As October draws to a close...

It's almost the end of October. I'm finding it hard to believe how fast the weeks are going. It's pretty amazing actually. I remember when I used to go to high school it felt like it was so long from Monday until Friday. Now the weeks are just flying, a few periods during the day will feel a little long, but the week generally zooms by and it's suddenly Friday.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I just find it strange.

Who would have thought that I would have a busier life up here in the middle of nowhere than I did back home? It's true. It's been a couple weeks since the teachers have gotten together on the weekends, but I've still found myself busy doing other things. Last week we had a boarder stay over for four days. His name was Francis. We got really lucky, he was wonderful. He was originally only supposed to stay for two days, but things didn't turn out that way. He was here to meet the cargo ship, but he came Wednesday afternoon and the ship didn't show up until Friday. He was happy to have Thursday off, he said it's been awhile since he had nothing to do. We got home at noon that day and he had made us lunch. And not just sandwiches or something, but a roast pork that he had brought with him and potatoes and carrots done in an onion soup type sauce. It was great. Alison and him became fast friends. I got home the first night he was here and they were playing Super Mario on the wii. She also got to practice her French, they would speak in French quite often and he would ask her for help with English words he didn't know.

Last week the caribou also showed up. We'd heard that they were here for the first time on Thursday. They were out by the airport, which is a little too far to walk (though there are others that run it on an almost daily basis). One of the other teachers took me and my class out to see them but we only managed to see two of them really far away. I was pretty disappointed. I thought they were gone but then on Sunday morning Francis went out to get booked on his flight out of town and he was them just outside of town. He came back to the house just after 9 am and told us that they were there. Jodie (one of the teachers downstairs), Nick and I went for a walk and managed to get some fairly good pictures of them. They were still a bit out in the tundra, away from the road, but it was nice.



As I've said already the cargo ship finally made it here last Friday. People were sooooo excited. There were new vehicles coming up on the ship, groceries, chocolate, clothing... anything that was needed immediately, that couldn't come by plane, or was too costly to ship by plane.



There was also a youth retreat at the school this past weekend. Religion is a big part of life for many of the people up here, this was a religion retreat, with dancing, singing and worship. Students and others came from communities around Nunavik to participate. This week I saw some of my own students with t-shirts and sweaters that they had signed by their new friends. We hadn't realized but the retreat went all the way until the end of the school day on Monday.


On Tuesday the water truck broke. Because Tasiujaq is built in an area that is all permafrost all of the buildings have water tanks that need to be filled multiple times a week so that we have water. This includes the school. We had to close the school at 2:45 on Tuesday because we were out of water and the truck couldn't come fill us up. They also didn't have the part to fix the truck so school was closed yesterday (Wednesday). Thankfully we didn't run out of water here at the house, and the part was flown in yesterday at noon so the truck was all fixed by last night.

Tomorrow we are having Halloween at school. It should be fun. We're going to have a regular morning and then in the afternoon all the secondary students will be doing stuff together and all the primary will be doing something together. My class is part of secondary. We are going to offer candy apple making, cookie making and movies. It should be fun. I just wish I had some kind of costume to wear.

The community is having Halloween on Saturday night. The kids go around to houses starting at about 5, then at 8 everyone goes to the school gym and there is a costume contest. Alison is going to be a half angel half devil. She's happy about it. She picked her costume off a website and we had it shipped here from Calgary.

Next week we have another boarder staying with us. She's coming into town for workshops. She will be staying from Monday to Friday. Hopefully we are as lucky with her as we were with Francis.

Nick has been working at the school pretty much full time. It's good. We're planing on going to Cuba over the Easter break! I'm so excited!

Well I guess that's it. I'll try to post a little more frequently from now on.

As promised, here is a picture from Saturday night. These are the girls. In the back is Jodie, Kim and Laura. In the front is Catherine, Nancy, Anouk and me.

I've borrowed this picture from Kim's facebook. Thanks Kim!

7 weeks away from home!

This is my first addition to this blog. I've been meaning to write something before now and I keep running out of time, or forgetting. But I decided to do it now while I'm sitting here!

It was seven weeks ago today that I left Sudbury! I left on August 8th. At some points it feels like it is a lot longer than 7 weeks and then it feels like it hasn't been long at all. I spent 5 days in Kuujjuaq when I first got up north. Kuujjuaq is an interesting town. It's the seat of government for all of Nunavik and over the last few years it's became very 'southernized'. I didn't really feel like I had entered the north when I got there. There were 2 grocery/department stores, a restaurant, a cafe, a bar and a couple souvenir shops! I think it's a great place to send new teachers on their orientation, it's almost like we were eased into being up here. Kuujjuaq was beautiful.

Tasiujaq (pronounced Ta-SOO-yak) is stunningly beautiful. We are kind of in a valley, there are rocky hills behind the town, toward the west. We've been walking up there a few times. I brought my class berry picking twice and then two weeks ago Nick, Alison and I went walking up there as well. To the east and north is Leaf Lake, it is salt water and is connected to Ungava Bay. As Nick already wrote, we have the highest tides in the world. It's amazing to see. I love it the most when the tide is in. The water fills the bay in front of the school. To the north, in the bay, are the most picturesque rocks/mountains. One is an island that you can drive out to. A road has been built up to ensure that even when the tide is in you can still get to it. The ship that comes up with cargo from the south goes in to the docking area there (I believe). When people order cars, ATVs and anything that costs too much or is too heavy to ship up by plane, it comes up on the ship instead. The ship is supposed to be getting here sometime in October. After that it wont come up again until the spring, as they are not able to get it when it gets too cold and frozen.

A few weeks ago there was a young beluga whale in the river off the bay. He was stuck there for almost 3 weeks. We went up to see him one evening. That was very fun.

The past two weeks I have been getting together with some of the other teachers on Saturday night. We've been having potluck suppers and then we play Rock Band on the PS3. I suck at Rock Band, but I'm getting a little better. It's so much fun, I hope that we will continue doing it. We took some pictures last night, once someone posts them on facebook I'll include one of the entire group here.

That's it for today. I'll try and post on a more regular basis.
Take care everyone!

Looking around

This picture is to the north east .
 When the tide is in the is completely surrounded.

     Janet and her class went blueberry picking.  We are trying to get in the habit of taking the camera with us.   We are considering going over the hill to the west of town this weekend if the weather holds out.  The weather can change very fast.

This is the town of Tasiujaq. 

The building in the for front is the co-op store.  This is the only store.  It has a very good variety of products to offer.  From some groceries to pots and pans, TV's and radios to hammers and nails.  On my first visit there, I saw a flat surfaced sandwich grill on a shelf.  Before we left home my parents were looking to purchase one of these as we were spoiled in restaurant.  They had a hard time finding one.  The ended up ordering one on the net.  It made me chuckle when I saw it.

The views seem to go forever.  No matter how often I look out to the horizon I always seem to get lost in the vastness.

Here we are in Tasiujaq

We are finally able to start this blog as promised.  We decided to do it as a blog so that all can see it that would like to. 

We find that people here are very friendly.  We are settled in and most of our stuff has arrived.

View with Tide out

  Tasiujaq is home to the highest tide in the world.  They tell us that it is 15 to 16 feet.  The views are absolutely amazing.  This is a picture from the back window.  At this point the tide is out.  There is a river that drains into the bay.  There are paved roads and a surprising amount of vehicles here as there are not alot of places to go that I have discovered yet.  The smell from the ocean is not as strong as I remember from the east and west coast.  It is a fresh smell.  There are a few times when you can smell the salt water. 

View with Tide in

  The houses here are completely contained.  There is no plumbing running in the ground.  They deliver water by truck a few times a week.  There are times that you run out of water before the truck gets here.  So practice conserving our water.  We try to do laundry early in the week as they do not deliver water on the week-ends very frequently.  There is another truck that picks up the evacuated water.  If this tank gets too full it will shut down the water system so that we can not have an over flow situation.  This is amazing to me. 

Our apartment is upstairs

  Theoretically if there ever was a reason they could pick up the houses in town and move them to another location.  Most houses are double town houses.  Ours is one of the few where there is one upstairs and one downstairs.  Most have the houses on the same level.  We live very close to the school.  Please post comments and questions as I will do my best to answer in future blogs.  Until next time best regards Nick, Janet and Alison.