BLUUUUR

The last four days in Kangerlussuaq flew by and we were always busy! So I really didn't have much time to blog. But the last few days we had were amazing! Most notably we went back to point 660 and got to drill holes in the ice to place ablation sticks in. :) I also managed to fall on the ice... again. But hey "I bruised my butt in Greenland" Awesome.

Eating ice I chipped off point 660

My favorites, Dana and Aggu :)

Drilling holes on the ice!

Then the next day we went out and dug soil pits near lake Ferguson and analyzed the soil we had. We dug all the way down to the permafrost. Which isn't what I expected. It's not like ice under the soil, it's literally FROZEN dirt. After group awesome dug our soil pit, I sat in it. :) I sat on Greenlandic permafrost, yeah. 

All in all, this trip is more amazing than I ever would have imagined! I'm so thankful I was able to experience it. :) 

Much love,

Sydney

Mud Fight

Sunday July 8^th

Today definitely made up for every bad day we’ve had here. I just needed a little reminder to cling to the little things to help me get through the day. :) Although the two and a half hour lecture on climate and evolution this morning was absolutely thrilling, I did get a tad distracted by my games of solitaire (I won every game, BT Dubs). After our “oh so exciting” lectures we finally got to head out into the field! We drove just a few minutes past the airport to what looked like a huge pit full of mud. But, it’s actually a great place to find fossils! Rikke told us that we might get lucky and be able to find fish fossils! Well, I guess it was my lucky day cause I actually found one! After crouching in the mud digging for at least half an hour I found a really cool fish fossil, complete with spine and fin imprints! However after an hour of sitting in the mud, the inevitable happened: a mud fight. You see, Fie was complaining that her forehead itched, but her hands were dirty so she didn’t want to itch it. So, being the kind individual I am, I walked over there and sweetly scratched it for her. Apparently she didn’t appreciate my act of kindness because she returned the favor by throwing a huge handful of mud at me!  I turned around and, as nicely as possible, said “Fie, that wasn’t very nice, I was only trying to help.” Hahaha. Not really. I went over and smudged mud all over her face, and it literally started a full blown mud war with about six of us from the group.  It was hilarious and some of the most fun I’ve had in a long time! On the way back to base camp we had a great talk in the back of the truck too. Who would have thought I’d be in the back of a truck, with a Physicist, a Danish girl, a girl from New York, covered in mud, in Kangerlussuaq Greenland? Yeah, no one.  Quite the experience if I do say so myself. Haha.

 We had just ten minutes to clean ourselves up and then head the Meterological institute to learn about the weather forecasting for all the airlines here. Which was cool, cause I’ve never even thought about that aspect of weather.  And then, possibly the highlight of my day… DINNER AT THE AIRPORT! :) Thank God for real food. We had steak.. I think, and fries and corn. Oh man. It  was amazing. I couldn’t have been happier. Plus tonight is movie night I guess! So we’ll get to watch mean girls! I haven’t even seen TV in the last two weeks, so this is quite the treat. But as great as this is, I can’t wait to be home. Only a few more days!

Much love,

Sydney

mmm, whale

Saturday June 7^th

Today was absolutely the most boring day ever. But tonight was one of the most hilarious. We didn’t really have anything to work on so we mostly had the day off.  We went to the airport, and bought some souvniers for people, and then came back to base camp and did nothing again. Tonight was a ton of fun though. We had a Greenlandic dinner and spent the evening playing old Greenlandic games.  I actually tried whale! It doesn’t taste bad, however it was the concistency of rubber.  They also had salmon and little shrimp. After we ate a little we played some of the most interesting games… I’ll definitely have to show people once I get home! Haha.

yep, that's whale

 But I never would’ve imagined how much I would like some of the people here. They’re hilarious and we always just have a blast. I literally snort constantly, my laugh has turned into a short laugh and then tons of snorts.  It’s pretty emburrusing. And the real problem is that once I start snorting, I think it’s funny, so then I laugh harder and well… it’s a vicious cycle.  But tonight, I can’t even remember what was so funny, but Rikke, Fie, and I were literally crying laughing. 

Aggu is definitely someone I'm gonna miss

And I'll miss group awesome like crazy <3

Needless to say, it was a good night. It weird to think that in just five days I’ll be leaving this place I’ve been living for the last two weeks and in all honestly, I’ll probably never see many of the people I’ve met ever again, which is a sad thought because I’ve made a lot of really good friends. But I try not to think about it and just enjoy the time that I have here. But I can’t wait to come home and see everybody, and I’m actually looking forward to the Arizona heat! Maybe my fingers and toes won’t be so frozen all the time!

Much love,

Sydney

Vomiting Caterpillars

Friday, June 6^th

Today was an awesome day! Instead of taking the trucks out to the glaciers, we all got to ride on this huge tour bus out to the field site. Once we got there, we went on yet another uphill hike (because everything here somehow manages to be uphill both ways). Once we got up to one of the peaks, We met with a few undergrad students who are helping a grad student conduct his research on plants and roots. However, I found the most interesting person there to be Michael Avery (Mike) a student at Penn State who is studying ecology. He studies caterpillars and invertebrates, specifically the Eurois Occulta. We learned that he spends a lot of time making them vomit, which is one of their defense mechanisms. We found one of the caterpillars that he studies, but apparently it wasn’t a very smart caterpillar because it never figured out how to pupate, so it was probably going to die any day. Mike said he could only make the caterpillar vomit if it was warm (and let me tell you, it was not warm out there) so I sacrificed one of my hand warmers to warm it. Once we warmed it up, Mike made it vomit for us. Haha it’s surprising how many people with stand in a little circle just to watch a bug vomit. Then Mike told us about a strange fungus that has been taking over the caterpillars and slowly taking over them, and then making them climb to the top of plants, where they die and then release the spores of the fungus.  It’s called Zoophthora Radicans. After he taught us about the caterpillars he gave us little collection vials and we walked around collecting any bugs we could find. I even convinced Maeve to let me kill her caterpillar so I could take it home and give it to Mr. Farr (my science teacher). The best part was that once we put it in the alcohol it vomited and pooped. So I now have a vial with a dead caterpillar, caterpillar vomit, and caterpillar poop. Pretty cool, huh? After that, most of the group went with Mike to a further hike but Dana and I stopped half way up and stayed in a little field of flowers we found.

 We made hippie flower head bands, laid in the flowers, and took pictures. :) We were probably there for at least an hour before the rest of the group hiked back down and we all got back on the bus. Let me just say the best part of the bus ride was watching everybody try to sleep because we were driving on the bumpiest road ever created. And to make an amazing day even better, we got to eat at the airport instead of Thai food. :) It was a good day.

Much love,

Sydney 

Kellyville

Thursday July 5^th

Today was so long. I feel like each day is just taking longer and longer. It’s probably cause I miss everybody so much…  Anyways, today we went to the Radar facility in Kellyville (a tiny town with only seven people) where we  got the longest tour of my life. I just feel so tired it’s impossible to focus, but it was kinda cool just cause the radar is so big.

 We also got to see their laser and a ton of pics they took of the Aurora, which is beautiful. I made it a new goal of mine- I want to see the northern lights before I die. Actually, I’ve decided it would be the best date ever, to sit under the northern lights with someone, I just think about things like this all the time. :) Anyways, after we went to see the radar we came back to base camp where we had two skype interviews, and honestly I was so dead tired, I can barely tell you anything about them… But I know we were talking about the ice bridge, the airplanes that are taking Ice measurements until the new satellite launches in 2016. After our lectures we had a break for dinner, which was, again, thai food. -__- After dinner we had a small social activity where Maeve taught us how to make paper trebuches and we launched m&m’s and ate tons of chocolate. Life was good. :) Dana and I also “tamed our eyebrows” finally. New we’re feelin pretty, well, about as pretty as you can feel when you never wear make up and are somehow always dirty feeling. Anyways, in all honesty I can’t think of much to blog today, all I can think about is how much I miss people, and how much I wish I could just see everyone. Being here definitely makes me appreciate seeing everyday, and being able to talk on the phone until I fall asleep. It’s the little things I miss. I also want a watermelon eegee sooooo badly. Well, I hope all is well in the states and I’ll be home in a week! :)

Much love,

Sydney 

AMUURICA

Wednesday The Fourth Of July

Well  first off,  I have to start todays blog by telling y’all about last night! Last night we finally got wifi for everyone, even on our phones. I was literally so happy when it started working that I cried. You never realize how much you appreciate those things until you don’t have them anymore! Anyways after Dana and I had mini freak outs we just sat around smiling at the internet for hours. I even got to skype a little. Hearing the voice of someone you miss is an amazing thing. :) Anyways,  I went to bed smiling like a little school girl last night. Today was amazing as well! Happy Fourth of July America! This morning started out patriotic with Dana and I waking everybody up waving an American flag and singing the star spangled banner! Probably the best duet anyone here has ever heard, in my opinion. After our morning singing session, we had a short presentation by Karen and Kyla, research scientists studying  the biogeochemistry of glacial meltwater. They took us out near Russell glacier to collect water samples. Before we went out on the site the Danish and Greenlandic students asked us to sing some patriotic songs, so of course we did! We sand God Bless the U.S.A., Yankee Doodle, My country tis of thee and any others we could think of! Then in all the languages, we all sang twinkle twinkle little star! Which was so cool sounding! Then we went out to the field site where it was absolutely freezing. Luckily, Malene let me borrow her infinity scarf so I wrapped it around my head and kept myself a little warmer. :)

After we collected samples we went back to KISS, the scientific research center near base camp, to analyze what we had found. We learned that each tiny sample had hundreds of bacteria in it (which I already knew ;))  and we also attempted to measure the amount of iron in the samples, but unfortunately that didn’t work! However when we were looking at the bacteria on the slides, it was amazing because it looked like a galaxy. Each little bacteria that we had covered in a stain looked like a little greenish-yellow star, which was so nice cause I haven’t seen stars since I got here!  Once we were done at KISS we came back to base camp to start the Fourth of July festivities! We blasted country music and had burgers and hot dogs! We also decorated everything with red white and blue, flags, and other obnoxious American items! It was awesome!  We grilled our burgers on these tiny charcoal grills, but they tasted so good! We also made brownies that we cooked in weird cardboard/paper/box/container things. We even stuck individual American flags in each brownie! I also walked around all day saying “AMUURICAH!” It was a good time.

We sat outside and ate our delicious American food and had a dandy good time, it was wonderful. :)  I had two burgers, a coke, a brownie, chips, and then I went and bought vanilla ice cream. Who would’ve thought we could have such a great Fourth of July in Greenland? It was a blast!

Also, I keep forgetting to mention in my blog, but you know what I’ve noticed? When you get really cold, fashion literally STOPS existing. Like I couldn’t care less what I look like while I’m here as long as I’m warm, and I feel like everyone else thinks the exact same thing! Haha so when I look super awkward in all these pics, I’m sorry,  I blame the weather!

 Anyways, even though we just got internet, it’s looking like we won’t have it for long, but I’ll try and keep up on my blog! I hope y’all are doing well and I’ll be back in Arizona in T-minus 8 days! Take care everyone!

Much love,

Sydney

Quick Update

Hey y'all, so you may have noticed that I stopped blogging mid-trip, it's because our internet in Kanger was down and it took a lot to be able to post. However, I kept all my blogs in a word document so I'm gonna post it all today :)

Slut

Tuesday July 3rd

Today was actually really nice and chill. We've had a lot of down time to kinda just hang out at base camp spending time with the other students. :) We had a short vidoe conference this morning with a scientist who is studying glacial melt water and the amount of sediment in the Watson River, which is just a short distance from tbase camp. Sadly, all four of our attempts to gather data failed. But it was still a ton of fun! After figuring out the amount of glacial sediment in the river, we went back to base camp and went on this really cool website that has a lot information about ice sheets and glaciers. Then we've literally just been chilling at base camp. The Greenlandic and Danish students are all super chill and hilarious. Especially Aggu. He's probably my favorite Greenlandic student. He's one of the only two guys here and he's absolutely hilarious. He was put in my group (Group four: Him, Nivi, Melene, and I) and we're the best team ever. We're always the fist to get stuff done and we work as a rockin' team! We even made the best mosquito joke ever. "I gave that itch a scratch. Itches love scratches." HAHAHAHA Best moment ever. AND he taught me a new word: slut. It means end in Danish. Oh, and I had the most joyous moment t of the trip thus far today in the kitchen. Kasper and Shynes came home from grocery shopping and bought us a ton of food for our fourth of July celebration tomorrow! They got us burgers and brownie mix and, as a special gift, Nutella. Also, Kasper came home from the store and proved that I'm his favorite. ;) I've been bothering him all day because we ran out of peach yogurt, which along with oatmeal, has been my staple food. And when he got home from the store he told me: "Sydney, I like you five liters of peach yogurt." He loves me. Anyways, today has been really nice and super chill, hopefully tomorrow is the same. :) Hope y'all are doing well! I love you tons!

Much love,

Sydney

The toilet situation

Okay, so this isn't my blog for today, but I just need to give y'all the low down on this, and also to kinda rant about it. The toilet situation here is awful. Theres maybe like... ten toilets for all 27 of us, which isn't to bad right? Except NONE of them work. I'm dead serious. At the beginning of the trip, like three worked. And now we're down to like one, that only flushes occasionally. I'm not kidding. Like you pull the little flush lever up, and it just puts more water into the toilet. Nothing goes anywhere ahnd it's disgusting. The worst part is that people are still using them! Even though nothing is working and no one has said anything until I did this morning! PLUS, the one toilet we do have smells awful. As Dana says "You literally have to hold your breathe the entire time you're in there to keep from vomiting all over the place." So yeah, if you hear me mention going pee outside, yeah thats why. -__-

"My life is better than yours" (;

Monday July 2nd

Today was perfect. I mean it was honestly one of the best days I have ever had. We got up at our usual time this morning, but I finally think I’m getting used to it cause I wasn’t totally dead, it was nice to have a little bit of energy for once! We took four cars out to Russel Glacier, and of course Shynes, Dana, and I all rode together, we’re like a little dysfunctional family.  :) Grandma Marisa also joined us on the car ride. She’s so cute. It was about an hour out to Russel glacier, but it was worth every minute. We met Ruth and Julia, research students from Dartmouth who have been camping about a mile and a half away from the glacier, measuring the amount of carbon dioxide (in ppm) that comes from the microbes in the soil. They taught us all about the carbon cycle through this really cute little game, I’m gonna have to show my science teachers when I get back (Mr. Farr would love it). And while we were out near the ice, I found myself (for the first time in my life) wishing for Tucson heat. I was so cold. No matter what I did, I couldn’t feel my feet, my hands, or my face. -__- Once they talked to us for about an hour, they showed us the machine they use to measure carbon dioxide in the air, called a LI-COP. They let me blow into it and measure the parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide in my breath. They average ppm of carbon dioxide in the air is 390. There was 11,000 ppm of carbon dioxide in my breath, just in case you were wondering.

In front of Russel Glacier :)

After they let us see how their equipment is used, they took us on the mile and a half hike up to Russel Glacier. It was amazing. Plain and Simple. We followed a musk ox path, which you would expect to be wide, since musk ox are fairly big animals, but it’s not. It’s about a seven inch wide, if even that, path that leads all the way to the glacier. It was beautiful, and surprisingly green for how close we were to the ice. The path is lines by all sorts of green plants, which I’ve been trying to learn the Greenlandic names for! And there are all there cute little flower type plants that look like cotton balls all over the place, it’s like something out of a fairytale.  And my new favorite flower is this cute little white flower that looks like a mini daisy. :) Once we got out to the glacier, it was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. It was about as tall as a three story building and absolutely stunning. I can’t even put into words what it’s like to be standing in the shadow of something so amazing. However, at Russel Glacier, you can’t get to close because it can Calve at any time. Calving in when huge chunks of ice fall off of the glacier into the water below. The most amazing part was that we actually saw the glacier calve three time, which according to Ruth is incredibly rare to see in just one hour. When the ice calves, it makes a magnificent booming sound and then the entire piece cracks off of the ice and loudly tumbles down the cliff. It’s breathe-taking. Dana actually got some really cool shots of the ice falling into the water too (so y’all should check out her blog as well!). After our hike there we hiked back, making a three mile round trip, and finally had lunch! We had these weird sandwiches that the cafeteria made us! After lunch we drove about another half hour to Point 660 which is actually another glacier that you can walk out on. It was unreal. You can walk out about half a mile to the ice, and then from there it just goes on for hundreds of miles. One of my favorite parts about the glacier is that the top layer is like bubble wrap! Kasper said he wouake a few of us on a "short walk” with him a little further out on the ice. Although I learned his idea of a short walk is about three miles… I also learned that Kasper get unusually excited over animal turds. He literally said “Oh my goodness, three different animal sh*ts in one meter!” And when I asked if that was special, his reply was “It’s one in a million!” hahahaha He’s probably one of my favorite people here! After our four mile hike around point 660 (bringing our grand total for the day to around 6-7 miles hiked, and when I say hiked I mean legit, up and down, crazy hills, rough terrain hiked) we went back down to the trucks for our drive back to the dorms (which I will now be calling base camp). One the way back down the road (I learned the road we were on was the longest road in Kangerlussuaq) we stopped by an old airplane wreck site. Apparently it was a U.S. plane that crashed in the field in 1953. It was completely ripped apart, but so cool to see. I took a little piece of shrapnel to bring home with me and since there were a lot of other signatures, Dana and I signed our names and states on the wing of the plane. Instead of going straight to base camp we stopped at the airport, which is the heart of the little town, to have dinner. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see potatoes and vegetables. It was amazing. And for the first time since being here, I actually have energy. We came back to base camp, where Dana, Mama Marisa, and I went and got ice cream, my fav. And after dinner tonight was super chill. Plus we kinda have internet so I’m happy. :) Hopefully I’ll be in touch then! Love and miss you all!

Much love,

Sydney

Landfills and Lakes

Sunday, July 1st

Well we still don’t have internet today, so I’ve just been typing my blog entries in a word document and I’ll put them up on my blog as soon as possible! But obviously if you’re reading this I have internet… so yeah, hopefully that’s soon. This morning started with breakfast (duh.), which is my new favorite “meal”. I’ve discovered the one thing I can actually eat that isn’t totally awful… peach yogurt with oatmeal in it. Probably the greatest thing I’ve ever come up with. (I introduced it to Dana at lunch). We then proceeded to an extremely uh, ‘entertaining’ Chemistry and Geology lesson. I’ll be honest I was curled up on the couch half asleep, and Dana was behind me in a chair sleeping against the wall, so honestly neither of us remember anything. After our “lesson” we went for an even more exciting trip to… (drum roll) the local landfill! woohoo. Let me tell you, it was wonderful. It smells amazing and there are no bugs at all. HA. Kidding. It looked like the Elephant graveyard from the lion king (I know, two lion king references in a row) There were seriously so many bones and dead things all around the trash. And the mosquitos there were SO bad. I was literally covered in them. So I drenched myself in a lovely bug spray perfume. (Everything I own smells like bug spray, except my pajamas). After our landfill trip we drove about a mile to Lake Ferguson, which was a complete 180 from the landfill, the water there sparkles and shimmers and it’s gorgeous. We got to wear waders out into the water to take water samples to test. Which was really weird feeling… cause they suction to your butt and your legs and it feels like you’re weightless and walking on the moon. And before we left, we saw what they call a “rainbow halo”. It looks like an actual halo around the sun.

Dana at Lake Ferguson

Setting the fashion standard high in waders at Lake Ferguson. I know, I'm hawt.

The "Sun Halo"

Our group was the first to get home for lunch cause we’re always hungry, plus we get about an hour break for lunch so if you can eat in less than twenty minutes you can also take a decent nap, which is what we did. Honestly, if we have any down time you can probably find Dana and I sleeping somewhere. We’ll sleep anywhere, anytime, for however long we can get. Everyone else probably thinks we’re anti-social… After lunch and our daily nap, we went out into the lounge to work on our presentations from the landfill and Lake Ferguson. Which was really nice cause we had a nice chill afternoon. And after at we had dinner, wanna guess where? The Thai restaurant. Who would’ve guessed I’d be eating so much Thai food in Greenland. -__- After Thai and a little break we had a little lecture from Kasper about Greenlandic whales, he showed us a ton of pictures from Aasiaat whale watching. It was so cool! The best part though was when he showed us a video of the whale getting really close to his kayak and he said he was “Super calm and cool” and when the camera is turned to him, he has the funniest face I’ve ever seen, like a kid in a candy store. After the whale talk, we had a “token exchange” where the students gave little gifts that they brought that they thought represented where they came from. I gave the lollipops with scorpions in them, Mexican lollipops, and cactus candy. But from the other students I got: a cute pink sport bag, A rock that shimmers blue when it’s wet and in the sun, three postcards, stickers, pens, a handmade necklace, taffy, keychains, coins from the U.S. mint, a Ptarmagin feather, quite a few pins, chocolate, a guitar pick, and a really cool sheet of pressed Greenlandic flowers that a few of the Greenlandic girls made. It was a really cute idea and it was a ton of fun! And they tols us the plan for tomorrow, we’re going to the ice sheets! So I’ll be taking a ton of pictures! Plus now we actually get to go back to our rooms fairly early (nine ish). But now that I have down time, I really miss everybody. I wish I could call my mom, and my dad, my sisters,  my boyfriend, all my friends, I just wanna hear everyones voices. I just miss everybody so much. I guess you don’t realize how much you actually talk to them until you have no way to be in contact with them. Anyways, I'll talk to you all as soon as possible!

Much love,

Sydney

tutututuuutuututuutuututututututut tut

Saturday, June 30

This morning was rough. I swear the hallway in this dorm is at least a mile. It’s the hallway that never ends, it goes on and on and on… Although that may have something to do with the fact that I’ve had maybe five hours of awful sleep each night for the past four days. And something about being in Greenland makes you both tired and starving 24/7. I’m not kidding, I’m always hungry and it drives me insane. I’ve eaten six pieces of bread with Nutella or jam on them today alone. Anyways, after breakfast we had a pre-program test that Shynes (Shelly Hynes, the teacher in charge of the U.S. students) told us it was okay to do poorly on, so I spent all of ten minutes trying, and the other 45 minutes lying on the couch trying to feel less exhausted. After our test we learned all about GPS and how it works, including how the satellites in space that are used for GPS are exactly 38 microseconds fast because of relativity making time move faster as the objects move fast, and slightly slower because of gravity. Thank you Einstein. After that we put our GPS knowledge to the test as we looked for Geocaches and for GPS coordinates to hide our own Geocaches. After receiving the coordinates of an actual Geocache near our location, while the rest of the group listened to Kasper talking about other Geocahce locations, Dana and I rushed off to find the one closest to us. You might say we were a little to excited when we found it. Inside was a box of matches, which we left, but we also added a scorpion lollipop that I had brought with me as a token of what Arizona is kinda like. After Geocaching we had our lunch break, which Dana and I spent half of sleeping in our room. Let me just say, I slept better in those twenty minutes than I have in the last five days. It was amazing.

Although even after that rest the mile and a half walk out to see the sledge dogs still seemed awful. But it was totally worth it, they are the most adorable things I’ve ever seen. There were about thirty big sledge dogs, and three puppies! They were all so friendly and loved being pet and loved on. But they were all shedding, so once you got close to them you were covered in dog hair.

Future Sledge dogs :)

Then we had about an hour before dinner, can you guess what I did? Laid in our room and Marisa and Maeve’s room, trying to sleep. Cause - shocker- I’m tired. Although right before I went to nap was probably one of the funniest parts of the trip so far. There was a mosquito on Danas forehead and I was trying to help her out by killing it but when I squished it, it smudged blood all over her forehead… It looked like Simba after Rafiki smudged paint on his forehead. Hahaha it was awesome.

After dinner, which was more Thai food, yay… Dana and I got ice cream again. I’m thinking it’s gonna be a daily thing cause A) it’s delicious and B) it reminds me of home. Then we came back to the dorms so that the Greenlandic students could teach us a little bit about their culture. They taught us tomns of new words, so heres just a few:

·         Allu-hello

·         Inuugujooq-bye

·         Sinilluarpt?- Did you sleep well?

·         Qujana-Thank you

They also taught us some of their “tounge twisters” and just funny sentences. I garuntee you can’t guess what they mean.

Tuttuttut tututtut tuttutut tututtutut tuttutuuttut- that literally means- Dirty reindeer hunters who are eating reindeers and dirty reindeers.

OR

Tuttut tututtut tuttutut tututtutut tuttutuuttut- which means- Dirty reindeers who are eating reindeers as dirty reindeers.

OR, my personal favorite, the longest word I’ve ever seen in my life:

Nalunaarasuartaateerannagualiornialikkersaaleraluallaraminngooraasiinngoorukua – which means- They were talking about to make a little telegram station. However apparently you can make the word longer by mentioning the color of the station, cause it’s not long enough as is. -__-

After we had our culture lesson we decided to play name games to learn every ones names better. Which was highly entertaining till I kicked Shynes and she slapped me, leaving a handprint. Actually, I learned that this was all Danas fault. See I was cuddled up on the floor cause I was so tired while we were playing the game, it was already almost ten! And Shynes was sitting next to me, towards my feet. She jokingly hit my butt and I dared her to do to again. When my butt got hit again I kicked (not hard I swear) Shynes, who then slapped my butt leaving a handprint -__- hahah Only after that did I learn it was Dana who had hit me the second time, causing the whole thing.

The handprint Shynes left on my butt....

 Haha once we came back to our room, the mission was to make our room darker, so we can actually sleep, which was, uh, quite the experience. Rikke told me I could just open the window and tuck garbage bags behind it, well as soon as I opened the window the whole thing feel out of the wall into Danas suitcase and covered everything in her bag with dust. Which was hilarious and laughed so hard I snorted. Hahahah she was PISSED. However now when you look at our window… IT’S DARK! Let there be darkness!! Thank God.

Our make-shift garbage bag curtin

But now that it’s finally dark in our room I’m gonna go cuddle in bed with my book and my favorite playlist of acoustics, and hopefully get my first good night of sleep!

I hope you’re doing well, I miss you like you wouldn’t believe.

Much love,

Sydney

Day three

I'm gonna try to give y'all a good idea of what we did today, but to be completely honest, I am beyond tired and ready so for bed! Also, the internet is gonna be changing, so I have no clue when I'll be able to post again after this, hopefully soon though! Anyway, this morning was extrememly exciting waking up knowing all the Greenlandic and Danish students would be arriving today! After somehow dragging myself out of bed after ony four hours of sleep we all went out to breakfast at the airport on base. After breakfast we went out back of the airport and saw a super cool sign that shows what direction many major cities are in and how long it would take to get there. Surprsingly, Tucson was not one of those cities. Shocker right?

After marveling at the sign we walked the mile back to our dorms. When we then spent about an hour going over and taking inventory of the supplies we will be using for the next two weeks. By the time we were done with that it was time to go pick up the first of the Greenlandic students, and then get lunch. After lunch was probably the highlight of my day. Dana and I spent at least ten minutes in the gift shop trying to pick the right shirt sizes for our boyfriends. And after unfolding and refolding smalls and mediums repeatedly, asking people in the store, and looking like dorks we finally decided. We both got smalls. We then came back to the dorms and greeted the Greenandic and Danish students as they arrived. We had some facinating conversations with them about the differences in their lives anf ours. Did you know they don't like peanut butter here? And they're shocked we put peanut butter together with jelly on a sandwich! Crazy right? Who doesn't like peanut butter? I wish I'd brought some with me! After talking for a few hours, Dana and I decided to go for a walk down by the bridge and Fjord. We slid down the rocks under the bridge and got way up close to the rushing water. It was freezing so close to the edge, but it was beautiful!

The Fjord rushing under the bridge

After our short walk, we went back to the dorms so we could all go oout to dinner together at the thai resturant. Which tastes very... interesting. Although I did try Muskox! Which was actually quite good, there isn't really anything to relate the tatse too, but i guess it does taste kinda like beef or stake... combined... kinda. And after dinner Dana treated me to ice cream ;) and as an ice cream lover, I was in heaven. The ice cream here is SO good. It's super rich and creamy. So I'm happy!

Oh, and upon returning to our room we realized that we still have puddles of bug spray on our floor... We discovered that an extremely effective way to kill the mosquitos is just to let them get close to you, and then drench them in bug spray. They fall right out of the air and remain in a little puddle of bug spray on the floor. haha and we also sprayed on on the the wall... it's still there...

Our new wall decor

Well anyways, today was pretty good, and hopefully with the actual start of the field school tomorrow will be even better! I look forward to everything I'll learn in the next two weeks and hopefully I won't be without internet for to long so I can keep y'all updated!

Much love,

Sydney

Day Two :)

Today was another absolutely amazing day in Kangerlussuaq! Bright and early this morning we went to breakfast in the "cafeteria" which is really just a little resturant on base. It was delicious! They have the bets break here and they even have chocolate-nutella-ish spread you can put on it! After breakfast we were able to chill out in the dorms and unpack until lunch. For lunch we had some sort of thinly sliced meat, smoked salmon, salad, and pasta: mmmm. After lunch we decided to go on a hike around the area. We drove about 5 minutes up the mountain and then hiked down to the edge of the lake. It ended up being a two hour hike but it was SO worth it! once you get up to the top of the mountain all you can see is the sparkle of the sun on the lake and hills all around. And if you look at the horizon, you can see the edge of the polar ice caps! And it was one of those moments where you realize how small you are. Standing on top of the world, literally. Surrounded by the most beautiful landscape you can imagine. Definitely a moment I'll never forget. Also, when we were hiking back up the mountain towards the truck we ran into a reindeer who followed us most of the way back, which was adorable! And then on the drive back down the mountain we saw a baby reindeer from the car! After our hike we were all starving so we decided to go out for dinner. We went out to a pizzaria wher we met Archer who was super cool! He was from Europe and he's traveled all over the world, just because. And he somehow ended up in kanger, but I'm not complaining cause he made absolutely amazing pizza! He even said if we went back tomorrow he would teach us how to make pizza ourselves! Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow? :D awesome. Once we came back to the dorms we got a short lecture from one of the coolest guys I think I've ever met. His name was Jeff Kerby, and he's a PhD student at Penn State. he's studying phenology, which is the study of timing of plants and animals. Like when plants bloom, when they die, when they're greenest, and when animals give birth, when the move around and things like that. It's facinating. His thesis is called "Spacial and Temporal Dimensions of Trophic Mismatch in Western Greenland." cool, huh? He showed us some awesome videos of his research and him in the field!

Our reindeer friend :)

Dana and I mid-hike :)

Well, its's already ten thirty here, and the Greenlandic and Danish students will be getting here early tomorrow morning, so I'm gonna try and catch up on some sleep! But I'll try and make sure I try to keep constant updates! Hope all is well in the states!

Much love,

Sydney

Greenland: Day One

Today has been super long, but absolutely awesome! This morning at five New York time (so one Arizona time) the Air National Guard picked up or group, as well as a few others going to greenland for research, from our hotel. They took us to the Air National Guard base where we waited for about two hours, which was actually ectremely entertaining because we had THE most hilarious loadmaster (Justin). The Air base in Albany is actually unique in the fact that it's the only base in the United States that flies C-130's with skis so that they can land on the ice. Or as Justin would say: "They can land on ice or water, water only once." haha. On the way fronm the lobby of the base to the C-130 the roof of our bus scraped against the garage door and broke the emergeny exit hatch on the top of the bus. Our loadmasters responded by calling it a "feel-good" exit and saying that it was about as useful as "life vests on airplanes" which was really comforting to hear right as we boarded our plane. -__- We then began our six and a half hour flight from Albany to Greenland. And let me tell you, C-130's are high-class, 5-star, luxary airplanes. They're extremely quiet and comfy and don't vibrate or shake at all. Not. Although, for the last 45 minutes I got to sit up in the cockpit and watch the landing into Greenland. Which was AMAZING. While your landing you can see the fjord which is every shade of blue and green imaginable, absolutly gorgeous. And off in the distance you can see the start of the ice caps. Once we landed we were shuttled to our dorm rooms where we had a little time to get settled. And we all went out to Thai food. Greenlandic thai food and American thai food are two very different things... but it was quite good! I've already learned a few Danish words too! See if you could guess what they are, I bet you can't! Ajorpoq, Morgenmad, Frokost, and Aftensmad. What do you think? Would you guess that Ajorpoq means out of order? Morgenmad means breakfast, Frokost means lunch, and Aftensmad means dinner? Yeah neither would I. I'll be logging more words so y'all can learn as much Danish and Greenlandic as I do! :) Anyways, I'm having a great time! (minus the mosquitos. which I'm not exageratting when I say are EVERYWHERE. every.where.)

This was our C-130, right after landing in Greenland. :)

And I got to wear the glight suit and helmet. I think I look pretty good, if I do say so myslef ;)

Anways, even though it's stll light outside, I should get some sleeo soon! More pics and updates to come!

Much love,
Sydney

Day 1... and 1.5

Hey y'all! I made it safe and sound to Albany, New York and in about two hours I'll be on a C-130 on my way to Greenland! But before I go I thought I'd give you a quick run-down on yesterday and last night! Well, after leaving Tucson yesterday morning at 6:30 I met up with Alex, Marisa, and Maeve in the Chicago airport and we all flew on the same flight to Albany, where Mrs. Hynes was waiting with Agnes and Dana. I was also given a lap top to borrow, so I am hopefully that I will able to keep y'all fairly updated on what we're doing! :)  From the airport we all took a taxi to the hotel room- which might I say, was amazing. I don't think I've ever slept in such a comfy hotel bed before! So what little sleep I actually got was amazing! And now we're all up, bright and early, about to be picked up and taken to the air national guard for our final flight to Greenland! I'll talk to y'all soon! And I'll post pictures as soon as possible!
For everyone back home, I love you all ;)
I'll talk to you as soon as possible!
Much love,
Sydney

The Journey Begins

Well, I just officially finished packing and I'll be on my way to Albany bright and early tomorrow morning! (: I don't think I can tell y'all how excited I am! I'll definitely try to keep my blog updated as much as possibly, I know I'll be able to post at least twice, and outside of that I'll try my hardest! But this link will have more information about what we'll be doing as well as links to the blogs of the other U.S. participants and our bios (which I highly recommend you check out, cause they're awesome!) : http://www.polartrec.com/expeditions/greenland-education-tour-2012
Well, hopefully I'll be in touch! But if not I'll see you all in two and a half weeks!

Don't miss me too much (;
Much love,
Sydney

A Little About Me

So excited

With only eleven days left until I leave for Greenland, the countdown has begun! (: I should probably start packing at this point, huh? Waiting until the last minute is definitely one of my faults! haha But I'm so excited to leave, the 26th could not come soon enough, buh-bye Arizona!!


-Sydney 

The Gist Of It All

Hey y'all! I've decided that before I leave for Greenland (in just 15 days!) I would start my blog now! It will be an easy way for me to keep y'all up to date on what I'm doing while I'm gone, since I probably won't have much contact. And after Greenland it will be a fun way to keep everyone up to date on life down here in Arizona! Please bear with me while I figure out the Blogging world, but I look forward to sharing my stories with you! 


Stay Beautiful
Much Love,
Sydney