Vancouver Trip 2010 - Day 4

Feb 24

Today was a fun day! We got the Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park early in the morning. There were so many strange and interesting creatures to see! We were all impressed at the Canadian Arctic exhibit, and even saw photos of people and places we knew in the exhibit. We watched the beluga swim from a window bellow the surface of the tank. They were really beautiful! We also saw amazing animals from the Amazon and the BC coast.

One of the Belguas spitting water at the crowd!

From under the water. I view we don't see very often.

Moon jelly fish are magical to watch.

View from inside!

Colourful starfish

Our awesome glasses for the 4D movie about shallow oceans. We got sprayed by waves, attacked by sea snakes and got to swim with plankton. (or so it seemed!)

As if the Aquarium wasn't awesome enough, we spent the afternoon at the Capilano Suspension Bridge, in the middle of the gorgeous lush westcoast rain forest.

Totem poles in the park

Posing with some old timers

Crossing the bridge. It was 230 feet above the river and 450 feet across!

Learning about the forest

Tree hugging hippies...

Tree top walk

Huge trees!

Chating an interpreter native the the region. He told us some stories about the totem poles and the region. He was a pleasure to meet!

We all made it safely back across the bridge and home after an eventful and exciting day!

Vancouver Trip 2010 - Day 3

Feb 23rd
First thing in the morning, we head to the Museum of Anthropology on the UBC campus. We are greeted by Susan Rowley, professor and curator of circumpolar archaeology. She had some interesting and fantastic pieces to show us. We saw work done by the local first nations, as well as lots of great Inuit art from all over the north.

Susan explaining the beautiful stone mosaic outside the MOA. We were all amazed by the intricate stone work.

Silas finds a chessboard carved by his grandfather!

Line up of Kamiks

Carving by Bill Reid depicted on the $20 bill.

Amazing gold work by Bill Reid. Very inspiring!

After lunch, we spent the afternoon getting a tour of Emily Carr University of Art and Design. We were greeted by Ippiksaut Friesen, a 3rd year animation student from Ranket Inlet. Ippik was thrilled to have some fellow Nunavummiut in Vancouver and gave us a great tour all around campus. A tour of the fantastic metal shop


Nice view!

Our lovely tour guide Ippiksaut
The film studio In front of the green screen

Sharing our work with students from ECUAD

Tired bus ride home after a long educational day!

Vancouver Trip 2010 - Day 2

Inuksuit everywhere!

Feb 22nd

Another lovely sunny day! We take the bus downtown to check out a few jewellery and metal supply shops. There was so much to look at! We find a few goodies to take back to the studio in Iqaluit.

On our way to lunch, we came across lots of cool public art.

Dim Sum in Chinatown!

Yummy...

In November the Olympic flame came through Iqaluit. Here is the flame while it was burning in Vancouver. Even thought we could only see it from behind a fence, we all felt like proud and fortunate Canadians!

Vancouver Trip 2010 - Day 1

Feb 21st
We arrived in Vancouver on a warm, sunny Sunday morning, excited for the busy week to come. For most of us, it was the first time we'd seen the Rocky Mountains, the Pacific Ocean and flowers in February!

Waiting at the Iqaluit Airport. We left our parka's behind!

Flying over the Rockies

Finally in Vancouver!

On our way to the UBC residence that would be our home for the next week.

Once we were all settled in to our lovely accomodations at Green College at UBC, we made our way downtown. We were all astonished at the amount of people roaming the streets! What a culture shock!

The crowd on Granville St. as we headed towards the Northern House.

Proud Nunavummiut in front of the Northern House's poster of Pangnirtung. We arrived on Nunavut day and saw great demonstrations of Arctic games, music and fashion. We all felt like VIPs becuase we never had to wait in the long line up to get into the northern pavillion!

We all got a chance to check out an Olympic event while we were in Van.

Myles and Jutanie show off their tickets to the Men's Hockey Canada vs. USA. LUCKY!