Unlike last year, this time around I had a full day in Kangerlussuaq (the town we fly into) which meant more time for exploring. My first adventure followed a surprisingly delicious dinner from a local Thai food place (surprising considering we were rather far from Thailand... or people in general for that matter). It was just a short stroll to a look out point with Nina, a Rhode Island physics teacher who's helping out on one of our project this year, but the result was amazing. I forgot how stunning Kanger was. How many places are there where a five minute walk get you this view?:
The town itself isn't that easy on the eyes (see picture below) but the surrounding landscape is incredible.
The beauty of coastal Greenland was taken to a whole new level with a trip to the ice edge (literally the edge of the Greenland ice sheet, the river you see above is actually outflow from the ice sheet)on Wednesday afternoon. Myself and eight other scientists from all over crammed in to a rented pick up truck and trekked the 20 miles out to quite possibly the most beautiful place I have ever seen. It was a long and bumpy ride along a dirt road but totally worth it. Unfortunately, I have no pictures to show. While I did take some, I don't have the camera's cord to put them on my computer (the other pictures were taken on a memory card). How cruel of me to talk about this gorgeoous place and offer no visual! I'll promise to post some when I get back because wow... just wow. I DO however, have pictures of another fun happening from Thursday. Prior to the ice edge trip, I decided to take a little run down to the sled dog kennels. There was talk of puppies and, as many of you know, I drop everything for puppies. I also did want to run so, why not kill two birds with one stone? So I get down there and there are dogs everywhere. I mean everywhere. I nearly died I was so excited! Unfortunately, most of them were fenced and/or tied up so I couldn't get to most of them. The picture below is just one of several kennels.
Not all dogs were kenneled though. When I first arrived at the kennel, I was greeted by an extremely friendly white dog. She was the cutest! Just as I was about to turn around to head back to town, I saw another furry ball of adorable come bolting at me. This one though, was a puppy. She. Was. So. Cute. I just wanted to take her home! Well, she must have thought the same. As I turned to leave (despite really not wanting to; I probably could have stayed there for my entire Greenland trip), she followed me! The muffin ran with me the entire 1+ back to town. As much as I loved it (and how could I not!?), it was a bit awkward; I had no idea how to get her back. No one else seemed to know either. I must've asked atleast 3 locals as well as several people at the building we were staying and no one had any suggestions. One actually suggested I take her back to the states! If only that weren't frowned upon and illegal. Eventually a local girl came by and recognized the pup (her name: Fiona) as her neighbor's and took her back to her proper owner. While I was happy to have the whole dilemma settled, I was sad to see my new Kanger friend go. Here's a couple pictures of Fiona. Maybe I'll stop down and see here again on my way south!
I left Fiona and the sites of Kanger for Summit on Thursday. Summit hasn't changed much; still flat and white as far as the eye can see, which means it's still bizarre but in that really cool way. I had a bit of a rough time with the altitude yesterday but felt much better today. Hopefully it only get's better from here! After today's lengthy overview of my daily Summit tasks this year, sounds like I'll be busy busy busy. As I mentioned before, I'm helping out with two projects this year which has atleast doubled my workload. Fortunately, I do like being busy so I'm not dreading the next 3ish weeks too much. Another added bonus: I'll have my hands in even more rockin' science! The one downfall is that I may not be able to blog as often as I (and perhaps you) would like but I'll do my best!
Well it's about time for me to retire to my Arctic Oven tent. Hopefully I'll sleep a bit better having already spent one night in the light, cold, and at altitude!
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