The Melting ❄️ ->💧

Well it's been a bit, and not a lot has changed here. It's windy outside (so very windy. My house on its stilts is rattling back and forth- everything shakes), but we are close to 0° most days. The snow is melting, revealing a lot of rock and mud, as well as all the garbage, bikes, and other things that got frozen into the ice and forgotten about. The bay is thawing as well- the ice, which used to sit still, frozen solidly, moves up and down with the tides now. The sled dogs are still out on the ice, and people still ride their snowmobiles around town and out onto the land. Snowmobile tracks are dug deep into the mud and splash through puddles and drainage creeks, while kids are out all day and into the night, playing even more now that it's warm. The sun is up for over 17 hours now, and we have over 20 hours of light. In less than two weeks we will have 24 hour light, and we haven't actually had nautical night for weeks now.

The snow is too melted for Maxine's son to keep his snowmobile at his house, so he is keeping it under our deck now (we're closer to the bay, and he doesn't have to scrape it along so many roads to get out).

The other day I measured out my beans to determine approximately how many days I could live off of them for. When I moved here, I found very little information online about what food was available here, and what was online was dramatized, so I packed up with me over sixty days worth of beans for soup. When I arrived, I learned that actually there are protein options here, they're just a little more expensive. So now I have just under 30 days worth of beans in my pantry, and I intend to use them up before moving out of Iqaluit. Still a variable date, by the way.

Counting beans 😊

I'm turning 18 quite soon now, and I expect to have a great day bringing mini cupcakes to people all over town who don't know it's my birthday. I'll probably go splash in a drainage creek or something. Life is good.

This week I briefly considered floating a rubber duck down said drainage creek, but I quickly decided not to because it might get hard to catch since the melted snow disappears into a chasm under the bay ice when the tide is low, and I don't really need to send a duck in there. I'll stick to trash that's already out there (my typical leaves won't work because of the general lack of trees here), or consider making a trade (I'll pick up a bag full of pre-existing garbage in exchange for the chance of losing a duck to the bay). Hopefully by tomorrow my boot liners will be dry so I can fill them up with water again.

My rainboots were wet, so I made the logical decision to go back to where I got them wet in winter boots. You can also see the place where the drainage water goes under the bay ice.

Hard to get a good angle, but this is where the drainage water pours under the bay ice and disappears.

A gift from Pastor Paul and Loretta- a yellow rose and a poster of Proverbs 31 in English, Hebrew, and Inuktitut syllabics (with a watermark picture of a woman who I think is meant to be Ruth).

Sunsets in Iqaluit! Honestly the sunsets alone are a good reason to never leave. I'm pretty sure they're unlike any other.

Another sunset (actually the same one, but earlier). This one has a view of the bay. The tide was particularly high here, and the ice moved up to flush with the shore and water pooled on top, mixing with the drainage water.

Again, the same day but earlier. The sun is beautiful on the ice. 

Another sunset because I couldn't pick just one.

Life is good! God is good! I'm happy and doing just fine.

- Aliya