Here I Am

So I've been living in Inuvik for a full week today and it's actually starting to feel like home. I've learned where things are, so I don't have to be constantly looking around. I mean what else says home but having your own Inuvik library card (they're the only place to get VHS movies). Travelling to Inuvik was pretty hitch free despite making a lot of touchdowns (Toronto, Vancouver, Whitehorse, Dawson City, Old Crow, Inuvik). It was a haze of gravol and clouds, but the sky and my brain cleared up for the flight from Old Crow to Inuvik which is breathtaking (note the picture at the top of the page). Thousands of lakes and ponds, some times seperated by only a few meters, and of course the many channels of the MacKenzie River delta.

Fall is in full swing here, complete with the leaves blazing, temperatures hovering between 0 and 10 and little dustings of snow every once and while. Check out the pictures in the slideshow to get a better idea. Nothing says fall like taking in the annual Inuvik Demolition Derby. Now I've never been to a demoltion derby before (I led a depraved childhood), but apparently they don't have all those southern rules here. Just go until there's one car left. Then fix your car as best you can (after the front-end loaders have hauled it out of the mud) and then go again. Repeat 5 or 6 times until there ain't no more. There can be only one!

I started school yesterday, which has been pretty hectic for the teachers and students, but fairly low pace for me so far. Quite glad to ease into it though. The school has been without a functioning library for a couple of years, but it has been undergoing a major overhaul. So my office is crammed full of new books just waiting to get on the shelves, only there is no cataloguing system yet. Hard to run a library based on the honour system. Just ask my parents. The good news is we've got a grant to keep us going, so the work just needs to get done. We're going to be hosting our first scholastic book fair next week too. I don't think the kids here have seen much like it before, so hopefully they'll be some interest. Well that's probably enough for now. I'll try and get some pictures up of my adventures and maybe even some video so everyone can witness the mechanical mayhem.