15. You get static shocks everywhere here! be warned.
16. Do lots of little food shops instead of one big one. You will walk past the shop everyday on the way to UNIS, so do shops on your way home. It's a lot easier to carry home if you do it that way.
17. Snowmobile-wise. Lots of people have brought them so they can go out further to hike/ski but its personal preference. I haven't brought one myself but a lot of people have. It really depends if you like hiking and skiing and want to travel far out of town with friends. (Snowmobiles do tend to break easily as well so be warned, don't cheap out too much if you plan on buying one and if you do it could break down anyway as the conditions here are harsh)
18. If you want to go out on hikes and/or ski or snowboard make sure you get a bag big enough to fit things in, and that has areas for you to attach skis/helmets/snowboards/shovels etc. It makes life so much easier.
19. Sunglasses are a good call for when the midnight sun starts as you will get snowblindness for a month before the snow starts melting
20. If you are planning things like snowmobiling and husky rides, do them while there is still snow. Don't leave it too late and lose all the snow :(
21. Boat trips start in March time but it might be better to wait with them to make sure you can dock, if there is is sea ice you can't dock.
22. Midnight sun is a lot harder to deal with than the constant night time. You might want to invest in eye mask or consider covering your window when this happens to help you sleep.
23. Its only dark here for the first two months really, So if there is aurora go get pictures, once the sun starts coming back you lose all chance of seeing it again, (the twilight ends up lasting later and later into the night until its too bright to see aurora and it happens so slowly you think you'll get to see one more before its too bright and that rarely happens)
24. If you're on the geophysics course we do one report and one exam for each module The reports are pass/fail and you need to pass to do the exams.
25. You can borrow equipment (and a rifle) from UNIS, but you might not always get the things you ask for as lots of people ask. But its good to use if you want things like for hikes/ice cave walking/ skiing. (also not all the stuff is in good shape, so if you want to be skiing a lot I would suggest bringing them with you)
26. It's better to be over prepared than under prepared
27. There are a tonne of national holidays here, and when they are going on the shops shut, so be aware of when the shops are open and closed so you can have enough food until they open again
28. There are very occasionally blackouts here as the power plant is the only electricity source. We had maybe 3/4 while we were here and they were mostly fixed within a few hours.
29. In terms of finding aurora, the magnetometer is a good indicator, and you can also go on the KHO site and find the allsky camera, (I think they also have it as a phone app) to help you see if there is aurora, although it looks brighter on there due to the time exposure.
30. Lastly, you're only likely to be here once in your life (unless you're really lucky), do all the things you want to do so you don't have any regrets :)
Miriam
No comments:
Post a Comment