Wahoo!

We're Back!!!!

Markus and I had awesome flights and are both super excited to be in our respective homes. Well, we're both almost home. As I'm writing this Blog Markus is driving from Winnipeg with Daniel and Bernie and I'm mooching a bed from Tonya tonight(and a lift to the farm tomorrow - Thanks Commander T! ). We had an amazing dinner at Milestones with Alex and Tonya before dropping Markus back off at the airport. Then I went to the movies!! What a treat! We watched The Pursuit of Happyness starring Will Smith and of course we chilled at Timmy's :). I didn't realize how much I missed hanging with the Bio Crew until I got another taste.... Thanks for showing us an awesome time guys.

Merry almost Christmas!

Cheers,
Colleen

ps - Give me a call at my parents if you want get together over the holidays! I'll be about until the 6th.

I Survived Survival!!

Yesterday was an excellent day for survival. It wasn't terribly cold (-8 degrees celcius) but the wind was a bit vicious gusting from 20 km to 50km an hour. One of my favourite moments was when the guides asked us to point at Inukjuak after we were several km away - turns out my sense of direction is just as terrible up here as it was down south;)

We left the school around 9:30 and headed out onto the land. This is the view from my seat. I was sitting on furs in the back of the humotik (a sled the Inuit use behind their ski-doos).


Here are two of my students in their parkas. They were able to take their own ski-doos out on the land and for some reason they loved racing past my sled...
Along the way the guides stopped and showed the kids some survival techniques. They showed them how to set a fox trap properly and then they demonstrated how to use a net in the winter. I thought this was the coolest rig. They put two sticks on either side of the river. Attached to the sticks are either end of a net. They poke two holes in the ice where the stick markers are and pull the nets up. The system looks a bit like a clothes line.... but one that runs under the frozen layer of ice. After they removed their fish they pulled the lines back underwater and refroze their markers into the surface. Cool!


Along the way we saw two caribou. One of the guides immediately pulled a gun out of his humotik and then there were two dead caribou! (Guns on a school trip?? Pardon?) They skinned the caribou right there and the kids got to help. It was a really interesting process and these guys were quite efficient. It took them 1/2 and hour to skin and carve the meat. They divied up the meat into garbage bags and we all wiped our hands in the snow and then hoped back onto the ski-doo and headed for home. I'm saving my roast for the New Years. Mmm.


This is a picture of me and some of my students. Guess which one is me?!
Cheers,
Colleen

The Count Down is ON!!

A week from now I will be happily hanging out in Toronto with Alex and Tonya! (Knock on wood - the weather up here is the only potential hitch). My class is winding down. We technically still have classes up to the morning of the 21st but many of my students are leaving this weekend to visit family and friends in other communities up here or to go shopping in Montreal. So this upcoming week promises to move a little slower.

Tomorrow is not going to be such a slow day. I will be going out on a "Survival" trip with my students. I'm a little nervous since the survival teacher speaks only Inuktitut and my students will be driving me on their ski-doos. Their is something wrong with this picture! I'll try to post some pictures of our adventure. After being out on the land all day I'm coming home for a Christmas dinner and then I will be superivising my first school dance. The school dances here go until 2 in the morning and then we have to clean up! I might pull old lady status and bring some kleenex.... the kids up here love techno. Yeah.

Tootles!
Colleen

Birthday Bash

Hey Everyone,

As most of you know, this Wednesday was the day that everyone could call me up and laugh at me for getting another year older. I was hoping that moving to the cold north would somehow slow down my aging process, but then again I never really took biology in high school. Even though I couldn't postpone the birthday, when it did come, it was a great time. We had a dinner party after school and I got to open all my presents which included:

• A wonderful sweater and scarf from my grandparents
• A blender from Colleen to make some great soups, milkshakes and "health" drinks
• Lots and LOTS of chocolates care of the lovely Schönberger family across the pond.
• The best Lebkuchen in the world - Vielen, vielen Dank Tante Lina & Louise!
• Neverwinter Nights 2 from Daniel, the brother who I fear knows myself and my vices better than I know myself
• Chocolate covered almonds, tub-o-salsa, strawberry jam, warm socks and a blender recipe book filled with many deliciously fattening recipes from the Dielemans

The conclusion I've come to is that I'm super spoiled, but I'm certainly loving it! On top of everything, I haven't even received some of the packages that are still on the way. It's a tough life I lead. Speaking of having it tough, we're having a big party for the B-day this Saturday, so I'll post again with pictures of everything after that. In any case, I want to thank everyone for their wonderful gifts. They are very much appreciated and will most certainly make my days up here a little bit brighter.

Until next time, take it easy.

Markus