Thursday, December 22, 2011

ho ho ho!

iqaluit is crazy about christmas. it's pretty neat, because i love christmas too. one thing that i think is really great is that there are a ton of christmas lights all over the place. there's even an annual contest to see who has the best lights! the other night, ian and i drove around to get a good look at some of the lights in town. 



unfortunately right after i took this picture i got caught by a man standing in that green window there. how embaaaaaarrassing. 

the photos below are of my favourite house in the universe.

our electricity bill is $100 a month and we don't have any christmas lights. i'm guessing that this family's bill is outrageous. worth it! 



**just in case you're wondering, the bigger red lights you see on the top two photos are not christmas lights. "duh, jenessa, we're not stupid. they obviously don't look like christmas lights." you might be saying. sorry! i just thought i'd explain what they are. a lot of the city of iqaluit is on the utilidor (above-ground piping system for water and sewage - separate pipes for water and sewage thankfully) but a lot of the city is not! houses with red lights on them are not on the utilidor. that red light tells the city workers that those houses don't need their water tanks filled up. when the light is off, they do need water. that means that sometimes families need to conserve their water so they don't run out (like this week, for example, since the trucks won't be out certain days because of the holidays). sewage is pumped out every day so there's no light for that. we won't have a light because we're on the utilidor since our building is new. 

you may think that the water tank and sewage tank system is a bit dated, but you should just be thankful people aren't still using honey buckets. actually, i should be thankful for that. i am. that's a lesson for another day, though.

today's message on iqaluit's water and sewage system is brought to you by polar bears and muskoxen. 

1 comment:

  1. Hi guys. Christmas is the same everywhere, no matter how close you are to the 'northern lights'. Have a wonderful Christmas together. Remember, you'll be first to get a visit from Santa! Love your blog.
    All the best this Christmas - Linda & Dennis

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