norzern liiiiights

I just ate rudolph. He didn't taste very good. I think in the future I'll just let him stay in the air and off my plate. So much for being a vegetarian.

Safety course started today. It's 6 days of 13-hours-a-day training on how to survive in the arctic. It's strange that I (the perpetually cold sun-lover that I am) should love this extreme cold environment already, but I do. It's exhilarating to know that the second you step outside the bounds of this tiny town you're in an untouched wilderness that has never been tamed. Plus I just love the snowball fights, skiing, and child-like antics that result from having powder blanket every surface.

Longyearbyen itself is a former mining community. While the mines are no longer active, the culture of the town is still based around mining. There is old mining equipment everywhere, and you have to take off your shoes before entering any public space (the school, stores, the library). In historic times, this was to stop coal dust from being tracked everywhere. It's quite a wonderful tradition though, so it's maintained today. Everyone walks around UNIS (my school) in slippers and long-johns. The town is still run on coal that is mined in nearby Svea. Our heat is based on hot water that is pumped throughout the town through a maze of very visible pipes, and there is a heating station right near my barrack. This means COLD water is actually a hot commodity, and we run out of it. Nobody likes drinking warm water, so the general practice is to pour a glass and stick it in the fridge. This means we use coal to heat our water, and then coal (in the form of electricity) to cool it again before we drink it. It makes perfect sense.

...Was just dragged outside mid post-writing to see the most magnificent northern lights we've had yet. Our resident crazy french dude went up and down the hall yelling 'norzern liiiights, norzern liiiiights!' I flopped down on my back in the snow and watched them dance across the sky- brilliant green blossoming from above the mountaintops and moving across the sky to set behind the glacier. Does it get any better than this?