Week 3 and the SPRI

Week three has begun auspiciously--no real computer problems, good media in the classroom, and a visit to the Scot Polar Research Institute library. This year, the institute museum is being completely refurbished, so we looked at our materials to the accompaniment of hammer drills. It was still great, and it is exciting to see some of the students get excited over the historical and archaeological materials. One student began to ask more general questions about the institute and evidenced a more general interest in things polar. Here we are with the materials, and here I am with one of Frobisher's returned samples.





This will also be my first real post about the weather; the weekend ended up rainy, as did most of the day Monday and Tuesday morning. This has now been the coldest summer we've spent here so far (I've worn few of my short-sleeve shirts), all the more ironic because until we got here, it was unseasonably hot and dry. Between rain and wind, there's been little temptation to set up badminton.

We did have an interesting lunch with the Bjorks and Robert Wardie (Classics professor at Saint Catharine's, and a fellow bicyclist), along with a number of Mary and Bob Bjork's students. We went to a sandwich shop off the market square at 12:30, and faced a 45 minute wait for an inside table. Sensing a letup in the rain, we decided on some umbrella-covered outside tables. Of course, as soon as we got our sandwiches, the downpour began again in earnest. Oh, well.