Airplane

As indicated before, my flight was delayed for several hours today. This gave me the chance to meet some new friends, including a man who is apparently the Nunavut minister of transportation (or environment?). I also met a nice lady who works as a toxicologist for the federal ministry of the environment. Little did I know that approximately 12 hours later she would force me to do a jig in a school auditorium. I may not get to describe that in this post but foreshadowing always earned extra marks in Grade 5 so I hope that Mrs Gordner is reading and that she still has the stickers with an seal saying "good job".

Here's a picture of a seal to reward you for reading through a full paragraph of text:

As an aside, I will be eating him for dinner tomorrow. Which brings me to my flight where I made friends with a young Inuk man. He told me all about the foods I should eat while in the arctic. Caribou is apparently tastier than beef, arctic char is fantastic, and beluga whale is the best food in the arctic (but only the skin of the whale and then only when totally frozen). I can already call him out on the Arctic Char since I ate some on the plane and it's like salmon with less taste. But I can't wait to try the others! Helpfully, he showed me where I can hunt for my own beluga whales as we flew overhead (see below):

I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't skeptical that I could successfully hunt a beluga on my own but, apparently desperate to continue conversation, I enquired as to the specifics. I now know that a shotgun is not good enough to kill a beluga. You need a gun that can shoot a bullet approximately the size of your fist. I considered asking where you could get such a weapon but decided against it as I didn't want him to think that I would actually do it and then have that awkward conversation with him later. You know the one: where your friend asks how the beluga killing is going and you have no good response? Yeah, we've all been there. Social interactions are a bitch.

It was just as well that the beluga conversation was coming to a close though as this gave him a chance to regale me about his addictions and his time in rehab. Ironically, I was simultaneously trying to read a review paper on addictions in children. I was skillfully able to change the topic by awkwardly having nothing to say in reply. Then I got a quick lesson in Inuktitut which was super helpful except that it's a hard language and I can't remember most of it. However, I do know that we all pronounce "Iqaluit" horribly wrong. Also, "thank you" is ᖁᔭᓇᐃᓐᓂ. 

I hope I see my friend again in Iqaluit (pronounced correctly) because he gave me a pretty good intro to the region.

The other thing I gained an understanding of (from looking out the window) is why Europeans never drove the Inuit from their homelands on the scale of other aboriginals: because the land is totally undesirable to them. The pictures above and to the right should give an indication of the amount of vegetation that grows in this region. Bear in mind that this is summer. The land is mostly bare with at least some snow cover year round. There are no trees whatsoever this far north. That being said, you can also see that the land is relatively untouched and is quite beautiful.

So there's a relatively lengthy description of my plane flight. Today was an eventful day filled with studying, tours, pricing, and the aforementioned jigging so it will have to be continued in future posts. Right now I have to go to sleep because tomorrow I have clinical responsibilities for the first time in nearly 2 months and there may or may not be an actual paediatrician around to back me up.