Aug 7- Camp Nanuq Day 2!

We saw our first northern lights today! At midnight, students woke up and went out to see a green line of light emerging from the twilight. Luckily for everyone at home, the lights turned out great in pictures! 

Afterwards, everyone went back to sleep to prepare for our first field day! However, before we went out that morning, we took time to establish community norms in order to maintain a respectful, efficient, and bonded community. Everyone contributed at least one thing meaning it took a little longer than anticipated, but eventually we piled into the vans and drove to our first field site. On the way, we saw the arctic research center, an old rocket launcher, and lots of beautiful nature (sadly no polar bears). As we got closer to the site, the road got rockier, and the car ride turned into a little bit of a car rodeo, but it was really fun.

When we arrived at the site, we escaped the bugs by going out into the bog, where the ground felt like a mattress with all the lichen and moss. Jumping around, it felt like you were an astronaut on the moon! In the bog, we were surrounded by cloudberries, and we all tried them. In Miles' opinion, they tasted like applesauce and lingonberries, while Nia reports they tasted "not good". 

We started our field work by finding a puddle and stuck our arms into the mud, trying to feel for permafrost (which we didn't find but we will get it next time!). At lunchtime, we had a bog picnic, and then split into duotanging teams. These teams collected samples of all the different plants we could find in the area, taped them to a paper, and labeled them for reference. Finally, we began our field work, sampling soil for DNA, identifying plants, and probing for permafrost, logging using the GIS group and Mark Dhruve's new ipad system! 

After we finished, we took a moment where everyone lay down silently on the bog and took a moment to appreciate the land and how lucky we are to be here. This time to reflect kicked off this trip's tradition of "now moments", which we will continue to do throughout this trip. 

Back at Camp Nanuq, we enjoyed a fantastic dinner of spaghetti thanks to Nia, Elena, Felicia, and Carla. Afterwards, we came together for a presentation by Ms. Florence, who lives in Churchill, on the history of the Sayisi Dene people. During this presentation, we learned about Sayisi Dene life before and after government relocation began, accompanied by items Ms. Florence had brought in (such as a caribou fur and handmade beaded gloves). We ended our evening with the second edition of the Olympics: our three teams competed in the Name Game (won by Kara, points to team Lucky Charms!) and the Rock, Paper, Scissors Championship (won by Vicki, points to team Black Knights!). We ended the day by having delicious brownies for dessert before going to bed. Tomorrow we have our last day at Camp Nanuq, but we have had a wonderful time here today.