DAYLIGHT SAVINGS. Uummannaq, Greenland. Today we got an extra hour of sleep but the daylight is shrinking away. Each day, the sun comes up lower and lower on the horizon and in a flash it's gone again. The sun will disappear for the winter in 10 days or so, so people are really savoring the last of it. But you still need relative still in the fjord to be able to fish or travel by water, and today the whitecaps are menacing. Some new friends were in town from a neighboring settlement and they tried twice to get out, but were ultimately rejected and will have to wait out the bad sailing weather in Uummannaq tonight. It's rough for their school, however, because in their town of 200 people, they have 50 students and 8 teachers, and now 3 of the teachers are stranded in Uummannaq until tomorrow. Ah well. It won't keep us from the important soccer match tonight- that settlement, called Ikerasak, is celebrating the 50th anniversary of their soccer club with a match against Uummannaq, who won the Greenland championship last year. Should be exciting.

I am trying to prepare for my class stuff tomorrow. I will be in with the first graders, singing songs, and then later in the day, I'll be up with the 10th graders, teaching physics. I was invited out to the settlement by these teachers to teach with them for a week. It would be nice to see how the atmosphere is there, but it is in any case VERY different here than in the States. There isn't the sense that school is for LEARNING something, as much as something to do, a place to hang out with friends, and a way to earn money- school is obligatory until 9th grade, but then 10th and 11th grades are voluntary. But as an incentive for kids to finish their education and maybe find a better job, the commune offers monetary incentives for attendance for those two years. It is an important source of income for many families, too, especially in the settlements, because unemployment rates here are high. In my age group in Uummannaq, I think the unemployment rate is around 75%.

It's an interesting scene at school. The kids are decked out in expensive North Face down or windproof jackets and then traditional seal skin mittens. They listen to 50 Cent, Britney Spears, Eminem and Blink 182 alongside Greenlandic favorites like Angu. And they sneak text messages on their mobile phones and chat with friends online at a popular site called arto, like kids in many American cities. But even if they haven't money for proper food at home, they still have authentic Manchester United jerseys and hats. I wonder if Marilyn Manson ever stops to think of people 600 km above the arctic circle listening to his albums in the perma-dark of winter?

In any case, I'm excited to see if I can make any connection with the kids here, and with the adults. I have the advantages of youth and newness-in-town going for me. I can get their attention by talking with them about soccer or music and hopefully keep it long enough to share some ideas or words in English or concepts of biology or ??... I have days, it seems, before tomorrow comes. Time inches along here. It's funny how when you have nowhere to go, it seems like there is time enough for anything. Yet it's somehow really easy to get nowhere just the same. I guess I am getting acclimated.

Takussuugut... See you later.