Greetings from the Great White!

Sigh...we made it. After three take-offs, three landings, and a snowmobile ride, we've finally made it to Pond Inlet. It is BEAUTIFUL! Everything is covered in snow and the hamlet is tiered up from the ice; glaciers and cliffs surround the hamlet. On our short stay over in Iqaluit, we met Paul, a 23 year old mechanic who has been transferred to Pond to fix the airport runway. Thankfully, the runway was fine when we got here. He told us a story about how he had to fix the engine of a plane he was a passenger on simply because the pilot saw his tools - so we were happy when we landed safely.

We were greeted at the airport by Ely, the school counselor and one of our house parents. He picked up our luggage on snowmobile and we were shuttled to the house by Flo, the health center nurse, meeting 2 doctors on the way that will be here for the week. We met Alice, our other house parent and she greeted us with open arms. We unpacked in our rooms (which we were very excited about as we both had double beds and a tv!) and then set out on a hike of the town.

We found the high school, the library, and met some kids on the way. There are dogs chained up everywhere and one dog seems to have made best friends with a raven (they are inseparable). Ravens are also everywhere, either flying around or chained to the houses. We could see in the distance, all the dog teams out on the ice. It is prime hunting time right now, especially for seal.

We had trouble getting to sleep even though Alice had made our rooms quite dark - the 24 hour sunlight will take some getting used too! We attempted to be dainty with our eye covers, but still woke up a few times in the night.

We took our first tour of the school today and we have our own Queen's mailbox! :) Met some of the staff and students and are excited to sit in on a few classes today. We have been invited to go out on the land with the grade 8 girls tomorrow, and are hoping the weather clears up so this is possible. In May, all of the classes take turns doing this. The school has done very well this year with there boys basketball team and we are hoping to get involved in the excitement - whether we are good players or not!

That's all the updates for now!
XOXO
Glacier Girls - Emily & Sarah