our pilot did not get better, and the ship didn't make it to the second mooring.   Basically the ship clutch was damaged and after some discussions it was decided that the ship needed to return to Longyearbyen for repairs. The first aid trained people on board thought that the helicopter pilot might have appendicitis and so he was picked up by the rescue helicopter from Longyearbyen.

So we started heading back towards Longyearbyen, I made sure the bird and so forth were securely strapped down. We had supper and watched some movies and then I went to bed.

When I woke up, the sea was a fair bit rougher (6-7m waves, winds 35-40knots gusting to 50knots), so I took a motion sickness pill in preparation and decided again just to sleep the transit day away.  Turns out that during the day it was determined that the damage to the ship was more difficult to fix than initially estimated.  The ship was now going to go to Longyearbyen to allow people and their equipment off and then it would sail to Tromsø. Anyone who wanted off the boat then had to be ready to go as the ship would arrive at the docks at 7pm and leave at 10pm.

Okay so we packed up all the stuff, and got off the boat. NPI had managed to arrange accommodation for everyone (THANKS, was very nice).  A few of us then met up for drinks and some food at around 11pm/midnight.  On Thursday I rebooked my flight back to Tromsø.

It was pretty disappointing to go back without having stepped on sea ice or having flown the EM bird. We did manage to collect some ice observations, but that was it for the sea ice team.  The oceanography team retrieved that one mooring and performed some conductivity, temperature, depth (pressure) measurements.
I did not even take any pictures, well I took one of the heli deck as we left Longyearbyen but I did it with the Google Blogger app on my phone and accidently deleted the picture before posting it (smooth move).

As I don't get my apartment until Sept 2, I was homeless but luckily Gunnar and his wife Gabrielle have welcomed me into their guest room for the week. It has been really nice staying with them. Gabrielle is an amazing cook and it has been nice to see a new part of Tromsø and to get to know some more people.  Because I had left most of my non cruise clothing with Angelika and she was on holidays I needed another pair of pants to wear around so I went shopping on Saturday and bought some stuff so I could make dinner for Gunnar and Gabrielle. I also looked into getting a haircut, I have not had one since before I left Canada and I really need one.  But they are crazy expensive here, as in 50-80 for a regular men's haircut! So I will probably wait another week so that it is a bit closer to when Nicole comes to visit.

Yesterday the weather was very nice so we went to do a hike.  There is a hiking program here where if you complete the 20 hikes they recommend each summer, you get a prize.  You enter  you name in a book at the top of the mountain and record a number from the book into your list which you then submit. There are also prizes if you only complete 7, 10, or 15 of the hikes. It was a really nice day and very nice hike from sea level to 850m in about 4 km (though the first 1.25 kilometers was very flat).

Two Months: Boy Time Flies

Hey Everyone,

Well I have now been in Norway for 2 months and away from home for just an extra week more than that.  Things here are generally pretty good. The high cost of food and so forth doesn't bother me as much as it did (and maybe not as much as it should). Maybe next week (if I remember, I will post some pictures of food, and then the prices).  I'll also try to do the same while I am on Svalbard as a comparison and maybe see if I can get someone back in Canada to send me some prices on a few select items.

I still haven't received my residence permit.  The system is just backed up or delayed or whatever.  I have spoken with the immigration office numerous times but there is not much to be done about it. The decision is now 5 weeks over their targeted processing time.  Part of the reason is undoubtedly that many Norwegians take extensive holidays in the summer, making sure to enjoy the good weather and all the daylight hours.  Otherwise, most thing are sorted out, or nearly so.

Work is going well, spending lots of time in front of my computer.  I am working on two main projects right now, one for this exchange and one more directly related to my thesis.  As a result I end up working many 12-16 hour days but that is okay, it is what I am here for. The past two weeks I have been house sitting and enjoyed working on a deck overlooking the ocean; it made it a little easier to work late each night.

On Thursday I will head to Svalbard and then on R/V Lance for a research cruise to Fram Strait off the east coast of Greenland.  I will be on the boat for just about 3 weeks.  I don't know if I will have the chance to blog from the boat. I will try, otherwise I will just write the blog posts up and then upload them when I return to internet land.

When I return to Tromso my supervisor visits Tromso for a few days. Then, and much more exciting (sorry Christian), my wife Nicole arrives for her visit just a few days later. She and I will take a few holidays together. I am really looking to seeing my wife, and imagine I will be looking to it even more in another month. We can still communicate fairly regularly using email, Facebook, FaceTime and Skype but it is not the same.  We will be doing a little sightseeing in Norway and just spending some time together.  We only get a couple weeks together, but that is so much better than no visit at all.  I am very excited to see her and talk to her and sightsee with her.

Thinking on all my trips, my workaholic nature and love of my research, I realize how lucky I am to have such an understanding and supportive wife.  Someone asked me once how we (as a couple) deal with the absences, and it is still a question to be answered.  I feel like time apart is definitely good for couples, you miss each other, appreciate all the little things each other does and so forth.  I guess both of us also don't want to be the person who is holding the other one back from doing what they love and/or what will help their career.

Unfortunately for her,Nicole definitely gets the short end of the stick, I travel far more than she does and for much longer periods. It is easier to be the person who goes away, they are usually on an adventure or seeing something new or some new country. The person back home gets to do all the household work without help and without the excitement of a new place.
While I am here in Norway I do have to look out for myself but I still have the excitement of new people, a new place and culture.  Although honestly, I have probably been doing far to much working and far to little enjoying my surroundings.

Saturday Morning Hike Up Nordtinden

Wow, there is just not enough time in the day to get done everything I want.
This quick post is just a few pictures from the top of Nordtinden, a 640m mountain near Skulsfjord where I was staying with my friends Harvey and Angelika and their dog Yukon for the past month.

Now, I am temporarily house-sitting for a researcher who works at NPI. His name is Hakon Hop and he is a biologist and an extremely experienced under-ice diver.  I met Hakon in 2010 when I joined two cruises with NPI.  He is going on a cruise for two weeks and his family is going to Canada to visit relatives. So this luckily Canadian is house sitting in a BEAUTIFUL house with an great view.

The house is near Tonsvik, another small town near Tromso (about 22km away).  The bus connections and internet are a bit better here than in Skulsfjord, but I already notice how quiet it is without Yukon, Harvey and Angelika (probably no great fishing trips in store for me for the next two weeks).

OKAY, back to the real blog post content, my hike up Nordtinden.  Saturday morning I woke up and checked the weather forecast.  It was going to be overcast until 2pm and then start raining, and it would keep raining all day Saturday and Sunday.  So I decided I better take Yukon out while I could stay dry.

Nordtinden is the mountain you can see in this blog post, 7th picture down (from my last longer hiking trip near Skulsfjord). (or you can just look below for the small version, the link has a bigger version).

Nordtinden

I wanted to climb up this the last time, but did not, I was tired already and so I just went to the small waterfall you can see in the picture above.

So by about 10:30, off I went with Yukon.  It was a nice hike, the very beginning and a short bit near the end were the steepest sections but overall a nice hike, not too difficult.

The clouds were low on Saturday, very low, sometimes they would buildup and surround me and Yukon and then quickly fade away.  Luckily when I got to the top we had a bit of a break, the clouds where a bit above us and away from the views.

Well that's all for this post.  Want to work a bit on the post about a buoy....coming up very soon I hope, just need to analyze some of the data for you to give you a few figures and facts.