Hey everyone! This is Kylar Irish, if that name is familiar to you, then you might remember me from the Canadian program two years ago. This is my second program with NYA, and so far I’m having so much fun! Either way, again my name is Kylar Irish, I’m from Aklavik Northwest Territories, lived there my whole life. I heard about Northern Youth Abroad in 2024, and applied for the Canadian program, after that in 2025 applied for the Next program, but became an alternate, though this year I had the fortunate opportunity to come on this program and meet all these amazing people here as well! And if any high schooler from home is interested in the NYA program, I ENCOURAGE YOU TO APPLY!!! THIS IS AN AMAZING PROGRAM! YOU WILL LEARN SO MANY THINGS IN JUST ONE OR TWO MONTHS!! Either way, let’s get into my experience here.

(sorry for the bad pic)

So when I first got here, we didn’t immediately start doing trades or volunteering, we had to do orientation, getting to know all of the people we’re living with, and to know our group leaders. After orientation week is over we then get to start to do trades and volunteering, and so far it’s been very fun and interesting! What we did on the first day of trades is wielding, soldering, pipefitting, and crane management, the last one meaning that we direct a crane on what to do, I don’t know how to word it, you can look that up I guess. I had fun learning how to weld, because it’s so interesting for me you have to have special equipment to do any welding, it’s so cool! But the other ones were cool as well, especially the crane director, but I think my interest is more in welding. And then for the next three days we did a carpentry class, and in that class we are building a lantern, and I’m having so much fun with it! I love to build things with my hands, and I can’t wait to finish my lantern!

I’m going to be talking about personal experiences and enjoyment, my favourite part so far of the program is heading to an art museum and seeing Indigenous art, it was SO COOL!!! And amazing! There were so many cool things to see! My favourite part out of everything!

And the last two things I’ll be talking about is a live music performance I just saw, and going to a nature museum. This museum is my most favourite museum I’ve ever visited! And that’s because it had a DINOSAUR EXHIBIT!!! It was SO COOL!!! To see the bones of dead dinosaurs! And the other thing that I was just at, a live music show! It was amazing! There were two bands, and they are so cool and play so good!! The music was wonderful! I was just dancing! And I don’t dance a lot, so that’s saying something!

(This is one of the bands that played tonight.)

That’s everything I’ve wanted to tell you all about my trip so far! It’s going amazing, and I’ve had wonderful opportunities to do things I might have never done before! So I’m very fortunate to be here with all these amazing people! I hope you enjoy this word vomit of Kylar J.A.M Irish! Have a splendid day!