New Website

Kristan and I have recently entered into a new realm of cyberspace expression. Instead of a "blog" we have developed a website using the iWeb program for Mac. To be viewed, the website requires a login and password. We have included this feature so that it is viewed only by people who we want to view it. We recently had to delete a post from this blog due to reasons which I will not discuss here.
The new website is much better than a "blog" at least for posting pictures. We will continue to use this blog; however, if you want to see the pictures on our website please email me for the URL, the login, and the password.
In other news, Kristan and I continue to enjoy Igloolik. We are currently enjoying our professional improvement week. This is a time where the students enjoy a March break while us teachers have to come to work each day to engage in activities which improve our professional portfolio. Kristan and I have chosen to work on our distance education courses for the week. So far it has been an excellent opportunity to get ahead. By the end of the week we should be completed most of the course work. Then we can enjoy the rest of March and April before likely beginning another course.
We continue to plan for and anticipate our wedding on July 28. Kristan and I are currently working to get all the addresses together for invitations. They will be sent out shortly (if the good Lord's willin' and the creeks don't rise).
The only other news I can think to write is that it has been extremely cold. Now that may sound like an obvious comment considering where we live, but we have actually experienced relatively warm weather here recently. Recently, that is, until this past week. With the wind chill we have observed some quantitative temperature descriptions such as minus 58 and minus 59. Don't anyone worry though--Kristan is dressed and prepared for this type of weather. I continue to strut about town in my synthetic winter jacket from Sears. I am fine with that.
--Greg

Outside Fun in the Arctic

There has been a recent lack of blog posts from Kristan and I, and for that I apologize, but I'm not sorry. Kris and I leave for our Christmas holidays in 2 days. It has been 24 hours of darkness here for about a month now. We are looking forward to seeing the sun; however, I must say that we are surviving the dark season rather well considering some of the horror stories we heard about it from people who became very depressed.
Anyway, the following pictures were taken when we still had plenty of daylight. Kris and I have made some close friends up here. This particular day we decided to have a game of outside football in the snow. The rules didn't make much sense: they pretty much invovled the boys finding reasons to tackle and hurt each other, but we had a lot of fun.
Afterwards we had hot chocolate on our front steps with the gang. Despite what you might hear, there is plenty to do in an isolated community. In fact, Kristan and I got rid of our TV. Were actually really happy about it. It was hard for about 3 or 4 days, but now we wouldn't have it any other way.

I hope everyone has a merry Christmas. Enjoy these pictures:



This is Noel and I after we decided to recruit people for the football game by bashing on their doors with no shirts on and yelling "football!! Let's do this!!" and other assorted phrases that a jock might yell if such a thing as a jock existed.



Here are Maren, Andrew, and Kristan enjoying some hot chocolate after the game. Maren and Andrew teach with us at the high school



Here is an action shot of the actual game. I don't know what exactly was happening here, but I'm almost certain that it involved me gloriously scoring some kind of touchdown--definitely not breathing too hard from the 50 pounds I've gained the last 3 years.



This is Noel, Chad, and I after the game. Noel and I only played part of the game shirtless.

Halloween and Halloween Party in the Arctic

Hello all,

sorry for the lack of blog postings lately but...well...actually nevermind--I'm not that sorry. Halloween is definitely a big deal up here in Igloolik. We had 200-300 draculas, witches, ghosts, clowns, etc. come to our door on the night of October 31st. They were all looking for candy (for those of you unfamiliar with halloween--don't worry--they were only kids dressed up as dracula, witches, ghosts, clowns, etc.). Luckily we teamed up with another couple here, Amanda and Curtis, and with our combined candy resources we were able to give candy to everyone.

Here is Amanda and Kristan on halloween night.



Most teachers live in the far east part of town which everyone in town calls "the teacher ghetto." Most of us were at our doors for an hour and a half straight dishing out candy. Here is Fred our next door neighbour from Newfoundland on Halloween night.



Poor Kristan thought that Halloween just would not be complete without a pumpkin. Mr. Chaimbrone usually buys about 8 pumpkins to carve up and have fun with. Buying 8 pumpkins would have cost us over $160.00 (do the math--that's right we paid over $20 for one pumpkin!) so we only bought one. Here it is outside our door all lit up outside our door to inspire the youth of Igloolik to think about kicking it in later that night. Unfortunately, despite all the hints that I gave to our high school students, nobody bashed in the pumpkin, so I took the responsibility upon myself and bashed it good the following day.



Kristan and I also hosted a big halloween party. Here is the single appropriate picture that I can find to post from the whole party (and we took lots of pictures).

This is Kristan the surgeon operating on our friend Andrew.

Later--Greg

Pictures of the Arctic Ocean

Hello everyone,
I should apologize for my laziness in keeping you all updated with the blog. I actually haven't posted anything since we have been here. We have both been so busy and the last time I tried to post some pictures it didn't work. These pictures that I am posting are from two weeks ago before we had snow. I was beginning to really enjoy walking to school in the morning and seeing people out on the water early in the morning. I caught this guy kayaking and had to snap a pic. One morning last week everyone in town seemed to be up buzzing around. People were zooming off in their boats because there were Beluga Whales in our bay. I wanted to go sooooo bad but we had school. I didn't want to see the hunt so much as see a baby beluga! I will be sure to put some current pics on later today to give you a better idea of how our thanksgiving went in terms of weather but I had to post these ones because they are of the Arctic Ocean! It will start to freeze soon and before you know it the Inuit will be all over it. Igloolik is a tiny island so when the ice comes people have more freedom to leave the island with their skidoos.

Cute Puppies

This will not be a long blog entry. There is nothing that I could possibly write; no poetry or prose nor any metaphor could add to these pictures. Much like those calendars with 12 months of pictures of cute puppies or kittens: these pictures sell themselves.
Without further adieu, here are some pictures of the 3 week old puppies who live in a shed around the corner.

Exploring the Arctic Ocean

Following in the footsteps on many great explorers as well as countless generations of Inuit, Kristan and I recently went out on a boat in the Arctic Ocean to tour a nearby island. It was Kristan's first time seeing the ocean...unfrozen that is. The part of ocean we are in is actually called Foxe Basin.
By the way, I neglected to mention that this was our first day of "work," and we were getting paid for this trip. It was actually an orientation day for teachers to get better acquainted with the history and archaeology of the surrounding area. We visited an old church on a nearby island built where some priests first ventured into the area. We also checked out the remains of many sod houses that Inuit people built to help them survive the winters.
One of the highlights of my day was getting out of the boat to step onto a small iceberg in the water. The Inuit men went onto the iceberg to collect some fresh icewater which makes some of the best tea you'll ever taste.

Take a look at and enjoy some of the other pictures Kristan and I took that day:



This is me out on the Arctic Ocean for the first time. I've dreamt of doing that since I was 15 and wrote a song called "Wish That I Could Live On Baffin Island. The song was actually bought by the artist formerly known as Prince whose popularity is such that I only made 26 dollars in royalties from the song.

This is me on an iceberg in the Arctic Ocean. A seal was also spotted on this iceberg but he/she got away by diving into a seal hole, but not before three or four Inuit men tried to take out their guns to shoot it.

This is Kristan with one of our Inuit guides Abraham. He told us a lot of stories about what living in sod houses was like and where he and his siblings were born (in sod houses). He also showed us a harpoon made out of walrus tusk and caribou bone which they used to hunt bowhead whales and narwhale.

Here's what the water looks like right now up here. It will probably freeze over in later October sometime.

Kristan and I are glad to be back and having a great time, but we miss you all back home! We forgot how much we loved this place until we got back. People at the store have been really excited to see us and welcoming us back with smiles and hugs. We'll keep posting stories and pictures on the blog because we'll be doing a lot of outdoor things during the next two months.
We miss you all!
--Greg

NUNAVUT QUEST dogsled race finished in Igloolik

Some time ago we had an awesome experience here in Igloolik. Dog sledders and their dog teams from all over Nunavut who were participating in the Nunavut Quest dog team race came into town to finish the race and we got to be there to see it all. The whole town turned out and we were given the afternoon off school. We all gathered down on the ice and waited anxiously for the teams to arrive. These snow scuptures didn't last long with the commotion so I'm glad I got a pic with Andrew, little Patrick and I at the beginning of the event. This race is the longest in Nunavut. The original race was conceived to celebrate the establishment of Nunavut and to promote inuit culture and traditional skills. As each contestant came in everyone gathered around the team to greet them. They basically drove right into the crowd were thier families were waiting. Then the men were hoisted into the air on their sleds in celebration and everyone went wild cheering and clapping. First prize for the race was $10 000 and Samson Kango from Igoolik won.
The whole town continued on celebrating while the poor dogs collapsed on the spot. They were so exhausted. There were teams of dogs everywhere just sprawled out on the snow. I have an unbelieveable amount of pictures of this because they were so cute but this one is the best.Greg also decided he was tired and needed a nap. He found a cozy place in the snow right beside a dog team. They were so sleepy they didn't even care that he was there.