Day 1 Part II

The first day felt like a forever. Probably because I had been up forever. I tried my best to stay up as late as possible so I'd sleep a proper night's sleep and maybe wake up in rhythm with the place I'm in. I went out to get some groceries and to take some stock of this place. There's snow. A lot of snow. Even for a Finn. Most houses are build up high, probably to keep people's front doors from being snowed in. I have my own little exit when there's nobody else here at the museum and if there's heavy snowfall, I might have to shovel myself out. I've already made a nice little route for myself. My dad and boyfriend would be proud that I'm actually shoveling snow.


The city of Nuuk looks very Scandinavian, I think. Colorful wooden houses mixed with blocky stone buildings we in Finland lovingly refer as 'Soviet'. The snow covers everything, so it's a bit hard to really tell about the terrain. From what I know from pictures, it's rocky and very up-and-down here. Which could also be annoying, but then again, my activity meter is very happy because I get all my steps and stairs filled in already in the afternoon. I'm gonna have thighs of iron when I come home. I got 33 pairs of stairs today! My goal is 10. So that's pretty nice.


I could only see a few little mountains and no sea, so I had to go and look for it. When it revealed itself between meandering streets and steep little houses, it was a marvel. I still can't understand how it can be unfrozen or how it can be so similar to the sea I saw in Japan. Both have the incredible, hypnotic mass, the call of some ancient lizard part in the human brain. The lull of death. I don't know? It's beautiful but so deadly. Oh God jetlag, leave me alone!

Both here and Japan, there also seems to be the same seaweed, the seagulls, the round rocks that look like bones in certain light. How can the weed survive, how do the birds not freeze? How do they naturally have resources for all kinds of environments, while us humans have to come up with clothing etc.


So I went to one of the beaches and there was even a tiny iceberg! There were some people taking a news video of it, I passed them by and slipped on a seaweed and fell. But the seaweed did make a really pretty texture on my pants, though. Maybe I'll do something with that.


The grocery shop was very Scandinavian too, there were even some of the same products as we have back home. They have libresse, yay! Also, all the raports of Greenland being really expensive are exaggerated, or written by somebody who's never been to Finland. The prices are almost the same, except for Ben&Jerry, which was 13 euros and quite expensive. However, I really needed it, so I paid the 13 euros.

I was also told that they don't have lettuce or fresh berries here. I also remember reading that there are no avocados. Yes there are! There were even some vegetables and mushrooms here that we don't have in Finland. It's quite unnecessary to spread weird rumours like that.


My first impression of Greenlanders? They're quite happy and smiling. I think I'm going to again appear like a horrible sourpuss, but that's just us Finns. The Greenlanders hug when they meet their friends, their kids are smiling and laughing all the time, running around chasing each other. Some look Inuit, some very Scandinavian, so I'm assuming Danish. I think I'm going to stand out here, at least that's what my residency guide said, because I'm new. I don't know if I look Scandinavian or not, but I do look very Finnish, what with the long face that just comes with being a Finn, sorry!

I thought we would be similar with the Greenlandic people, because I think Finns have this island quality. We also live sort of separated from our neighbours, we're neither like the Swedes or the Russians. We're sort of sullen, quiet, even untrusting, I think. But we do survive a lot of. But in here, I think people are so much more social, they want to be a community. Which makes sense considering the circumstances, but I have to wonder, why are we Finns so glum, suspicious and pessimistic?