Iqaluit (May 29/06) - Iqaluit coffee hounds know Pascal Desnoyers as the soft-spoken young man with the ready smile behind the counter at the Fantasy Palace coffee shop.

But at 17, Desnoyers is also a teen who has been to a few places, done a few things.

He's a hard worker, too.

Desnoyers does double duty at Fantasy Palace and Baffin Gas Bar, which can make for 14-hour workdays. But he likes the retail sector for the people he meets.

"The customers are very nice, very sociable actually. I've met a lot of nice people."

Born in Montreal of an Inuk mother and Quebecois father, Desnoyers moved North six years ago.

He has already adjusted to life in Iqaluit, which he says is a more tight-knit community than the high-fashion metropolis of Montreal, a city of three million.

In fact, when he returned to Montreal for a visit last year, he found the size and pace almost overwhelming.

"I was going crazy with all the people and the honks (of car horns)," he said.

He had a harder time adjusting to high school in Nunavut, with the same classes day in and day out, six months at a time.

He quit school two years ago, but plans to return in the fall to complete a general education diploma at Nunavut Arctic College.

Desnoyers has also had his battles with drugs, but credits his girlfriend Annie Kilabuk for helping get things together.

The couple just got a place together, and Desnoyers beams when he speaks of her.

"I love her very much," he said.

"She's straight up, she's intelligent. She straightened me out and she's beautiful."