A former Inverell Local has come back to visit to tell a story on her life living in rather cooler weather on the other side of the world.
Former Inverell resident Lisa Germany has been living in the cool climate territory of Greenland for the past 5 years, dubbed as one of the largest most isolated land masses in the world.
“All the settlements, towns and villages of Greenland are filled with fiords, so there’s no roads between towns.
“The only way to move from place to place is either by plane, sailing in the summer, walk or using dog sleds,” Ms Germany said.
The adventure to Greenland was an unexpected journey; a dream job that happened by a stroke of luck.
“I was on track to becoming an astronomer. I did my PhD in Astronomy and Astrophysics, worked for 4 years at the European Observatory in Chile, South America, moved back to Australia to Melbourne and did public outreach for the first year in astronomy, and by then my long service leave came up and decided to head back to South America where I stayed.
“Afterwards I quit my job, and gave myself six months before my savings was used up, so decided to go to Greenland and instantly fell in love with the place,” she said.
The decision to make the move to Greenland permanently wasn’t immediate.
“After a short time, I left Greenland and went back to Ecuador where I initially wanted to settle before visiting Greenland.”
“And the moment I got off the plane at Ecuador, I straight away decided to try and find a way to go back to Greenland which took 2 years to accomplish, transitioning from an e-learning/learning spaces expert, across to being a professional photographer/writer,” Ms Germany said.
Ms Germany says living in such an isolated place as Greenland has its challenges, however can be very rewarding.
“I had to learn how to make a lot of things for myself as there’s nothing in the way of western-style shopping.
“Here in Australia, everything is pretty much done for you, pre-made and easy. Over there, you have to make things for yourself,” she said as she welcomed her Nutella thick shake being placed before her.
“This thing? We don’t have that there. Who has thick shakes in a place that often has sub zero temperatures??”
Even something as simple as Anzac Biscuits where Australians have become accustomed to buying premade, are made from raw materials from scratch.
“Before even making the biscuits, one of the key ingredients is golden syrup. I had to learn to make golden syrup from scratch before I could even attempt to gather all the ingredients!” she said.
Ms Germany’s stories are a marvel to take in, including how she copes with an endless sun during summer, to hiking hundreds of kilometres and taking dozens of photos in order to create hiking tracks for International visitors and posting photos on multiple websites she has designed.
Ms Germany will be appearing at the Inverell Library tomorrow May 1st from 2pm to tell her story as well as answer as many questions as possible regarding her life in Greenland, with bookings essential to be made by calling the library on 6728 8130 or by emailing library@inverell.nsw.gov.au.
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