...to update or not to update...

That is the question....obviously, I have been going with the latter lately. I suppose there hasn't been too much wild and fabulous going on...but there have been a few highlights:

I went to a traditional 'feast' a number of weeks ago. The only food to feast on was raw, a fabulous spread of raw seal (of which there were three, split down the centre, guts pulled out, no longer swimming in sea water but seal blood), raw clams, and raw narwhal (muktuk). Mmm, mmmm, good! I had some narwhal (chewy, a bit like squid) and actually ate a raw clam, so fresh it was still moving and I had to murder it with my bare hands by squishing out its guts (it looked a bit like a disembodied tongue lying on my very own slab of cardboard). I couldn't bring myself to eat any seal, having tasted it cooked already I can't imagine the raw variety being more enjoyable. The image that is imprinted in my memory is of all of the women in the washroom after the feast, their faces and hands smeared and covered with blood, cleaning up after this delicious meal. Did you know that the word "Eskimo" means 'eaters of raw meat?'

One afternoon all of the students from the school took the pier by storm because narwhals were sighted off-shore. All of the hunters were out in their boats and we were able to see the spray from the blow holes of 3 narwhals. We didn't see the narwhals themselves per se, but still it was very exciting to shout at the boat circling around their prey.

I've bought a few knicknacks from some artists who come selling their art door-to-door. Yesterday, Karen and I bought a polar bear and a pair of earings for $45, we did a bit of bartering. The young man we bought from agreed to our price and we exchanged goods and money. Tonight, the same young man came back, demanding more money for us saying that we had agreed to a 'down payment' (which of course was not true). He became more and more aggressive and one of our neighbours finally called us and we asked her to call the RCMP. As soon as he heard that, he took of running and we haven't seen him since. We do have the whole night ahead of us.

Karen and I have started a 'dance club' on Fridays after school. I don't really know what I'm doing, but the kids seem to be having fun, it's a workout, and we're going to choreograph something for the Christmas concert which is going to spring up faster than we imagine.

Only 7.5 weeks 'til Christmas!