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.