6 July 2013 Field Work at Tasersuaq and Greenland Night (reported by Ronin Ruerup and Nanoq Group)

The morning of this beautiful day started out with an ineffective wake-up call. The unmotivated shuffling of feet through the halls caused a slow start. As soon as all of us students could make it to the trucks, we rode to Tasersauq, which means “The Big Lake.” At Taserauq we met up with Sean Cahoon and David Watts from the Pennsylvania State University. With Sean and David we split into two groups and began the biodiversity survey.

Facing due North, birds chirping, bugs buzzing, and groups of people chattering amongst themselves, we look up and fall silent. Atop an old moraine is a tuttu, or reindeer just staring at us. As he gallops around, always strategically upwind from us he gets not ten meters from the nearest group. As if he knew he had cameras on him he stops and poses for the shuttering lenses. As his giant antlers weigh his head down he catches our scent one more time and majestically gallops away knowing that we were no harm to him.

Trying to focus on our work after the sighting of a reindeer, we continue with the survey. The survey consisted of us making an educated guess on how much of the ground is covered by shrubs, grass, forbs (forbs are herbaceous plants that are not grasses), horse tail, and empty space, which consisted mostly of moss. Once we could all agree on a percentage that “seems right,” we recorded everything and did that 36 more times. After a couple hours of laughing, arguing, and making up percents that “seemed right,” we finish the grid and slowly make our way back to the dormitory building we call home.

At home we enjoyed a couple hours of talking, telling stories, learning each other’s languages (There is no language barrier between us anymore.) Then it was time for the best part of the day, what everybody had been talking about, what all the Greenlanders had been planning for, Greenland evening. Greenland evening was AMAZING. We ate Greenlandic food, we played Greenlandic games, and we heard Greenlandic stories. The Greenlandic food was great, there was mattak (whale skin and blubber) and fin whale steak, smoked salmon on bread, and last but not least dried cod.

Also the Greenlandic games were really fun. We balanced eggs, we tested each other’s strength, and most of all we tested our own strength. Let’s just say the Greenlandic students really know how to throw a party.

Additional weather data from Tasersuaq:

Relative Humidity – 35%

Barometric Pressure – 28.93 inHG