July 2nd
So. Tired!
In the morning, we did a few experiments at the Watson bridge to measure the velocity of the water. Two methods were used; one group threw a piece of wood into the river and timed how long it took to reach a certain distance, and another group lowered a sand-filled bottle into the river using a 20-meter string, measured the distance from the bridge to the water, and then timed how long it took for the bottle to travel until the string was taut. My group used the second method, and Leyden's Adventure Ed teachers will be glad to know that I used a figure-eight follow-through/fisherman's know combo to ensure we didn't lose our bottle to the river. Back at HQ, we then used the Pythagorean theorem to calculate the distance the bottle traveled down the river ('a' being the distance from the bridge to the water, and 'c' being the length of the string). I was very frustrated with all of the math, especially after sediment was thrown into the mix; we were also find out how much sediment was moving through the river based on samples we had taken earlier. Still not done with all of the calculations, but other groups have found that, a) enough water moves through the cross-section of the bridge to fill up 8000 Olympic-sized swimming pools every day, and b) about a dump-truck full of sediment passes through the same cross-section every second.
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| The Watson bridge |
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| Collecting sediment samples! |
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| Garnets by the river, which were obviously not found by me. |
Later we had a Skype session with a PhD student named Andreas, who talked about his own research with sediment in the river. In his research, he had done the same types of experiments we had done just hours earlier, in the same river, using the same calculations. It was pretty cool! Andreas also mentioned that the glacier scrapes around 2mm of sediment off of the ground every year, which doesn't sound like a lot until you remember the whole one-dump-truck-per-second thing.
We broke for lunch and then came back to Skype with a scientist named Sebastian, only he had some dental issue so we had to reschedule. Instead, we worked on group projects. I spent four hours finishing nanoq's EarthCache from Russell ... Four. Hours. It definitely should not have taken that long, but it looks great and I am very proud of it.
Dinner was at the airport today! We had fish and potatoes, and although it wasn't the greatest it was still MUCH better than Thai! Samantha and I had pretty strawberry mousse for desert. I could get used to airport food.
We went on a beautiful hike after dinner, just Britta, Sam, Samantha, Chloe, Kasper and I. It was tough, but I stuck with Britta and we made it to our destination: a waterfall surrounded by rippling stones. Little secret pockets of gorgeousness exist everywhere in Greenland, and I want to go to every one that I can- even if it means climbing up a horribly steep, gravelly mountain and skidding a little with every step. The car ride home from the hike was very entertaining, too. We practiced the Star-Spangled Banner twice in preparation for wake-up on the fourth of July ... and soon discovered that not all of the Americans know the lyrics to the national anthem. Disgraceful.
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| Found this tuttu on the hike. |
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| Shiny parts are actually eroded rock! |
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| The wind eroded my name onto the sand |
The Greenlanders were all waiting outside when we arrived back at HQ, having been kicked out earlier by the Danes. Tonight was Danish cultural night, so they had been preparing while we were out. We were right on time, though- the doors opened only a couple of minutes after we had returned. The Danes had set the table beautifully, with plates of various spreads on pieces of rye bread, and little pig figurines scattered around the middle of the table. They sang their national anthem for us, and later Josephine even sang a trendy rendition of the ABC's. After dinner we played troll tag, apparently a favorite Danish past-time ... it was really fun, even though a got a nice set of scratches from sliding on the gravel. Kasper played with us, and boy was it terrifying to have that man chase after you. He runs like a hunting animal.
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| Dinner |
Josephine's ABC song:
Fun with Danish words:
We went back inside and sat in a circle, sharing cake and candy. Something is seriously wrong with Danish candy, I swear. They had the nasty salty licorice sitting out in bowls, and a black, circular candy that looked like charcoal. I tried the latter and was not disappointed ... Not only did it look like charcoal, but it tasted like charcoal, too. Sandra (GR) told me to bite into the center, so I did; not salt this time, but pepper. I teared up a little and had to spit the "candy" out. Danish candy is anything but delicious, trust me.
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| Our three Danes, to the far left: Marie-Louise, Josphine, and Thomas. |
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