The Darkness is Coming

After spending the weekend traveling, it was nice to relax this week. I worked on bioinformatics, history, and culture and took many breaks upon which I watched episodes of White Collar and Breaking Bad.

In the afternoon, I attended a session on living in Tromsø during the winter and dark period that was presented by the University Counseling Center. The first half of the session was on how to be prepared for the winter. The staff talked about the appropriate attire to wear during the cold and even showed where one could buy each piece of clothing in Tromsø. This session wasn’t as relevant to me since I have much experience with the cold and snow. The session was very helpful though for students from Africa and other regions where they haven’t even seen snow before.

The second half of the presentation focused on dealing with the dark period. On November 20 the sun will set in Tromsø and there will only be a couple hours of twilight each day. This will be a completely new experience for me. Already the days are getting shorter as we lose 10 minutes of sunlight each day. I have noticed the difference and I am not looking forward to the dark period.

Because the dark period occurs when exams are, an important topic was studying and sleeping. Another topic was getting the right nutrition and they gave us samples of different vitamins that we could buy to stay healthy. The counselors also talked about how important it is to be social since depression increases during this time period.

Even though the darkness seems so daunting it will be a great experience. I will have the opportunity to live in the dark which is something most people don’t get to experience. I will strengthen who I am as a person as I learn to cope with the darkness and the challenges it presents. Most importantly, it is only through darkness that I will be able to experience the full power of the Northern Lights. I have already seen the aurora borealis a few times, but they have been very weak. The darkness will provide many opportunities throughout the day to see the lights dancing across the sky.

At the session it was very nice to see a bunch of familiar faces and to catch up with friends I haven’t seen since they have been busy with school. After the session Callie, Holly, and I decided to make some pizza and watch Sex and the City. It was a great way to end the week.