Day one

6/28, 4:00PM

In front of the C-130, ready to board

So, here it finally is- day one of my Greenland trip! Right now we're on a C-130 jet ... SO exciting for the first two hours, then steadily less exciting with every passing minute. We cycle between sleeping, eating, writing, and fiddling with our phones, although I seem to be awake when everyone else is asleep and asleep when everyone else is awake! It's pretty boring, but I'm still excited at the thought of our final destination.

Aboard the C-130

About the C-130. It's smaller than expected, with red straps that crisscross to form our seats. There are two lines of seats, each against a wall, so that each side is facing each other. There are small, circular windows every few feet- I'm near one. All of the rest of the cargo is strapped down. Two bathrooms: one near the back for the ladies (haven't had to pee yet and it's been four hours. Pretty sure that's called dehydration) and a urinal at the front of the plane, conveniently located RIGHT next to my seat. That's right. Every time a man has to go, I'm only about two feet away from tapping him on the shoulder, separated only by a curtain. G-L-A-M. O-R-OUS yeah.

My window

The porcelain throne, C-130 edition

The other kids seem just as excited as I am. When we got out of our bus to walk toward the C-130, ALL the cameras came out. I could see the bus driver laughing at us! -But I'm taking hundred of pictures and have absolutely no regrets.

Only a couple more hours until we reach Kanger ... guess I'll just stare out the window and get excited for everything that is to come.

6/28, 10:45PM

The C-130 landed safely! Hah. It is now 10:45 and everyone is just trying to get settled after our first day in Kanger. We arrived to a beautiful, almost unreal landscape: the mountains look like a fake backdrop. Kanger is located in a valley walled in by massive rock faces, making it a good choice for U.S. military presence in the first and second world wars. 

Very excited to be off the plane!

It’s very small- only about 500 residents, spread out across the valley in houses of all different colors. There’s a river –the Watson- on one side of the settlement, with a bridge leading out of the town and into the mountains. We were told that the bridge was underwater last year, and even now there are still small bulldozers sitting around the area, roped off by caution tape. It’s a strange looking river. The water is grayish because of all the sediment it carries down from the glacier, making it look like one of those stop-and-go clay movies.  Although it’s captivating to watch, we were ALSO told that if we fell into the Watson it would be impossible to rescue us, no one would try, and we would definitely die. To heighten the excitement, the banks surrounding the river have patches of ‘kviksand’. Despite the dangers, everything is going swimmingly. It feels good to be here. 

The city of Kanger

We exchanged 'tokens' at night, or little mementos from everyone's homeland. I brought painted lake rocks and pressed pennies from Navy Pier. The other US participants brought everyone a Huna Totem tote/notepad (Ronin, AK), New England maple candies (Sam, MA), a dream catcher (Samantha, NM), a lacrosse-inspired bead to put on his or her hiking boots (Chloe, MN), Virginia peanuts (Lynn, teacher, VA), an Alaskan pin (Sheryl, teacher, AK), and a NOAA pin (Britta, WA). The Danish students brought little figurine pigs, because apparently Denmark revolves around swine. And the Greenlanders have yet to find tokens, but we were promised them later in the week. 

Tokens from the other students!

A great day- so excited for the rest of the trip!