Greenland: The adventure begins

You're on a noisy, crowded Southwest flight to Baltimore. Children are crying, people are complaining they can't sit together and for some reason you stop in Salt Lake City, just because. You end up in Baltimore, get your luggage and cross the entire airport to a solitary wing on the far side. The interior is new, crisp, with white metal framing and an all glass ceiling. It is 9pm and all the check in counters are empty but one. The only flight on the monitor leaves at 2:20am.

The check-in counter is manned by a single person who takes your travel documents, asks for your weight and then proceeds to weigh every piece of luggage including your carry-on. Slowly the empty international lounge with its upholstered couches begins to fill in with other people waiting for the same weekly flight. While you wait, the silence is interrupted by clapping and cheers from an unknown source. Finally at 12:30am they open security. 

At the gate, there is only one open, they do a head count, 28 people, two missing. After a few minutes everyone has arrived, they check your tickets and lead you down a long hallway to a room with locked doors and you wait. It feels oddly like waiting for a ride at an amusement park. One of those simulator rides. Finally the door opens and people filter into yet another unusual space. It looks like a cross between a waiting room and a portable class room. The walls and floors are covered in the same cheap brown carpet. The walls are lined with seats, the center is full of seats. There are airplane windows along the exterior walls and suddenly this waiting room begins to move. This room is a car. Or at least some sort of vehicle. You don't drive very far or very long before you wait again. Much like Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory you exit the same door you entered only this time you exit into a plane. Maybe if you were wide awake this wouldn't feel so odd but at 2am, it is surreal. 

The plane is "brand new". This was only the 6th flight ever to Thule on it. There are 7 rows, the last 7 rows of a normal 757 and in front of the first row is a blunt wall. Another surreal moment. The plane looks complete normally. The stewardesses are so friendly you think there must be a catch and if not for that blunt wall it would seem like a normal flight. Only 30/42 seats are filled. Three flight attendants and two bathrooms for 30 people on a flight is nearly first class. 

I slept most of the flight. When the pilot announced we were going to land soon I looked out the window. I couldn't see anything. It was almost as if the plane wasn't moving at all. You can only judge motion by a frozen point or acceleration. So moving at a constant speed through pea soup looks and feels like you aren't moving at all. Finally we slow down and start our descent, okay good, we are moving. And when the clouds finally part I see some terrain I have trouble identifying. Is that snow on mountains? Snow on trees? No, no those are icebergs in water! This is not a fun

house, there is no hall of mirrors, when I get off this plane, I will be in Greenland (well sort of).

Glacial Fjord (Sound) near Thule Air Force Base, Greenland

Arriving in Thule, it is nothing like I imagined. I didn't know what to expect. I have been to Air Force bases but never ones overseas and I have certainly never been to the arctic. The snow had melted and the ground is a frozen permafrost topped with mud. Waiting for us on the runway are a line of men dressed in fatigues each shake our hand and welcome us. Most of the buildings on base are long skinny one story structures with tiny windows and aluminum siding. All the plumbing, electricity, sewage and cable is above ground. It is impossible to dig deeper than a few meters because it is frozen. All the buildings are a few feet above the ground to prevent the heat they generate from causing the buildings to sink. Most of the base was built in 1953 and all the old buildings are riddled with lead and asbestos. They are in the process of tearing them down and building new buildings but it is an ongoing project. 

Road outside our dorm at Thule note the arch way made from piping

Our dorm good old 353. That truck out front was white when we got it.

Orientation to life on the base is a bit overwhelming particularly for a one week stay. There are a lot of military advisories and practices we need to follow but also things we need to do out of courtesy to the Danish government. Also we have been told that polar bear sightings are frequent this summer and they had to put down a bear a week or so ago that wandered onto base and would not leave. I found a photo of a bear on base on the blog of our contact here in Greenland.

http://www.polarfield.com/blog/tag/joe-hurley/ 

Just after we got our beds made, our rooms set up and the lab unpacked it started to snow. Of course we didn't let that stop us, we still drove out to one of the three sights that house a weather logger we need to download (Yay/! Science! ). It is cold in the wind but my ski pants and layering have kept all but my face warm. The snow is powdery soft. And while out at this first sight I saw a distinct arctic plant, cotton grass.

Cotton Grass, indigenous arctic flowering plant (angiosperm)

We had dinner at the cafeteria here. It is highly subsidized a $1.70 for breakfast and $3.30 for lunch or dinner. They serve both American and Danish food. The best meal I have had so far in Greenland was Danish,it was a pie shell delivered empty that you ladled creamy beef soup into. Kind of imagine an open face chicken pot pie made with beef. The cafeteria like nearly every building is equipped with brushes to scrape mud off your feet and booties to wear over your shoes to keep clean. The cafeteria is divided into clean and muddy work clothes seating. 

There is small town friendliness when driving you are expected to wave or finger salute every driver you pass. Much like city bus drivers do to each other. Also there are no locked doors. Our front door does not look. The bathrooms do not lock. When we get out of the car we leave our keys in it.

I stayed up late enough to see the midnight sun. In fact I will be in Greenland during the first sunset of the season on August 24th at 1am. 

That is all for my introduction to Thule. My first day was a long one. And my second day was amazing but you will have to wait for the next post for that. There will be pictures of bunnies! If you can't wait for that check out my instagram mrsgoofington for the latest photos.