I’m lost.

 

Well Hello,

 

Yesterday, I got into Oslo at about 6 pm.  I had a stopover in Frankfurt, when I had an interesting adventure.  I decided to head into the city from the airport.  I got fantastic directions into the city from the nice man at the information desk.  I took the right train and everything.  But then, about 20 minutes later, I realized I was getting progressively farther and farther into the countryside.  I asked the ladies sitting next to me and apparently I took the right train, in the wrong direction.  Uhh.. whoops?  I guess somehow I missed the large sign saying “FRANKFURT”.  Good one, Jayme.  So then I took the train all the way back to the airport and into the city, and had about 45 minutes to wander around.  Turns out I wandered in the wrong direction, to the posh section of town, not to the historical part.  I felt extremely out of place.  But I did get ice cream!  And I eventually made it to the historical part, for about 2 minutes.  Then I ran back to the airport to catch my flight- which I made it to, despite my apparent terrible sense of direction. 

 

And today, we got to Svalbard!  Its about 10 pm here and bright as anything.  It seems like the middle of the day.  Part of me feels like the streets should be starting to get deserted, and the city settling down, and then part of me feels like the day should just be getting started.  I am also still pretty jetlagged, which may contribute to this confusion.  Longyearbyen is an interesting place.  I feel like I’m in the middle of the mountains at a ski-town, or resort.  It is really pretty here, but definitely in a different way than I’m used to.  I’m used to the quiet, deep forests of Canada; and sharp, dramatic mountains.  Here, there are big hills and snow coming right down to the town.  And no trees, which is the weird part.  But it is beautiful in its own way.  It has a very different feel about it- it feels very stoic.

 

After arriving here, we walked to the University of Svalbard, and had a lecture by Olav Mathis Eira, the vice president of the Saami Council.  The Saami are indigenous peoples located in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia.  Traditionally, their way of life centers around Reindeer herding.  Mr. Eira spoke a lot about his traditional way of life and how it is being threatened and changed by Climate Change.  He spoke about changes in precipitation, and how rain during the winter caused a layer of ice to freeze on top of the snow, preventing the Reindeer from digging for food, resulting in many deaths.  He spoke about how the tree line is climbing- around 2 meters a year.  And he spoke about the traditional ways of predicting weather, and how they are not as dependable anymore.  I really liked hearing him talk- he has a really cool connection to the earth and it was interesting to hear him speak about it.  Often, I feel like scientific reports, while giving extremely worthwhile evidence, often miss out on humanity’s connection to the Earth.  The Earth becomes something foreign to us, something unknown, unfamiliar.  Hearing speakers like Mr. Eira makes the Earth much more attainable, understandable.  Something we all can relate to a bit more.  I hope this connection is something we can all explore.

 

Next time, feel the wind in your face!

 

love jayme