It's all happening!

Sorry for the lack of updates over the last week - pure laziness on my behalf, I'm afraid. Just as in Dog River, there's not been a lot going on of late, although that is all about to change, as I will explain shortly. Just to fill you in though, we sort of got the blizzard that I was writing about in the last post - we had the morning off, so I guess it was a 'half blizzard day' (or a 'bliz day', or a 'zard day', depending on your preference) - and, much to my surprise, my keys were found! The locks on my apartment building have now all been changed (they were going to be changed anyway - it's not my fault, officer!) so it's a bit of a moot point, but it's nice to have them back.

Now, as I was saying before I rudely interrupted myself, it's going to be a busy week in town. Firstly, my students sat their TOEFL exam today, which was a surprise to both them and myself as Gail, who comes up from Montreal to administer the test, wasn't meant to be coming until next week, or so we thought. Anyway, at least the exam is over and done with now, and the fact that Gail is staying with me tonight has made me do all the cleaning that I've been putting off for weeks. Oh, and whilst I was cleaning, I discovered that my apartment is so small that I can vacuum the entire place without having to unplug the vacuum cleaner (or hoover, to you Brits) even once. Remarkable.

Gail is having to stay with me tonight as the hotel in town is full (yes, we have a hotel here, and it'll only cost you $250 a night to stay there if you come and visit), and this fact brings me on to the second and third things that are happening in town this week. Firstly - or should that really be 'secondly' as we already had a 'firstly' in the previous paragraph - the Makivik Corporation has its annual general meeting in town this week, so there are many dignitaries and other persons of import in town at the moment. Makivik basically runs everything in the North, so to have its AGM here is quite prestigious for the town.

Finally, and probably most interestingly (is that a word?), tomorrow marks the start of the Ivakkak dog sled race, which this year leaves from Inukjuak. The Ivakkak is an annual (although there wasn't one in 2008) race for Inuit dogsledders, which follows a varying but always challenging route across Nunavik. There are thirteen teams entered this year, including two from Inukjuak, and the race can take anything from two to three weeks to complete, depending on the weather; you will be able to follow their progress on the Ivakkak website. We shall be going to see the teams off tomorrow morning, and I'll try to post some photos in the next day or two.

OK, that's all from me for today; I need to finish my house cleaning!