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!