# First Contact

THE CLOUD EXPEDITION! · level 2 · chapter 1

Captain Cloudsworth unfurls a tattered scroll with a flourish. 'Behold — the global registry! Ponds from every corner of the world, all stored in the cloud.' He taps the scroll dramatically. 'Let's see what's out there...' Time to run your first <span class='feature-highlight'>Cloud Query</span> — selecting data directly from a MotherDuck table.

## Task

Preview 10 rows from the global pond registry to see what data is available. Table: `dbquacks_cloud_expedition.global_ponds` (MotherDuck).

## Hint

Use SELECT with LIMIT to preview rows without loading the entire table. Remember to use the fully qualified table name with the database prefix

## Expected result

10 rows from global_ponds showing columns like pond_name, region, and climate_zone

## Tables

### `lake_visits` (500 rows)

| column | type |
| --- | --- |
| visit_id | BIGINT |
| duck_id | BIGINT |
| destination_pond | VARCHAR |
| visit_date | DATE |
| purpose | VARCHAR |

### `pondville_events` (50 rows)

| column | type |
| --- | --- |
| event_id | BIGINT |
| event_name | VARCHAR |
| event_date | DATE |
| organizer_id | BIGINT |
| location | VARCHAR |
| attendee_count | BIGINT |

### `pondville_residents` (100 rows)

| column | type |
| --- | --- |
| duck_id | BIGINT |
| name | VARCHAR |
| species | VARCHAR |
| home_pond | VARCHAR |
| age | BIGINT |
| occupation | VARCHAR |
| joined_date | DATE |

### `dbquacks_cloud_expedition.global_ponds`

A table in a MotherDuck share; its columns are not listed here.

## Data

The tables live in a DuckDB database: https://dbquacks.com/data/databases/motherduck_tutorial.duckdb

To query it outside the browser, attach it read-only:

```sql
ATTACH 'https://dbquacks.com/data/databases/motherduck_tutorial.duckdb' AS db (READ_ONLY);
USE db;
```

This level also queries MotherDuck shares, which need a MotherDuck token. On the page, the editor asks for one.

Play it in the browser: https://dbquacks.com/motherduck/2

## Reference

https://motherduck.com/docs/getting-started/e2e-tutorial/part-1/