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So my last post was about my trip north to Kiruna. I should point out that although Umeå is not as far north as Kiruna, you still can experience the wonders and charm of the North. If you are interested in exact geographical location, check out my map!

Wonder #1 – The sun (or lack there of)

If you live near the equator the sun rises and sets at approximately the same time all year long. As some of you may already know, as you move further away from the equator the hours of daylight in the winter become shorter, and longer in the summer. When you move to Umeå this phenomena becomes extremely apparent. November and December become the most depressing time of year, and I’m not exaggerating. If you sleeping till noon you miss the sun, if it was ever there at all, as most days are cloudy. And by sun I mean just this yellowish thing on the horizon that never really comes up too high. You may think that as a human, you are immune to the darkness, however if you are here you will realize like many other animals you will want to hibernate, and never get out of bed. To combat this desire to sleep all the time you can do several things.

1) Sunshine coffee – Stand outside and soak up the brief period of sunlight.

2) The Light Room – you can go to the student “light room” and feel like a mental patient while you take in the artificial sunlight.

3) Lastly exercise, and vitamin supplements.. sorry I have no photo for that..

On the contrary, as the days get longer, your desire to sleep decreases and all of a sudden you realize in mid march you are waking up every morning at 6:30 and unable to go back to sleep due to the excessive sunlight shining in your window (even with blinds closed). This can be a positive, as it forces you to get up early and work on your thesis, which in turn makes your supervisors happy, and thus you more happy. However, it worries me what time I will be waking up at in June.

Wonder #2 – The Cold

Ok, the cold isn’t really a wonder, but I think it’s wonderful! So I don’t know how experienced those of you are with the cold and winter, but from my experience, living on the east coast of Canada, it’s only cold when it’s windy, and it’s always windy. However, in the north (or in Umeå) the temperature drops further than home, but less wind, thus it doesn’t seem as cold, which I think is amazing (Or maybe I’m dressing warmer so I don’t notice…). Since it gets really cold here, and stays below zero for an extended period of time, they can do really cool stuff, like build an Ice Bar downtown!

Or build a sweet snow castle for kids to play in!

Or go skating or ice fishing! Which are also great pass times..

 

Wonder #3 – SNOW!!!!

I love snow. Enough said. You maybe thinking isn’t this the same as the previous one? No it is not. You can have snow fall and not stay long enough invest time and energy into building something spectacular (or have bodies of water freeze over) because the temperature doesn’t stay below zero. However you can still enjoy it, epically when it is warm out and you can do snow related activities in a t-shirt.

Snow is beautiful, and makes the world a brighter place. Literally. It reflects the light and thus makes things brighter. Snow is the best part about winter.  You can go skiing, sliding, snowmobiling, snowball fights, build forts, and anything you can think of! Your creativity in the snow has the possibility to bring joy and happiness to those around and even complete strangers. Someone built this snowman and he greats me every day on my way to school.

Wonder #4 – The Northern Lights.

This is probably the most amazing thing I have ever seen. I’ve seen them I think 4 times now since I’ve been here, and I still get excited every time. My photos aren’t the best however, you get the idea…

So, ok, these may not be all wonders, or that many, I just wanted to highlight the awesomeness of living here(or in any northern place for that matter). Maybe I will think of more as I stay here longer, but that’s all I got for now.