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Robert_Oddo
post Jul 14 2005, 05:19 AM
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Twenty-four hours after leaving Boston, I finally arrived in Longyearbyn in the Svalbard archipelago. Lonyearbyn is the largest city in Svalbard with a population of about 1400. It is located in a valley on a fiord with two large glaciers on the hills that surround the city.

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we finally arrive in Lonyearbyn
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wipedout
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distances to various cities

You probably wonder what all these people do here in Longyearbyn. There are a number of students and university professors and their families here. The university name is UNIS and we will be having safety training, lectures and field excursions here. There also are a number of coal mines surrounding town and the miners live here at least part of the time. There also are quite a large number of people that support the tourist industry here. Believe it or not cruise ships do stop here and people get off and go on excursions around the area. In the winter people visit this region and go snowmobiling.

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One view of Longyearbyn
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Another view

Safety is a big concern here in town and it is not unusual to see folks walking down the street with guns in case they run into a polar bear. There is also the risk of getting hypothermic pretty quick since it is rainy and cold here much of the time. The next couple of days, we will receive safety training as well as go on local field trips to give us background information on the area before we begin our research.

The group, I work with consists of 7 undergraduates from various universities in the US as well as 2 university professors. For the next two weeks, we will be working with students and professors from UNIS. For the first week we are staying in a dorm at the university in the city. Here’s the group at our first dinner in Svalbard.

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More to come after tomorrows safety training!!
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