light and dark…

I have lived in Oulu for almost a year now.  Yet, I still haven’t begun to get used to the stark contrast between light and dark.  I arrived in Oulu on the 3rd of January.  The sun would rise somewhere between 10-10:30 and set around 2.  In other words, you can briefly see the sun trying to peak over the tree tops before immediately sinking below the horizon.  If you have class all day then you wont see the sun at all; its almost like perpetual darkness.  After the shortest day of the year on Dec 20th the days begin to get longer by 6 minutes.  By June, the day would last from about 2 AM to 12AM!  22 hours of sunlight!  Unless you get some hotel curtains you can forget about sleep.  I was getting on average about 5-6 hours sleep a night during the summer. I should have bought a mask.  This time of year is referred to as the “Dark Time” due to the absence of snow to reflect light.