Sea-Lift .... Repost

Hi Everyone,

I've noticed that over the last 48 hours I have had many searches for Sea-Lift info (like a whopping 86% of my traffic)!

So here is the info again for everyone:

TSC (transport company for shipping your goods up North on a boat)
Tel: (613)739-4782
Fax: (613)739-4784
Cell: (613)913-0833
e-mail: bookings@tsctransport.com
website: www.tsctransport.com

MARCHE DAOUST (1985) INC.
36 DU MARCHE
VALLEYFIELD QC J6T 1P4
TEL: (450)373-7347/9981
FAX: (450)373-4989
daoust.nord@bellnet.ca

MARCHE TURENNE
4880 BOUL. STE-ROSE
LAVAL QC H7R 2B4
TEL: (450) 627-7996
FAX: (450) 627-7999
EMAIL: MARCHETURENNE@BELLNET.CA

Also, remember that each community may have their preferred supplier (ie: one that everyone or the majority do their ordering through), so remember to ask around to those that order sea-lifts to find out who they use as well!). And if you are feeling adventurous ... you can always head south, buy all of your supplies for the year and bring it to a shipping/transport company and pack it yourself.

Have fun shopping!

Celebration Time

It is going to be a very special day at school tomorrow afternoon (no, we aren't getting out early) .... but we are having a very important celebration at school.



Kindergarten Graduates Tomorrow! (Cheer!!!!)

I've quite enjoyed my time working with Kindergarten this year as they are like little sponges .. they soak everything up so quickly! And I love it when they come running after me when I'm trying to talk home, or out on my nightly run just to give me a great big hug... and to tell me what they had for supper or what they found while out playing.

So, Congrats to you Kindergarten! You did it! Have fun in Grade 1 next year!

Holy Cow! I'm Famous!

Thanks goes out to Kara for sending this along to me.

I am published! Well... .kinda ... Someone out there @ Up Here found my blog and
my musings about living in the North.

UpHere, April/May'08

I think my Mother would be proud

I spent the last 5 hours cleaning, and sorting, and chucking crap out of my house today. I went through my dresser drawers and got rid of everything that was well worn .. cleaned my closet of all of those thing that wind up accumulating ... and of course, I cleaned out the dreaded drawer of mystery. At the end, I wound up with five (yes, five) bags of garbage and several empty boxes. I think I did quite well for myself today (considering my "love" for cleaning).

The Fog ... er Clouds?

Low clouds have descended upon Arctic Bay .... creating havoc yet again with the planes not being able to land (fortunately, the plane from Resolute did land this morning and take off again). It doesn't affect me too much (other than I really would like to have my mail).

King George V Mountain lost in the clouds [8:05 AM 05.23.08]
Top of KGVM [8:05 AM 08.23.08]

These were taken this morning around 12:30 AM as I was walking back down the hill to my Unit from Monty and Darcy's. It was quite errie. Low clouds descending upon downtown Arctic Bay, while uptown had clear blue skies.

Where are the mountains? [12:30 AM 05.24.08]

Felt like I was going to be swallowed up by the clouds seeping between the mountains walking home this morning [12:36 AM 05.24.08]

Reflections of an Edumakator

Wow. It is hard to believe that we are at the end of the school year with classes slowly (in the elementary & jr. high) and quickly (in high school) wrapping up for the year. It does NOT feel like there should only be 9 teaching days left (10 if we count today) - where did the time go? Still feels like the first week of school some days.

My first year as a teacher in the North has gone by fairly well. I survived (lol)!. It has been challenging at times (I will not lie), but in all it did go fairly smoothly. Don't get me wrong, there were times that I was getting ready to just throw in the towel and make a run for it as I was pushed to the brink of sanity. I held on, and rode the wave of insanity ... which I feel (or at least hope) has made me a stronger and more well rounded teacher.

And to all of you new Education graduates from my Alma Matter, congrats! Now... forget everything (well... almost everything) that you learned as the real world, is not like how it is described in the classroom. Believe me, there were days that I wanted to call some of my profs and ask them "where exactly is the class that we always talked about during lectures? Cause I have a great class for you to come up and see ....."

Now, hang on before everyone starts to jump down my throat - my education that I received was excellent - I couldn't have asked for a better group of professors and instructors to guide me through my educational process; however, I will still maintain that all of my education did not prepare me for the "non-standardized, perfect hypothetical" classroom. The real classroom is a whole other bucket of fish... and how I have learned this year. Everything that I thought I knew, or experienced teaching in the south was forgotten and abandoned. It was back to the drawing board .... and a completely different style of teaching

Teaching elementary has been an eye opener (especially when you are a trained secondary / adult ed teacher). I wasn't too sure about teaching elementary in the beginning, wondering completely what I had exactly gotten my self into. But ya know what? Those little kiddies are like sponges! They soak everything in! I have enjoyed my time teaching k-4, but I am also looking forward to next year's changes where I will have a stronger high school focus (and reconnecting to my "educational roots") and only one (or two?) elementary groups.

Teaching high school has also been an eye opener. This year, was a rough year for the high school crowd as they were dealing with a massive turn-over in high school staff and at the same time, trying to gain trust in the new high school teachers that arrived in August. It has been a bumpy ride at times, but next year should be a lot smoother since there is no expected high school staff turn-over.

And with reflections of a year, comes the opportunity for change. Next year will be brining many changes to my life up here in the North. Some that will benefit me professionally, others that will benefit me personally. I'm not quite ready to spill the details just yet, but when I am ready, the world will be the second group to know.


Taima

"They think my Inuksuk is sexy .."

Today us girls decided to make a trek out to Nanisivik so we could put our signs up on the Sign Forest in Nanisivik. We are quite proud of our painting abilities on our signs.






After we got our signs all up on the sign forest, we decided to head up to the "camp" where all of the workers live who are finishing the decommissioning of the mine for a cup of coffee and a visit with Suzanne (who fed us yummy cookies and sent us home with a huge pot of chili and fresh buns for supper - Merci Suzanne!)

From there, we went up to the water tank to check out the Inuksuks ... hence was born the line "They think my Inuksuk is sexy" (which eventually turned into a song... and then the title of this blog post - I did not come up with the "song / slogan", but it did become the theme of our little trip ... and the photo shoot).

There really hasn't been too much happening up here in the North this week ... it's been a fairly normal week. Seems like most of us Norther bloggers don't have any "news" to spread around. This weekend however, is the Fishing Derby ... so Arctic Bay is going to be a Ghost Town (from what I have been told).

Tomorrow if the weather holds out, a group of us are going to be driving out to the Sign Forest in Nanisivik to put our hometown signs up on the posts ... stay tuned for pictures.

More Nunavut Quest Photos

On the Ice Again

Today a group of us decided to go on off for a nice long 5 hour skidoo ride out to the icebergs on the bay. Our first stop was the iceberg way out at Adams Sound (that we have all climbed up at varying points during the winter). For most of us, our last visit to this iceberg was two weeks ago ... and since then, there has been significant melting occurring, including chunks of ice falling off of the iceberg and visible stress cracks forming in the peaks. A sure sign of Springs arrival (or Global Warming).




Groovin @ the Iceberg

Jumping in the Ice Slush

We climbed the iceberg for a while and got some good group pics, and headed back off towards Victor Point to check out another iceberg ..... and along the way, Kennie got a driving lesson. Yes everyone, I finally learned how to drive a skidoo .... I am hooked. I can say though, that two of us who were on this trip did not know how to drive a skidoo ... so we both got our lessons today. I guess we can say I have been "skidooed-in". Quite a different experience being upfront than a passenger.



Continuing on our way out to the iceberg, we spotted something moving in the distance towards us. We could tell that it was not a polar bear (as it was far too small) ... but we weren't too sure if it was a fox, wolf or dog. So.. being the adventurous people we are, we went to check it out. And what we found was a sled dog who was let off most likely during the last leg of the race as it was injured (as far as any of us could tell, looked like a sprain). Figuring that it hadn't eaten since at least Wednesday (if not Tuesday), we gave it one of our sandwiches and a good belly rub before continuing our trek to the iceberg, Well, this lil pup decided to follow us to the iceberg and joined up with us. Poor lil guy ran after us for a good 10km. We stopped, gave him another sandwich half, another belly rub and hoped that he would follow us back into town on our way back.

We rode along for another 20 minutes before stopping to have a snack along the way (the remaining sandwiches) and to check out some "seal holes" as Monty swore up and down that he saw a seal (yet none of us saw this seal ....). While we were snacking and chatting, we could yet again see a little dot coming towards us in the distance .... the pup found us! And as his reward for finding us .... another piece of sandwich!



Soon it was time to head back to town (as we all wanted to nab a shower before watching the hockey game - which did not happen as CBC is still not working properly up here in Arctic Bay .... ), and we hoped that the pup would follow us back into town. Well, pup was tired after following us all day so he got a ride on one of the skidoos all the way back into town .... and did the pup ever love getting a ride back on the skidoo in the effort to be reunited with the rest of his pack.

Nunavut Quest 2008 - Photo Collage

More Photo's of Musher's Arrival in Arctic Bay here, here and here

Flash Update - Nunavut Quest 2008

At 2:30 PM EST the skidoo drivers arrived in Arctic Bay, where they proceeded to parade around the frozen bay.

Mushers are expected to arrive here in Arctic Bay in an hour.



***** UPDATE (5:47 PM EST) *****
Mushers began arriving here in Arctic Bay at 4:23 PM EST. So far, 10 out of 20 teams have arrived here in Arctic Bay.

Nunavut Quest 2008 Update

Nunavut Quest Underway

There were no clear leaders in the Nunavut Quest dog mushing race from Iglulik to Arctic Bay as of May 2. Iglulik's Joey Aqqiaruq Sarpinak was the first to arrive at camp one, while Arctic Bay's Moses Oyukuluk was the first at camp two. Mushers have already faced their share of challenges in the race. After being held up one day at camp one due to a blizzard, mushers were back on the trail to camp two as of April 29. To make up for a shortage of dog food, mushers also took some time to fish at camp two. Organizers also said a crew would arrange to bring seal as dog food close to camp four May 2.

Nunavut Quest mushers race approximately 80 kilometres per day and are expected to arrive in Arctic Bay May 6 if there are no further delays. Winners will be determined based on time, and official results are expected to be announced in Arctic Bay the evening of May 9.

** Update: The mushers have arrived at the last camp site and will be in Arctic Bay tomorrow, May 7, 2008 around noon at some point during the afternoon or early evening (they didn't leave last camp until early this afternoon). **



link to article

Farewell Darkness

Here in Arctic Bay we have moved into the 24 hour light period ... with the sun rising now at 2:00 AM ... and not really setting. We don't get night time dark any more ... it's dusk like all night now. And the sun is up shining above the mountains that surround us at around 4:00 AM now, and doesn't go down behind the mountains until 10:30 PM. It still boggles my mind that the sun can be "up" for 24 hours.

Hockey Night in Arctic Bay

Friday night, after a crazy week at school, myself, Petra and Darcy went down to the rink to watch the men's hockey team (and Monty) play a scrimmage game before the big hockey tournament that begins this Monday.

Fredericton Flood 2008

My hometown of Fredericton is moving into a state of emergency with the flood waters rising quickly along the Saint. John River. The River is expected to hit above 8 meters today and is expected to exceed the levels of the Flood of '73.

The flood this year has caused great havoc on homes, many of which in Maugerville are currently flooded, businesses (most of downtown Fredericton is flooded as water has spilled into the roadways), schools (everyone is closed), and of course the wildlife who are trying to get to higher ground.

Roads Close as Saint John River Nears Historic Levels

Prepare for Power Outages Downtown

Animals Flooding onto Roadways as Waters Rise

NB Legislature Shut Down by Threat of Rising River

Fredericton Closes Streets as Flood Waters Rise

River Watch 2008