9th May 2016

Field work again. Really, recently one has to be in hurry. The snow is melting quickly and there is always a lot things to do on the glaciers. With Krysia and Olek we were installing the Automatic Weather Station- AWS. There is a grid of such instruments located in different places on few glaciers close to the Base. They monitor weather parameters such temperature, wind, snow cover and humidity along the year. I upload the pics from one AWS that we had managed to work on Werenskiold glacier. Success!!! 

7th May 2016

At the beginning of May I had possibility to work in snow. With 3 phd students we were making snow pits on two glaciers. It takes time… First you have to dig and on the upper part of the glacier is about 3m to dig.. Then you distinguish different layers of the pit. Different layers mean - different snow that is transformed with different weather conditions. So observing the snow you can understand what was happening during the year. You measure the temperature and density of each layer and then you take the samples for chemistry measurements- e.g. how much of the black carbon is each layer and biology- to see if something is living in such conditions. Interesting… but it takes tens of hours:) Therefore, we had different teams- the digging team, physics team and taking samples team. Last time I labeled the samples for chemistry and bio analysis.  (pics. by Daniel Kępski)

With Daniel and Krysia, I am the black sheep 

different snow layers

30th April 2016

Our puppies 1 month ago went to see the vet. This was difficult in Arctic conditions and they had to travel about 400 km. Poor babies but they are very very strong and it seemed they had fun. At least they were in the newspaper :) Photos by Darek Ignatiuk and Javier Lapazaran.  

13th April 2016

A bit of the Arctic.

Finally, I could feel a bit of what the Arctic can be. With the scientist from Silesia University I went to perform some field work. I have assisted basically to two kinds of work. Firstly, in scanning the glacier, second in drilling the ice. Very nice and beautiful experience. It was entire long day of work. 

We had a bad luck since at the end the piece of drill stuck at 3,5m down at the last point and we spent 7 additional hours trying to get it back. 

The day was beautiful, but when the Sun was behind the  mountains it was terribly cold. We did not have thermometer, but sensors in other places on glaciers indicated down to -29, -30 degrees. It was really cold for unplanned long stay. It was hard sometimes, but I am happy to could do this and to survive it. After 20h we arrived very tried, but quite well:)

In the meanwhile many things are happening, I will try to write them later.   

6th April 2016

easter cake with the names of 9 survivors

Hey! Many things had happened. My birthday, Easter, some quite interesting work on the  glacier, the dogs are growing up very fast, and so on and so on. New people has arrived to the Station, this for sure was a shock. But anyway, I was a bit not in the mood of writing. I have written just a little bit of my book, that maybe one way I will finish, but I do not know when...

For me the spring is definitively much more complicated then the winter. The winter at least was quiet and now in my opinion is much more nervous. For sure I started to be lost, I do not know where to live and work in the future. Later, the transport of the dogs seems to be very difficult and expensive. The most complicated are the vaccines and the quarantine time. Maybe the dogs have to stay at Svalbard longer then our expedition and later we have to transport them somehow.. 

Not easy. Today they went in the cages to Longyearbyen to see the vet.

The best option for me would be to stay in Longyearbyen but I would need to have work there and since I do not know about the future a lot.. I cannot organise myself. Everything complicated...

Moreover what I have observed that the lives of sons of the ... (I don't want to say bad words here, but sometimes is the best way to describe someone.. ) are just easier and it is difficult for me to digest it.

Other things I just do not understand and have to deal with them.

I wish I could have a nice boyfriend and could construct something, some life projects with him. But I seem to be much more further from this that in the past.

Anyway, I am ok, but puzzled and I had to confront the things I don't want to confront.  

I am sorry for long blablabla, but some people were worried about me and I needed to write that I am alive and ok:)

I want to end this post with some positive accent so I put some of my culinary projects:)

  

Mole, tortillas and fajitas

tortilla espanola

profiteroles

sweet bread

the same but with cheese

donuts

more donuts

other my ester cake

easter bears, one after dinner

preparation of the traditional ester basket 

preparation of the traditional ester basket 

preparation of the traditional ester basket 

My b-day pink unicorn cake

the same

old sushi

sushi long time ago