Nunaversary: An Introduction to my first 365 days in the Canadian Arctic

My Nunaversary came (and went) on May 27, 2016.

Spending an entire year in the Canadian Arctic, one would assume that re-telling my adventures through stories would be an easy task.  However, I have spent nearly 2 months brainstorming, planning, organizing and mapping out a way to best describe my experiences while living in, as I like to describe it, a magical place, called Nunavut.

The most common approach I have applied to writing about my travel stories thus far includes a chronological order.  While it is in not the most creative way of writing, it keeps story telling simple by allowing me to explain events and adventures as they happened.  On the other hand, family and friends are able to follow along my journeys and experience them in a similar manner and order as I did.  I have used this technique in hopes to have my readers (mostly my mom and cousin) feel as if they are on the same journey with me.

Using this same approach, I though, "right, I will describe my Rankin Inlet adventures first in chronological order, then describe my relocation to Iqaluit and further my experiences in the capital city so far". However, as I took some time to think about how I would explain each adventure, organize the events in each story, it quickly became overwhelming to capture.  Everything that I have experienced in my last 365 days has been part of a strange but most amazing feeling of sensory overload. As a result, I found myself constantly telling each of my stories about camping adventures, hikes, dinner parties, learning about local cultures and the people I have met, through my 5 senses.

After spending nearly two months thinking about how best to share my arctic adventures, I have come to the conclusion that maybe I will create a 5 part travel story about my experiences in Nunavut. To do this, I would describe my adventures through the senses in order to 'attempt' to capture this most magical place I happen to stumble upon only a year ago.

The smells, the sights, the amazing foods I have tasted, both local and high-end specialty cuisines a la my dear friends, are equally applicable and I feel, the best way to organize my stories (and my thoughts) while I being to introduce both Rankin Inlet and Iqaluit.

While I do not expect my stories to fully capture the essence of this place, I look forward to describing my pleasant surprises to you.

Enjoy

- R :)