I just saw ice in the water outside my window in the airplane! I took a picture since this is the first time I have ever seen ice in my life. There is so much of it that I thought I was looking at white clouds. Look at the picture closely. Do you see the reason I knew it was ice?
Sea ice near northern Greenland
Next you will see my first look at Greenland's land. The sky was really cloudy so we could not see much of it until we landed. Look at the huge plane I came on!
The airport is small in Kangerlussuaq and passengers walk off the plane onto the runway.
I was picked up at the airport and taken to my hotel. It is a place for NEEM scientists and staff who are going to the NEEM camp.
International Kangerlussuaq Science Support is where all the people stay that work at NEEM
Check out the hotel next door! Do you notice anything similar to mine?
Look closely for the antlers!
This is the hotel you would want to stay in, I'm sure! It is just down the road from mine.
Best looking hotel on the street...
Now look at the backs of the hotels I just showed you. The polar bear sign was a trick! The buildings are all the same except they are painted differently on the front. These buildings were all part of a U.S. military base in World War II.
These only look a little different in the front!
This is an American neighborhood. The people who live here work at the airport, hotels, shops or the post office. The brightly colored paint looks cheery in such a dry desert climate.
Aren't these painted pretty?
The most beautiful part of this small town is the rock cliffs which are behind the hotel. Dorthe Dahl Jensen, the head scientist for the NEEM field station, thinks the cliffs were carved by the glacier that used to be in this valley. Can you see in the picture how jagged the fronts of the cliffs are?
Does this cliff look like an ice cliff to you?
Next year we are doing an experiment about what a glacier leaves behind. Look at the sand at the bottom of the cliffs. Why would sand be the last kind of rock to leave behind?
Wind, weather and moving ice made this beautiful mountain. Can you find the sand?
Tomorrow I am off on another plane to sleep on the ice!