Hello! These are the pages of Kristian André Gallis. Who am I? I am from Andebu Shire, Vestfold county in Norway, born in 1973. I am studying for my master degree at the University in Oslo, in the department of geosciences. My thesis will be about Mars. The red planet. Beside this, I am working as a bus driver in the company Nettbuss. I have attended many schools, the ones worth mentioning are Torpeskolen (the best of them all), Universitetet i Oslo (University of Oslo), Háskóli Íslands (University of Iceland) and UNIS (The University courses on Svalbard) as the latest (for the time being). I completed my studies there in June 2001 I stayed on Iceland for one year, a wonderfull time. It involved courses in Icelandic, bathing in hot springs, socializing with exchange students from all over the planet, plenty of wind, varying weather, volcano eruptions, visits from Norway etc. I lived in a tiny flat on Grenimelur street in Reykjavík. In the autumn my flatmate was Christoffer Lärkner from Sweden, in the spring Martin Jönsson (also a Swede). The thing I miss most from my time in Iceland are the possibilities of bathing all year around in the numerous public baths. Seven only in Reykjavík, thereof I have visited five. In addition to those I have bathed in Akureyri, Höfn, Vestmannaeyjar, The blue lagoon, Garðabær and Hveravellir to mention some places. My favourite was Vesturbæjarlaug, since it was only a couple of minutes walking away from my flat. The following summer was used travelling across the country back and forth. Pictures can be seen if you click on "Iceland". I will return to the island og the sagas one day, but I do not know when. We'll see. Last news about this is that I have at last gotten a chance to revisit Iceland! The autumn of 2003 i attended a course at the University of Oslo named Geo4010. The course consists of a master excursion, and this year it went to Iceland! I took some photos from this trip with my mobile phone, they can be viewed here. Fun to return to old places again, and to impress my fellow Norwegian students with my knowledge of Icelandic. After reading the book "Espen i isen" (Espen in the ice) (by Thor Larsen) when I was little I decided that I should become a polar scientist. I haven't become excactly this, but the interest influenced my choice of field in my study. When The University courses on Svalbard (UNIS) was started I found my chance of experienzing the polar adventure. I applied for the one year course in arctic geology at UNIS in Longyearbyen and was admitted. I arrived there August the 3rd 2000, and after three days of intense educatuion the students, including me, left on a 12 day scientific cruise in the fjords of the west coast of the island of Spitsbergen. It was a magnificent tour, we had two days of fog and light rain, the rest were sunny and marvellous. After returning from the big excursion it was time for smaller trips. In winter time snow scooter trips were the thing. My greatest hobby probably is book reading. Nowadays as I am a bus driver I always carry a book with me and read a bit while I am having a break at the bus station. It is mostly science fiction, but I also try to read one or two classic books. The last of this kind was "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens. When I was on Iceland I read children books in Icelandic (like "Mio, My Son" by Astrid Lindgren) to learn the language. I advanced quickly to youth books (like "The three musketeers" by Alexandre Dumas) to challenge myself. A very good way of learning. I have a list of the books I have read the last years (which I have to update soon), click on the book picture to view them. [ Norway | Iceland | Svalbard-Spitsbergen | Books ] Created by Kristian André Gallis Thanks to Justin Wells for polishing my English.