The second most frequently heard question during the Arctic Winter Games — right after “What are they doing?” asked about curling — was, “Where are you from?”

After all, athletes, cultural performers, coaches, parents and spectators are here from across the state and represent eight other arctic regions — Nunavut, Yukon, Greenland, Northwest Territories, Nunavik Quebec, Alberta North, Russia’s Yamal and the Sami people of northern Scandinavia. The Arctic Winter Games offer terrific opportunities to meet people from places I’ve never been and will probably never see.

Being from little old Ninilchik, I haven’t been able to tell one accent from another. Not only do Games participants trade pins at a furious pace, they also trade clothing, so someone wearing a team jacket from the Yukon might be wearing a sweatshirt from Alaska. And unless I can see someone’s ID badge and match the picture to the face of the person wearing it, asking is the only way to find out.

It’s even harder to tell with spectators and parents, except for the moms wearing the “Team Alberta North rocks” belt buckles.

So, when I saw a couple of strangers staring at the activity buzzing around them before Tuesday’s cultural program, not wearing team jackets or sweatshirts and lacking badges, I came up with my instant conservation starter, “Where are you from?”

“Ninilchik,” they said. “And you?”

BY MICHAEL ARMSTRONG

STAFF WRITER

Tan “Y Y” Yuan Yi came all the way from Malaysia to see the Games — well, and to be an AFS exchange student at Homer High School. Y Y was at the Homer Ice Arena with her host sister, Katherine Dolma. She wants to write a book about Alaska for other Malaysians, she said.

“They think Alaska is a cold place, but it’s not as bad as they think,” she said. “I want to write a book to change that.”