Just over a week ago the the sun disappeared below the horizon until 21 January, which means a rather unfamiliar symbol has started appearing on the weather forecast. It shows the sun below the horizon in the middle of the day, and whenever I see it I imagine that it is mocking me slightly, saying; "you could have a nice sunny day, if the sun actually rose today, but it's not going to, and someone else is enjoying your sun". It's also been getting so cold that I now consider 2 to 3°C to be a warm day, devoid of the need for gloves or beanie, and snow is starting to feel somewhat normal to me... or at least I no longer have the strong urge to run outside and appreciate it when it starts falling from the sky.
A "warm-ish" day followed by 2 not-so-warm days.
Over the last 2 weeks the piles of snow that the snowplows leave all over the place have started resembling small mountains, cars morph into car-shaped mounds of white on a regular basis, and I have gone from starting to feel like I live in the Arctic (in my last post about winter), to being completely and absolutely sure of it! In fact, the landscape has changed so significantly that I have even managed to get myself lost in an area I am usually familiar with! The summer and short autumn here lulled me into a false sense of security, and over the last few weeks, as the snow has piled higher, and higher, and higher, and it's gotten darker and darker, I have been left wondering around feeling distinctly like a very lost, wide-eyed African.
My neighbour's car merging into the 2m-high mound of snow it's parked in/next to.
I've found myself googling more and more familiar South African things, listening to a lot of Johnny Clegg, and staring enviously at any sunny pictures that happen to enter my field of vision. I began having stints of proper homesickness for the first time since I moved here (I've had surprisingly little homesickness so far), and I think it's because any similarity that the landscape had to Cape Town (grass, trees with leaves, visible tar roads... etc.) is now gone, and I am dealing with a completely new way to exist in my surroundings. There isn't even the familiarity of the sun rising and setting each day!
The Geology department at midday.
If one is used to a lifestyle in which people stay inside when it's dark and cold outside, as most Cape Townians are, the darkness, cold and snow here can initially feel very restrictive, and in the beginning I often found myself fighting the urge to go home from work at 2pm and get into bed. At the moment, we get a sort of bluish light for about 2 hours in the middle of the day (pictured above), and then 5pm feels like 10pm.
I'm now getting used to the darkness, and beginning to emerge from my self-imposed bout of hibernation, and I'm discovering a beautiful world of light. A walk home on a crisp clear afternoon/evening/night through freshly-fallen, fluffy snow provides not only a surprisingly satisfying experience of being able to lay down the first tracks on new snow, but also spectacular views of the twinkling lights of Tromsdalen, a suburb across the fjord, reflecting on the still water. And a walk or a ski along the lysløpe (lighted track) through the woods, in the semi-darkness/darkness is probably one of the most peaceful things I've had the joy of experiencing.
In addition, because there is darkness all the time, it provides the opportunity to have Christmas lights on ALL THE TIME. With December having crept up on us (how did that happen?), people have begun decorating their balconies, windows and the pine trees in their gardens with sparkling fairy lights, which, together with the snow, makes it feel as though I've landed in the pages of a pretty Christmas storybook. This feeling is enhanced by the Christmas music playing in every shop, and the fact that Christmas-party season has started. More on traditional Norwegian Christmas in a future post though. For now, I think it's time to bring a little more illumination into my life by jumping on the Christmas-light bandwagon and decorating my windows for the very first time.
Storgata (the main street) in the city centre, decorated with Christmas lights. The sidewalks are free of snow and ice because they're heated (yes, HEATED!).
