AMERICA

July 4th

I woke up early again today despite everyone else having an extra hour of sleep. After showering I then woke up Samantha and Ronin, and together we began decorating for the big day ahead! It was really fun to sneak around, hanging red, white, and blue everywhere like patriotic ninjas. We woke up Sam and Chloe at 7:30 because they wanted to sleep in, and they helped us finish hanging decorations.

But by far the best part of the morning was the Americans' wake-up call. We marched single-file into the dorm hallway, singing the national anthem and opening doors as we went. Actually, that's inaccurate. We screamed the national anthem and threw open doors, because that's how Americans do things. Go big or go home, right? (I would also like to mention that Sam messed up the lyrics to our national anthem and it created a few seconds of confusion as we tried to remember the correct words.) After all of the students were awake (none too happy about it), we Americans went upstairs to the teachers' dorms and tiptoed into the hallway. After a short discussion, we decided on how exactly we were going to wake the teachers up ... The first half of the anthem we sang softly (and beautifully. It was actually very nice), and then, bam. We screamed the last half at the top of our lungs from "AND THE ROCKETS' RED GLARE". The teachers loved it! Britta, Lynn, and Sheryl came out of their rooms and joined us in singing, while the Danish teachers just kind of looked out of their rooms and laughed at us. Everyone was thoroughly awake: mission accomplished.

We finished our SPRINTT assignment in the morning, and then broke for lunch. Lynn made PB&J sandwiches for everyone to try- it was delicious! They don't sell peanut butter commonly in Greenland or Denmark, so PB&J was a new experience for the majority of the JSEP students. It was funny watching them taste it for the first time; suddenly I understood what I must have looked like trying patte or the nasty, salty licorice. Josephine gave Samantha and I a few wary looks but eventually tried the sandwich. She didn't like it because the peanut butter stuck to her throat, and later said, "Well, I think this was my last peanut butter sandwich." Then, after a second: "But at least I tried it." And that's really what this program is about: trying new things and meeting new people to broaden your knowledge on such different -but uniquely beautiful- cultures.

After lunch, we had a Skype session with a scientist named Sebastian, during which I may or may not have dozed off a little. Sebastian's work is pretty interesting, though; he knows a lot about the overall melting trends of sea ice and the ice sheet. Sea ice, for example, will be gone soon if melting rates continue. The ice sheet will not be gone anytime soon, but its mass balance is decreasing very quickly. It was pretty powerful to look at all of Sebastian's graphs and evidence after we had just been on the ice sheet and seen a glacier. Everything seemed so much more real and urgent.

We had free time between 1pm and 6pm. Some students went on hikes, and others went down to the airport and walked around for a while. Kasper drove Ronin and I down to the airport, where we and a few other students rented bikes for the day. I picked out what I thought was the nicest bike available, but Fred pushed me and stole it (grr), so I had to settle for some dingy piece of scrap metal. Not more than two minutes later, I turned a little too hard and wiped out on it! Or, rather, off of it. The Greenlanders all thought it was hilarious ... and okay, it was pretty funny. My leggings ripped, knee gashed and bloody, I pedaled back to HQ with Ronin trailing behind. Needless to say Fred was not my favorite person at that moment!

Back at HQ I showed Britta my battle scars and grabbed a bandaid; then Ronin and I started up the road to a salt lake Kasper had told us about. This turned out to be an awful idea. Not only was the road uphill but also extremely sandy- my bike veered dangerously close to the Watson at one point because it's surprisingly difficult to steer when you're pedaling through sand. Ronin thought I was dead and so did I, but I managed to right myself and continue on, up the road and toward the salt lake. Sort of.

The road we climbed up. It's steeper than it looks, and keep in mind that it wraps around the whole mountain.  

Eventually we had to dismount and push our bikes up the mountain because it was impossible to pedal. Skipper drove by and offered to drive us to the top, but I foolishly declined. About an hour later, Ronin and I finally reached the top, sweating and swatting mosquitoes like madmen (although I had found a beautiful yellow quartz on the side of the road). We gave up pretty quickly when we saw the road climbing higher and higher, up several MORE mountains- and no salt lake in sight. Luckily the trip wasn't a total waste. John Peter came out of nowhere and waved us over to where he and a couple of other Greenlanders were standing. They had spotted two Umimat, or muskoxen, down on a grassy plain below. This was extremely good luck considering the JSEP team last year hadn't seen any muskox during their entire trip! In my mind, this justified my and Ronin's trek up the mountain. I watched the umimat for a couple of minutes, quiet. It was nice to just sit and enjoy being here, in Greenland, with the muskox below and purple mountains behind them.

Our view 

By the time I was finished, only Ronin and Fred were still waiting for me. Since Ronin and I really didn't want to climb any more mountains, we decided to return to HQ with Fred. Us three were biking down the mountain together (flying, more like it) when I noticed a couple of lumps in the sand coming quickly toward me. I tried to brake, but of course my brakes decided to break at exactly that moment! Thanks a lot, Fred, for this jewel of a bicycle! I hit that sandbar and went flying over the handlebars, yelling an impolite word as I did so, and skidded a little before coming to rest on my back in the sand. Fred was in front of me when I fell, but he stopped and ran back up where I was laying; Ronin also stopped and came to see if I was alright. Fortunately I wasn't badly hurt, and I was even feeling good enough to tell them to "leave me here to die". They continued down the mountain on their bikes, but I limped back across the Watson bridge on my own two feet, which come with fully functional brakes already.

Fred and Ronin were waiting for me on the other side of the bridge. I was actually in a pretty good mood by then, having found some niviarsiaq on the side of the road and still excited about the muskox sighting. It was here that I received one of the best compliments ever from Ronin: "You're more of an Alaskan girl than most Alaskan girls." Beaming, I returned to HQ and wiped away my blood with alcohol wipes from the yacht first aid kit. Then Ronin and I started to help out with dinner, Britta teasing me all the while.

Band-aided up

We had quite the American menu planned out. I started baking bacon in the oven for bacon cheeseburgers, and Lynn had beans and brownies cooking (separately, of course). Lynn had also brought graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows for s'mores!

After hearing about our muskox sighting, however, Lynn and Britta wanted to go out and see the umimat for themselves. Naasu and I joined them in a car ride (thank goodness) up the mountain to see them, and although we couldn't find them at first Naasu managed to spot them in the end. Muskox have surprising good camouflage, especially when their great white horns are facing away from you. They look like ordinary boulders. With my "ultra-zoom" lens I got a couple of really great pictures, but of course before we headed back I fell thigh-deep into a rabbit hole. Cue the Britta sass.

Spot the umimat!

Naasu lookin' cool

Lynn (L) and Britta (R)

We got back to HQ and resumed cooking; the other Americans also returned from their hikes and helped out. Ronin and Sam had a heated argument about who should be the "Grillmaster", but Ronin came out on top. He was extremely proud of himself, and kept shouting "AMURICAAA" as he was flipping burgers on our makeshift grill. I set the table, and by about 6:30 we had a class-A American barbecue! There was hamburgers, hot dogs, beans, potato salad, chips, (Danish) pop, brownies, and cupcakes. De-e-elicious.

The Grillmaster

Decorations!

Our delicious American buffet

It was a really fun night. The chaps from Dartmouth college even came over for some classic Fourth of July, as did a couple of other scientists from the KISS building. Fred found a guitar somewhere, and during dinner we all sang classic songs like "Stand by Me" as Ronin grilled nearby. Lynn brought out supplies for making s'mores, and I stuffed my face, earning me the nickname "S'mores" from Fred. So now I'm Chicago, Calamity Grace, and S'mores. Clearly I'm making a name for myself here in Greenland.

Sing-a-long time by the grill

Later we played an Alaskan tug-of-war game, had wheelbarrow and potato sack races, and even played a game of capture-the-flag. When we were all too tired to move, we then watched half of Independence Day. I really loved this ultra-patriotic Fourth of July! It really brought out us Americans' true colors- red, white, and blue.

Wheelbarrow races

Note the cheater. He was also a Boston Bruins fan. Coincidence?

Takuss!