• Student
  • 14/11/2022

And how are things in Longyearbyen?

Since September, I have been doing my internship for the master’s Applied Physics in Longyearbyen. This is a Norwegian town within the pole circle. I am here to study the aurora borealis or northern lights. Let me tell you, it was quite a shock to go from the summer in a Dutch city at 30°C to Summer in a small town at 5°C.

by
photo Bas Dol

At the day of my arrival low clouds shrouded the mountain tops from view. This gives rise to beautiful views from the valley, as shown in the picture below. A nice example of the difference between Longyearbyen and Eindhoven is the fact that I was confined to the town for a few days after my arrival. This is due to the fact that it is strongly discouraged to leave Longyearbyen without carrying a firearm. This rule is in place due to the polar bears which make the surrounding landscape their home. For this reason, all students studying at the University (UNIS) here follow a mandatory safety course including rifle shooting. A student who has followed this course and passed a shooting test can get a license to either rent, buy, or sometimes borrow a riffle.

The mountains around Longyearbyen as Bas saw them upon arrival. Photo | Bas Dol

The locals I have met are very nice and helpful, especially when you consider how many students come here temporarily each time.. In the student population many different nationalities are represented here. I have already talked with Danish, Norwegian, American, Finnish, German, Russian and Dutch students here. I also had a nice welcome committee of two polar bears that got close to the town on the day I arrived. This led to a warning to not go to Adventdalen even with a rifle, which immediately made it clear for me that polar bears really are a present danger here.

The same mountains two days after arrival. Photo | Bas Dol

I live in one of the two buildings where almost all students live. The rent is rather high at €530, but the quality of the rooms is also extremely high. We have a large kitchen for nine people, with two dishwashers. The control of by the landlord is rather strict, with monthly checks of the kitchen for cleanliness and fire safety. The strict fire safety is needed because the whole building is made of wood, due to the permafrost which makes the ground move throughout the year.

The same environment four days after arrival. Photo | Bas Dol

Most of the communication between students happens through Facebook messenger, and things are organized through Facebook groups. They don't use Whatsapp here. Some of the activities organized this way include frequent kitchen parties in the student buildings and hikes. There are also enough bars here to go to, due to the large number of tourists in the summer.

My main contact with UNIS is my local internship supervisor Noora Partamies. She is very helpful and really helps when I get stuck on something with my project. My internship about the northern lights is mainly based on datasets of the last couple of years and AI software, but I also look forward to watching the northern lights in real life. This has not happened yet due to the clouds and the fact that it is still not completely dark even in the middle of the night. This will hopefully both change within a month as the nights become longer and darker, and the clouds less frequent. I hope to be able to give an update once I have seen the northern lights, and really experienced the cold and dark polar night.

The main photo shows Bas Dol in a survival suit, just before he gets swimming lessons in it -red.

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