Day 5

            Today started out with breakfast at the cantina once again. After finishing, we headed over to the KISS building to listen in on the radio check-in with Summit station. The stations on the ice do regular check-ins with KISS either through radio or satellite phone so they can ensure that everyone is ok. We were able to each take a try at using the radio and asked the station manager some questions to get a little bit of a better idea of what life is like at Summit. It was really interesting considering we will be there in just a little while. After that, Robbie took us to see the warehouses where all kinds of gear is stored. We also got to see a pretty well musk ox head that was by the warehouses. Upon coming back to the school to find the door was locked, we decided to go look at the puppies while waiting for the other teachers to get back from picking up some of the Greenlandic students who had come in. After some time spent with the puppies, we came back and met a few of the students who had arrived. We then took on the task of decorating the signs with our names to go on the doors to our rooms. It quickly turned into a competition of who could create the best sign.

            We then decided to get outside for a while and headed out to an area with some sand dunes along where the river comes through. We brought some pizza boxes we had saved from the night before to see if we could use then to sled down the sand dunes. After some attempts by the others, it appeared it wasn’t going to work. For some reason I thought it might work with a running start. That idea ended with a face plant in the sand and the conclusion that our plan just wasn’t going to work. While wandering around we also found the skeleton of a caribou. We hiked around for a while and eventually went down to the edge of the river. I took off my shoes and tried to go on in the water. The water was really cold, as was evidenced by the chunks of ice floating by. I could only handle having my feet in for a few seconds at a time. At least the cold water made it so my mosquito bites would stop itching. At the edge of the water was also some very strange mud stuff. There is a lot of really fine sand in the area that is the result of glacial sediment deposits. Near the water, it formed a very thick mud layer that stuck to our feet really well. It felt pretty strange to walk on. We also saw some Canada Geese on our way back to the car. It’s the biggest live animal we’ve seen so far!

            After coming back into town, we stopped at the pizzeria for lunch and came back to meet some more of the students who had arrived. We spent some time talking to the new students, showing them around, and coloring our signs and other pictures. Our door is definitely the best. After a while, we took the Danish students down to the dog sled area. We arrived right as they were feeding the dogs. It was clear that the puppies were much more interested with the food than they were with us. With the help of the Danes translating the Danish for us, we found out that they feed the dogs frozen reindeer meat that they hunted in the area a while ago. This gave rise to the idea for Meatsicles, which might be the next international phenomenon. It was pretty cute watching the puppies wrestle over the food. It was also interesting to see the mother taking chunks of food and burying it to save for later.

            We then went to dinner where it was Danish-style meatballs with gravy and potatoes. It wasn’t too bad and it was fun getting to talk to some of the new people. We then met together tonight to learn more about what to expect the next couple weeks. I’m going to be in the group doing atmospheric work. This evening we also all decided to try the Turkish Pepper lollipops we had bought at the store. The outside tasted kind of like black licorice and the center was filled with a powder with a flavor that is pretty hard describe. The best way to convey the experience would probably be one of the Danish students describing how they liked them since eating them is almost a little painful. The Danes were pretty entertained watching us eat them and were surprised to find that we don’t have candy like that in the US. We’ve found that a lot of the Danish candy has a bitter flavor, as opposed to candy in the US, which is usually either sweet or sour. Today was fairly warm, but with a nice breeze to keep things cool enough. It also seemed like there were a lot fewer mosquitoes today, which was nice. Tomorrow we are going on some field trips to Lake Ferguson, Black Ridge, and Fossilsletten.

Our beautiful door

Chunk of ice we pulled out from the river

Getting stuck in the mud