It's Spring Here Too

The first day of Spring. At this time of year I am usually looking for the robins and flowers, or listening for the tiny peep frogs. Right now, I am trying to warm up from a trip outside for a fire alarm. The wind chill today is minus 35. There were kids out there without coats. I grabbed my coat but found it very cold without the snow pants. So, no fire, but we're all awake now, I can tell you that. Strangely enough, it does feel like spring here. We are now getting almost 12 hours of light every day. In fact, the light is waking me up too early in the morning. As cold as it is, there is some feeling of warmth from the sun when I'm walking, and the scenery is dazzling. Last weekend there was a very strange blizzard. The sky was a brilliant blue and the sun was shining. Closer to the ground, about the height of the houses, there were blizzard conditions because of the high winds and light snow on the ground.
This school year is flying by. We are making some plans for next year. The school calendar for next year has been finalized. A number of versions were drafted and then teachers and the community were given the opportunity to vote on their choice. Jukeepa, our principal, went on the local radio station and took calls from community members who registered their votes. It was fun to listen to the radio with my class. They all went to the phone to vote. They translated the discussion for me. So, we ended up with a week off in September with school ending a week later in June. The week in September is to accommodate local berry picking. This will happen when the berries are ripe.
A sure sign of spring here is the arrival, via e-mail of the sealift catalogues. Soon time to figure out what I need (or want) for next year. The same process takes place in school. I need to figure out what I need for my classroom and for graduation, which will take place in October.
Oh, by the way, when I was in the Northern Store today at lunch an elderly Inuk man asked me if I would like to buy a coffin. I repeated it, just to be sure I had heard him right. "You want to sell me a coffin?" The reply was a very serious "yes." My first thought, "not unless you know something I don't know" would probably lose something in translation.