Return of the Sun

Sunrise 10:17, Sunset 13:17
The happy old sun has finally returned to Clyde River. It is the most amazing sight to see this fiery, red ball pop above the horizon. There is nothing subtle about the suns's reappearance at the dawn of the long polar night. Suddenly, a hallway in the elementary school was bathed in red light. I saw local teachers hurrying toward the grade 4 class. I heard someone saying "the sun is in grade four." In the grade 4 classroom, the source of the light, it was stunning: the whole room was infrared. I knew that it would disappear as quickly as it came so I ran outside to wink at the sun for luck and take some pictures. At -53, it was quck shooting and get the mittens back on immediately. My hands hurt within seconds and I was worried about my camera. But the sight of that crazy, crazy sun more than made up for the discomfort. It is a positively visceral feeling and one that I am sure I will count among the most memorable of my life. One of my many gifts from the arctic. This year, I will get to enjoy the experience twice, as it will be a few more weeks until the sunrise in Resolute.

And just like that, it seemed to set even more quickly than it rose.

Then, of course, we celebrated Sun Day at school. With cool shades.....

And face painting........

and our brightest summer clothes. We had beach volleyball with balloons and lots of other games and crafts. With minus 50 temps, all activities had to be held indoors.

OK, Now It's Cold!

For the past few days, the wind chill temperature has been hovering between minus 47 and minus 50. This is the first time since I moved to Nunavut that my coat and snow pants have not felt warm enough. We actually had indoor recess today and yesterday (a rare event). The good news is that the sun will be rising for the first time on January 19. Apparently the time between sunrise and sunset on that day is 48 minutes. We will celebrate Sun Day in school next Friday.
We are getting back into the swing of things here after Christmas break. I have been acting as Vice-Principal since we got back, so very busy and trying to take care of everything regarding my move. My flight to Resolute is booked for Saturday, January 30. I have to fly to Iqaluit first, wait there for three hours and then fly north. I'm pleased that the journey can be done in one day (if the weather cooperates). This would be in contrast to our trip back from Christmas break. That was a true tour of the arctic. On day one we flew from Ottawa to Montreal to Kuujuaq to Iqaluit. Then it was claim luggage and stay overnight at hotels in Iqaluit. The next morning we went from Iqaluit to Pangnirtung to Qikiqtarjuaq to Clyde River. The flight in and out of Pang was pretty scary. Coming in those wing tips looked very close to the mountains and coming out there is apparently a cross wind between the mountain peaks and given the amount of screaming on the plane I was sure we were done for. Needless to say, I was happy to be back home in Clyde. The scenery, though, was amazing. Difficult to photograph, but here are a few of my attempts.
I have just two more weekends to get packed for the move. The government of Nunavut is organizing my move, but I need to pack myself as there is no moving company here. Instead, they ship up boxes and other supplies by air from Iqaluit and when I'm ready to go a local person will get everything to the airport to be shipped to Resolute. I am very excited about going, but dread moving.