The polka?

I have lost my polka virginity. For same strange reason, the polka is really (and I mean REALLY) popular in Greenland. Basically you can’t be a musician in Greenland if you don’t know how to play polka music. I went to a party on Friday – a post dogsled race dinner, awards ceremony, and dance. I ended up being forced, well maybe coerced, into polka dancing. The first song nearly ended in disaster. It’s not easy to dance with two left feet! The second time around was quite a bit better, in part because I danced with one of the best ones there, and in part because there was more room on the dance floor.

It’s interesting that dancing and playing music at parties – well at least traditional dances and music – has basically been lost from American culture. I wonder why that is. Is it that our culture is such a melting pot that nobody could ever agree on what dances to dance and songs to play? Or did pop music ruin everything?

Observations on dogsledding from somebody who doesn’t know anything about dogsledding

After a couple of dogsledding experiences in both Alaska and Greenland, I have made some surely keen observations. Dogsledding styles differ considerably between the two cultures. In Greenland, mushers sit on their sleds, which are wider and sturdier than Alaskan sleds. The dogs run in a fan formation and are controlled by voice and with a whip. This contrasts with Alaskan dogsledding, where the musher stands behind the sled, only use their voice to control the dogs, and the dogs run in a row. My impression is that the Alaskan mushers treat their dogs better. Greenlanders claim that their dogs sometimes need to be hit to be controlled because they are such wild dogs. Personally, I don’t think their dogs are any more wild than Alaskan huskies, and they definitely don’t need to be hit. Some mushers in Alaska have learned that the dogs perform better when they are treated well. Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.

There seem to be advantages and disadvantages to both styles, and I think they could learn from each other. The Greenlandic dogs seem more difficult to control because they are not in a line, so they are more likely to get tangled up with each other or with a passing sled. Also, because the musher is sitting down its more difficult to see what lies ahead. On the otherhand, the trails can be very rough and full of rocks. Its easy to imagine that a standing musher would be thrown off their sled if they hit a rock. What I find maybe most interesting is that they don’t have a very good braking system. They have no way to anchor the sled into the ground, and their only way to force the sled to stop is to throw a large rope (like you’d see on a ship) around the front of the runners. I’d have thought that they would’ve developed something more sophisticated by now.

By standing, the Alaskan musher can more easily navigate his team around obstacles. Their sleds, which are somewhat lighter, are easier to manuever from behind but likely couldn’t stand up to repeated collisions with rocks. This is okay because they mostly run through the forest and swamps anyway, which is also why they run in a line. The sleds have both an anchor and a brake.

Two things that I’ve definitely learned: I need my own dog team, and Umimmak (= musk ox = long bearded one) would make a good dog name.

I will post photos later, but right now I stupidly don’t have a way to download them from my camera.

Frustrations at the museum

My experience at the Ilulissat Museum has been fairly discouraging this year, especially when compared to last year. We had basically three objectives this time around: to give another talk at the school, to set up a time-lapse camera with the school children (to get them involved with our research), and to put together a short DVD containing photos and videos of our field work.

I spent two days preparing a presentation for the school, only to have the teacher cancel on me since I had already talked to her class (she didn’t know this beforehand). Of course, I was planning on talking about something different, but that didn’t seem to matter.

The camera has also been something of headache. First, we talked to some teachers who thought the project was a great idea – but not for their class. According to Naja, my colleague at the museum, that is a typical response from the teachers here. Regardless of their response, we’d still like to put out a camera. As I’ve told several people in town, I’m happy to share the time-lapse video with anybody who can make use of it: educators, tour companies, etc, and we’d like to have the imagery for our own work. The problem is that we’re having trouble finding a good, secure spot for the camera with a good view of the fjord. I had first thought that a roof of a building would be ideal, but finding an ideal roof is far from easy. At this point I think the best alternative would be to mount it on the radio tower, which is up on the hill behind town. It seems that there is some hope for this, but it will require quite a bit of bureaucracy. We’ll give it a shot anyway.

We haven’t worked on the DVD yet. It should be pretty straightforward, except that the computer I need to use is currently in Kangerlussuaq.

On the other hand, the trip here hasn’t been a complete waste. I’ve gotten to experience Ilulissat in “winter” and have already gone dogsledding a couple of times and also gone to watch a dogsledding race. (It was the type of race where the objective is to not come in last place.) And, I’ve just purchased tickets to fly to Uummannaq, a town about an hour’s flight north of here. I’ll spend 5 days and about a month’s salary… I’m really excited to go to Uummannaq, even if it is going to be really expensive. It is much more removed from the standard tourist route and will be my new farthest north (over 70 deg).

Side note: travelling in Greenland is incredibly expensive. I’m paying over $50 a night for a bed in a hostel (a hostel!), a taxi from the airport to the hostel (5 km) costs $25, a burger at the greasy dinner costs $20, beer costs $10 a bottle if its served to you and $4 if you buy it at the store (and its not particularly special beer), and dinner at one of the nicer restaurants costs $50. The flight to Uummannaq will cost me $700, and a hotel room there costs $200 a night (actually fairly reasonable by Greelandic standards). I might end up camping outside of town or staying in a hut, but first I need to find out if Isbjorn lives nearby.

sizing matters

Some frustration today was provided by weird US clothing sizes. OK, I kind of see the principle. Sizes get bigger as the numbers get bigger. That part is easy. Difficulties start when I actually try to apply the theory and buy something that is my size.

I needed a new lingerie and hastly calculated that since my bra size is 75 centimeters, I should be fine with 30 inch bra. I guess there is something else going on here instead of a simple conversion from metric to imperial. The smallest size I could find was 32. Since my bra size is fairly common in Finland, I refused to believe that here I would be considered a weird undersized mutant. So I grabbed randomly some 32's and 34's and headed for the dressing rooms. When I tried them on, there did not seem to have any logic which sizes fit me and which didn't. Some were huge, providing ample room plus some extra space for my breasts, and few were super thight. (Most of them were really big, so maybe I am a weird undersized mutant after all.)

It has taken me some trial and error to find right size pants as well. I think the numbers start from somewhere around 0 and grow in increments of 2. But each company sems to have their own sizing chart where the basic unit of measurement is unknown and one just have to guess what size to try. To keep it all confusing, it seems to me that every single item of clothing has their own numbering system. Underwear sizes do not match pant sizes, and shoe sizes do not match sock sizes.

And I really don't understand why this country needs three different shoe size scales: separate ones for kids, females and males.

Ilulissat in winter

It's great to be back in Ilulissat, and its great to see it in winter. Its much quieter than in summer. There are basically no tourists and there aren't nearly as many teenagers cruising up and down "main street". Speaking of tourists, I learned that the number of tourists has increased from about 5,000 per year to 35,000 per year within a span of a few years. That number is expected to double this year. This for a town that has 5,000 inhabitants. As you can imagine, the town is starting to be overrun by tourists, at least in summer. I wish I could've seen it 20 years ago.

As I've written in past entries, Greenland has quite a few social problems that it is trying to overcome - poverty, poor education, and poor health care. There is reason for hope though. Among other things they are opening a university and national art museum in Nuuk, the capital city. This says to me that they are becoming increasingly independent from Denmark. (They have also started a couple of breweries, an important step towards independence!) Hopefully they can do so without selling out to tourism and mining operations.

An interesting note that I learned this week: the Greenlandic word for Greenland is Kalaallit Nunaat, or land of the Greenlanders. Apparently that name didn't exist until after Danish colonization. The word "kalaallit" (or the singular version "kalaaleq") developed a negative connotation during the colonial period, when it was used by Danes to refer to a lower-class of people. This is much like the word "eskimo" in Canada and Alaska, which simply means "raw-meat eater" but has come to have negative connotations as well. Thus the people of Greenland are not particularly comfortable with the name of their own country! Apparently their has been some discussion (I don't know how serious) of changing the country's name to the much more pronounceable Inuit Nunaat, or "land of the people". Poetic, but a little misleading considering that in all of Greenland there are only 50,000 people.

Airport rant

I'm enroute to Greenland at the moment, and things are going pretty much like they usually do. This time my luggage is sitting in JFK airport and I'm in Albany, NY. I don't know what my problem is, but it seems that every trip I take involves some unforeseen delay. Inari is losing desire to travel with me for fear of spending nights at airports, which we've done once before.

Anyway, if my luggage doesn't arrive tonight, as they promised it would, I'm really going to be in a pickle. My flight to Greenland leaves super early tomorrow morning and the next flight isn't until 4 May. I suppose I could manage without those packs until then - it wouldn't be ideal - but I could manage. If they end up being lost, however... Wow, that would pretty much ruin the field season. I must have several thousand dollars of equipment in those packs plus some pretty crucial instrument download cables. Keeping my fingers crossed. There must be a lesson in all this.

On a related note, I've come to loathe people who design airports. At least American airports. Or at least the people that decide to make it extremely difficult for newcomers to find information and get around. Why aren't there more maps and information desks? Why is it that at some airports flight information screens only contain information for one airline? Why did I have to leave security at JFK to transfer from one regularly-scheduled domestic flight to another? I really don't understand the rationale.

Three most hated airports so far:
1. Los Angeles
2. New York - JFK
3. Chicago O'Hare

Hmm.. I see a trend. Maybe I've just become too comfortable with our 6 gate, 2 baggage carousel airport in Fairbanks and the even smaller airport in Ilulissat. At Ilulissat you can walk in the airport and straight up to the tower. There you can ask them to open the door to get to the runway and hangars, and they'll do it without hardly caring what you're up to.

chick chick

According to Jason, I have a bunch of weird hobbies (I guess geekines have to be earned somehow): among others, I collect religious tracts published by Jack T. Chick. These are small comics trying to get people to repent and to believe in Jesus. I don't know why anyone would like to convert after reading one of the tracts, though. The presented religious wordview is awful, and god is portrayed as cruel, unforgiving and mean. Tought luck getting in heaven, if you belong to a wrong religious group (namely, if you are not a Babtist).

My main source for the tracts is a Babtist minister that comes to the university every week and sits behind a table at the student union. I once made the mistake of actually talking to him. Now I just wait until he is preoccupied with something else and try to grab some tracts as I walk by. Two days ago I scored a big time. He was nowhere to be seen and I got to choose from a wast pile of tracts.

Tracts are kind of scary, but hilarious at the same time. Plus, you do learn interesting things: I bet you all thought that the dinosaurs were killed by global cooling, most likely caused by an asteroid hitting the Earth. No, no, how wrong we have been. The real reason is the Great flood. You see, Noah did include dinosaurs as well, but since the flood distroyed all the plant matter, the oxygen levels dropped dramatically. Dinosaurs were quite big animals and did require a lot of oxygen. So the poor critters died because the Earth could not sustain them anymore. (I don't know why god failed to save them by just messing with the oxygen levels. Not to mention how was it possible for anything to survive without any plants...). All this information is accompanied with a picture of a pitiful, coughing dino. Priceless.

Herra hajamieli

Viime kesänä Expressenin toimittaja vertasi Jasonia Professori Tuhatkaunoon. Viime päivinä on tuntunut siltä, ettei arvio osunut kovin väärään. Herra on levittellyt omaisuuttaan pitkin kämppää ja hukannut esineitä samaa vauhtia. Stereon kaukosäätimen söi sohva (kuten ilmeisesti myös rannekellon ja jääkaappimagneetin), sohvan alta löysin niin musiikki-instrumentteja kuin kameranjalankin (tosin vain instrumentit olivat hukassa, kameranjalka ihan siellä missä pitikin, kuulemma). Nyt hukuksissa on muistikortti, jolla on on aikaa materialisoitua ensi lauantaihin, kun toiseksi viimeinen Gröönlannin reissu alkaa.

Luvassa on siis kuukausi yksineloa.

English summary: our sofa is eating Jason's things (wrist watch, musical instruments, stereo remote) and my refridgeretor magnet. We are still looking for a flash card...

Losing blogging virginity

I guess I'm exposed. I never consider myself a closet blogger though; I think you actually have to write something (anything) to be a blogger. I have just been reading stuff. And now all-of-a-sudden I find myself in the batter's box.

Random thought of the day: drinking tea makes you (i.e. me) happier. But it has to be good tea with a lot of honey.

a new author

Inari has long been a blog fanatic. She's been more of a closet blogger though, not really contributing to the blogosphere. Not anymore. Now she'll be writing on our blog. Maybe in Finnish, maybe in English, or maybe in Inarian. Good luck trying to understand her, whatever language she uses...

Springward bound

A strange spring. Maybe every spring is a strange spring. Unpredictable. At the end of March it felt like winter had abandoned us. Good riddance. The birds were chirping; it was hot. Most of the snow melted. Then it was cold again and it snowed. This morning it was well below freezing. What's going on? Did we miss summer? Frustrated and anxious. Tired of winter. Nature was playing games with us.

Then, tonight, I went skijoring with our neighbor's dogs. Remembered why I like winter. Calm, quiet, beautiful light in the trees, fresh soft snow. Peaceful. The dogs pulled hard, really hard, and ran gracefully. At one intersection they went left, I went right. Disaster narrowly avoided. One dog flew into a tree. Oops. We recovered and continued on. Took a narrow trail through the trees. Bad idea. Stupid dogs got wrapped up in the trees. Finally made it through.

A great way to end a stressful week at work. How long until we have our own dogs?

Listening, reading, watching

I've decided to have a monthly post on the things that I'm currently listening to, reading, and watching. I hope this is interesting to others...

Listening to: Eliades Ochoa
Lately I've been really digging Cuban music and I'm just now starting to get a handle on who's who in the world of Cuban music. Eliades Ochoa is a vocalist, guitarist, and tres player (similar to a guitar but with three sets of two strings and it sounds nicer) who played with the Buena Vista Social Club. I'm now realizing that Ry Cooder - the man who organized the Buena Vista album and movie - may have been more important to Cuban music and culture than many of the musicians who developed the unique music styles. So many of the musicians from the Buena Vista project are now enjoying well-deserved international fame. Some of the musicians were in their 70's and 80's when the album was being made and have since passed away. If it wasn't for Ry Cooder their music may have been lost.


Reading: The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer
I read this book with my grandma as part of our Nobel Prize reading "club". I wouldn't recommend it unless you like torturing yourself for no good reason. Nobel Prize books are typically not easy reads, but at least you feel like you get something out of them. When I finished this one I was just happy to be done. That's a little unfair, as it did have some good points. The book was essentially about a wealthy white businessman in South Africa and his relationship with the black farmers who worked on his farm - farming was a hobby of his. I suppose the book contained some interesting commentary on race relations in South Africa, but I don't think there was anything revolutionary - at least nothing that I picked up on.


Watching: The Sea Inside (movie)
This may have been the most touching movie that I've ever seen. Don't watch it alone, when you're feeling down, late at night, or without a box of kleenex. Its a story about a quadriplegic man who fights for his right to commit suicide. That about sums it up. After watching the movie I felt that I had a somewhat new perspective on life. The film stars Javier Bardem, now famous for his role in No Country for Old Men. I'm quite impressed with his acting - he did a great job in two completely different roles.