Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays. Our family traditions involve lots of candy, egg-coloring, and poker. It's a good combination. I was a bit blue about missing my first easter at home, so one of my hall-mates and I organized a big Svalbard-style easter brunch. I taught the Norwegians how to dye eggs the American way and we had a grand time. The day itself was spent thoroughly exploring our local ice-cave, and in the evening I enjoyed (!!) my first-ever steak. My inner vegetarian is dying on this trip.
p.s. there are 6 nationalities in this picture aloneA couple of days after Easter, class started again with a fieldtrip to SvalSat, a collection of monstrous golf-balls on a rather large plateau above town. This is where organizations like NASA and NOAA communicate with their satellites. It makes sense to have a ground station like this on Svalbard because we're far enough north that polar-orbiting satellites (those that travel over the pole with each pass) are able to communicate with the station on every orbit around the earth. In contrast, a station at the equator would only be able to communicate with the same satellite on 1 out of every 14 orbits.
I'd like take a moment to thank SvalSat for existing-- without whom I would not be able to update this blog. The 890 miles of undersea fiber optic cables that are currently supplying me with high-speed internet were installed for SvalSat, and 1/4 of our bandwidth is reserved for uploading and downloading satellite data.
I was able to take pictures outside the facility, but security was much tighter inside. Inside the huge round ball is a rather impressive satellite dish. Other good news-- 4 washes later and I now have a functioning sleeping bag! The rest of my gear still has a bit of an eau-du-gasoline, but nothing unbearable.
p.s. there are 6 nationalities in this picture alone
I was able to take pictures outside the facility, but security was much tighter inside. Inside the huge round ball is a rather impressive satellite dish. 
5 comments:
Your great-grandma Riverman would be smiling in her grave, knowing that you made her traditional Easter brunch in Svalbard. You did teach everyone to "kip" didn't you?
Did you make a "Sue's Butt" egg? Surely you didn't forget THAT tradition!?
Love you lots!
Auntie Sue
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