I arrived on Monday, at noon, to the bright yellow airport. I was met by Carrie, who works at the Nunavut Research Institute, who then took me to NRI, as well as dropped off all of my stuff at the college residence where I’m staying.
First things first: the residence used to be a military base, so there’s tons of rooms, long hallways, and really large shower rooms/bathrooms. (As soon as I get a cable to connect the camera to this computer, I will upload pictures, I promise!)
The downside to staying at the residence is that it’s right beside the airport (my window overlooks it), and last night, several different planes were revving engines beginning at 12:30 am, and not stopping for about an hour. Hooray for sleep. I was told that my view was better though, because on the other side of the residence is the city jail.
The architecture in this city is very different. Most buildings are on stilts, because of the permafrost, but wow, some of the schools and rinks are in these very strange buildings that look like ice cube trays. A disturbing observation is that they only have 10 windows (tiny circular ‘portholes’) each, so students are definitely not able to see outside at all. I’m sure that this is going against the learning environment.
Food is expensive here, with a ‘steak special’ coming in at $55. I haven’t bought many groceries yet, but I’m sure that I’ll start to feel the money being ripped out of my wallet soon.
When you think of the north, you think of flat, and snow covered. It snowed for the first time on Tuesday, and that was the only snow I’ve seen so far (except for a stranded iceberg in the middle of the bay). Otherwise, the road’s are mostly just dirt roads, and it gets quite muddy quite quickly when the weather gets wetter. Which makes it delightful to walk on.
http://www.city.iqaluit.nu.ca/
The youth centre where I’m hanging out for the next little bit is located at the red #4 (see map)[AWG Complex Arena and youth centre], whereas the residence where I’m staying is right in between numbers purple #1 and red #4 (the long building near the airport). It’s an hour long walk. But hey, I’m getting exercise!
That’s it for today, I’ll have more stories tomorrow! (and hopefully pictures, dammit.)