Polar Bear!

November 23, 2012

Wednesday was the day that I finally saw my first polar bear. Since I’ve been here, I have always wanted to see a polar bear and even though there were times that they were in the area, you kinda have to be in the right place at the right time. The people here take polar bears rather seriously when they are in area. Even though few polar bears stay right in town, it seems like it is still more than usual, as told by other people. Perhaps this is a result of global warming and the polar bears are making their way more south and more in land? Either way, when they are wandering town (usually in the dark...which due to the lack of current daylight here, it is for most of the day), going through garbage and looking through windows, they are threats and unfortunately shot down....like a couple this week.

Anyways, getting back to Wednesday morning, it was about 9:15am at school (it was a PD day) when John heard the news that there was a polar on the ice. A bunch of us, including the southerners who have not yet seen one, rushed into John’s truck and took a ride half a kilometre outside of town. With complete concentration, I was able to spot the small whitish yellowish blob on the ice that was surrounded by crows. With the help of a pair of binoculars, I was able to see the rather HUGE polar bear munching on some meat. Perhaps a seal or walrus??? It was too destroyed to tell what it was eating. Either way, it was a great sight to see. Almost straight from National Geographic! Later that day, I also found out that the polar bear was actually eating a dog. Was it a stray, or was it one of the unfortunate chained dogs that were left outside? I was told that there have been times when dogs have been missing from their chains!

Throughout the rest of the week, multiple sightings of this polar bear family had been seen around town. I find myself super cautious while walking in the dark in fear that I would be attacked....only in the arctic!

Arctic Blizzard

November 13, 2012

Looking forward to walking home in a blizzard! This photo was taken at 3:40pm. It was dark, cold, snowy and really windy!

Arctic Halloween

October 31, 2012

Who knew that Halloween would be so popular up in the north? Yes, the kids here do trick or treat, they do come to school with costumes, and they are super hyper from all the candy (as if they already don’t eat enough). The real Halloween celebration started the night before Halloween. Jeff and I organized, along with the help of the staff and the senior high school students, Haunted Halls, an annual event. We had early dismissal so we could set up for the event that would start at 7pm. Haunted Halls involve transforming the school halls into a haunted house. With decorations made by classes, tons of black cut up garbage bags, stuffed bodies made from lost and found clothes, loud scary music blasting from the PA system, lights turned off and a bunch of students whose jobs were to scare people, Haunted Halls was ready to start. Admission was $2 which allowed them to walk around the halls once. Even though I did witness some criers, there were a bunch kids who paid more than once to walk through the halls again. The event lasted until 8pm when the line started to slow down. On top of that, the community had lost power for a few hours, and with the outside temperature being -25 without wind chill, the school was the safe house for the community (due to the school generator). The madness from the Haunted Halls, the possible storm of people coming into the school for warmth, and the basketball game going on in the gym was a good sign to end Haunted Halls a bit early. Overall, Haunted Halls was a success and luckily I didn’t have to sleep on the school floor that night.

On Halloween, business was as usual for the first half of the school day, but after lunch, the students and staff came back with their costumes on and met in the gym for the costume contest. A lot of the high school students did not dress up but most of the primary, junior, intermediate students did. Here in Hall Beach, the uglier the better. There weren’t a lot of princesses and cuddly animals. There were lots of superheroes, witches, vampires and demons. Either way, it was great to see the kids in their costumes. And just as great to have school end at 1:45!

Trick or treating time was designated between the hours of 4-6pm. As soon as it was 4pm, the storm of kids began to show up. It was pretty consistent in the first hour. When it started to die down, Ashley and I thought it would be fun to start tricking people. She handed green onions and an almost finished bottle of plum sauce. If only we saw their faces....one girl was not impressed and gave back the onions. We offered another kid $10 for his entire bag of candy, but he thought we were just giving him $10. Ashley even took candy out of kids bags and then walked away from the door. LOL it was definitely entertaining.

I’ve been told since day one that the costume contest at the community hall was a must-see. And it sure was! The costumes were incredible! In order to compete in the contest, you had to have your face covered so that you were unrecognizable. I came just as a spectator. There were two categories, children and adults, with cash prizes for first, second and third places. The contestants walked around the hall promoting their costumes while getting photos taken by all the spectators. During the judging, the contestants walked around the circle so that the judges could make their choices. After all their votes were in, they gathered all of the contestant in that age category and announced the winners. The winners went up on stage to unmask themselves. It was great to see the winners, and contestants reveal their true selves (some of them were my own students!).

Haunted Halls

Halloween Day

Community Hall

 (left: second place winner)

 (yes, Tupac is still alive)

 (i wanted this costume to win)

Ping Pong Dreams Shattered

Saturday, October 27, 2012

I know it’s been awhile since I last posted. Well....not much has been happening. Just the same old routine. However, we have been busy the last few weeks preparing for a ping pong tournament in Iqaluit this weekend. With a team of 7, 4 boys and 3 girls, ranging from Grades 9-12, we have been practicing every day afternoon, and putting all our efforts fundraising in school and in the community so that the tournament expenses would be covered for. With 7 super excited players and motivated to come back as champions, and two coaches (myself and Jeff), we arrived at the Hall Beach airport yesterday afternoon. Then everything changed for the worst!

Due to poor weather conditions and the failure for the plane to land at its previous stop, there were excess passengers on our flight and even though we had seats reserved, apparently, this did not matter. We were told that they only had 7 out of our 9 seats available. While still in shock, the time was ticking to tell the bad news. We decided that we only needed one coach to go, me, so we had to tell one player that they couldn't go. Luckily, she took the news very well and there were no hard feelings. When we told them our decision at the counter, they told us we needed to get rid of one more!!! In complete anger and shock, our next let-go was extremely heartbreaking. Then after that move, we were informed AGAIN that another two had to be left behind. And now there were only 4/9 players who could ago! We decided the best decision and most fair decision was to not go at all. I can really go on and on about this situation but we’re keeping our heads up. It’s horrible and unfortunate that it even happened. 

A Memorable Thanksgiving

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Even though I was not home this Thanksgiving, my first Thanksgiving in the arctic was definitely memorable. On Saturday, I enjoyed my very first day from not stepping into the school building for any reason. Thanks to the fact I finally have internet at home, I no longer feel the need to go to the school to use the Internet. I’m hoping I can now slowly, but surely, enjoy a full day off once in a while. Later that afternoon, I enjoyed the best meal I’ve had since being here. Ashley invited us over for Thanksgiving and we all contributed our own dish to the feast. There were over 15 people there so there was tons of delicious food to eat. Of course I enjoyed the turkey and ham the most! Later that night, I learned how to play Settlers of Catan from some hardcore players. Let’s just say I was pretty confused for most of the game, but I guess I can understand why people would think it’s a great game.  First Thanksgiving meal of the weekend....success!

So I’ve been told from a few people that the community feast is something any newcomer to Hall Beach should attend. These community feasts happens in the community hall a couple times a year....Thanksgiving being one of the times. This feast consists of local foods provided by the town to any residents. When walking into the hall, raw frozen narwhal was being chopped up on the floor by one of the locals. There was a table of hot cooked food like stew, cooked vegetables and soup. Walrus, seal and polar bear meat was also found on this table. Another table consisted of bread, crackers and cheese, while the next table over had hot dogs and juice geared more towards the children. The feast began at 1pm. There was a quick prayer said to the crowd, the elders (65 and over) started first, while the second crowd (everyone else) quickly ran to get their food before everything was gone. Ashley, Jenn and I got some narwhal (raw), polar bear (cooked) and seal and walrus stew. As I have said in the past, I will try anything once, and for lots of the meats, it was my first time. I gave whale another try since it was a different species.......nah, it wasn’t any better. Polar bear was very gamey and tasted like lamb (something I don’t like already), and walrus and seal was edible (tasted like beef) but not something I would eat an entire meal of. I was looking forward to caribou which I was told by many people that it is delicious; however there was none this time. Unfortunately I was also too slow for the roast beef. Even though I was not full from all the food I took, it was a great experience to see the community altogether during this “non-traditional” Thanksgiving feast.

(before the madness starts)

(let the feast begin)

(narwhal, left, polar bear, right)

Is it worth it?

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Since Hall Beach has no fast food restaurants, or any restaurants at all, I still can't justify paying this much...

(found in the frozen section at the local store)

Bye Bye Belugas

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Just thinking back on the day, I still can’t believe what I saw today. Walking back to school from Father Quang’s house from our weekly lunch at the church, Ashley and I were told by some local people that some men were coming back on their boats, with their catch.....two beluga whales. Beluga whale is widely eaten, when available, by the Inuit people and has been for over 4000 years. Whale hunting cannot be hunted for commercial reasons, but only as food for the Inuit. It is said that the whale blubber is good for your health, and help keep the body warm during the winter season. You may not think that whale blubber sounds appealing, but the locals love it. The blubber is also eaten raw. Yummy!  

Now, with that being said, Ashley and I jetted back to the school, grabbed our cameras and ran towards the RCMP station where we were told the belugas whales would be. As we power walked down the road, you can tell the news definitely had spread around town because it seemed like half the town was making their way to the beach. When we saw the crowd on the beach, there they were.....two belugas whales being skinned right in front of us. The surrounding water had turned red from all of the blood. Tons of people with plastic bags surrounded the whales as they were waiting their turn to get the next piece of blubber. What I found amazing was that the whales were shared amongst everyone in the community. Ashley and I thought it was strange that we didn’t have to pay for the whale, but rather it was given to us. A couple weeks ago, we tried beluga at a friend’s house. The thing with beluga is that it is extremely hard to chew. It’s hard to describe the texture but it reminded me of eating squid but ten times harder to chew. I found myself chewing on the same piece (a small 1cm square piece) for over ten minutes, in which my jaw was still sore from chewing a few hours later. Besides the texture, there isn’t much flavour to the blubber, but there is a bit of a fishy taste. Blubber is extremely oily! You can literally squeeze out drops of oil from one small piece! After that first, Ashley was a big fan. I, on the other hand, fulfilled my goal of trying something new but would not complain if I never  have it again.

Looking back at the many photos I took during this event, I can definitely say that it was less unpleasant to see in person. That sounds strange, doesn’t it? Even though looking at the photos gross me out now, I found myself excited, and intrigued during this cultural experience I will never forget. The excitement from the crowd, the non-stop picture taking, and my overall curiosity shielded me from the realization that, "Holy crap! Those are beluga whales right in front of us!" 

WARNING!!! The photos below are extremely graphic. If you have a weak stomach or have a strong love for whales, they might not be right for you.