Woke up this morning at 7:30 with auditory hallucinations of a helicopter. Needless to say, it wasn't one. Jen and I went to measure trough E, and on our way to trough K, Jen hears a helicopter -- I don't hear it but we book back to base camp anyway. Sure enough, she was right!! And just in time too, we (Dick, Jen, and I) were planning to hike back to Miki's Hus at 2 if we didn't see a helicopter. This one showed up at 1:17. But, it turns out, this one is from Greenland Air, going TO Sødalen, not FROM, as we had hoped. The pilot didn't know where he was going afterwards, but we figured he'd pick up Kent Brooks, et al., and bring him HERE along with our food. We sent a message back to Bob with him and them went to trough C to do some work while we waited for our dinner. We saw the copter again but it just flew right by. But we figured it would be back since this is the last fuel dump before Angmagssalik. So far no show, so I'm eating more of my lunch food. More later if anything happens.

* * *

The copter came back finally! Bringing Kent Brooks, his wife, a graduate student, and TWO BAGS of our food!!! Yea! Also brought mail - three letters for Jen and three for John (his wife). John got this gleeful smile on his face. Jen got a letter from Russ, her Italian boyfriend, with cologne sprayed on it. Seems there's trouble with the fuel around here -- Greenland Air has been using Platinova's cache and they're not sure how much. There's a definite fuel shortage (for the copters, plenty of diesel for the drills). Looks like we'll have to move our base camp once the non-stop 24 hour drilling begins around here. When the helicopter left it blew over my tent, ripping some holes in the fly. Looks like I'll have to buy a new tent before next season. It's got some small holes in the floor too. Finished with the trough bands today, all except taking B&W photos.

Got woken up at 3AM by Jim and Rob in a drunken frenzy. They were pacing in circles around my tent, praising SPAM and just in general being obnoxious. Despite (or because of) my protestations, they didn't stop until they got reprimanded by Dick (2nd grade all over again). They apologized in the morning, but they'd do it again I know. At least they're out of booze now - they can only drink what they can scam off others from now on. We're climbing to the Sandwich horizon today, should be fun for two guys with hangovers! Today is THURSDAY July 27, 11:27 AM Icelandic Time (9:27 Greenland Time). I will be on the plane home on Tuesday August 22 at 4pm. That leaves 26 days plus a few hours, and the last few days will be in Iceland. Right now we don't have much to do since we finished the trough bands and we don't have a boat. I'm the only one who's really been able to work on my project in any detail at all. It's nice and sunny today so perhaps a helicopter will come with our gear. But perhaps not, Platinova's copter was going to be ready to fly today at the earliest. Their windshield was lost somewhere in NYC, figures. And I don't think that big helicopter will be back which is good since it blew over my tent and made two rips in the fly, but I think I mentioned that already.

* * *

Later, on top of some rock pile about 520 meters above sea level. Jim is fucking driving me crazy!! I hope we get split up soon, so I don't have to deal with him all day, every day. I just realized why he and Rob are so difficult to have a conversation with - not only because all they talk about is drugs, parties, and other highly cultured topics, but also because they NEVER LISTEN. When they have conversations with each other, they both just talk and talk without listening - it's good they're usually talking about the same thing, though I don't think they'd notice if they weren't, AAUGH, it's so annoying. I've just got to stop trying to have real conversations with them, it's a wasted effort and just leaves me frustrated. Rob is pretty bright actually, he's just totally wasted his brain with drugs. Guess I'm in a bad mood today. Harrumph.

* * *

Got back to camp (with wet feet of course) to find my tent once again overturned by the copter. Now there's lots of little holes all over, especially in the floor. It must have slid over the gravel a lot. Definitely time for a new tent. And they didn't even leave any of our gear! I wonder why they stopped (twice!) since there's no more fuel to take. Feeling better now.

Didn't sleep a wink last night, very frustrating. Around 6AM I woke up to Jen snoring and could not fall asleep, so I took my sleeping bag outside and over a little ridge and slept for two blissful hours on a rock. (We're still sharing tents since the extra gear is back at Miki's Hus, but we all know that already...) Then came back to the tent and luckily Jen was awake, so she left and I slept until 11ish, when I heard "water's hot!" again. Went to breakfast and everyone else is already up, I guess Dick had called quite a few times and I hadn't heard. So I had breakfast and since there isn't much to do today, I'm back in my sleeping bag ready to take a snooze. All my dreams these past few days have been about either food or sex. Really hard to interpret those.

* * *

Turns out the helicopter yesterday wasn't one of "ours", it was somebody who was totally and utterly lost, heading out from Iceland looking for the Faeroe Islands. Hello, those are EAST of Iceland and we are WEST. He was looking for a fuel dump, hope he found some. Hiked to Wager's Memorial today, at the southernmost end of Skaergaard Peninsula, a pretty mild 2 hour hike one way. Saw some ancient Eskimo ruins but couldn't mess around too much since it's an OFFICIAL archaeological site. Platinova's finally got their copter going again, but since Greenland Air has been using all their fuel, they can't do much with it. They're managing to get some plywood to Aputatek (an old weather station on an island) for some unknown reason, but they can't get our boat here for a couple of days probably. Sort of bumming because we haven't much left to do without the boat. We have 19 more days to do fieldwork, I hope we get it all finished. I told Jen I'd help her do hers, since mine is finished already, as mentioned before. It's cold tonight - this morning there was frost on my boots. I don't think the boat that's scheduled to come on the 1st will be able to get through all the ice - sort of sucks because the Greenlanders won't be able to get to Angmagssalik and Platinova won't be able to get their drilling equipment in. The ice has been bad luck for everyone this year. Sorry for the messy writing but my hands are FREEZING. Good Night!

End of 2nd week. Three weeks to go. Today we have absolutely nothing to do. We've finished all our fieldwork that can be done in this area and our boat is still not here. So for right now, we're just twiddling our thumbs. A copter should be coming today with our stuff from Sødalen, so that would be good, but we really need the stuff at Miki's Hus and Bob says they can't get to that stuff for a day or two. Slept very well last night, despite the threat of a pitterak - it's a VERY STRONG warm wind, and if it comes you have to immediately collapse the tents and HOLD ON to everything. Luckily one didn't come. Kent Brooks described it, saying that it sounds like a freight train when it's coming through. You can tell when one might be coming because the clouds become distinctly cigar-shaped. But we were lucky this time - it'll probably wait and come when we have our boat inflated. More news later if anything happens.

* * *

Things happened! The helicopter came and brought ALL our stuff at once! It felt like Christmas but much much better! They put the stuff from Sødalen inside the copter, then carried the stuff from Miki's Hus in a sling beneath. I'd imagine it's really tough to fly a helicopter with all that stuff swinging crazily beneath you, but they seemed to manage. So we've been setting up camp all day - Jen moved out and now I have my tent to myself. Should be much easier to sleep from now on (in case I hadn't mentioned it, Jen snores). We also set up a cooking fly AND THE DIPOLE!! So now our radio should work much better. Kent and his wife left on the helicopter, leaving Rune (the grad student) behind by himself. He's supposed to have a field assistant coming in tomorrow, but with this low fuel business, you never know what's going on. I've got all my lunch stuff now too, and most of my clothing is dry, so we're sitting pretty from now on. GEOLOGY STARTS TOMORROW. Going over to Kraemer's Island in the boat, just to look around. I have my daypack now, yea! And my spoon!! And my sneakers!! Yea!

* * * (colored pencil sketch here)

Supposedly a picture of the scene from our eating area (drawn inside the tent from memory) Light. brown is the ferrogabbro Upper Zone A we all know and love. Dark brown is a dike. Houses are Greenlander camp, right side is Kraemer's Island, water has lots of pack ice and bergs and sky is blue for a change. Rune came and visited with us tonight, Dick passed around scotch. I tried a little but it made my eyes water. Talked geo mostly - Rune's assistant is sick so she'll be late getting here. He'll probably stick with us for a few days. Tomorrow we're off to Kraemer's Island and we'll see migmatites, yea! Had a good day today, hope they're all as good. PS. Rune brought spices, yea!

[inserted note from several days later: Rune's assistant is not sick, her mother is sick. She is going to be getting here on the 19th of August, which is when he is leaving.]

Geologic photos taken:
Hornfels on contact of Skaergaard on Melemmø Island - originally cretaceous sandstone.
Coliform layering on Melemmø, in marginal border series, in banded section, middle zone equivalent.
Migmatites, in PE gneiss, Archean (about 3.9 billion years old!).

Took boat out today, with Rune who seems very intelligent in the way of geology. Went to Melemmø Island, looked at the contact of the intrusion and the marginal series rocks. Then came over to the south end of Kraemer's Island and now looking at more rocks but thinking about my schedule for next year. It's enough to make me cry just thinking about all the work I have ahead of me. Fall: Marine Geology, Paleobiology, Chem107, Geomorphology, all 6 or 7 hours per week plus 15 hrs per week at work plus 6 hrs per week on the thesis for this trip. That will last both semesters, plus some of winter break just to take a little load off. All for just four credits. As usual, my credits will not be a good marker of my efforts. Spring: Hydrology, Chem 108, Physics 2. How am I ever going to get everything done? Well I really shouldn't be worrying about this now, but classes are only a month away, as remote as it seems in this particular location...

* * *

Got three letters today, from Sheila, Grandmom, and Jen Monteith. Today just has not been a good day - I have a VERY painful bruise on my left thigh from falling on a POINTY rock. I realize (in slight retrospect) that all my worrying about my classes is really useless. But the company here has not been all that helpful. Not that I'm depending on anyone to keep me cheerful but it would be nice to have someone to talk to. I was informed by John today that my conversation is boring and perhaps I should do things besides schoolwork in order to liven it up a bit. Hm. Well, I'm going to read now and then sleep. It's about a 50/50 chance whether I'll be warm or not, it's been a pretty warm evening. Neil Irvine is here now, but considering the mood I've been in, it's no wonder I've put off introducing myself. Tomorrow we're visiting the north end of Kraemer's Island. I won't worry about that and just let the days go as they may, and in time all the days will have passed and that may either be a joyous or a saddening time, probably both. Oh, got my period today too which could also be a factor in my mood! ha! 17 more days of geology. and just to keep you on your toes, 29 days until classes start.

Wrote some letters, so not very into writing anymore. Went to the north end today, Uttental Plateau, past Kraemer's Island. Meant to get there too, but didn't get to it. Not feeling very good, uterus-wise. Like internal lightning bolts. Maybe it will go away if I sleep.

Didn't go out in the field today. Still not feeling well so I'm laying around trying to feel better. Here's a catalog of my personal rock samples:
(1) bronzy weathered pyroxenes in gabbro.
(2) microcline rock (PE gneiss) with epidote vein.
(3) rock with epidote, in two forms: radiating and prenhite-like.
(4) radiating dendritic pyroxenes.
(5) rock with quartz crystals and prenhite or epidote.
(6) small egg-shaped brecciated rock.
(7) plagioclase with macroscopic albite twinning.
(8) quartz filling a vug.
(9) two samples of bornite (copper ore, peacock blue).
(10) small piece of hercynite (sp?), a spinel, looks like chromite but isn't.
(11) quartz crystals (2).
(12) piece with small hexagonal quartz crystals.
(13) piece of gabbro (upper zone A?) with intergrowth of plagioclase and pyroxene.
(14) five pieces of pyroxene (2 large) show good cleavage and crystal faces.