June 5, 2008 – It was smooth sailing for the six-hour flight to Reykjavik, thank god! When I landed in Iceland, I was able to use my Blackberry World Edition and send messages back home that I was alright. But my first priority was finding David, and as I looked for flight information on the monitors, David was walking by and found me. We must have looked insane to the people around us, because were laughing and dancing wild, thrilled that we had met up after such crazy events in the airport.

We had a 3-hour layover, and we used the time to browse the stores and eat the best smoked salmon you can find! There was just a three hour flight to Nuuk, Greenland, and it was a much more pleasurable flying experience than I am used to in post-9/11 America. The pilots invited us into the cockpit and were extremely friendly, giving us a flight briefing (we would be flying 550kmh at 24,000 feet). As we approached Nuuk, we were rewarded with a breathtaking view of Greenland’s glaciers, and I got goosebumps when I saw a single iceberg floating in the sea. It was a nervous landing, as the ground was coated in dense fog, and we had to circle the airport for 20 minutes before making a landing on the short runway that ended on a cliff, dropping off any planes that failed to stop into the water!

Greenland is a Danish-owned country and is the world’s largest island in terms of square footage. Although the country is located in the Arctic wild, because of it’s relationship with Denmark it has always been politically involved with Europe. Our first stop was at the Nuuk Tourism office to find out if there was any new information we were not aware of, and paid our Bed and Breakfast fee. The owners of a Bed and Breakfast operate it out of their own 3-story apartment, and it was definitely a comfortable setup for us. After getting quickly settled in, we went out to meet a group of deaf locals at a Café. We first met with our interpreter, Maja Steffens and a Deaf local, Namma Broberg. With only 10 deaf people in Nuuk (it’s a small town!) 70% of the entire deaf community was in one café, a café that served fantastic coffee with French-pressed glass!

In anticipation of my week in the wild, I decided I needed to buy some hiking shoes and walked around town to find some. Walking around town, I saw one of the most unique things I’ve seen in my life; Santa Claus’ mailbox! It was the most enormous mailbox I’ve ever seen, and it’s no surprise considering the man gets billions of letters every year from children all over the world! When I found a nice pair and showed them to one of the local deaf people, I was shocked to learn that the shoes cost more than his monthly disability check from the government! Feeling badly, I decided to treat him to pizza and a chat. It was a good opportunity to learn about the lives of Deaf people in Greenland for my video reports. When we stopped by the hotel pub for a drink before we went to bed, it was still bright outside never mind it was 12:30 in the morning! The sun was shining as if it were the middle of the day, I felt like I was taking a nap, not going to sleep for the night!

Tomorrow morning we are going to fly even further north to Ilulissat with a stopover in Kangerlussuag. I’m looking forward to venturing deeper into Greenland, I wonder what we’ll find!