Return of the sun!

Hihi,

I've been very busy lately!

On the 8th march the sun finally reached the town. Every year there is a celebration at the old hospital steps by the church as, when it reaches these steps, the sun is officially deemed "back". It was a really nice occasion, where there was lots of children singing and a general feeling of happiness knowing that summer was coming. The sun was hiding initially, but just as "here comes the sun" started playing, the clouds parted and there it was! That was a moment I think I'll remember for a long time.

Fun in the sun, sort of! (Jen's photo)

As we walked to the church, we also saw the plane that dad and Kate were on coming in to land, which was cool. It's a shame they juussst missed the festival, but from what they told me they had more than enough sun on their cruise! They bought some of that sun with them on Sunday when we went on a bus tour instead of their going dog sledding, which had been cancelled the previous day due to bad weather. The tour was very informative and it was so clear out that we could see for miles. It included seeing all around town, a visit to nearly-EISCAT (road was blocked so we couldn't go the whole way), the seed vault and mine 3. 

We also ate out at several nice places including the Radison, which is quite posh but not as expensive as I thought it would be. I had some of the best beef I'd ever eaten, and a tiny sliver of whale, given to us free by the chef. I felt a bit funny about eating eat, and probably wouldn't have if it weren't a tiny sample.

Mine 2b

Whale, courtesy of the chef

Amongst all this, me and my classmates built a sled for a competition that was meant to be happening on Saturday, but unfortunately had to be cancelled due to bad weather. You wouldn't think, looking at the above photos, that it could have been that bad less than 24 hours before, but it just goes to show how quickly things can change here. Me and Jen were in charge of making a radar dish out of tin foil, card board and a broken hula hoop (went pretty well!) and the aurora out of wool (the less said about that, the better). The guys raided a scrap yard and had fun with hammers and drills to make what I called "a death trap" and what they called "fast".

Beautiful

As ever, a little video of these events is below. Next week, another visitor- Joseph! Exciting!

Emma xx