A walk along Frobisher Bay

Among my birthday gifts was a new digital camera, so I decided to take a short walk on Sunday along the beach before it got too cold. I couldn't believe I hadn't been down there since the winter began... the chunks of ice that rise up because of the tides are amazing. I will definitely be going on longer adventures out on the land soon. There's been a dearth of pictures on my blog recently, so here's a bunch:

The tides of the bay:

A mountain of tidal ice:
A crack in the ice marks the shoreline (I think):
Rock meets ice:

Land meets sea:

increasing darkness, snow, and children

My week has been a hectic one. I started a new job on Monday, which I almost didn't start due to a police-check mix-up. My afternoons consist of a whirlwind of visiting classrooms with children who, at their worst moments, have climbed on top of their desks, climbed under their teacher's desk, sworn at me, worn laundry hampers on their head, and hit me in the face with said laundry hamper. Having said all that, mostly things have been going really well. Honest. I haven't planned any serious work yet, so we've mostly just played math-related games. Hopefully I can continue being the guy who visits the inuktitut classrooms and does fun stuff, with an increasingly focused plan to teach a full slate of math and English skills.

Hopefully, I will be able to keep a positive outlook as it gets dark earlier and earlier. It's already looking pretty gloomy by 5pm. I'm told we lose 50 minutes of daily light each week.

Also, it appears as though the snow has settled in as a long-term resident. My blog header shows the view from my window from a few days ago. My big red parka has became my new companion. Photos of me hidden behind my furry hood to follow.

Snow Daze

Over the weekend, it snowed. It had kinda sorta snowed last week, but this past weekend it snowed properly, with big white blowing flakes. On Sunday, I was looking out over Frobisher Bay, and felt like something was different... it took me a little while to realize that the white across the bay wasn't entirely clouds - the hills were snow covered! If you look carefully, you can see them in the photo above. This morning, there was actual snow on the ground (or, as one of the kids at daycare put it, there were "snowmans" outside).

So far, I forget most days that I live in the arctic. That is beginning to change.