on my way to Iqaluit, Nunavut

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Well I am finally on my last leg of the journey to Iqaluit. I didn't get much sleep last night. I think it was because of the 3 hour time change. I will have plenty of time to catch up on my sleep once I get there.
The flight was pretty uneventful and the meal was scrumptious. I am wondering if there will be a lot of snow. Looking out of the window as we fly farther and farther north makes me think that there will be a lot of snow when we land. I am sitting next to a gal, May, who is a research scientist from Trent University and she is going to be setting up a research station just north of Iqaluit. I ask her a lot of questions and she is very kind and answers them for me. She has invited me to join her on Wednesday at the research station so I am very excited to be able to get out and about the community with her.

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Photos

view from flight to Iqaluit
view of land of ice and snow from the 737 jet to Iqaluit

more ice and snow on the land
lots of water/ice and snow down below

community of Apex
this community is about 5 km from Iqaluit

pictures of Iqaluit
some of the first houses we see flying into Iqaluit

more buildings
there are way more buildings in Iqaluit than there were 14 years ago

colourful houses
notice the variety of colour on the houses and buildings in Iqaluit

Nakasuk School and the Big Tent
the white building is Nakasuk School (one of the Elementary Schools) and the Big Tent (yellow and purple) is put up yearly to celebrate an Arts Festival from June 21 to July 2nd, Talk about good timing for me eh?

another view of the city
Iqaluit became the capital of Nunavut in 1999. It now has city status and boasts over 7000 residents!

Iqaluit International Airport
the space shuttle could actually land here if it were necessary. The Americans are responsible for building such a long runway years ago.

my new acquaintence, May!
here is May standing in front of the airport building.

We flew with First Air from Ottawa
notice on the tail of the plane a picture of the Polar Bear, 'Nanook' in Inuktitut.

Comments

[Emily Scott]

Thank you for the Blog!!
I've been waiting for this to come, great pictures! I didn't realize 7000 people lived at Iqaluit. We have had some much needed rain since you left but now it's warmed up again. I'm still waiting to get some beds built in the greenhouse, I have some little plants out there waiting, should get done in the next week, it's all ready otherwise. 2 weeks ago last Sunday Wilbur came home with his right front paw all bitten bloody and swollen way up. His nails were all worn off. It was a trip to the vet's (an extra $100 for Sunday) and he had to be kept in for 2 weeks. He is still limping quite a bit, his paw was really badly bruised under the skin and sprained. The vet said the puncture wounds looked like another cat or maybe a raccoon. 3 weeks ago I hurt my back and it just got worse and worse until I was in agony and hobbling around. Janice finally told me to go and see Erika and get some Celebrex, it would clear up any inflammation. I'm on my second day and I can finally sneeze and cough without being in pain. I'm not hobbling around today but it is still sore. I haven't been to Mass yet since sometime in early May or late Apr. There's been too many birthdays, Mom Days, Dad days, renovations, injured cats and sore backs. I got behind in my weeding but I'm slowly catching up the last couple of days. The strawberries are great and there are edible podded peas ready, not the other ones yet. Everything is doing much better since we had some rain, the garden didn't really like that 90 deg. temp. in May. I'm glad you had good flights, it must like coming home again to be staying in Iqaluit again. Say hello to Michael for us and I'll be watching for the next blog entry. Miss ya