Friday, February 17, 2006
Watch out Yukon and Newfoundland
I'm glad to hear winter's hit Toronto slightly, because damn it's cold out here. The wimpy winter we've had so far has not at all prepared me for even the -23 with windchill that Yellowknife is dishing out. I keep telling myself this is warm, but it isn't, and I am going to be cold come tomorrow and the final push north to Eureka.
95$ on taxis later and Tobias and I braved the cold and distance yesterday and checked out Whyte Avenue in Edmonton. We were trying to be all cool and "this isn't cold" and do some window shopping at the multiple cool stores, but in the end ended up hunkering down in an awesome tea shop while waiting to meet Vicky's sister for dinner. They had a giant wall of tea, and a very helpful guy to help us navigate. This was my whirlwind tour of wild rose country.
Today we flew to Yellowknife, diamond capital of North America. This is my first trip to the NWT, and leaves my list of provinces/territories not visited at two. (Though I might admit that Manitoba doesn't count.) It's a city of about 20 000, and SO different from Nunavut. For one, there's a lot of money here in diamonds and oil. We took a tour of the legislature (Kaley likes to collect them), and our awesome tour guide was super helpful with our ten thousand questions about the NWT. There's 11 official languages here. That's the biggest difference between here and Nunavut. (Or at least, the one that I've learned in my half day here.) There's really only one first nation there - the inuit - and so the government can easily promote traditional practices and customs. The school we visited in Resolute has even encorporated a lot of that into their curriculum. Here, with so much more diversity, the government can't very well promote one culture's values over another. As a result, the motivation to pass on the culture to the next generation has to be more community and family driven. I suppose this is probably a more traditional way of learning about your culture, but southern culture is pretty pervasive. Most kids would probably rather watch TV than learn their grandparents' language. Most of those 11 languages are in danger of dying out.
Digressions aside, Yellowknife is a really neat city, and I hope I can visit again. I had a buffalo steak for dinner. It would have been musx-ox, but they didn't have any in. Buffalo is pretty tasty too. The restaurant lets you sign the walls, so we of course left our campaign and CSA stickers, and I signed my name. Pictures to come when I get them from Tobias.
Tomorrow is the last leg of the journey, the eight hour trip to Eureka (with fuel stops in Cambridge Bay and Resolute). Our flight leaves at 7 in the morning, but they've promised a tasty lunch, so I might forgive them.
95$ on taxis later and Tobias and I braved the cold and distance yesterday and checked out Whyte Avenue in Edmonton. We were trying to be all cool and "this isn't cold" and do some window shopping at the multiple cool stores, but in the end ended up hunkering down in an awesome tea shop while waiting to meet Vicky's sister for dinner. They had a giant wall of tea, and a very helpful guy to help us navigate. This was my whirlwind tour of wild rose country.
Today we flew to Yellowknife, diamond capital of North America. This is my first trip to the NWT, and leaves my list of provinces/territories not visited at two. (Though I might admit that Manitoba doesn't count.) It's a city of about 20 000, and SO different from Nunavut. For one, there's a lot of money here in diamonds and oil. We took a tour of the legislature (Kaley likes to collect them), and our awesome tour guide was super helpful with our ten thousand questions about the NWT. There's 11 official languages here. That's the biggest difference between here and Nunavut. (Or at least, the one that I've learned in my half day here.) There's really only one first nation there - the inuit - and so the government can easily promote traditional practices and customs. The school we visited in Resolute has even encorporated a lot of that into their curriculum. Here, with so much more diversity, the government can't very well promote one culture's values over another. As a result, the motivation to pass on the culture to the next generation has to be more community and family driven. I suppose this is probably a more traditional way of learning about your culture, but southern culture is pretty pervasive. Most kids would probably rather watch TV than learn their grandparents' language. Most of those 11 languages are in danger of dying out.
Digressions aside, Yellowknife is a really neat city, and I hope I can visit again. I had a buffalo steak for dinner. It would have been musx-ox, but they didn't have any in. Buffalo is pretty tasty too. The restaurant lets you sign the walls, so we of course left our campaign and CSA stickers, and I signed my name. Pictures to come when I get them from Tobias.
Tomorrow is the last leg of the journey, the eight hour trip to Eureka (with fuel stops in Cambridge Bay and Resolute). Our flight leaves at 7 in the morning, but they've promised a tasty lunch, so I might forgive them.
// posted by Annemarie @ 10:34 PM 
