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Nobody told me that there was going to be "hazing" on the ship - weather hazing that is. We sailed for about 4 hours, and then the ship started pitching and rolling a bit, then a bit more, then a lot more. We spent the next 36 hours in a constant state of non-constant movement. If you've ever been

I was testing WhatsApp with Janet Warburton, program coordinator of PolarTREC, at about 7:20 pm on 9-10-21, when I noticed a change in the engine sounds. All of a sudden we were moving away from the dock. There had been an earlier announcement in Russian; however, those had happened several times

Well, it’s 10:00 am ship time on Friday morning - the ship is set to Moscow standard time, which is an hour ahead of the dock 15 feet away - and we are still in port. There was an issue with the hydraulics on an A-frame that needed to be fixed before ‘we’ (in the broad sense - I’m just a bystander)

After arriving in Kirkenes and getting settled, I finally got to meet members of the team and go over to the warehouse where the equipment for the expedition is being staged. I am glad that someone came to pick me up because although the warehouse is only a short distance from the hotel, there are

Well, to quote one of my favorite series, Game of Thrones, "Winter is Coming." While I'm not so worried about the approach of the White Walkers from across the Wall, I noticed a distinct change in the weather as soon as I arrived in Kirkenes. Suddenly I was underdressed in a t-shirt, even with a

Thanks to one of the community workers in Lillestrom, I was able to arrange for a COVID test and be released from quarantine on Friday. Otherwise, I would have had to wait until today (Monday). So, I left Olavsgaard and spent the weekend in Oslo. Oslo is a great, diverse city with a terrific mix of

I need to start off by clarifying one of the quarantine restrictions. We are allowed out of the hotel for 2 hours at a time - not a maximum of 2 hours a day. Many days I have left the hotel after breakfast, walked (or even scootered) for 2 hours, returned to the hotel, then gone out for several

Lots of people have been asking about the food in quarantine. The hotel staff delivers 3 meals (and 1 snack) a day. And while the overall variety and quality are not what you would find in a high-end restaurant, the food is overall very good. Here's a sampling of the meals. The picture collages are

Norway takes their COVID-19 regulations very seriously. To combat the spread of the virus, Norway has very strict entry restrictions and testing requirements. Because I cannot prove vaccination status through a Scandinavian QR code or the European Union Digital Covid Certificate (EUDCC) gateway -