Sunday the 5th of February

We picked up all participants at the Kiruna airport. The participants arrived at various times, the first ones 14.15 and the last ones 00.15.

After we dropped off the participants at the hotel/hostel (Malmfältens folkhögskola), Göran had a workshop on how you photograph aurora borealis. Later that evening, we served some sandwiches and "soup in a cup". 

 

Monday the 6th of February

We started off by a presentation about our school and the moving of the city of Kiruna. Johan held a planetarium presentation with the Uniview-software. With this software we did a journey from Kiruna to the edge of the Universe.

We went by bus to IRF, the Institute of Space Physics, just outside Kiruna. There we had a marvellous lunch on reindeer. After lunch we heard two presentations on the northern light by Rick McGregor, the Information Officer, and a PhD student called Audrey Schillings. Then we learned about HPLA radar antenna at EISCAT, first indoors at IRF, and then on the antenna site in the forest, seeing the 32 m parabol.

The evening meal we took at Landströms bar and restaurant: arctic char or halloumi burger. We had a brisk walk there and back through the cold winter night (-7C). Some of the students used the sauna at the hostel, others went to sleep.

 

Tuesday the 7th of February

The day started with sorting of the students in five groups. They lined up in a row after their age (so they had to talk to each other), and got together for the workshops in mixed groups. The swedish students held five different workshops: 1 Excitation of elements giving different colours. 2 Making compasses with magnetized needles and also measuring the declination with a home made 3D compass. 3. Calculating the height with trigonometry. 4 Making models of the sun with balloons, string and tape as the sun, prominences and sun spots. 5 Watching a movie about the northern light and playing a memory game.

We had a very nice lunch at the hostel, and went to the neighbouring space school for a visit. Lisa Holmström showed us an aurora generator and gave each one of us a beautiful book on the northern light. The swedish students showed the others how to ski and they had a nice time in the snow with skiing and sledging.

Arctic thai cooked a delicious meal, and served us as soon as we sat down. This restaurant was a little bit shorter away than Landströms.

After dinner we dressed up as warm as we could, and equipped us with cameras and bits of cardboard to stand on for insulation. We went by bus to the back of the skiing slope, Loussavaara, next to the hostel, and got some beautiful pictures of the green dancing formations. It was -20 and tough for the fingers holding the cameras. Some used the hand warmers from the gift bags. We all got to experience what we learned at IRF; that the camera sees more than we do with the naked eye. Through the camera lenses the aurora was much greener and stronger.

 

Wednesday the 8th of February

Jukkasjärvi ftw! We had a fantastic day at Jukkasjärvi! The guide was inspirational, witty and full of knowledge. The ice hotel glimmered in the sun and most of us wanted to stay a bit longer to get a chance to see all the rooms, even in the new building Ice hotel 365. The day was cold, sunny and just a little bit windy. -Which made the cold almost to strong to cope with, at least for the feet. The thermometer showed -30, but maybe it was only 22.

Lunch was served in a sami tent by sami in traditional clothing, "kolts", during wich we were told the sami stories of northern light and a little bit about their culture in general. The sami Nils then took us feeding the reindeer with lichens and we saw a short movie about the sami people. We braced ourselves and went out in the cold again for just a short walk to the church, where Göran told us about the church and the art by Bror Hjorth. Then Jenny talked about the Torne River in the bus on our way home. The Ice hotel takes their ice from the river, and we have learned that this is the best ice in the world for ice sculpturing, because the rushing of the river forces all of the air bubbles out before the water freezes, which make the ice clear and dense.

The neighbouring hotel Ripan served us dinner on moose (elk), with a potatoe cake, which was very good, but perhaps not enough for our hungry students.

On wednesday night we cancelled the aurora hunt because of lack of activity, so we had a calm night at home at the hostel.

Thursday the 9th of February

We had an early start on Thursday. The bus left for Esrange at 8 in the morning, and we got to see reindeer and mooses on the way there and home. At Esrange we spent some time at the Visitor centre, with coffee and cookies and several videos showing different activities at the rocket base. We were allowed in on the base for a guided tour under the conditions of not leaving the bus. Esrange sends up sounding rockets and balloons for various measurements of the atmosphere.

After the long bus trip back to the hostel, during which Jenny told us about the swedish flora and fauna, we had lunch at Spis, a restaurant in town. The swedish students divided the other participants in to three groups and took them on a city walk. Göran talked about the church in Kiruna, Jenny showed a part of the mine/citypark and Johan and Annika met up the groups in the city hall, talking about the moving of the city.

For dinner we enjoyed a swedish smorgasbord at the hostel, with a lot of local dishes as smoked reindeer, salmon and "Jansson´s temptation", a gratin of potatoes and anchovy. During dinner we heard - and sang - several swedish songs, some with guitarr accompaniment and we enjoyed some student presentations of scientists and myths about the northern light from Poland and Italy respectively. The Portuguese team arranged a QR-code hunting during the coffeebreak for all the students.

This night we had a beautiful aurora sighting just in the back of the hostel, as soon as all the lights were put out. Göran took a lot of pictures, and the few attending were screaming with delight at the spectacular scenery.

 

Friday the 10th of February

On Friday we left our bus at the hostel and walked to the centre of town where the mining company bus picked us up. We had a long, pedagogic tour around the visiting mine at 540 meters depth and got to bring a small bag of iron pellets with us as a memory.

The participants hade lunch on their own and the afternoon free for shopping, convenient enough with a big market in town for the weekend.

In the evening we had a garden party with grilled hot dogs and hamburgers in -20 degrees cold. Some teachers and students danced to the music playing outside and it was a rather short and intense farewell party (the long one was on Thursday instead). This night was really bad for aurora sighting, so some went to bed early while others stayed up all night, waiting for the departure of the bus at five in the morning.

 

Saturday the 11th of February

All the participants had to catch the plane at seven, so our bus dropped them off at the airport at half past five, and we all got to say our goodbuys, with a lot af hugs, some laughs and a little bit of sorrow.