Quite possibly the best bread recipe EVER!!

If you have a bread machine I HIGHLY recommend that you try this recipe!!

(curtesy of Washburn's "More of Canada's Best Bread Machine Baking Recipies")

Irish Freckle Bread (2 Ib loaf) on standard setting with medium crust

1 1/2 cups of water

1 3/4 tsp of salt

3 tbsp of granulated sugar

2 tbsp shortening

3 1/2 cups of all purpose flour or bread flour

1/2 cup of buttermilk powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp of caraway seeds

1 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast

3/4 cup of raisins

well, I think I've seen it all now.

It's been a while since I posted last. It's been rather uneventful (in a good way) here with moderate student behaviour, beautiful weather, and more sunlight than you can shake a stick at. That is, until this past Monday. Yesterday started off as any other day begins for me. My students come in, draw and print all over my boards, wash the boards, take attendance, and do the whole announcement thing. However, this Monday I had a grade 12 student, Tom, come into my classroom, get right into the face of one of my grade 5s and make him cry. I immediately notified the principal who then took the necessary measures to uncover the root of the problem.

I sent my kids off to the library for their Inuktitut class and I set about to have a very productive prep. This, however, was not to be. Tom stormed out of the principal's office.

While I was sitting at my desk pondering next week's math unit the grade 12 poked his head into my empty classroom. It clearly wasn't to apologise so I got up and headed to the library. I got there in time to see the grade 12 rush in, take my grade 5 student by the arm, and start punching him hard - as if he had no intention of stopping. He managed to get three really hard shots in and a couple of lesser blows before the computer teacher was able to wrestle him off.

Would you believe it was over a muffin at the breakfast programme? The back story goes as follows: The older highschool students only like the blueberry muffins at the breakfast programme. So they leave the chocolate chip muffins for the younger kids. Apparently my student took a blueberry muffin. The older kids saw this as a grave disservice so they took the muffin off of him. He protested and this is where Tom got involved. He explained that it was just a muffin and that my student should just let it be. The older kids then broke up the muffin and started eating it. My student got upset and shoved a muffin in one of their faces, which immediately insulted Tom.

This whole event resulted in RCMP involvement, the expulsion of Tom, the suspension of the student that origionally took the muffin, and a trip to the health center for my grade 5.

The RCMP held Tom for most of the day so that my student could go out for recess and home for lunch without having to worry about more retaliation. I later spoke to the RCMP officers and they explained that Tom had no remorse for what he did. He didn't care that he is 18 and was trying to hurt a 10 year old kid.

I may be speaking too soon (keep in mind as I type this I've knocked on wood) but I think I've now seen it all.

j

Anti-Censorship Radio Programming in the Qik

Although we are a small community of 450 people we do not lack very many things. There are two grocery stores here and most catalogues offer COD. We also have internet, cable, satellite and any other entertainment (save a movie theatre, bar, or dance hall... shoot we dont even have a restaraunt... who am I kidding?) that you could conceive of having in your home. We even have our own radio station!!

This particular radio station plays an encredible amount of Canadian content that tends towards the older lighter of the Canadian artists. The station also has one special feature that sets it apart from any other radio programming that I have ever encountered: it has a direct-to-air phoneline. Sure, in the south you can call into the radio station, talk to the DJ and get your request or comment aired BUT there is ALWAYS a delay from the time you speak to the time it is aired and there is ALWAYS a DJ to monitor the content. This is a CYA (cover your ass) approach that radio stations use to ensure that only preapproved positions, comments, and material makes it onair. It wouldn't be conducive to loyal fanship or solid sponsorship for a conservative station to be broadcasting radical messages. That being said there is no such delay on the radio station here in Qik... there isn't even a DJ.
For the most part though the lunch hour consists of consecutive birthday wishes and choppy old Canadiana. "Happy Birthday! happy birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!"-- insert one verse of a Gordon Lightfood classic here -- "Happy Birthday! happy birthday!!! HAPPYBIRTHDAY" --30 seconds worth of Neil Young here -- "Happy Birthday!!!" and so on... and so on. There are also promotions and community announcements. I have come to understand that everyone has the radio on at all times because EVERYTHING including gossip makes it onto the air.

A couple of weeks ago the lack of delay or DJ became very apparent. Just before I arrived in this community one of the worst culprits for domestic violence was injured at work and had to be air lifted out to Iqaluit. I was sitting in the office enjoying my lunch and listening to the radio when a song was interrupted by a man yelling on the radio. This yelling went on for about ten minutes. Within that time one of the Inuit staff had returned and I asked her to translate. For all I knew it could have been an important news update. She listened intently for about 30 seconds and started laughing. It was the wife-beater calling in from his hospital bed in Iqaluit warning all of the men to stay away from his woman. He consistently calls alternately shouting and crying for about 10 minutes daily.


There are a great deal of uncensored bits of human emotion that make it onto the radio of which I have not yet become accustomed to. For example, I was standing in the Co-op Store on Tuesday doing a bit of "banking" (something I will discuss in a later post) when I heard a woman uncontrollably sobbing on the radio. The line up took about 20 minutes and she sobbed the entire time. I asked what was going on when I got to the teller and she explained that it was a woman from Pangnirtung that was upset.

The community rabble rousers also use the radio as an outlet to conjure up public outcry. Sara, the mother of my student DJ has used the radio for just this reason. She has a daughter in my housemate's grade 6/7 class. The daughter is your typical pretty, dramatic, ego centric preteen girl. She went home one day last semester saying that she hated her teacher because she was unfair. The mother went on an anti-Kullenuk (white person) radio campaign calling for the resignation of my roommate. The school community, knowing how unwarrented her radio escapades were, supported my roommate. The entire issue has since blown over with Sara looking like a jerk and my housemate coming out on top with her community involvement and overall great work with the kids.

Had you asked me previously I would have been all for uncensored radio. If you ask me now, I would say that radio censorship is entirely necessary and we are better for having it... you would say so too after listening to a woman weep for a solid hour.

j

PARENT TEACHER NIGHT!!!

yes, it's that time of year again... the time that good students relish and poor students fear: PARENT TEACHER NIGHT - Where all your dirty laundry gets aired to your parents so that you cannot lie any more.hahahahah

Having walked into this job a little over a month ago with a group of students that refuse to write anything down I am sure you can imagine the creativity with which I conjured up my marks. To be fair, I worked with a lot of the previous teacher's marks. I made sure my room was clean and orderly. I bought stale cookies at the Co-op Store and put them on a plate to make people feel welcome. I even put on nice pants which is a huge change to my baggy jeans and running shoes that are a necessity to keep up with my class.

I currently have 22 students enrolled in my class and lastnight I got to meet 9 of their parents. BOY, I now have a better idea of where exactly these kids come from... wow. It's typical, I got to meet most of the parents of the kids that are doing very well in class: the parents that are involved and active in their children's lives. I did, however, get to meet two of my problem kids' parents. Oh man, what a treat! I have spoken about Justin, the boy that refuses to lift his head from the desk, well his mom teaches grade one at the school and we've spoken several times. Lastnight was the first time that she saw written records of his marks and a file of work that he wrote his name on but refused to do. She theorized that perhaps he should be sitting next to his best friend instead of a girl because he hates girls and maybe that's why he's refusing to do ANYTHING at all. I said that I would take that into consideration. I cannot remember a time when I was so disgusted with the opposit sex so as to let their very presence affect my learning... but then again I was never a 9 year old boy.

Near the end of the night I got to meet Joanasie's mom. Joanasie is a fireball that vibrates with energy that he cannot disapate. He literally sits and incessantly thrashes his head. He runs around the room and when you try to look him in the face he rolls his eyes up so you cannot ever make eye contact with him. I am without a doubt positive that he would be medicated if he were attending class in the south. He is a loose cannon who can be very agressive at times. He is also very unpredictable. His mother is a meek woman that looks like her life has been hard up to this point. She is missing several teeth, smells badly of cigarette smoke (it's not as though cigarette smoke ever smells good), and she struggled with her English. I sat her down near the cookies to make her feel welcome and opened Joanasie's report card. I offered to read it (which is usually the option that the parents take because it is easier to listen than read) but she declined. She then proceeded to struggle through my block printing. She only paused once, not taking her eyes from the card, to lean to her left, lift her cheek and fart loudly. Still without raising her eyes, she made a stink face and waved the odor around with one hand. I would like to now emphasize my incredible self control. I sat there. I sat there without cracking a smile. I sat there without cracking a smile and without breathing through my nose. I am, afterall, a professional HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.... wow.

It actually ran through my head: what would I have done if I had a serious bout of gas and an important meeting with a stranger that I had to attend? Afterall it is natural, everyone does it, and it's an unfortunate result of eating that is unhealthy to supress. What would I have done? I figured that if I could not have excused myself from the room I probably would have gone beet red and apologised profusely. There is no way, not one chance in hell, that I would have lifted a cheek and waved it around.

Parent teacher night continued and I eventually put on some music to pass the time. Some of my girls came by the classroom to draw on the chalk boards. I think that the one room schools from the turn of the century had it right - give each kid their own chalk and a piece of slate and they will learn. I cannot get the girls to stop using the chalk board so when we are doing seat work, as long as they are on task and quiet I allow them to use the chalk board. A couple of older girls came in and asked me to braid their hair so by 8pm when parent teacher night was officially over my classroom had turned into a beauty parlor. My girls were braiding my hair and I was showing the older girls how to braid a fishtail braid.

And there you have it! My very first Parent Teacher Night.

Childish Behaviour and Rewarding Moments

I can only imagine what my grade 8 teacher, Mr. Cronk, would say to his wife when he got home every night from school. We had a kid called Kevin that went out of his way to be the center of attention and the bane of Cronk’s existence. Mr. Cronk did his best to spend his final year before retirement in a relaxed state of Zen but his attempts were often blown from the water in Kevin-based explosions. I know that the stories that I have accumulated in my very brief time here are out of this world and mostly unbelievable….all of which I have witnesses for.

I have one kid that is consumed daily by his vile farts that he finds unending pleasure in fanning around the classroom. He literally sits in the lotus position (or at least I think that is what you call it when the soles of your feet are together with your knees apart) rips the loudest most obnoxious farts and then revels in the reek of it in a manner closely resembling that of a treasure seeker that has found a cash of gold and madly laughs as the gold coins pour from his fingers. I suspect that he has some kind of intestinal infection based on the quantity and voracity of his flatulence. I daily have to restrain myself from telling him to go check his pants.

I have another kid that gets bullied by his very large, angry mother at home and then turns his aggression on the kids at school. He was suspended a couple of weeks ago for raising his hand as if to strike me because he did not like what I was saying. This was following his headbutting another student and drawing a nosebleed and tears. I was trying to explain acceptable classroom play behaviour when he drew his hand back. He has recently been quite good and responsive to the manner with which I approach him. He fired through a math unit that I planned and was the only student to get 100% on a difficult handout. I am pleased with the tentative progress here. He even said hello to me when I was going into my oldtimers hockey league Thursday night... which is a first since he rarely says anything to anyone in English.

Tuesday I had a fiery showdown with one of the quiet students in my class. He consistently refuses to do work, or even sit up for that matter. I probably hear 3 words out of his mouth daily since he rarely raises his head off of his desk BUT if he does I usually find him crawling under the desks of other students or standing on his desk. This refusal to do work came to a head the other day when I put my foot down: if he was too tired to do any work in computer class; he was too tired to go to gym. Strangely, when it was time for gym most days he would lift his head off of his desk and go run around with the other kids. He would often fire off three or four math questions to appease me in my work requirements. He sat out of gym once before for lack of work issues. The only stipulation he had to meet was the completion of one basic addition math sheet and as soon as he was done he could go to gym but he refused. Tuesday, I gave him the choice again: complete work and go to gym or do nothing and no gym. He chose not to complete even half of the assignment and he was kept behind while the other kids went to gym. I decided to spend my prep sitting with the two boys that did not complete the assignment sitting in the office. One boy went willingly and the boy in question threw a stark raving fit outside of the office. His mother works at the school and she was called so that the situation could be explained to her. She agreed with my decision but he refused to cooperate with her so she called her husband at home to come and get the child. At this point the tears got bigger and he began to thrash around. Due to the nature of the community, his dad walked across the street and was at the school in about four minutes. After a prolonged bout of screaming and crying the dad had to carry the child out from under a desk in my classroom. As an aside, the other kid sat quietly in the office and ate candy that the secretary kept sneaking to him so clearly I am not the meanest person in the world.

That being said there are some very rewarding moments in the classroom. Today, my roommate threw a going away party for one of the kids in her class. His mother chose poorly when she hooked up with her latest boyfriend and ended up subjecting her family to terrorization and physical abuse. While he is fortunately stuck in Iqaluit seeking medical treatment for a work injury she and her children are moving away, which is great news for the children. When he walked into the classroom this morning to cheers of “surprise!!” he began to cry happy tears. I guess no one has ever done anything like that for him; shown him that they care. This kid will leave knowing that he was a cherished part of the class and hopefully keep a positive view school. I also had some great – but not nearly as touching – moments in my classroom today. My kids understood and jumped into the math that I recently introduced. This Monday past I brought in the concept of the addition of numbers that have decimals. This was roughly received with outright protest - "TOO HARD!!!" is one of their favourite sayings - BUT today everyone worked well and understood the math. Building on some great social studies and language classes it was a great end to a wonderful day.

Food Mail

I came to Qikiqtarjuaq prepared to eat poorly for five months because I was well aware of the inflated food prices and lack of selection. I figured I could live on canned beans and minute rice. I have now discovered that this is not my five month fate!! There is a little gem called food mail up here. It is an online service for IGA out of northern Quebec. The order has to be in by Saturday at 5pm and our food arrives on the evening plane on Thursday. The selection is super! Not only can we select from the entire M&M meats catalogue BUT we can get fresh produce, fruits, specialty soups, cheese, and pretty much anything else that you can think of. They even have incentives like a free box of tomatoes if you spend enough much money.

The food comes packed in boxes and wrapped in newspaper. You even get personal notes from the shoppers in Quebec that explain why they couldn't send the grapes or why we didn't get a certain type of soup that we asked for. It was like Christmas time in our kitchen on Thursday night. Kathleen (my housemate) said that she had ordered a "few" things and literally 20 boxes showed up hahahaha. The computers teacher, Stewart, brought his kometic (it's a dog sled that you pull behind a snowmobiel) to the airport and did us a huge favour by picking the boxes up.

If you had of asked me previously I would have told you that our kitchen was very well stocked. Kathleen did some incredible planning and packing when she came up here. She basically used her entire moving allowance to ship food and other household goods. BUT now that we've recieved our foodmail order I would have to say we are VERY well stocked!! We even have some really random fruit that is a cross between a grapefruit and an orange... it's called a pomplamo or something... all I can be certain of is that it's delicious!! hahaha

Foodmail means that we are not completely reliant on the two stores here and thank God for that!! There have been two incedents that I have experienced first hand regarding due dates and several others that I have heard of. I went shopping for some cambells canned tomato soup at the Coop. While the cashier was ringing through some of my other things I noticed that the canned soup had expired last April... now ask yourself this: how long is the shelf life of canned soup? hahahah I got a bit of grief when I asked for nonexpired soup but I did manage to get some. The second expiry date fiasco involved a bag of chips. I now know what rotted chip oil smells like and it's quite possibly equal to the smell of rotting meat. After those two incidents I asked around for tips regarding the food here. One of the teachers said not to buy anything that didn't have a due date because often the stores will rub off the actual due date. There was also the suggestion not to buy anything on sale because that means that it is expired. It's funny the Northern (the better of the two stores as far as selection and overall atmosphere) puts their BLACK bananas on sale for 50% off... so that they're only $10.00/ibs rather than the regular $20.00/ibs. It's funny to me (and my immediate family can testify to this) because I have a hard time even thinking about black bananas. I know that they're good for cooking and I LOVE banana bread but BLA!!!

It seems silly that I would have dedicated an entire blog entry to food BUT if you know me well you know that food is probably one of my greatest motivators and therefore an incredibly important aspect of my life.

My Class

I have come to the realization that I have neglected to talk about both my kids and their classroom environment. It is not that I didn't want to talk about them it was more that they were the most routine part of my day... everything else here is new... it doesn't matter where you go in the world or what culture you become a part of because kids are kids are kids.

My kids just happen to be in grade 4 and 5. This is a new age level for me since I am an intermediate seniour teacher by trade. There are few differences between a grade 7 class and my grade 4/5 class save the obvious education levels. They are still excited about recess, they don't cover their mouths when they cough, they would rather play checkers than do math, and squirting their water bottles in their mouths and at eachother is probably the best part of their day. One of the big "issues" our school is having right now is regarding the waterbottles. The older "cool" kids have started using a tack to pierce a small hole in the lid of their bottle which allows water to be squeezed out at great pressure and therefore incredible distance. The further you can hold the bottle away from your mouth while shooting water into your mouth the greater the feat. I was well aware of this "issue" before it trickeled down to the elementary hallway because I team teach in the grade 6/7 class twice a week. So all of my kids have been warned about the consequences of this type of water bottle and so far only one bottle has been confiscated hahahahahaha.

I have a pretty decent schedule as far as elementary school schedules go. I teach all subjects except Inuktitut, gym, and community living. These subjects take up 10 periods a week... so I consistently have 1 to 2 preps a day. I am often scheduled in another class for teamteaching which works very well for both me and the other teachers because that puts another adult body in the classroom to help keep control and answer questions... and some days just to bare witness to the various happenings because no one would believe otherwise hahahaha. I have excellent support staff in my room in all periods but one every day. I also have two other team teachers that come in for 4 periods a week. So at any given time I have two other adults in my classroom providing support. Compared to my previous experiences in Ontario elementary schools I believe that teachers here have greater opportunity for support in their classrooms and more time to plan.

Grade 4 in Inuksuit is the first year that the students are taught in English. There is a very wide range in ability in my classroom and not just in English. I have found math to be a difficult subject as well. I am currently working out of a grade 2 level math work book and even then I have students struggling. I have got two students that get frustrated and shut down with basic addition. YET I also have a student that is very bright and currently sitting at the grade 5 level or slightly above. To keep appearances up I give her the same work as everyone else as a warm up and when she flies through it in about 5 minutes I give her the levelled work with very light instruction which she flies through. The only barrier that I have found with her is a slight language issue. Math at the grade 5 and 6 levels is quite dependent on word problems which is where she runs into difficulties.

Language poses a problem for all of the kids in my class. Some of the students speak English very well. Others say things like "can I go drink?" BUT no matter the level at which their speech has developed I have to fight tooth and nail to get them to write ANY of it down... or even to answer verbally using full sentences. This originally disoriented me as to how much of the English language they had. But as I thought I was introducing new vocabulary the students proved again and again that they already had those words in their lexicon they just chose not to use them. At first I was self conscious about my teaching being the cause of their reluctance to use language to communicate. BUT as I asked the other teachers at the school in the higher grades I found that they have exactly the same problems except the words that the students DO use in their classes are often more vulgar.

I have 21 student currently enrolled in my class. At any given time I have about 14 kids that show up regularly. There are less kids in the morning than in the afternoon simply because the kids play in the street until the wee hours of the morning and use the morning to sleep off the late night play. I have two kids that cause great ruckus to my class both, I believe, are directly resultant of their home environments. I thought that I had one more but it turns out he just needed his glasses. Glasses here are a novelty or perhaps glasses in any grade 4/5 class are a novelty. The kids try mine on and steal the glasses of others. I am assuming that the glasses I found in my desk were put there to prevent the other kids from taking them. Once the kid had his glasses back he was well behaved, on task, and a treat to have in class. Just holding his glasses up and looking through them gave me a headache, honestly the kid probably couldn't see anything at all near or far. If that were me I would have caused trouble in class too!

There is a lot of review and time spent reinforcing the rules and regulations that are synonymous with school. It is difficult because none of the rules are inforced at home. One of the trouble makers headbutted another student in my class which resulted in tears. When I took the one student aside to discuss proper classroom play behaviour he raised his hand to me as if to smack me because he didn't like what I was saying. He was suspended for 2 days. Even those students that do not have behavioural issues have an edge to them. For example, even with two adults in the room students frequently stand on their desks or crawl on the floor. My only threat is taking away gym class which compounds the problem because then the student is surly in the following classes posing an even greater disturbance. I learn something new every day that I work with these kids.

The culture here is heavily reliant on facial expression as a form of communication. Something as simple as "yes" or "no" are non verbal... and not in the nonverbal southern sense of shaking or nodding your head. "Yes" is conveyed by raising your eyebrows in a shocked or interested expression. Whereas "no" is conveyed by scrunching your nose like there is a foul odor. This takes some getting used to because I will ask a question and get a raised eyebrow but ask it again because I am so used to a verbal response. And, for that matter, all of my teachers throughout my school career demanded that I answer verbally using full sentences and no slang, so I kind of expect the same I suppose.

This place is a fantastic place to learn because there are so many challenges and yet so many creative freedoms.

Professional Improvement

This week is a spring break of sorts for the kids at Inuksuit School here in Qikiqtarjuaq. It is a week called P.I. or Professional Improvement week and incorporates all teachers. The focus is placed on how you can improve professionally. There is up to $900 that you can apply for to fund your P.I. activity. Some of the teachers have flown to Iqaluit on points (those Areo points sure are handy) and are using their P.I. money to interview other teachers or do some research on their fields. Other teachers have opted to stay in the community and learn from elders in the community. Both my roommate Kathleen and one of the high school teachers have asked elders to show them how to make Kamiks (or mukaluks) in the traditional way. This includes patterning, homemade tanning, chewing the soles, sewing, and all sorts of other traditional methods. For the most part these teachers are set up in the kitchen at school and I like to drop in to "keep an eye on them" as much as possible. The work is facinating and the elders make it look easy...which it is not. Plus they have hot tea and snacks.

For my P.I. activity I decided to build a couple of units for my class and learn some Inuktitut. Unfortuntately, I started my contract at such a point that my P.I. application needed to be submitted immediately, which made out of community work virtually impossible. I decided to create a unit on space since the kids really took to a lunar eclipse demo that I brought in to explain the red moon the other night. I have also decided to build up my ESL resources in the form of a comprehensive unit. It's funny you know, I will find a great work sheet or activity from the middle of one of the books we've been given to use and the kids will tell me that they've already done it. They will then ask me for help with the sheet. As a digression, these kids have little or no retention of skills learned in the classroom. I have grade 4/5 and we're currently doing grade 2 math review because they have forgotten how to regroup (carry the one or borrow from the tens). I broke new ground the other day with my brightest student by introducing the expression of numbers using the multiplication symbol. The other kids shut down if I give them numbers larger than 3 digits to add or subtract.

Back to P.I. ... this time also gives me a chance to spend some time in my classroom taking stock of all of the resources- and boy do I have a lot of them - and getting organized. Although, it is quite difficult to stay out of the kitchen and in my classroom. I would much rather sit in the kitchen sipping hot lemon tea and admiring one of the elder's new cariboo kamiks and watching closely as she demonstrates how to stretch the skin. I am not so adventurous to make my own kamiks since the cost of tanned fur is quite high and non tanned fur stinks and rots. For your information seal skin that has not been tanned has an all permiating odor of fish. It is an odor that I will quite probably never forget. I was, however, thinking about making some mittens in the traditional way. I will have to order the tanned skins in from Manitoba since there isn't a tannery here.

The beauty of P.I. is that since my staying in Qik is not costing anything that P.I. money is then available to me should I want an elder to show me how to make mittens later on. I can use it to pay for the elder's time but I have to purchase the supplies myself. This is something that I am definitely going to take advantage of in the future.

The light here in Qik

If you were to ask Rachael, my roommate from Thailand, who spent a great deal of time as a lighting technition for the National Ballet of Canada she would say "Great lighting is EVERYTHING!" Without a doubt in my mind the combination of the crisp cold, the strong sunlight, and the reflective purposes of the snow makes for great lighting here in Qikiqtarjuaq, Nunavut.

It is surreal almost. The sunlight is so pure and so strong that everything in the horizon is washed in a halo of golden white light. There is rarely a cloud in the sky to skew the directness of the sunlight. Nor is there the pollution clogging the sky that is so prevailent in the South. There is no dirt or flith in the air to mar the pure white snow. When walking down the snowy road towards the school here in Qik I am enveloped daily in this amazing, addictive, comforting light. I think that people survive the darkness of the winter by sustaining the hope for the light that the spring months bring. The contrast of the light and shadows of the surrounding mountains is heart breaking. The colours and shades of which no camera can truly capture.

It's funny, you know, watching the differences between local Inuit and Kablunaa (sounds like Ka-loo-nac --white people or eyebrow stomachs) and the way that they walk in town. I walk with wonder looking into the sky at the sun and surrounding mountains. I often stumble because I am not watching the road. My face is almost completely covered because my skin is not northern skin accustomed to the old. Whereas, the Inuit walk with their attention on the people walking nearby or on the path infront of them... completely unaware of the beauty that surrounds them - perhaps desensitized by it. They wear Pangritung hats that just cover their ears leaving their necks and faces bare. The Inuit have amazing patterns for parkas and kamiks made in the traditional way. They manage to look warm and slim while we Kablunaas look marshmallowy and clumsy.

Currently we get about 8 and a half hours of sunlight with the sun coming over the mountains around 730am and setting around 445pm. The beauty of the arctic circle is that we gain 8 minutes of sunlight a day until June 21st and the 24 hour sun. I have been told that the sun becomes maddening and disorienting. I have seen studies that put people in constant daylight and document their shift from a 24 hour schedule to a 36 hour schedule so this disorientation is not a new perception of light to me. I don't know how I will react to the increased light though. I was trying to remember how my body feels in the summer time. I am more energised, happier, and I sleep more soundly. I have heard stories about hearing the kids here in Qik playing street hockey at 4am. This is also not a surprise since the kids were out lastnight at 1am when I was walking back from a gathering at one of the other teacher's houses. No wonder they come to my class exhausted.

The flight out of Iqaluit was delayed... there was no surprise there. I find the north to be much like South America because there really is no pressure to meet time deadlines; if it does not get done today it may get done tomorrow. I flew with First Air into Pangirtung where we let off the other 5 passengers. I got to get out and walk around the air strip while the plane refueled. The flight attendant came and got me when the plane was ready to leave, since I was the only passenger, and then the flight attendent and I flew on to Qikiqtarjuaq. The flight attendant had been flying this route for 20 years and did his best to tell me all about the national park that we were flying over. Auyittuq National Park (The land that never melts) is located between my community and Pangirtung above the tree line here in the arctic circle. It is vast and mountainous and starkly beautiful. As soon as I am able to upload pictures (my internet is too slow here) I will show you just how amazing it is.

Overall First Air is probably the last North American airline to offer any sort of free decent food, beverage, and snack service other than the delays I honestly enjoyed flying with them. They got me safely to Qikiqtarjuaq in record time AND with more snack food than I could shake a stick at. My kids met me at the airport! It almost brought a tear to my eye at how cute and sweet they are. They were all silent and round eyed at my arrival (all this changed come the first day of class THAT'S FOR SURE!). I really wasn't sure just how much English they had because they were so quiet.

The principal, Ian, was also there with a pickup truck to haul all my luggage to my new house. I share a townhouse with Kathleen the grade 6/7 teacher at the school. It is actually quite spacious and modern. It's part of a five-plex about a five minute walk from the school. There is a mud/coat room, living room, kitchen, dinette open complex on the first floor, a full bath on the landing, and two large bedrooms and a laundry room on the top floor. My room is on the front of the house. I have a walk in closet and more squarefeet than I have in my room down south (it's what they call everything below the 60th parallel).

After some unpacking and what is probably the greatest shower that I have ever had (it's one of those hotel shower heads that could blast you through the wall) I walked over to the school to get oriented. It was very overwhelming and exciting. (I'll tell you all about it another time). I came home and passed out for about 10 hours so that I could have some semblance of brain function for when I started teaching the next day.

Toronto to Iqaluit... it only took 5 days

Go figure, I wake up Wednesday morning with a burning sore throat and a snow storm! What a fiasco. After a lot of driving and waiting, Air Canada promised to get me on a flight to Ottawa first thing Thursday morning. Thanks mom and dad for driving my luggage and I all over Hamilton Wentworth and the GTA!

The plane out of Pearson Thursday morning was scheduled for 710am but was delayed due to "flight management" and de-icing. If everything had been ontime I would have made my connecting flight to Iqaluit out of Ottawa with about an hour to spare. But, alas, I got into Ottawa five minutes after my connecting took off. So I meandered over to the First Air desk with all of my luggage and asked for my options. I could fly to Iqaluit on Friday and stay there until Monday morning OR I could stay in Ottawa for a couple of days and fly to Iqaluit on Sunday. I figured both my visa and the school board (who is footing the bill) would thank me for staying in Ottawa.

I stayed at the Southway Inn on Bank Street and kept a pretty low profile. Friday I went to the Museum of Civilization and perused the Peruvian, Aborigional, and current Aborigional Art exhibits. I then met up with my friend Rachel VanD who is currently completing her Doctorate in French at the U of Ottawa. It was amazing to see her! She is happy, truely happy, and she looks FABULOUS! It was a bit of a fiasco taking a bus to see her but after I begged a stranger to use their cell phone we were able to meet up and all was well... no wonder they call me wrong way! hahaha

Mel and Chris, friends from my Hamilton Posse, drove out Friday night to see Winterlude. Partly I think they were taking advantage of the free hotel room and partly to see me but they still maintain they were only in Ottawa to see winterlude hahahaha ohwell. Thankyou to everyone that offered to come to Ottawa to keep me company! And thankyou for listening to my request to stay home. Love you!

The flight into Iqaluit was great. First Air has good food and great service. Plus, the scenery is gorgeous .... I am having trouble uploading pictures right now but I will add them as soon as this silly blog will let me.

I stayed at the Frobisher Inn which is a cute hotel on the top of the hill in Iqaluit. Unfortunately the airport did not have luggage storage so I had to lug ALL of it to the hotel for one night. I met up with a woman named Dominique and we chummed around all day Sunday. She's from Ottawa and she works for a pharmeceutical company that sells vaccines for respitory problems in children. We went to the art museum in Iqaluit and also to the park. We also went to NorthMart... a Walmart knockoff that has a full snowmobiel show floor hahahaha. We then met up for dinner. We both went for the Arctic Char and Cariboo dinner. It was delicious. Cariboo is a flavourful steak. I'd eat it again. I slept very well and was up'n'at'em by 5am.