Monday, April 21, 2008

Remembering four years ago

This past weekend, I received a call from C, my first roommate up here in Inuvik. It’s been four years since she moved back to Vancouver, yet the North is so clearly ingrained in her still. “Guess what?! I just watched that DVD we made for my nephew Andy!” she told me excitedly. She had thought it was footage of her experiences in Cambodia, and was surprised to see this instead:

The camera sweeps across the frozen landscape: the white of snow that melds into the pale blue of the horizon, up into the bolder burning blue higher up above the scraggly trees that line the shore. C stands in her long parka, and, with a flourish of her arms, invites the audience to take it all in. Her breath escapes in visible wisps from her mouth as she flashes a smile, “Hi Andy! It’s April 19th, 2004, and it’s minus twenty-seven degrees! Here we are, standing on the frozen Mackenzie River! Yes, this is crazy – we’re standing on ice thick enough for trucks to drive on!”

This past weekend, almost exactly four years since the day we filmed ourselves out in the snow and ice, I felt compelled to make my way down to the frozen Mackenzie and plant my feet there in nostalgia and never-ceasing wonder.

2 comments:

  1. Just starting my workday with a peek at your blog. Aren't you cold in your runners?

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  2. i remember being amazed and fascinated with that thick clear ice!!!

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