Translation: Katrín le Roux Viðarsdóttir

When Nína Aradóttir was an undergrad in geology at the University of Iceland, she decided to do an exchange year in Svalbard to study arctic geology. The area impressed her so much that after finishing her undergraduate studies in Iceland, she returned to Svalbard and lived there for the duration of her three-year master’s program. Today, she is pursuing a doctorate in geology at the University of Iceland and researching evidence of ancient ice streams in northeast Iceland.

Studying abroad was never the plan

Nína says she never considered studying abroad until the idea of Svalbard was brought up. She says it was one of her professors in the geology program, Ólafur Ingólfsson, who sparked her interest in Svalbard. “He’d been involved in some research projects in Svalbard. He talked a lot about that region, and that’s how I first became interested in it, along with a few other students. A few of us went to the office to ask about an exchange to Svalbard, and two of us ended up going there,” says Nína, who first lived in Svalbard during the 2013-14 school year. She says her interest in glaciers, the Arctic, and the outdoors was the biggest reason she decided to try living in the northernmost human settlement on the planet.

University centers and coal mines

Even though we as Icelanders also live on an island in the northern hemisphere, it’s hard to imagine daily life in Svalbard. “There are about 2500 permanent inhabitants in the archipelago. The scientific community is a big part of that group, as there’s a university center there, run by the two biggest universities in Norway,” says Nína. “There’s also a lot of tourism and it’s always increasing. Plus there’s a Russian coal mining settlement, and in fact the Svalbard community was initially centered around coal mining,” she explains. She says the community there is nothing out of the ordinary. “Regular people also live in Svalbard. There’s an elementary school and three preschools, and lots of young children.” Food is expensive in Svalbard, especially fresh foods because they must be imported. “Milk and cheese are not things students can afford. I kept track of discounts and often bought some sketchy vegetables at discounted prices because they were almost going bad,” says Nína. “We students were also very vigilant about keeping track of when the red wine went on sale, then there were parties!” adds Nína with a smile.

Asked whether it’s possible to live a relatively normal life in Svalbard, Nína says it is. “Yes, sure. There are bars, movie theatres, and coffee shops. There’s even a nightclub, which is actually a very funny place,” she says and laughs. “What I missed the most, along with the other students, was my family. Many people there are a long way from their families, which comes with the territory. It didn’t help that the student housing wasn’t very homey. I was lucky that there were quite a few Icelanders in the area while I was living in Svalbard, maybe 15-20 at the most. I was part of a good core group there, and we called ourselves the Icelandic Mafia. We became a kind of family and it really helped to have someone to lean on.”

More polar bears than people

In Svalbard, people spend less time outside in the darkest months, not only because of the darkness but also the risk of running into polar bears. “It’s polar bear territory. It’s hard to get an accurate number of how many there are, but it’s generally thought that in Svalbard there are more polar bears than people. Because of that, the people of Svalbard need to be aware of the risk they pose.” Nína says all trips were planned with that mindset. “Every student who comes to Svalbard must attend a safety course and learn how to react should they run into a polar bear and also how to avoid them. Any time you leave the town, you need to be equipped with an emergency flare and a rifle. The university rents out rifles and holds a kind of ‘rifle lottery’ where the person who wins gets temporary access to a rifle and can therefore take trips out of town.” She says the first response should always be trying to get out of the situation rather than having to face the polar bear. “We are of course entering their territory, not vice versa, and that should be respected,” says Nína with a serious expression.

24-hour darkness

Nína says that Svalbard is like Iceland in a lot of ways, but everything is more extreme. “When I lived in Svalbard, it was about 57% covered in ice. Those numbers are five years old, so the amount of ice has probably decreased, sadly. The landscape is most similar to Iceland’s Westfjords or Eastfjords, with high, steep mountains and fjords carved by glaciers.” The Svalbard terrain is not only more extreme than here, but from mid-November through January there is complete darkness. “During the winter, some people joke that the only way to know if it’s midnight or noon is to see if the store is open or not, because the darkness is always the same, no matter what time it is.”

When asked how she liked living in a country where it’s dark for such a long time, Nína says she handled the darkness pretty well. “You just have to be careful to always have something to do. My first two years in Svalbard, I was taking courses and had group projects, and that was good. In my last year, when I was writing my master's thesis and needed to work more independently, I found it a lot harder. I would say having a routine, getting out of the house, and being around other people are key to coping with that kind of darkness.”

Svalbard also sees more midnight sun than Iceland, which may make up for the complete darkness of winter. “Summertime is just as confusing because there isn’t any difference between day and night either,” says Nína. “Some people even have a harder time with the sunlight. People have to have good blackout curtains because your natural sleep rhythm doesn’t work at all in those circumstances.” She says it does vary from person to person, though. “All these extremes taught me to appreciate Iceland a little more. All three years I came home to Iceland for Christmas and noticed a big difference in daylight between Iceland and Svalbard. I’d say we have it a lot better than we think,” adds Nína in closing.

Polar Bear Danger and the Icelandic Mafia in Svalbard