Once again, another major change; I’m back in Australia. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 I had to return home. I am currently on day 8 of 14 days in quarantine. Two weeks ago, everything rapidly began to change. WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic and countries began closing their borders as the virus spread rapidly and many people were dying. Norway first closed their borders to all non-Scandinavian countries then soon after closed it borders to everyone. Schools, fitness centres and sports and recreational events, were all closed overnight. UNIS initially said they were closing for 2 weeks. Over the next week […]
Daily archives: 2020-04-02
4 posts
Student culture versus employee cultures Even thought the employee culture at UNIS seems informal, being a student, I haven`t mingled that much with the employees more than during the lunch a couple of times. Still, my impression is that the environment is friendly and casual between the staff. On the other hand, the student culture is perhaps more family oriented since we live together, eat together, study together and socialize together. As many students have left their family and friends behind, strong bonds between the students have formed. How do you utilize your biological knowledge? When I, during my internship, […]
The situation for the past few weeks has been heavily influenced by Covid-19, and with all lectures cancelled it was uncertain whether the students could proceed with the internships. As measures were taken to avoid contact and potential contamination risks, the students were advised to work from home, something that could easily be facilitated by LL. They have provided a PC and all communication goes through emails and Teams, something that has worked really well. Throughout the last couple of weeks we have been working on a project description for the recipient survey (mentioned in the last blog post), and […]
Unfortunately, I had to leave Longyearbyen last Friday the 20th of March. I was supposed to have stayed here for another two months, but we were all asked to leave if we could. Now I´m sitting at home in Kragerø, Norway, looking at the green grass and trees, feeling a bit sad. My work at Polar Permaculture will continue, but I´ll be doing all the work from home, obviously. There is plenty of tasks I can do from my computer, and I think it will be just as meaningful as the work I´ve been doing In Longyearbyen. It won´t be […]