My Name in Inuktitut

There seems to be a little debate in my high school Media class on what my name actually is in Inuktitut ... We have two possible versions of my name. The first one is what my Media Class believes it should be, and the second one is the translation according to our specialists at school.





I have to say, I tend to agree with my Media students about the first one (partially because I like the 'ra' sound better than the 'la' sound ....)

Meanderings and Rambles

This past week here in Arctic Bay was a pretty calm week ....

At school this week, we did have the unfortunate incident of a frozen water pipe that burst early Monday morning, flooding not only the grade 2 classroom, but also the kindergarten classroom, the pre-school classroom and the worst hit, Monty's phys ed classroom downstairs. Fortunately for me, my computer lab was spared any water damage, but it is still unusable due to the funky odor coming out of Monty's classroom. With any luck, it will have dried out enough over the weekend so I can resume classes downstairs again.

The rest of the week was uneventful. The weather is nice up here right now, and we are hovering around -20 on most days (which isn't too bad).

This week we are having a scholastic book fair at school, so it will be nice to see what goodies are brought up to us for this and to see what books the kids will buy and want to read in class.

It's time to head off to the Grey Cup gathering with the gang ... let's see who will win this year

ciao

Vitamin C!

Oh... the joys of Food Mail! Oranges, Grapefruit and Pomegranate! Eeee!

The Almost Full Moon

Colorful Moon

The joys of Photoshop and boredom:

The Moon is Back!

After not seeing the moon at any time of day since November 5th, it made an appearance tonight .... hopefully it will stick around for a little while again.

Iceberg!

Today I went out to Victor Bay to check out the iceberg that was frozen in place in the Bay. Although it's a baby iceberg, it was still impressive. I have to say, that while I was walking around it and over it the sight of it left me speechless. It had a striking blue color to it, and the patterns of how the water froze in it (or on it) were amazing.

Brrrrrr.....

Panorama Time

It being Monday, and a day off, I decided to have a little fun with my camera and computer:













So there you go everyone! Arctic Bay in Panorama!

Remembrance Day in Arctic Bay

Remembrance Day in Arctic Bay was marked by a small ceremony held in the Anglican Church this morning at 10:30 AM. The local Cadet Corps and their CO Frank were in attendance, the Rangers, the RCMP (John was up front with the Canadian Flag, while Troy was sitting in the back with me), and a small group of locals.

I came prepared to have service outdoors (yes, I know.. Kennie, why on Earth would you think that the ceremony would be outdoors when it's -25??!! Well, says I because every other Remembrance Day ceremony that I have EVER been to, no matter how crappy the weather was we were outside), but soon found out that the service was inside. Not that I minded.

The Ceremony was held in both English and Inuktitut, although a small group of us did sing O Canada in all three official Languages. It was neat seeing how Remembrance day was marked in a small isolated community. Much of what I experienced was just like the ceremonies down south .. only difference is that Inukituit replaced French.

Although not many people up here in the North have been touched by the wars, it was a time for us as a community to remember and thank those who are currently serving overseas, who are patrolling our borders, and to those that fight for our freedom present, past and future. It was also a time for many of us to reflect upon recent events here in the North, most notably the deaths of two young RCMP members who lost their lives in the line of duty.

You will not be forgotten.

Sunlight in Arctic Bay

When I woke up this morning, it was just beginning to get light outside (9:30 AM). Being curious, and having nothing better to do on a Saturday when it's -24 degrees outside, I thought it would be interesting to photograph the days 'light' progression.


Arctic Bay @ 10:34 AM

'Sunrise' over the Bay 10:34 AM

The Bay, 11:59 AM



1:30 PM



2:45 PM



3:40 PM

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

Simply because Blogger doesn't give enough storage space, and because I can't seem to keep a decent connection to my .mac account, I've lined my photos from Facebook to here for all to see. Enjoy.

Random Environmental Pictures of Arctic Bay

Ice Fishing

Iqaluit - NPIC Conference Part 1, Part 2

Arctic Bay Part 1, Part 2

You are now entering the twilight zone

Yesterday was the last day that I would see the sun for a long time. Now, as we enter the dark season, the sun won't quite make it up above the mountains here due to the way that the Earth has now rotated in relation to the sun. We still will "see" the effects of the sun for a couple more weeks (ie: we can see its reflection against the clouds), but that ball of fire way up in the sky has disappeared for now... not to be seen again for two months.

12:05 pm

12:30 pm

12:50 pm

1:10pm

and then the sun was gone.

The Moon and Venus

Picture of the Moon and Venus taken this morning before I left for school:

You know you're living in the North When...

When the sun weather icon is replaced by a moon weather icon.

The Weather Gods are on Our Side

Woot! Our two new teachers have FINALLY arrived here in Arctic Bay! YEAAAAAH!!!!!!!! They made it here around 9:00ish (landed at 7:30 in Nanisivik). I met them at their place, made sure it was nice and warm and had lights that at least worked, dropped off some breakfast for them (couple of boxes of little cereal and yogurt, got them caught up in the usual things on how Arctic Bay runs and left them to unpacking / sleeping / figuring things out.

Some Fresh Air and Pictures

Little more Inuktitut 101

A couple more words have made its way into my lingo .. and I can more or less use these words too on a daily basis ... plus, these are good words for anyone traveling North to know (sorry if there are repeats), and yes I am remembering certain things from my own days of studying linguistics in posting these words, although I'm not about to try writing them in syllabics:

Hello / Hi = Ai
Good Morning = Ullakkut
Good Afternoon = Unnussakut
Good Evening = Unnukkut
How are you = Qanuippit
How's it going / I'm doing good = Qanuingittunga
See you later = Takulaarivugut
Thank-you = Nakurmiik
People from Nunavut = Nunavummiut

and there are other words too.. I just need to find my cheat sheet that I have them all written down on.

All is well in Arctic Bay

Today is Friday! Woot! All went well in Arctic Bay today. Our soccer teams flight took off from Nanisivik this morning as scheduled (as we were all worried that it was going to be canceled due to weather). So good luck in Iqaluit to all of you! Make us proud!

And we have confirmation that our two new teachers will be arriving tomorrow at the airport around 11:00 (if all goes well). I have to meet up with them at their place when they arrive as I have their keys .. so it's going to be an early morning of calling the airport to make sure that the flight is going to land. Here's hoping for a good and clear flying day.


Well, November 3rd came and went... and our teachers flew over us, landed in Resolute, flew over us again and are now back in Iqaluit for the night. With any luck, there is going to be another attempt tomorrow at getting them here... so crossing fingers and hoping for good flying weather .... everyone do the good flying weather dance

It's now November 4th, and the plane is going to try it's third attempt at landing here in Nanisivik at 7:23 pm ... if it lands, I get to hike across town to meet the new teachers at their place to give them their keys, drop off some rations so they can have breakfast and a list of important phone numbers. Here's hoping that the weather gods are on our side