Tomorrow I was supposed to turn 30 years old. Funny thing is that my birthday got canceled as we’re turning the clock 14hrs forward! It’s going to be a very late night tonight and then we’ll do our best to sleep over the time change til monday morning. So that Sunday of mine vanished and I’ll just have to stay young.

The expedition is not feeling so young though. Everyone (but me really) has packed their stuff up and switched from field to office work. It completely changed the scenery onboard and it’s almost a bit sad walking around the labs to see everything stuffed away and sea secured. Almost over. I still hope to keep going through the transit, but it all depends on the weather.

The last week has been a bit odd. It’s started slow after a late Saturday and I really felt like I was done and ready to go home. It was this weird in between situation when you can feel that it’s over for most people, but you’re still stuck on the boat for two more weeks. I struggled with my motivation to keep going but was saved by some happy spirits around me.

I’ve started shifting my day rhythm early and have been staying up late every night aiming for the german time zone that Tim has been sticking with all along. A late night movie club spontaneously formed and we’ve had so much fun watching movies after movies in the cinema. The bad ones has been the best ones as we talk our way through them commenting and calling things out in silly but enjoyable ways. The highlight this far must have been John Travolta with a Pavarotti dyed goatee firing a bazooka at a Volvo terrorist out the window of a speeding car. It was my turn to pick the 2 am movie last night and I wanted to follow the Travolta ecstasy up with some disco dancing directed by Sylvester Stallone in Stayin Alive. A newbie in the movie club refused to watch it though and after him threatening to leave we ended up watching an academy award kind of crapster that left us sleepy but fairly content. I went to bed to lie sleepless listening to ice breaking while a few champs stayed up to play their hearts out on some guitar hero like video game. Late nights like these has brought my spirits back up and I’ve actually had a really fun and productive week. I have booked a model for a photo shoot tonight after dinner and I hope that my UTC birthday will help out to make it successful.

We’re still in ice and I think that we’re riding along the edge for as long as we can before we’ll head out in the open. You constantly hear rumors about what crossing the Barents Sea is going to be like. Most of the time they include storm systems and empire state building high swell but I choose to believe in the ones of surprisingly calm and comfortable conditions.