This is how we measured snow crystals for size and shape

Over thirty minutes to the sites, stuffed in Qamutiks rattling over tundra and iced over ponds and then smooth snow between trees...we left at 9am and got back after 3pm.
We did snow measurements for three different sites. One was a Burnt Forest another was forest that was replanted after a burn and a the third, a Black Spruce Wetland. We had to struggle in knee deep snow to get to a couple of the sites, and let me tell you, a grown woman wailing and trying to breathe through freezing gasps of air is not a pretty sound.
All measurements are done in teams of two or three people. What we do is first we dig a pit then we measure its height and figure out how many different layers of snow are in it. Then we check what type of snow is in each layer (crystals, shapes, sizes and how flat or how intricate the shapes are). Next we measure how hard each layer is and then weigh samples of each layer. Finally, we do cores and Rams. This whole sequence is done twice at each site. Then we get back, with snow samples and measure their conductivity and PH and enter all the day's data into the system.
It can get really cold out there so you have to take walks every now and then to warm up, which for me usually means hopping about ungracefully in the deep snow and maybe falling over a few times. Ok... definately falling over, more than a few times.
We had lunch out in the field today because it was too far to go back and forth. My cheese and mustard sandwich wasn't completely frozen, which I guess is the nice way to remember it.
The ride back was a bit frosty which gets painful, but we couldn't help feeling satisfied at the amount of work we got done, especially since we didn't lose any fingers to the cold. Thankfully, the great research tech. here ( who does everything you can possibly think of and more) had an extra neck/face warmer that saved my nose from a freezing death today.
I even tried out some snow shoes which were fun, and clumsy, and pictures were taken to embarrass me later.
Tomorrow we go to a Tree Island where the pit we dig out might be higher/deeper/taller than any of us...I will try and get pictures.
I am writing this in between rushing in and out to watch the Northern lights fire up all across the sky...They are a pretty green right now, at 9:30pm. They should really get insane at around midnight, so says the Aurora expert who is giving a week's course here. But we are usually fast asleep by then.

-

Here is a photo of a Husky Puppy you can enjoy. These are the fabulous creatures that pull the sleds here.

-

Here are some photos of what it's like up here where the Arctic flirts with the treeline..

.

..

This is the moonlight in the early morning

--

..

These are the Qamutiks/Hamutiks we ride to the from the sites..Very rough rides.

---

..

This is what we look like stuffed inside a Qamutik/Hamutik

---

..

This is what we do every day...Notice the guy in red inside the hole to measure layers.

Because I am up in the freezing North studying climate change/environmental change I will just link you to articles that are related to the topic,every now and then, and you can see how climate change will be affecting everyone pretty soon..

-

Sea levels likely to rise much faster than was predicted

-

Climate change: On the edge
Greenland ice cap breaking up at twice the rate it was five years ago, says scientist Bush tried to gag

We saw the Northern Lights last night! They were green swirls coming down over the building and dropping at the horizon. Some of them were playful and made pretty twirling paths before fading out and others looked like green tornadoes just fading in and out. It was beautiful and it was betwen 10:00 and 11:30pm, so there were very quiet squeals of awe as we stared out of the windows.

We went out to do snow measurements again today, which is what we will be doing practically every day. It was a bit warmer (-24 degrees) so my hands and feet and face were feeling ok. We also did PH and conductivity studies of the snow samples we brought back from the field, which was another fun new thing to learn.

I got interviewed over the phone by a Canadian magazine that were interviewing our expedition leader/Lecturer and they liked the idea of a Kuwaiti in the arctic. I am fuzzy on what I actually said.

Tomorrow looks to be only -18, and that suddenly feels like summer weather..

Did I say I liked being cold? I might have to revise that after today...We went out into the field to do snow measurements, and it was cooold. Your fingers and toes hurt, although getting the heat pack warmers into your shoes and your mittens does help. Also your face can't help but get cold because your goggles fog up, and you have to remove them and then your nose goes numb, your eyelashes become ice crystals and you look like the photos of Himalayan explorers, but I'm sure we get used to it in a few days. Right now those of us from warmer climates feel like little heroes for surviving a couple of hours. It will get better as the body adjusts.
The forcast says the northern lights might be out tonight, at 11:30 pm, which is when we are usually passed out from the day of carrying tons of heavy clothing and shivering. But it would be nice to see them, so we might crawl up into the observatory and be on the lookout..
Want to see what Northern Lights look like? See this or this..

After a three day train journey, two trains and three train stations, a bunch of us are in the, now warmer, -33 degrees of Churchill, Manitoba( With a wind chill of -40 which means it feels like -40) . The train journey will be the subject of it's own post, once I have regained some of the brain cells I lost to the cold.
We are in a research facility that was once a rocket launch site, and now houses the CNSC where we will be spending ten days learning about and helping the researchers measure environmental change in the region (related to climate change).
Even with the 5 layers of clothing I have on, it's a battle to keep the cold wind from getting into little openings where my goggles crept away from the face mask, and to keep fingers and toes from feeling like they are going to fall off...but it is nice to be cold, even this cold.
We have a lecture this morning so I have to run. Now.

This is the begining of a travelogue...Of a journey from Kuwait to the edge of the arctic.
The first leg of the rehla has already landed me in Toronto, a trip I almost didn't make because the check-in desk at Kuwait airport was closed when I got there. The man at the desk was very upset with how late I was and kept asking me 'why, why? Why are you so late?' I wondered whether getting on the plane would depend on how good an answer I gave. But, I didn't wonder about that until after I had already blurted 'I don't know' .
Tip: Getting on the plane after check-in has closed does not depend on your answer but on the check-in person's mood. And of course you could get there on time and avoid the whole fuss.
After way too many hours in the odd position that you somehow get into on a plane seat, the sun was setting over a huge sea of thick clouds and we dove slowly into them and suddenly there were gold lights all over the landscape. It looked like what Kuwait used to look like from the sky back in the 80's. Just gold lights with bigger golden lights snaking through them to indicate highways.
I am writing from a little, empty internet cafe in the Kensington market district of the city. Enya is on the radio, which makes me want to step outside until the scary music is over. Imagine the love child of Portabello Road and Souq il-Jum3a, and you will know what to expect from K. Market. It is sandwiched between Chinatown to the south and The univesity of Toronto to the north.
Chinatown here is huge, and has a more lived in less touristy feel than in NYC or London or L.A. Hardly anything but logos are in English and it takes over blocks and blocks of the city, which is nice.
Walking in this February winter is an act of bravery for desert dwellers, no matter how much we might like the cold. My attempt to blend in falls flat here, because no one else has ski mittens, a huge hat and a long scarf wrapped several times round their face. I'm not even at my arctic destination yet, so let's wait and see how a warm weather Kuwaiti woman will do there..
Till the next internet cafe playing late 80's music, bye bye..