29 June 2014 "Can you dig it?" .... from Team Puisi (Hope, Ben, and Marie)

Today we got the chance to visit Lake Ferguson. The ride was very, very bumpy! Hope and Erica even believed that the car was going to fall apart! The ride was very short but the view was spectacular! Hope was very amazed because she had never seen landscape like that ever before in Hawai’i.

When we reached the lake, Ben immediately started to put on his mosquito netting because he was allergic to them but in the end, we all agreed that we would have done that because out of nowhere, there were about a million mosquitos! We all hate mosquitos, they are the most terrible thing ever! Marie definitely hates them a lot. At the lake, the groups took water samples to test the pH/hardness, conductivity, turbidity, nitrate levels, and ammonium levels. They used a variety of different equipment in order to conduct this research.

Afterwards, we all drove to an area containing blueberries, northern willow, and dwarf birch. The hillside was southwest of the city about 500 meters away heading toward Lake Ferguson. On the hillside, we dug for permafrost in different locations and compared the depths. We analyzed the different layers to see how deep the soil is constantly frozen. So how did we do this? We cut through the plants in order to appreciate the beautiful rocks underneath. To make Kasper happy……. or not. Depending on the location on the hillside the permafrost had different depths.

Later that day, we got the chance to visit and learn about the sledge dogs. Many of us did not know that only Greenlandic dogs are allowed in Kangerlussuaq and also the northern part of Greenland above Kangerlussuaq. We also learned about the purpose and process of sledding. Next, we got the chance to pet the sweetest and most lovable sledge dogs ever! The 3-week-old puppies were so adorable and so tiny! We even got to name one of them named “Nanu”. Nanu is the Greenlandic word of polar bear cub. Doesn’t it have a sweet and innocent ring to it?

Tonight, we got the chance to visit Kellyville. The view was absolutely beautiful and made everyone speechless. It made us feel like we were looking at a postcard and not actually there. The way that the sun shown through the valley looked like a masterpiece that someone purposefully painted. The different landscapes around the area like the lakes and the hills made the view perfect!

After we returned, we got the chance to listen to Tage SchjØtt from Sagamaps ApS. He taught us about the history of Greenland and about the many different maps that he had created throughout the years.

This day was activity-filled, extremely fun and almost perfect!...... except for the blood sucking mosquitos!

Word of the Day:

English: Cute/Awww.

Greenlandic: Iggu.

Danish: Nuttet/Ååårh.

Hawaiian: Kiuke.

Spanish: Lindo/Awww.