Author Archives: nptonp

This is my first community event in Inuvik and it was unforgettable. The feast began at 5 and everyone is free to join. The foods were all prepared and cooked by volunteers in the community. The amount of food was shockingly huge and delicious. We also got to pack the remaining food back home too.Continue reading “New year arctic feast and jigging”

Any place and town would have a library, even in the arctic circle. The library in Inuvik is also publicly funded. Schools, colleges and many other indoor facilities here have no outdoor shoes policies. We have to take off our shoes to enter the library. The traditional decorations are quite unique. There is a bigContinue reading “Library in the arctic”

We were invited to a Filipino party on Christmas Eve. As I mentioned before, there is a large Filipino community in Inuvik. I’ve been told there will be lots of food and drinks. Every hour new people came and new dishes were brought in. The party went wild afterwards – children taking candies from aContinue reading “Filipino Christmas party, turkey and moving”

It’s pretty expensive to get good food here since we are so far in the north. There are traditional foods but those can’t be commercially sold without a license. Luckily there is a truck that comes up from Edmonton that sells premier steaks and seafood twice a year and it was in town! We boughtContinue reading “Arctic gourmet”

Saturday was the well anticipated Santa parade in town. It started at 1pm and we could see families heading towards the parade. The parade was not what i expected – there were only 3-4 floats but they were throwing all sorts of candies and goody bags to us! We had such a great time pickingContinue reading “Santa/candy parade”

Christmas is a big celebration up here in the arctic. It’s good to be festive when there is not much sunlight in this season. On a random morning, a team of staff (including my boss) welcomed us by singing Christmas carols, sharing fresh muffins and hot chocolate! Our office is beautifully decorated by staff andContinue reading “Christmas in the arctic air”

Friday was our department’s Christmas potluck party. It was held in a cabin in the middle of a lake. And because it’s in winter, the pond has frozen and turned into an ice road. It was our first time driving on a frozen lake! Didn’t feel much different from driving on regular road. There’s nothingContinue reading “Cabin on the ice”

We went to the community Christmas carol night at the igloo catholic church. This is an event celebrating cultural diversity and togetherness. The igloo was packed with lots of children and adults! The performance lasted for almost three hours, people singing in aboriginal languages such as Gwich’in and Inuvialuktun, international languages such as Tagalog, IgboContinue reading “Igloo choir”

Today is the second day of the “thirty days of darkness”. There are thirty days every year without sunshine in the arctic circle. Actually there is still ‘day time’. You can see the sky color changed from pitch dark to having some daylight at noon. 今天是「三十日黑夜」的第二天，「三十日的黑夜」就是每年在北極圈連續三十日沒有陽光的日子。其實還是有「白天」的。今天十點還是漆黑一片，十一點開始天色變淺了，而十二點天其實還很白。 Today we met up with my real estate agentContinue reading “Darkness and arctic grocery”