IQALUIT, NUNAVUT

NUNAVUT

Inuit Culture, Inuktut, Climate Change

EXPLORING THE NORTH

MY NORTHERN ADVENTURE

It’s April 9th and my southern friends are carefully relaying information that spring is near; “I hate to tell you this, but it’s in the mid-teens” they say from the 49th parallel followed by a consolatory pause “…but it’s that ugly, dirty and stinky phase you know!?”

My dear friends are being cautiously diplomatic over the phone, because they know:

I’m in the Arctic.

It’s no secret that I’ve somehow ended up in a place that I’ve always admired, but feared from a distance. I've dreamt about coming here to Nunavut, to meet the amazing people who live here, to learn about Inuit culture, to see this incredibly breathtaking landscape with my own two eyes…but I was afraid.

Not only because of the hefty price tag to get here, but because of…yes, the cold; not just any cold, but what I assumed would be the worst of the worst kind of cold; the ever popular and often selfied frozen-eyelashes, frosted faced, I’m barely breathing but I embarked on a northern expedition kind of cold!

I’ve always been shamelessly transparent about my dislike (to put it mildly) of winter, and after years of trying to embrace Canada’s so-called Winter Wonderland…I don't think I'm built for it, no, really, I don't. So how did I end up here? In the Arctic region of all places?

I think life has a beautiful, yet mysterious, way of figuring itself out…of redirecting your gaze when you need it most, and expect it the least. My life had recently thrown me a curveball...and at that particular moment,

Nunavut is perhaps exactly where I needed to be.

(As for the stories, they're = sorry, they're still in the works!)