Into summer

It's hard to believe a month has passed since my last update. This time of year always seems to be extra busy for me, what with finishing up course work and preparing for field work. On top of the normal busy-ness, my parents came up for Inari's exhibition and thesis defense. Inari was featured in the school newspaper again. She managed to sell several of her pieces at the show, which was nice to see because somehow she doesn't believe me when I tell her that her art is good. It's been interesting to see what pieces sell- the ones that she likes least (and I tend to agree with her) seem to be the ones that everybody else likes the most.

A while back Martin and Dana had asked her to make a painting for their daughter's room. She struggled with it for several months and finally finished it, but mostly because she just wanted to move on. Inari told Dana at the opening that that piece was intended for them, but if they didn't like it then they could choose another one. Dana didn't relay the message to Martin. After seeing the exhibition today Martin told me that he was really disappointed that the piece that he liked most was listed as "Not for sale". Guess what piece that was?

So that's what Inari has been up to. I've been frantically getting equipment ready for our upcoming field season. I can't believe that I'm already leaving next Friday. I'm really looking forward to getting away from my computer and out into the sunshine. We've had some amazingly beautiful weather for the last month but I've hardly had the chance to enjoy it.

Our research project is getting more and more exciting all the time, too, largely because of the big changes that are occurring on the Greenland Ice Sheet. This year we'll have a Greenlandic reporter out at our field site filming us and interviewing us for a Greenlandic television show, and we've been contacted by reporters from several major news agencies, including PBS and the BBC. Also, a photographer for National Geographic will be out there running time-lapse cameras at the glacier terminus.