Long Study Tour: Greenland 1

Last week I experienced the four most amazing consecutive days imaginable on my long study tour to Greenland. Pictures don't capture just how fantastic the trip was, and neither will these posts, but I'll try...

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Monday, October 21

Mew helped me pack. Not.

The trip started with my 4:30 AM alarm. I packed a few last items, had leftover crepes for breakfast, and arrived absurdly early at 5:45 for the 6:15 meeting time. Thanks for the ride, Ove!

After checking in, we had plenty of time to stroll around the airport, though some people opted to take a nap instead! We also got our Kangerlussuaq Awareness Tests (KATs, which led to many amusing phrases), a packet of questions about the regional ecology, geology, culture, and history.

The flight took off at 9:00 Copenhagen time and landed four and a half hours later at 9:30 Greenland time.

Everyone whipped out their cameras as we got off the plane, but our fingers got cold pretty quickly! It was about 20 F. It looks like the sun is just rising, but that's how the sky looks for most of the day because the sun is so low.

 We settled into the hostel, and our professors wisely gave us an hour to play outside.

Right outside the hostel

Weeeeeee fresh snow! Too powdery for snowballs but excellent for snow angels and drawing!

Then it was lunchtime: the first of four consecutive lunches of identical horrible sandwiches. These sandwiches were the worst part of the trip. (They weren't actually that bad, just bland, squishy, and repetitive. I did appreciate the fresh vegetables.)

After lunch we took a bus tour of Kangerlussuaq. The town of about 550 was originally a U.S. military base and airport; the architecture and infrastructure recall the former American presence. The buildings were plain and rectangular, though brightly colored. (No pictures--they weren't particularly striking.)

The first stop was at a sled dog kennel. Dogs are not kept as pets in Greenland, but rather as working animals. They run around freely during the summer and pull sleds for hunters and tourists during the winter.

Sled dogs in training

Later we stopped for a geology/ecology talk at a smooth, curved cliff. While the rock and lichen were interesting, I couldn't stop thinking about my painfully cold toes--I hadn't expected to be outside for so long and was in tennis shoes!

The rock face was smoothed by glacial meltwater rivers. Lichen are still able to grow on the smooth surface because a) they're super tough organisms and b) the rock face is fertilized with raven poop!

Dinner was at a one of perhaps three restaurants in Kangerlussuaq. Vegetarians got some Thai-esque stir-fry and salad with a pink mayonnaise-y dressing (I was not a fan); everyone else had muskox meatballs.

That night Henning (the Arctic prof) gave a lecture about the Northern Lights, and I went outside a few times looking for them. Instead, I got some long, bright shooting stars and a lovely night sky.