Here is Kaitlynn and my first blog
post from Norway/ever. We have now been in Longyearbyen for a little over a
month and we are having a really awesome time. We both live in neighboring
barracks, formerly housing for Norwegian miners.
It's a 3k walk to UNIS (school)
every morning, the northernmost university in the world. UNIS is the only school
in the world that gives out rifles to their students and live rounds for
shooting polar bears. While we’re on about record breaking, I challenge anyone
to try and swim outside further north than 79º. Classes have been going well and
we just got off a weeklong cruise with our respective departments. Every time I
(Riley) go running it feels like I’m on a boat. My professor is also a real B.A.
(beautiful animal). She and I (rock) bouldered underneath our kitchen table, an
activity I am going to bring to our ski team.
Kaitlynn and Maeve (Colby
skier/enemy) are teaching everyone how to knit and I am teaching people how to
make bread and ski. This past weekend was particularly exciting. Yesterday all
three of us competed in a Quadrathalon, which consists of a 5k kayak, 13k
mountain bike, 5 rounds of shooting at 40m and a 6k run! Kaitlynn won for the
women and I was second. Going into the shooting range I was first but
unfortunately my years of getting rid of squirrels on the farm had not prepared
me for the big guns and I missed one shot. Kaitlynn missed one too, but not as
badly. The guy who beat me was a master Norwegian skier from the mainland who
had some game, which makes me feel better. Maeve’s kayak kept turning to the
right so she canoed the first part of the race.
Today, we
followed Nathan’s training plan and did a 2.25 hr over distance ski w/ specific
strength…ON A GLACIER! It took us 50 minutes to hike from the cheese block
(Kaitlynn’s barrack) to get the glacier. We brought our German friend Tobias as
well, featured in the film.
So far no polar bear sightings yet except for the
dead stuffed ones in Longyearbyen, but we have seen whales, polar fox and lots
of very fat Svalbard
reindeer.
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