Minus 35 degrees celsius

Hej Hej,

 

My name is Dennis and I have been at white horizon for almost 2 weeks now. My time here has really been great so far and I experienced a lot of new stuff in this short period of time.

I pulled fishes out of the net at Assar`s house, ate moose and reindeer, cuddled with puppies and petted reindeers, made pizza for the first time, and rode a sled two times through the beautiful, powdered scenery of Lapland.

I arrived shortly before the beginning of the season so my first week was partly about preparing and training the dogs for the action. On my first day the dogs got harnessed to a car while I was sitting inside. That was awesome because I got to see some of the power the dogs got inside their bodies. The next day I was at Assar’s house to pull fishes out of the net. It was minus 35 degrees outside so I was happy to hear that we would do the work inside a warm barn. It was quite exhausting and a bit gross and after that Assar invited us to eat some cookies. I even ate Reindeer tongue. It tasted good but the imagination of it tempted me to not eat a second piece.

During the week I more and more got involved into the tasks that have to been done at white horizon for example preparing food for the dogs and feeding them, shovelling snow, cuddling with the dogs and of course also cleaning the house and making food for every person in the house. At first, I was a little bit skeptical if I could learn all the names of the dogs in that short period of time because I can`t even remember all the names of the pupils in my class but surprisingly I learned the names quite fast. 

On the fifth day I went sled dog riding with the other volunteers. It was a very nice experience, and I loved the landscape we rode through, but it was very very cold. That`s why I made the stupid mistake to wear 5 socks on top of each other, so I couldn`t move any of my toes. I still can`t feel my big right toe to this day :/.

The second week I saw polar lights for the first time of my life. They were quite weak, but it still was fantastic.  The first guests arrived on Wednesday and with them, the season officially began. The routines didn`t really change besides, that we had to prepare the sleds by 11 am almost every day and that the indoor person had to make the food from a given menu which was “fabulous”.

Two days ago, Lena, a swiss volunteer made “Grittibänze” with us, which is a Christmas pastry that looks like the cookie from Shrek. It was fun to make them, and they also didn’t taste so bad ;). Yesterday I went snowshoe hiking with Johanna and the guests. I really liked it and I consider doing it again sometime in Germany. In the evening we also went Ice fishing but sadly we didn’t catch any fish.

Today was my last full day here at white horizon. It’s kind of sad when I think about leaving tomorrow. 2 weeks were definitely to short because I’ve just settled in.