It’s 1 o’clock in the morning on Saturday and the girls finally landed after a hefty 18 hours of travelling and 2000nok spent on duty free by Vicky, the shopaholic. The tiredness went out the window when we walked off the plane to 7 degrees Celsius looking at glacially carved mountains lit up by the midnight sun.

Like 2 seconds later we saw our first Polar Bears woo!

Second day was quite surreal, waking up in the middle of a valley with two glaciers melting away behind our barrack. Exploring the town was first thing on our list which went quite well until we did a food shop and we started considering a second student loan. Sally and Hope were quite responsible for choosing food. Vicky however obviously thought she was loaded and bought £70 worth of vegetables (literally only 2 days worth of food). We miss lidl. The night was spent eating our food and crying about how we are going to probably die of starvation before the probability of getting eaten by a polar bear was going to arise. But hey, alcohol is tax free and we're all buzzing. While wine is fine, beer is rationed so Fred is less buzzing. Later on Saturday, Fred arrived and we all met at Boo's for a wee chat.

After a late rise, Sunday evening was spent showing Fred the how’s and the what’s of the town and then regrettably more food shopping (sobs). During the walk home we spotted a reindeer on the valley slope, only to realise there was three! Actually most animals here look like moving rocks, but more of that by Ali later.

On Monday morning after a fresh 45 minute walk down to Longyearbyen, we were bombarded with photos and information far too early in the morning, but still we made it to our first lecture and on time for a change. The general life here seems very familiar and reminds us a lot of SAMS, just a bit colder. After uni we checked our new uni beach, only to get attacked by very aggressive Arctic Turns protecting their chicks. Holding sticks above our heads avoided any head pecking incidents. Of course we went to the shops on the way home to buy more food.

We eased ourselves into hiking by climbing up a 1000 metre mountain, Breinosa, and the SAMS lot were representing two out of the three polar bear guards. Vicky was basically the same size of her rifle (photo below). Even with the bitterly cold winds and precarious rocks the views were totally worth it.

Oh! But the best thing about our first week in the Arctic was Sally and Hope seeing John Howe and Colin Abernethy!!

-Everyone but Ali