You know the childhood — or awkward first date — game of lying on the ground and staring at the sky in some pensive, meditative mood? Well, in Finland, you can kind of make a career out of it.
This winter the Arctic Snow Hotel — an entirely literal name because, yes, it’s made of snow — in the Finnish Lappland is hiring an “Aurora Borealis Monitor.” Unlike those hall monitor positions where minutes were spent trying to stop Julie Denkhorst from throwing pencils at you, you’ll be responsible for, well, staring at the sky.
From December 3 to March 31, the hotel’s “Aurora Borealis monitor” will be responsible for scouring the skies between 11:00 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. and sounding the “Aurora Alarm”— it’s almost like you’re the vacation version of Paul Revere — when the celestial show appears.
Good candidates should speak English fluently — no knowledge of Finnish is required. Additionally, applicants should be adept at staying up all night — calling insomniacs — and will monitor and predict forecasted weather patterns to guess when and where the lights will show, which seems hard, but we complain about the meteorologist on a weekly basis. Oh, and also, you’ll live in an igloo, so you should be able to handle that.
Whoever gets the job, though, will spend their winter in the Lapland, with a free room — made of either glass or ice — at the Arctic Snow Hotel, and with the beautiful Nordic scenery reindeers particularly love.
The application deadline is September 11. Good luck.
Tom is a travel writer, part-time hitchhiker, and he’s currently trying to imitate Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? but with more sunscreen and jorts.