Topics of discussion:
Introductory rant
Northern flying habits
News on the school front
Land walking bonannza
Blizzard in August! (Bazinga! No blizzards yet)
So we are here for our second year of living in the wonderful North. We began our journey early on the morning on July 27th from Ottawa Airport. From Ottawa we proceeded onward to Pearson Airport, then to Edmonton, and to Yellowknife. The quick layover in Yellowknife was at the classy Explorer Hotel. Interestingly, Yellowknife is quite the happening spot in the summertime. At the hotel were many, many fishermen, a number of northern professionals on their way back to work, and the cast and crew of CBC's Arctic Air. They are there for 11 days to complete some exterior shots and then are back to B.C. for the rest of the stuff they do. We left Yellowknife with a few issues - which I'll go over later - and arrived at the Taloyoak airport safe and sound. With dog in hand. Oh ya, we got a dog. His name is Kahlua.
Northern flying. The north is quite the operation. There's a word that is used up here when any number of things are going wrong with the airplane. This magic word can encompass anything from a blown up engine, to flat tire, or a lazy pilot. Maybe not a lazy pilot, but it's a pretty broad term. The term is "mechanical" - as in "We got stuck in Yellowknife for an extra day because our plane went mechanical." or, "We went down the runway three times, tried to take off twice, then the pilot said we're staying on the ground. The flight attendant said the plane went mechanical.". To get back on track, our plane went mechanical the morning we were supposed to fly out. They got the issue worked out so we did leave on the proper date - but like 6 hours later. Jordan - a new hire and an old friend (we will talk about him more in News on the school front - got stuck in Yellowknife for the reasons used above to explain mechanical. Back to us, mostly everything went well. A few of our bags didn't fit on the airplane, but they eventually caught up with us a few hours later.
These fun activities and situations are just the joys of flying in the North. Things rarely leave on time, bags rarely fly with you, the food and service is always top notch. Is it just me or are the jokes about airplane food bologna. I think the food is awesome.News on the school front. So we have started our school year. The first three days for teachers have been without students. We have had our first staff meeting, begun to set up our classrooms, and had a Professional Development day. There are some new staff at the school. Three ladies and one fella. The fella is Jordan, my good buddy from university. He, Shawna, and I will be living together this year. Jordan is teaching Phys Ed and Shawna and I are teaching Grade 7 again. Everything at the school is going well and we are all excited for the upcoming school year. As we walk around town it's been nice to see our old students and the new ones too. Quite nice coming back home and seeing all the familiar faces. Not a whole lot to comment about on the school front. Our first day is on Tuesday, so sometime thereafter I can speak more to that.
Land walking bonannza! I always like an exciting preface. Bonannza is as good a word as any I do declare. We've had some nice walks out on the land. The land is unreal this time of year. Shawna describes it as Scotland without the trees. In Taloyoak and surrounding area we are lucky enough to have a very diverse landscape. We have the tundra and the plains, mountains and rock and things to climb, beaches with beautiful sand along the Arctic Ocean, and of course oodles of lakes. We are currently on the tail end of 24hour sunlight. The sun doesn't really go down, but it mills around the horizon for a while as the moon does the same move. We were walking out on the land this week and looked around to realize something pretty interesting - on my immediate right was the moon and on my immediate left was the sun. There's not too many places on the earth that the sun and the moon are in place directly across from each other. If there are a lot of places like that, comment and tell me about them. I will respond with, "Oh neat. I didn't know that.".
Anyways, Kahlua has been having a ball out on the land. He is chasing siq-siqs (groundhog meets squirrel), climbing rocks, jumping in water, and tiring himself out. This is a good thing. When he is tired he sleeps, and when he sleeps he's not peeing in the house. Fact: puppies pee in the house. He's doing okay with the training - I think it's more or less our fault for not taking him out regularly enough. Don't worry, I get it, every half hour. He's been pretty good the last 48hrs, so fingers crossed. Fishing has also been added to the repertoire. Jordan has obtained his fishing license from the interim Renewable Resources Officer - our good friend John Harris, who is also the local RCMP boss guy. He has a military term for his position, I'm not sure what it is right now. The point is that he calls the shots. But ya, fishing. Jordan is hardcore about it, I've got a short attention span but I like being outside, Shawna brings a book, and Kahlua runs around. In short, it's a good time.
So that's all for now. We're about to go for a walk and see if we can track down some fish. Oh ya, we had sushi the other night! One of our fellow teachers at the school gave us a char from the bunch she, her husband, and son caught. Fantastically nice gesture and delish fish. We made some rolls, ate some sashmai (straight up raw), and then pan fried up some pieces with glorious breading made by Jordan. Oh, and Jordan cut it up too.
So that's it now. More to come.
