A Love Affair...

with the Canadian Arctic.

Ulukhaktok and such

Ulukhaktok has spirit.

Today I was in Ulukhaktok to host the same community consultation meeting that we did the other day in Paulatuk. Although I was in Ulukhaktok last month, I didn't get a proper taste of it. Today I tasted the spirit and beauty of Ulukhaktok. As we flew over the Beaufort Sea, the weather was clear and I could see solid ice for days. I took a bunch of photos from the plane of the ice, and the snow drifts atop the ice. It was pretty neat sitting there considering that I was in a small aircraft above the Arctic ocean...a situation I would have never pictured myself in four months ago.

The first picture above is of ont he main strip of Ulukhaktok, notice the gorgeous background. To my left would be the Beaufort, the ocean, as Ulukhaktok is located on Victoria Island. Everyone in town seems to own a snow machine, vehicles were much fewer then Inuvik. All the young children get carried under their Mommy's parkas (and these are fancy homemade decorative parkas) in these bundles on their backs. One of the lady's who was at our meeting had a 5 month old that was on her back, tied around her in a bundle when she arrived. It was neat see how they keep their babies safe and warm from the cold. Over one of the meeting breaks I had to go next door to the hotel and make sure our soup and bannock was going to be ready for our supper break, and there was such a nice restaurant there with all sorts of baked goodies. I also took a stroll to the Northern, the grocery store in town. The kids in town caught up with me and Alexa while we were out, and were so friendly, wondering what our names were. I guess we were recognized as being out-of-towners. I suppose that happens when the town's population is 270. Later on after the meeting was complete, the sky was coloured with the sunset, over the bluff landscape the colours looked gorgeous. The third picture shows some of this colour, along with one of the three churches that I noticed in town! Also in the picture above is my friend Devin. He was hanging out in a snowbank just outside the Hamlet building where we had our meeting. He told me he was 4 years old and in grade 3. I think he mighta been fooling me...

I have heard that Ulukhaktok has a nice craft shop in town, and so asked the people at our meeting about it. We were disappointed to know that it was closed, but delighted to find that we could call Joe and he would open it up for us. So we got a hold of Joe, and he took us over. Among a huge pile of muskox hides, there were some really gorgeous prints that are all made in town. I was tempted to get one (they were all stunning, traditional and unique) but instead ended up with some really gorgeous cards and some mini seal mitts that are a zipper pull.

Oh so we also stopped in Tuktoyaktok to pick up someone who was coming along with us to help with the meeting. Tuktoyaktok (always referred to as Tuk up here) is a community also on the Beaufort that I will be visiting again in a couple weeks. Tuk is famous for thier Pingos, I will post later with a photo of a pingo, and what the heck it is in case you are someone who is wondering. (No Kris, its not a distant relative of the dingo....) Tuk is also famous for the song Stompin' Tom sings about the town, do you know that one?

It was neat driving into town on the towns 'bus' today, and seeing a polar bear hide hanging outside of someones house. It's funny, I have a somewhat renewed perspective on subsistence hunting ever since I have been here. I still can't see the purpose of the sport hunt, but I have become really comfortable with the hunting that the Inuvialuit do for their direct consumption and use.

So although I didn't see a polar bear today (well, I didn't see a live one at least...) I did see some other Northern wildlife. When we were back in Inuvik and driving into town from the airport, we had to slam on the breaks...there was a huge moose in the middle of the road. And when I say huge, I really mean HUGE.

I am hugely tired, and must get to my cozy bed. Enjoy your cozy bed tonight, wherever you may be.

Today has been nice so far. I went to the Igloo church for mass, and the priest was finally back from his extended holidays. The small parish had a potluck for him in the parish hall, which is basically a long mobile type building. Anyway, so I wasn't going to go, but when father matthew noticed that I was new, he told me to come, so I walked behind the church to the hall, and had a nice lunch with a friend who goes to the same church. A number of people introduced themselves to me, its funny how small this town is, everyone knows when you are new! The priest talked to me a bit, he is so nice, said that sometimes he has some friends over for dinner and that I should come over to his appartment sometime for dinner. He is quite young, and also quite passionate, it is nice to see that in a priest. So then my friend asked if I would like to go out for a ski when we were done eating, and I was all in! I warned her of my lack of cross-country-skiing experience, but there was another newbie coming along, so she would show us the ropes. She got us all geared up (the cross country ski club here has some great gear) and we were off on the gorgeous trails. I really enjoyed it, only fell twice, and it was a stellar workout.

On to the photo. I took this picture yesterday in Paulatuk. After an early morning and a shaky landing on a little plane the community meetings that I have been helping to organize commenced. The photo basically sums up Paulatuk in the wintertime...very very white. It looked the same way when I was in the community back in January. In the summer between the houses, you can see the Beaufort Sea. But currently it is a wall of white. We hosted the community meeting in the visitor's centre-the main building in town that contains the offices, hotel, parks canada office and the grocery store. The Inuvialuit are all quite engaged in the details that we presented regarding Oceans Management Planning, and brought up alot of concerns regarding their traditional ways of life.

People here keep talking about summer time in Inuvik, and I'm sad when I have to tell them I will not be here. It's surprising how much this town has grown on me. It's amazing to see the fellowship that goes on in this town. I like the type of people here. Not to say that I don't like people in the other places I have lived, but there is just something so fresh, welcoming and down to earth about the people here. No pretentious bullshit. Just real people. Hopefully I'm real too.

Winnipeg in a photo or two.

Moi et une polar bear (Krista, note the roos). Moi et une snow sculpture at the parliment buildings (they are all over the city). Une pedestrian bridge (complete with a restuarant half way accross) over the Red River.

I like you winnie, and peggy.

Okay, so this might have to be snappy, as there is someone waiting to use the computer here in the hotel lobby. But I just wanted to tell you all a little bit about Winnipeg.
On the second day of the forum (which was yesterday), Sarah (the DFO coop student from Waterloo who currently works here in Winnipeg, and formerly worked my position in Inuvik) and I went over lunch for a little walk to the legislature building to take some pictures of the famous 'golden boy' and along the way we saw some neato polar bear statues and some neato snow sculptures. I took photos of them all. Then yesterday evening after the forum was completed, a good number of DFO persons went for a drink at the hotel pub here, and then Sarah and I went on a bit of a walking tour of Winnipeg. It was REALLY cold, but we ventured to the intersection of Portage and Main. This intersection is the centre of downtown, and in fact an intersection that cannot be crossed by pedestrians above ground, you have to do it below ground in tunnels! Apparently it is also the windiest intersection in Canada (I don't quite understand why??) We continued our walk down to the Red River, which you can skate multiple kilometers on, and I took some shots of a really neat pedestrian bridge. Then we moved onto the 'Forks'. An area of Winnipeg called such because it is located where the Assiniboine and Red Rivers converge. There was a really neat indoor market with independant stores, restaurants and natural foods. I got some quinoa, wheat free granola, manitoba jam, and a really neat purse/bag made of hemp in BC. I really enjoyed this area of Winnipeg, it was quite unique. We were also able to go to the top of a tower and look over the rivers. 'Twas great. Then we went out to a pub near the hotel, and some older DFO employees met up there, and they drank me under the table. I folded by 1130! (and was extraodinarily disapointed when I realized I forgot to go outside and look at the lunar eclipse! darn it!!)
So today I went into the DFO office located on the University of Manitoba Campus and worked out of that office, I took the bus in and it was a good day. After work Sarah and Rod (a grad student working with DFO) and I went to dinner at this great Thai place, my food was amazing, and some good curry, tea, ice cream and fellowship was had by all.
Okay so that wasn't as snappy as it maybe should have been, I think I have officially pissed the waiting dude off. eeek. Here I go. I'll post some pictures once I arrive back in Inuvik tomorrow.
Sleep well, wherever you dwell.

Friendly Manitoba

Now I know why they call Winnipeg Winter-peg. It's as cold here as it is in Inuvik! What the heck! Though, it was nice waking up this morning with daylight. I heard it is the coldest city in North America with a population over 600 000.
So last night as well as tonight I tagged along with some Winnipeg DFO people for dinner. Both were really nice, it was fun to eat out, theres sort of a lack of restaurants in Inuvik. Today the conference here at the hotel was really good, I learned a bunch and was actually able to pipe up a couple times in the breakout groups and put my student-ish two sense in. The food was good too, lots of fresh fruit and veggies! Oh Oh, and I won a prize! haha we played this game where we had to get into groups and make up a 30 second blurb that we would say to Peter Mansbridge if we were trying to convince him to come and do a story on the Marine Protected Areas in the Beaufort Sea. So my group and I came up with the idea to warp the lyrics of YMCA to be BMPA and had a ball singing in front of all these important DFOers...haha it was fun. I won a travel mug and a $10 gift cirtificate to Tim Hortons. Looks like I'd have to drink a butt load of tea in the airport in order to spend that...naturally there's a lack of Timmy's in Inuvik. Luckily the cirtificate dosen't expire!
Today I was pretty restricted to the hotel, but tomorrow and Thursday I will have a little more leeway to go outside and explore Winnipeg a little bit. On Monday I did a little bit of shopping, but many stores were closed because it was "Louis Riel" day. Some famous Metis convict? I guess it's Manitoba's equivalent of Family day. So yes, hopefully I will be able to explore a little more tomorrow and thursday and report back about Winnipeg! It seems like a pretty standard Canadian city to me. Larger then KW, smaller then Toronto.
One interesting tidbit I heard someone mention in the airport is that the meaning of Winnipeg is win= dirty and nipee= water in Cree. I guess the red river is a dirty one!

A fantastic day in the Arctic

It was a beautiful day in the Arctic today. No, not beautiful, gorgeous. Wait, which word is more extreme? I guess I'll let you decide.

The pictures you see above were taken today at Airport Lake (named such because it is close to the Inuvik Airport [duh]). The weather was great (only -19 this afternoon!) and so Amy picked me up and we went on a long walk on Airport Lake with her two labs. There was a road cleared over the ice, and there are a number of camps located on the lake. These 'camps' are like people's cottages, though they are quite shabby, and often involve fishing and hunting. Most Native people here own a camp somewhere in the delta, or have friends that own a camp in the delta. So Amy and I had a really nice walk around on the lake, and then we hopped back in the truck and headed up, via snowshoe, to the lookout tower that is just outside of town. I took some photos from up there as well, you could see for miles it seemed.

So tomorrow I venture to Winnipeg via Edmonton, tomorrow I will be staying in Edmonton overnight. I get into Edmonton earlyish tomorrow evening, I think I will go somewhere in the city for dinner.

I hope you (yes YOU) are having a good weekend.

Peace.

So much excitement, so much Canada

I have never realized what a good school I go to until I came here. Whenever I tell someone that I go to the University of Waterloo, and they are from outside of Ontario, they always are making some sort of comment that it's a good school, and that pretty much all of Canada knows of it! I have never appreciated the Universtiy enough I guess.

Although Waterloo is well known for it's good University, Ontario is pretty much regarded as the stereotype: Onterrible. And seriously, I can see where people are coming from. All too often, the population of Ontario sends out a vibe that Ontario is the ONLY province that exists in Canada. When in fact, as I am realizing more and more every day, there is SO much more to Canada, and so much more to discover see and do in this wonderful country of ours! There is so much more to Canada then then Ontario, so many more people who live in our extremely diverse country. And once again, I want to see and experience it all. I'm getting on with this goal next week, as on Sunday I am leaving for Winnipeg! I'll be there for about 5 days, and will get to see what Winnipeg is all about. I also really want to visit and experience the Candian Rockies (among the rest of the world). I have chatted with a bunch of people who are here in Inuvik from BC and the lifestyle sounds like one I would appreciate.

Do you ever just get very excited for no reason at all? I have been feeling that lately, and oh what an amazing feeling to feel. I hadn't felt that feeling for a long while before I got here, and I'm glad it's back.

I hope you all had 'love'ly Valentine's Day's. I went to a dessert potluck at a new friends place! It was sweet. Literally.

It's amazing that two months ago, I had no clue about anything that was going on up here in the Beaufort Sea and Mackenzie Delta. And now, I have learned about the many processes that are ongoing up here. It's amazing. There is so much on this planet to learn, so much. I want to learn it all. It's also amazing how in this modern developed world we live in, how inefficient we can be sometimes in our endeavors. I realized this at work over the past couple days as I was the minute taker for a two day meeting.

When I was at the gym tonight, I knew four of the other people who were working out! I love samll towns! I also played squash for the first time today. SO fun, but my arm and butt really hurt right now.

I need to retire, I'm zonked. Is that a word?

p.s. I'm watching the National on CBC, and they just had a story about 'nasal irrigation'. I learned that when you have a cold, it can be good to clear your nasal passage with a teapot thing, pouring saltwater through your nose. Too weird, but I just learned something new!

Gobbledegook?

When we got to the airport yesterday, the pilot casually came out to chat with us. He said the visibility in Sachs Harbour was about a mile or less, and that there was a possibility of not being able to land, or missing the runway! I guess it gets very foggy and windy in Sachs. Soooo my boss called it off, said we better be safe then sorry and reschedule. No Sachs for me yesterday. Ah well, I'll get there.

I have this strange thought process. Half the time, I desperately want to do more, see more, and get frustrated when I can't figure out how to do so. And then when I get the opportunity to do more, see more, I get nervous and anxious, and then think, why didn't I just settle for normalcy. It's like I want it all. Ah the common theme of our society, we want it all, and never seem to be satisfied. I'm guilty. Are you?

Well, thats my expression for the day. I think I am going to go check out the rec centre-theres a kid carnival happening there today as a fundraiser for something in town, I guess there's a whole bunch of carnival games going on and such! hahha, should be funny. I gotta do some other errands in town too. Enjoy your Saturday everyone. I just looked at the current weather. 1 degree in Waterloo, -34 in Inuvik. I can legitimately say this now: Southern Ontarians don't even know what winter is man!

life.

Lentil Tacos are scrumptious. I had a couple co-workers over for dinner tonight, and that's what we had, they were real good.

So I have to tell you about the beginning of my week, it was quite comical. On Monday morning, Erica knocked on my door early, telling me that her car wouldn't start. Apparently her battery froze up, even though it was plugged in all weekend. So, we called Amy, and she gladly picked us up. When we finally got to the office, it felt quite chilly, so we checked the temperature, and it was hovering around 7 degrees celsius, inside the office. Quite chilly. So I sat down at my computer in my huge Canada Goose parka, and tried to get to work. About 10 minutes later, we were all sent home for the day, apparently the heating fuel ran out, and all of the water pipes had frozen over the weekend. The next day was a big repeat. Got to work, and although it was toasty inside, the water was still turned off because of repairs that needed to be made, so home again! Most relaxing paid days of work ever, I must say. I tried to do some work, but it was hard to do much without the resources of the office. Being out of the office on Monday and Tuesday made Wednesday and Thursday super busy though. We are getting close to the dates of the community tour, and there are still a bunch of things to be done!

Tomorrow I will be venturing to Sachs Harbour, another of the outlying communities on Banks Island, its on the shores of the Beaufort. We are going there to speak to the possible Marine Protected Area that we spoke of in the other communities as well. I added a picture above of the plane that we took to Paulatuk and Ulukhaktok when I went a couple weeks ago, we will be on the same plane tomorrow. It will be interesting to see another of the Inuvialuit communities! Oh Oh! and I'm going to Winnipeg the week after next, for an Oceans & Science forum, hosted by the DFO Winnipeg group that we work quite closely with. I'm psyched to see another area of Canada!

Snow Machine

Hey. So I hope your Sunday was well. I had a good day, another Icy good time in fact...
A couple of guys that I met at a party last weekend invited me to go for a ski-doo ride. I was all over it, wanted to get out and see some more of my surroundings, and figured a snow machine trip would be the best way to see the sights of the Canadian Arctic. We headed north east to knoll lake, I on the back of Dustin's ski doo. Because of the direction we were headed in, we ended up above the tree line, in the Arctic Tundra. No more of the whimpy Inuvik conifers, instead, low lying, snow covered tundra vegetation. It was amazing to be out, out in the middle of nowhere. After crossing a few lakes, and riding over some rough trails, we made our way to the top of a large hill. You could see tundra for ever, and hear silence for good. The picture above was taken by Nathan from the top of the hill, where we stopped to have hot chocolate but it certainly does not do the scene justice.
Now I suppose you might be wondering what the temperature was. It was about -38, but I dressed warmly. Jenn, I used those warm things in my mittens, they work sooo well. I only wish I had put them in my boots too, my toes got real cold!
So I drove the ski doo around by myself for about 1 min, and embarassingly bailed. Yep, I tipped right over. Not to worry Mom, I wasn't going fast, and of course had my helmet on. But felt like a tool with my new friends. You can laugh, I give you permission.
Peace out dudes!

When I grow up...

When I grow up, I want to live in a small town. Where everyone sort of knows everyone else, where all of the shop owners are unique and entrepreneurs, and where I can walk to every service that I need. Yeah, sure cities are great for the bars, restaurants and shopping, but really do you really need to shop all that much? Do you really need all that stuff? Do you really need to go to a bar where you don't know a single soul but your wing woman? So when I grow up, which I think will be in about 10 years, I want to live in a small town. (Now I must insert a small stipulation here: It must be a small town within 400km of a big-ish town!)

Certainly Inuvik is a small town. Today I went to the liquor store and the book store, and both store owners recognized me as a newbie, and naturally struck up conversation. Its great, they know their customers, and recognize a new one. It's just more personal. I also hit up the lone cafe that's in town, its really great, I love the atmosphere.

Also, I finally discovered the 'bottle depot' today. There is no blue box program here, but they recycle the same hard plastic, glass and metal containers as we do at home, so long as you bring it in to the depot. I know a lot of people in town do not recycle. Too bad. On the bright side I did get 50 cents for my cans! hahaha.

The picture that I posted above is of a tree (hopefully you drew that conclusion on your own). The trees today were all totally encased in frosty bits. Really neat looking.

The lights were out last night, greenly gorgeous.