February, 2004:
Before I start moving forward, a little backtracking. I spent the 2000-2001 academic year as Fulbright Scholar in Norway. My job was a "roving scholar" attached to the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Education. I traveled throughout the country and lectured on various topics in American culture. I saw nearly every part of Norway in those ten months. One of the best trips I took was to Svalbard, an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean (78 degrees north), approximately 600 miles south of the North Pole, which is farther north than even Barrow, Alaska. My friend Jon and I took a snowmobile trip across the frozen Tempelfjorden. Each of us had to handle our own snowmobile. I did pretty well, except for when I got stuck in a little valley and our guide had to drive me up the bank. I got mine going about 100 km/hour. These are some images of the Tunabreen (the blue glacier) and of me on the snowmobile I drove.

In front of the Tunabreen on Tempelfjorden.

The guide provided a full body suit and special gloves. The handlegrips and seat are heated.

Driving a snomobile is pretty intuitive, although I was a little apprehensive at first.