When I arrived in Longyearbyen my expectations for the internship were quite high. I thought the internship would give me a lot of practical skills that would help me sort out which part of research I liked before starting my master degree in the fall. I was looking forward to helping out collecting and processing samples, learning more about how to run research projects in remote places and arctic conditions, maintaining lab and field equipment, and to utilize as many machines, instruments and methods in the lab as possible. The lab activity in January is less intensive than in the […]
Sine-Sara Aastad
5 posts
The past few weeks after UNIS closed down can be characterised by confusion, waiting for information and lack of efficiency. Students were constantly discussing what to do with their studies, if they were going to be forced to leave Longyearbyen and where to go. For around 10 days, which felt like 2 months, the insecurity among the students grew along with the alcohol consumption and lack of motivation. With the increased pressure from UNIS and some home universities, most students had left by Sunday the 22nd of March. I have many reasons why I wanted to stay. First and the […]
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, […]
Two months have past, and I am almost half way through the semester. So far I have only touched on some of the tasks that a lab technician conducts. I have spent several hours calibrating pipets, cleaning labs, setting up new instruments and transferring some samples from one container to another. I am quite familiar at the lab already, and that feels good. I am happy to have started the work, but feel I am lagging a bit behind schedule, since I want to be done with my workload by May 15th when the class ends. My lecture schedule and […]
My name is Sine, and this semester I will be living in Longyearbyen, studying Arctic Biology at Svalbard University Center (UNIS). Just arriving in Longyearbyen, I am really surprised how much I like the complete darkness, and I feel amazed by even the smallest signs of light on the sky that highlights the surrounding mountains. Longyearbyen is really beautiful, and the arctic conditions suits me perfect. Being a person who absolutely love hiking, I am really looking forward to the spring when the arctic nature reveals itself, and the sun starts rising. My previous semesters at the University of South-Eastern […]