I left Homer on Wednesday, June 26th in late afternoon to catch a 5:00 A.M. Thursday morning plane to Seattle where I would meet our Alaska student participant, Ronin, who was coming in from Hoonah. We traveled together to Chicago and Albany, where we met up with the rest of the group from the United States. We made it to the hotel by midnight and we needed to get up at 4:00 a.m. in order to get ready to catch our 5:00 A.M. shuttle to our military transport on a C130 plane to Kangerlussauq, Greenland.
The United States group woke up enthusiastically even though most had gotten a few hours sleep or less. This group included our Joint Science Education Project Leader, Lynn Reed, teacher participants Britta Culbertson and myself, Sheryl Sotelo. In the lobby, Ronin met our other United States student participants: Samantha, Chloe, Grace, and Sam. Sam shared some delicious chocolate chip bread (that he made himself) for our breakfast, and we waited for our ride to the Stratton Air National Guard Base #109th Airlift Wing, where we would catch our ride to Greenland.
Samantha waiting at the Air National Guard Base for our flight to Greenland. Notice the loaf of chocolate chip bread -- made by Sam Blair, and appreciated by all of us!
After a safety briefing, we were escorted to the plane. We took a few photos then climbed aboard. We settled into our canvas webbing seats on the pallet-packed cargo plane, and were outfitted with earplugs. We all settled in for our 6-hour flight with too much noise for conversation. We dozed, read, got on our computers, and ate our food we brought along for the flight.
Getting ready to board our C130, flown by the 109th Airlift Wing of the Air National Guard.
Sheryl is all smiles as she boards the C130 which will take her and all the other US-JSEP participants to Greenland.
The eight US-JSEP participants and two other US travelers shared our C130 with LOTS of cargo!
We arrived in Kangerlussauq early in the afternoon and were welcomed by project logistics coordinator Robbie Score and Science Field School leader Kasper Busk. We got our bags and settled into our dorm rooms. We met the three Danish students, Thomas, Josefine, and Mary-Louise and their teacher, Chris Skipper. We also met the Greenlandic students, Nuka, Makka, John-Peter, Frederik, Sandra, Naasunnguaq, Michael, and another teacher, Rikke Joergensen.
The other students were friendly and enthusiastic; many accompanied us as we took a walk around town to learn our way around and we eventually made our way to the Polar Bear Inn for a Thai dinner. Afterwards, we went back to our classroom for an overview of what we would be experiencing over the next 2 weeks in the science field school and distributed the tokens that each participant brought to share with each other.
Finally, we made our way to bed about 10:45 p.m. on June 28th in time for the 11 p.m. lights off, all-quiet curfew! It had been an action packed 61 hours since I had left Homer, Alaska. I sent my family a quick email to let them know I had made it safe and sound. I was ready for some rest and fell asleep anticipating the upcoming fantastic experiences!