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)