yann in the arctic

Last week was the open-doors day here in Longyearbyen, where many institutions normally closed to the public open their doors. UNIS took part, displaying experiments and science-related stuff mainly to kids. There was lots of free hot chocolate and it was really nice seing all the locals for once. I was helping out with the helicopter rescue demonstration that would be taking place right outside of UNIS.

We set up the tent, pegged it into the ground and covered the valences with snow. The aim was to get it as firmly fixed to the ground as possible, as in previous years the helicopter managed to collapse the tent with the wind generated. We threw a dummy into the tent (unfortunately it wasn't me) which would then later be rescued by the rescue team. They arrived at mid day precisely. (By the way, the tent did not blow away for once!)

It felt like Christmas ... lots of snow, kids running around, community spirit, happy families ... I then later visited the Kjell Henriksen Observatory found on top of a mountain, where the Aurora (northern lights!) is observed. It would quite cool having a tour around, and they had the best office view ever! Apparently this year is an all time low for the northern lights :( but I'm hoping it will be brighter here on Svalbard because of the latitude. 

So that was last week, but *this* week, or more like this past weekend was also quite cool. I helped out at the Dark Season Blues Festival on Saturday night ... basically counting people coming in and out and stamping their hand. Even though I wasn't paid, I still got a free T-shirt and managed to see half the show for free (tickets cost £40!).