Day 2: National Day of Greenland

(Thu 21/6/2012)

I'm sorry for the messy Swedish-English-Danish language mix, but it seems necessary to write in a way that everybody can understand!:)

I started off a bit late, but I got down to the Kolonihavnen (Colonial Harbor) in time for speeches, marches/music and cannon salutations. Coffee and bread (butter, cheese, jam) was served outside for all of the people awake at this early hour at Rådhuset (City Hall). I met with Maria, a friend of a friend, also Finnish, who has worked here at the university since August 2011. I think it's quite cool that I know TWO persons in Greenland: Maria and Judithe,  who studied Faroese with me in 2010.

Me and Maria walked around, met people, saw f.e. the old University (a delightful little red house by the sea), nice and not so nice apartment buildings, villas, graveyards, grocery stores, dogs, children, also quite a few Greenlanders in national dresses. We walked back to the downtown area for speeches on the square right outside our dorm: people gave speeches from their hearts and gave thanks to the land of Greenland in their own languages. It was a very nice and heartfelt atmosphere. We wrote small notes in our own languages and posted them on a wall. A very simple but nice way to include everyone and show how international the remote island of Greenland actually is!

We went to see what was cooked for lunch at the women's' house: but alas, nothing for me! The whale soup was not really my thing… So I had coffee and a piece of dry cake:)

The evening was spent at the university, where we had our introductory lessons in 1) general info about the Nordkurs language course and 2) Greenlandic language!  Afterwards we saw a lovely old Greenlandic movie: The wedding of Palo (1934).

View from my window: The parade left at 07.30 A.M...

Orchestra and TV-hosts in the left corner

Choir singing the national anthem.
A man's traditional costume seems to be a white anorak (grl: anoraq),
which btw is a loan word as you can see!

Lady Mayor of Nuuk, Asii Chemnitz Narup, and her husband? Dunno who the guy is.

Oda giving a speech... or then just fooling around:)

Taking down the flags.

Me & Maria having coffee & buns.

The old university, aka Moravian Brethren (=Herrnhuts Mission) house.

She sells sea shells on the sea shore?

Graveyard outside the old university.

Nuuk is good for skating. Except in the winter:)

New apartment buildings by the Kolonihavnen.

She works for the city? Haven't figured out what the t-shirt says..

Russian girl reciting a Russian poem (as Russians tend to do in such occasions!)

Our greetings to GRL. 

This guy gave a speech in Arabic.

Trubadur.

We live in the house behind the crowd.

Waiting for the bus.

The Wedding of Palo 1934.

Ilimatusarfik aka university. Behind it is the airport of Nuuk.