Spring is in the Air

Things have definitely brightened up with the return of the sun and theres a feeling of spring in the air. We had a lovely week in the -teens. Although this still sounds terribly cold, the sun has great strength and the numbers are very deceiving. Two weeks ago we had our

First BBQ of the year on Friday March 25th!

Our sun is rising at 5 am and setting around 8 pm although there is still quite a bit of light in the sky as we have both Civil and Nautical twilight at dusk and dawn. I had to copy and paste this little table I found, just to give an idea at how quickly the 24hour sun creeps up:

Astronomy

Apr. 08, 2011	Rise	Set
Actual Time	5:02 AM ADT	8:12 PM ADT
Civil Twilight	3:48 AM ADT	9:27 PM ADT
Nautical Twilight	1:25 AM ADT	12:13 AM ADT
Astronomical Twilight	Sun does not rise	Sun does not rise
Moon	No Moon Rise	No Moon Set
Length Of Visible Light	17h 39m
Length of Day	15h 09m Tomorrow will be 9m 25s longer.

Occasionally we have "Ice Crystals" as the local weather condition which is essentially frozen fog. Along with this, we sometimes see a Sun Halo. The ice crystals in the air act like prisms to make this halo around the sun. The fog was lifting just as I got the camera out...

I'll be heading out on the land this coming Monday with my students (weather permitting) so will hopefully have some nice photos to blog about then...

Year 3 Well Underway

I'm well into my third teaching year here in Clyde River. Thankfully I am teaching the loveliest class in the entire school (not because I'm biased... really). There is still a great staff who are also my friends and family up here. And, I'm keeping busy working through my Masters in TESL online through the University of Calgary.

The fall was very busy with helping organize a school basketball trip. I actually know nothing about basketball and don't even really like the sport. However, during my first year teaching here these polite high school boys begged me to supervise so they could shoot hoops after school. Then there was this tournament they wanted to attend... Thankfully my best Arctic friend came along from PEI and took over the coaching aspect. I did the paperwork and planned some fundraisers and we managed a weekend tourny in Iqaluit last year and one in Baker Lake this year.

At the moment I am looking forward to our Professional Improvement week (February 21at-25th) which will allow me to visit a school near my home in Nova Scotia. I've minded the darkness and isolation much more this year than in years past. Likely due to the Northern novelty wearing off and my fabulously tolerant boyfriend at home. Really miss my roomie and friend who found one year to be sufficient too.

Our sun disappeared Nov. 19th and briefly reappeared above the horizon Jan. 21st. It's pretty awesome to finally have some daylight! We get some beautiful colours in the sky during our extremely long twilight hours. The sun comes fast and furious between now and April though. In no time, we'll be in the midst of the eerily long daylight hours. Nevertheless, I'm excited to be able to fit in more than one walk per day!

Last weekend we trudged out in a 70 km/hr blizzard for a Sunday meal of caribou with the Newfoundlanders. It was totally worth it!

Today during my lunchtime walk, I attempted to capture the Ice Crystal's that were creating a bit of fog just above ground level.

With the return of the sun, comes the endless hockey games. Kids play into the wee hours of the morning. Sometimes they even wear skates!!