My Parka: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Other Coats

Once upon a time, I was a brand new Nunavummiuq who had never experienced a Nunavut winter (ohmigawd to think!). It's hard to imagine now such a time existed, but it's true. The year was 2006 and back when I was naive and the "newbie" part of my blog was still true, I purchased for myself Canada Goose's Mystique parka.

Here's a recent photo of me wearing my purchase.

(That's me in Igloolik!)

The parka cost in the range of $600 from Weaver & Devore in Yellowknife. I had no idea what I was in store for buying a parka I'd never seen, for the harshest winters in Canada I'd never experienced.

This winter marks my 4th winter in Nunavut. Whenever the topic comes up, Canada Goose parkas ALWAYS come highly recommended from me. I don't care how good other brands are, I don't want to wear anything out there that WASN'T designed for this weather.

But after 4 winters of wearing my parka from October/November to April, I will tell you that I can't stand it anymore. I rarely speak of negative things on my blog, but I have a secret: I hate my parka. It comes out of nothing except being sick of wearing it, and being too cheap to buy another one.

Let me discuss the ways I hate this parka.

The colour: It was the only option I had at the time and I can tell you, this is Canada Goose's ugliest colour besides plain white (I can't fathom why on earth anyone would buy a white parka where it is always snowy, but that's beside the point). My parka is basically the colour of vomit. Or of coffee with too much cream. Which brings me to my next point.

The stains: I admit, part of the reason I hate my parka is because of how disgusting it has become. After roughly 26 months of wearing it, it has acted as a bib, splash guard, and napkin countless times. Despite the fact the parka is the colour of coffee, it still manages to display a lovely collage of coffee stains. Splatter art? I think not. Being that I'm too cheap, lazy, and distrusting to have it dry cleaned, I've resigned myself to living with the numerous stains (which, trust me, do not end at just coffee). The good news is that if I'm ever stranded on the land, I could probably eat the outside of my parka and get enough nutritional intake to survive awhile.

The hood: To anyone thinking of buying this parka, I will tell you that the length is great, but the hood is terrible. There is some kind of velcro contraption on it that does NOTHING and there is no drawstring or anything to hold the hood on your head. When I lived in the Kivalliq, land of constant violent winds, the hood might as well have been gone with the wind (ha ha I'm so funny). In fact, the hood is pointless unless there is zero wind (a rarity, I assure you). With wind, you have to hold it on your head or wrap a scarf around the outside of the hood. I cannot understand why a company that puts such effective, well-thought out hoods on its other parkas failed to do anything even remotely useful for this parka.

The malfunctions: Okay, maybe I am getting picky now, but sometime toward the end of winter 2008/2009, the zipper started falling apart. For many months I was unable to unzip it completely and had to resort to stepping in the thing. I will admit the zipper has seen a LOT of use, but it still disappoints me that for the money paid for it, things are falling apart. Don't even get me started on the cuffs. The cuffs are a ripped up mess and won't last another winter, I know that for sure.

The look: Can I tell you how many times I've been told I look like I'm wearing a sleeping bag? Please? Oh wait, I can't, it's too many times to count. Actually, I get the comment so often that it makes me laugh. I had thought the same thing about it when I first got it.

Anyway, this entry isn't going to wrap up with some cute "but I love my parka anyway!!!" I wrap up this entry by telling you that I avoid the parka whenever necessary. And I also wrap it up by posting a geeky photo of me using my parka as a blanket, which it came in decidedly handy for a cold plane.



Dear parka,

We've been together a long time, but I think your days of hard work will be over soon.

Christmas in the North

Here I am again, spending yet another bitterly cold winter in one of the coldest places on the planet.

On December 1st, 2006, I was walking home from school for lunch and all of a sudden I thought to myself, "What the hell kind of crazy am I? It's December 1st, unofficially winter, and I live in the f&%@ing ARCTIC." Of course, as we all come to know, it's nowhere as bad as the hype.

Two winters later and I've become blase about it. I think I'm starting to understand the kids I see out in the dead of winter with a thin coat and no toque. I've come to the point now where fashion feels more important, but it could just be this whole big city thing (haha). People in Iqaluit definitely dress up more than Rankin Inlet in the regard that fashion and style seem more important to people here. Janice and I went out to dinner the other night and she said she noticed that she was the only person she saw properly dressed for the cold.

This year I have a vehicle so if I'm just driving somewhere quickly, it's a pain to haul on the giant parka. I'd sooner wear a lighter coat and risk freezing for 10 seconds.

So along with this being my third winter, it's also my third Christmas spent in Nunavut. I'm not a big fan of Christmas so I've never gone back to Ontario for it. I like that it's a quiet ordeal here and I don't have to worry about finding myself in a crowded mall. I also like that so many people leave for Christmas so it's even quieter.

I'm expecting this Christmas to be a good one. I'm not a fan of talking about my personal life here, but I will admit that I have a boyfriend and he's coming to Iqaluit (from Cape Dorset) to spend it with me. He was going to be the first person to ever come to Iqaluit strictly for the purpose of visiting me, but in an act of total awesomeness, my best friend from Ontario decided to visit this month, too. She'll be here next week and I'm thrilled. I'm so excited to show someone how I live my life here.

Anyone who lives here knows it can be hard to convince southern loved ones to come visit. It's very expensive and -30C doesn't sound too appealing to southerners. I know people whose relatives come visit every few months and I hope they don't take it for granted. It took over 2 years for someone to come see me so it's a big deal to me!

Anyway, while Tori is here, we are going to go dogsledding. This is also on the agenda:
-A trip to North Mart. I can't wait to see her reaction to prices. I wish someone could have seen them in Rankin since it's so much cheaper here!
-Hike around Apex, weather permitting.
-Drinking in a bar, Nunavut style (The Storehouse)
-Walk down The Road to Nowhere, of course. Can't come to Iqaluit and not go Nowhere!
-Visit the museum and visitors centre

And whatever else I think of.

Anyway, I'll leave you with some photos of the recent huge craft sale and the purchases I made there.


The line up just to get in! I went early and was at the front of the line, so I was able to wait in the vestibule (of the Arctic Winter Games arena). There are lots of people you can't even see in this picture, like how many other people were in the vestibule. We were packed in like sardines. The people I was with brought a thermos of hot chocolate, mugs, and cake. Geniuses indeed!


This was about 20 minutes after it started and there was still a line outside!


Okpik and plaster Alaskan family. I couldn't resist; I've never seen anything like them before (the dolls).


Oh the things they can do with bone!


Vintage Cape Dorset calendars.

Okay, the other things I bought are Christmas presents so I'm not posting photos of them!

I didn't buy this at the craft sale:

The first and only carving I've ever bought and I'm quite fond of it.

The Problem of Stuff

Well, tomorrow is the big day.

I've come to the conclusion that I'm insane because I paid to fly 4 overweight Rubbermaid totes from Ontario to Rankin Inlet, and I'm going to pay for them to make it to Iqaluit tomorrow with me.

The 37 hours it took to go from Sarnia to Rankin Inlet were quite stressful. I made it to the Sarnia airport an hour before my flight, but apparently the Air Canada employee wasn't in yet. That airport doesn't have an x-ray machine for baggage, so they have to open up all of your items and dig through them. Because I had so much stuff, a long line formed and everybody was staring at my open Rubbermaid totes. Apparently packing popcorn is funny. I heard more than a couple laughs about all the popcorn packages interspersed in my totes that day.

In Winnipeg I was all prepared to haul off my 5 pieces of luggage...but only 4 showed up. And a bottle of hair styler sprayed inside the only tote that had electronics in it. The baggage counter people told me to keep coming back to see if my lost tote arrived on a later Toronto flight and thankfully it did arrive later in the afternoon.

The next day, the Calm Air people kindly informed me that any item over 50lbs cannot be guaranteed to be loaded on the plane. I knew I was allowed one priority piece, but it turned out my suitcase couldn't be made priority since it too was over 50lbs. I looked down at my clothes in dread that I might end up wearing the same get-up for the next while. The Calm Air employee also told me the flight was full and she insinuated that there was no chance in hell I'd be seeing my stuff for awhile.

By some stroke of luck in my favour, all of my things made it to Rankin. I didn't even mind hauling my totes out to my friend's truck; I was just so happy to see them.

Shopping

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. Not much is really new and I'd hate to write boring, off-topic entries just for the sake of writing.

About a week ago I bought some sealskin mittens for my dad. Both Jeff and I really liked them, we almost wanted to keep them for ourselves, haha.

We have been slowly buying more winter gear. This balaclava arrived yesterday for Jeff. I ordered the same one but my size is on back-order. I probably won't get it until the middle of January, which is okay by me.

I also have this hat coming for me. I wish it had real fur on it, but it was cheap. My current toque has held up quite well so I don't think I need anything too massive to stay warm.

Most exciting of all, these pants (2 pairs) arrived today for Jeff and me. I have to go pick them up myself because Jeff is going to Coral Harbour today. It's unusually warm out right now (-17ish) so it shouldn't be too bad of a walk all the way over to the cargo building. I went to school today to drop off some homework and I couldn't believe how warm -17C felt. It's been below -30C lately so -17C feels warm in comparison. It makes me wonder how much I'm going to sweat when we visit Ontario in May.

Jeff and I made the decision a long time ago to stay here for Christmas. I'm looking forward to spending Christmas day doing something different than all of my previous 19 years.

On that note, I really need to order some Christmas presents for Jeff. I'm afraid some things won't make it here for Christmas and that's my fault. I'm not used to this online shopping thing yet.

Check out the new "important link": Stupid Keywords. I am collecting all the weird and laughable things people Google to find their way here.

(posted by Jaime)

Useless Update #2

It looks like a few of us are experiencing lulls in our northern writing.
Even though I feel busy lately, I've been wanting to blog. I guess just not a lot has been happening with us lately.

The only things that have happened to us lately aren't really northern-related and all revolve around material goods:
-We now are awaiting the shipment of 2 Amazon.ca orders. Come on, books and CDs!
-I went on an online shopping spree at AE.com and now have $200+ worth of clothes coming, woo hoo.
-I have to get my mp3 player exchanged.

Before we moved I bought the very nice video/photo, 30G mp3 player seen here. Let me start out by saying that I bought it in June and I had been saving for it since March or so. I was like that kid out of A Christmas Story wanting that Red Ryder BB Gun. Many hours had been devoted to reading reviews for it all over the 'net. The day I finally bought the player was kind of humourous because obstacles kept getting in my way of the mp3 player. I was very excited when one morning after a payday, I finally had enough money. I quickly got ready and hopped on the next bus to Future Shop. I had planned to play around with the demo just to make sure I wanted it. When I arrived, someone else was on the demo, chatting it up with a sales associate about buying it. I noticed there was one left under the glass so I was edgy. The guy continued playing on the demo for 10 painstaking minutes before leaving. I had exhausted my ability to fake-browse within the first 30 seconds of walking in the store so the second he walked away, I walked up, and immediately said, "I want that!" pointing to the last one left. I walked out of Future Shop five minutes later and $500 poorer. On the way home, in true London style, we were stopped by a train for another painstaking 10 minutes. I almost ran the rest of the way when I finally got off the bus.

So now you have an idea of how much I loved that mp3 player. I don't have kids nor do I plan on ever having them, so I let myself get a little attached to meaningless things. But right this very minute, my poor broken mp3 baby player is sitting in a heavily padded box in an airport somewhere, awaiting to be sent to Sarnia, then exchanged for a new one at Future Shop, then sent back to Creative while a hopefully less-defective one gets sent to me.

People get attached to their first car but all I had was that mp3 player.

In other, less pathetic news, my Management Communications class is going well. As it's only 2 weeks long, a lot of information is jammed packed into my brain each day. Although I like this business writing stuff, I miss the Northern Issues class. It was a lot of fun and very interesting. Not to mention there was no work at all!

It looks like I will be starting Brownies next week. I hope that I haven't taken on too much for myself. School, Brownies, and Guides could turn into a lot of work very easily.

Although it is much warmer here than it is in other parts of Nunavut, I've been wearing my parka since about the beginning of the month. I tend to get too warm in it but today we walked to the Northern and I wore my old/southern winter jacket. I was freezing cold and the walk is barely 100 metres. I had to go back out again to get sour cream so I wore my parka and I noticed how big the difference is. In the parka you can't even tell how cold it is out. I feel like I'm in a bubble of warmth.

Okay, that's about as much as I can muster up for now!

(posted by Jaime)

Life is Good

Well I guess I should make an update about all the great things that are going on with me (and Jeff!) lately.

1. I won $500 in a Skype contest about why and how I use Skype. It was the grand prize and there were 10 people who won. The $500 is a gift certificate for Half.com which is an eBay site that sells only movies, music, and video games. I haven't ever bought anything from there but I don't think there is bidding. I think it's just a place to buy cheap stuff...and cheap is it ever. We're probably just going to buy a bunch of movies for the long winter ahead. I don't need any video games and as far as music goes, the only thing I have in mind is 1 or 2 Simon & Garfunkel CDs. I already own everything I like but I forgot my parents' Simon & Garfunkel CD in Ontario.
Anyone who's ever checked out Half.com will know that $500 goes a long way! We will be able to buy a ton of movies. I'm excited! The only annoying part of this is that I have to fax them a release form and it has to be notarized. There's only one notary here and I've got my appointment made with her for tomorrow.

2. We got a ton of mail today. There was something for me and I couldn't figure out what it could be until I got home. I ripped it open to find a credit card with my name on it. I freaked out in joy. I've already spent $80. I love my credit card. It's a student one so it has this cheesy college scene on it that makes me laugh when I look at it. This is my first credit card, by the way. I've been trying for a year to get a credit card so you can imagine how happy I was.

3. Our boots arrived! I love my suede ones. They're just casual boots, they're not temperature rated. I went to the Northern in them and they're very comfortable. I can't feel the rocks on the ground in them. My main pairs of shoes are so thin on the bottom that if I walk anywhere in them, my feet hurt so much because of the rocks. I walked around the apartment in my Sorel ones (rated to -74C) and they are very heavy. I expected that, though.

4. Our ski goggles (argh, so hard not to type "google") arrived too! Today was a big day. The goggles are pretty cool. I have no idea when we will ever wear them but they're good to have.

Jeff is gone to Coral Harbour tonight so I have been on the computer all night. I don't know where the time has gone, honestly.

My northern issues class is almost over. It's been good so far.

Well, that's about it for me. Other than that, things have been pretty normal.

When I was getting my parcels from the post office, the lady who works in there knew my name but I've never introduced myself. As I walked home, I thought, "You know you're living in the right place if the people at the post office know your name and you've never told them it." Either she reads this blog or she pays good attention to our mail. :) Either way, I'm happy.

My very last point is that today in class we watched a video about the events in Iqaluit leading up to April 1st, 1999 (the creation of Nunavut). I was watching it the whole time thinking, "Wow, Iqaluit is HUGE!"

(posted by Jaime)

Mittens!

We got our mittens today! My friend took me to the house of a lady who makes fur mittens. She also acted as my translator which was nice of her. I have great friends here!

My mittens are made of moose skin and Jeff's are beaver fur. We've been wearing them today and they're quite warm inside the house. I can't wait to try them out when it gets cold.

My friend, her husband, and I went out for a drive again today which was awesome as always. Today was probably the last time I'll see the land snow-free until next spring.

I also bought an Arctic College zip-up fleece sweater. It's really nice but it's a bit big. Our school is selling some nice sweaters and vests...anyone want anything? Haha..you send the money, I'll send the NAC goods!

We also ordered some ski goggles and boots yesterday. These are what Jeff ordered, and I ordered these and these (in black) as a secondary, fall/spring pair.

Here are photos...enjoy.


The mittens!


Me trying to rile Leah up with Jeff's mitten.


Me in my new sweater.


...is the best school ever.

(posted by Jaime)

Questions

A few questions to those who would know:

1. Jeff and I are looking at winter boots from Winnipeg Outfitters. We'd like to buy most of our winter gear from the same place to cut back on shipping. I've found some nice boots (seen here) but they are only rated to -40C and the temperatures here can get down to -50C.

My question is, would -40C be good enough? I own wool socks and during the winter I'll probably be wearing the wool socks over a cotton pair of socks. Fortunately I live 1 minute from school and 1 minute to the Northern, so the majority of my time spent outside in the cold will be for less than 60 seconds. Of course, we do plan to get out on the ice and land this winter too, but that would only be a few times.

Maybe it's trivial, but I am trying to buy things I like aesthetically as well as for their practicality. I know I'll be wearing this stuff many times and for hopefully more than a few years so I want to like it and feel good wearing it.

For the ladies reading this, I also plan on getting these. As of right now, the warmest and most rugged pair of shoes I own is a pair of Nike runners so I figure I need to work on my sadly southern-Ontario-wussy footwear collection.

2. Are ski goggles a necessity? We don't want to buy anything we don't need.

3. Also, if anyone has ever purchased anything from Winnipeg Outfitters, we'd like to know if you had a good transaction or not.

(posted by Jaime)

Something Cheap!

We've found something that is cheaper here than in Ontario! Books! Well, they're not cheaper here, they're cheaper everywhere. Amazon.ca rocks my socks off! Their books are so cheap they almost pay you to take the books away!

As a comparison, I priced the same stuff at Chapters, and my $115 order at Amazon would've come out to over $160! It's insanity.

We got Everwood Season 1, because Everwood rocks our socks off. Jaime got a modern art/design book, and I got three novels/non-fiction books about Inuit/northern history. Wow, lots of '/'s in that sentence.

Anyway, I'm off to heat up some Hamburger Helper.

(posted by Jeff)

Parka Arrival!

Our parkas arrived today! Companies can sure ship fast when you spend $1100 on two jackets! Anyway, here we are:


I think my mom had this haircut in the eighties. Just kidding Mom! (sorta)

At least if they're not warm enough in -70C windchill, they'll keep us warm in the kitchen.


(posted by Jeff)

Midnight Post

This is my list of things that I am looking forward to that I have not seen since London:

1. TV.
2. VCR and DVD player and our movies.
3. The brand new toaster.
4. The brand new slow cooker.
5. The brand new microwave.
6. The brand new deep-dryer.
7. The brand new food processor.
8. The brand new pans.
9. The brand new drinking glasses.
10. The brand new electric blanket.
11. The brand new vacuum.
12. The brand new grill (George Foreman style)
13. The brand new down-filled featherbed (mattress cover).
14. Dishes.
15. Cutlery.
16. The rest of our pillows.
17. The stereo.
18. The other computer.
19. The bread-maker.

Look at all that brand new stuff!! It's going to a mini Christmas the day it arrives. No, scratch that. A giant, awesome Christmas! I've never gotten so much stuff for Christmas in my life. This will be the Christmas of Christmases (of non-Christmases). Thank you to anyone and everyone who bought any of those items for us, we've had to wait a long time to open our own wedding gifts.

Jeff and I have plans to write a humourous entry this week based on something we saw while taking a walk today. We discovered another nice area to walk around. We've always taken lots of walks together so to live somewhere that is pretty much 100% great walking area is very nice. We already have a "happy place" and it's a small beach right near our building.

Jeff is off to Chesterfield Inlet tomorrow (technically today). He returns around 5 or 6 which is good because he'll be off to Coral Harbour again on Wednesday/Thursday.

Our cat Leah seems to be doing very well. She's currently using a grocery bag that somehow made it to the living room carpet as a pillow. Earlier this week she discovered a surprising love for used dryer sheets. She's eaten probably 6 or 7 black flies since August 1st. She is very good at catching flies and the flies up here aren't very smart. These two factors combined mean that when flies get in the house, they're in Leah's stomach within 5 minutes. The first time she ever got a black fly in her mouth up here, a loud BZZZ! noise was heard from Leah's mouth. It was amusing.

Jeff is hopefully going to order us our Canada Goose parkas tomorrow from Weaver & Devore to be picked up the next time he flies out to Yellowknife which is apparently soon.
I am going for the Mystique and Jeff is going for the Heli-Arctic. Pictures of both:

Left: The Mystique. Right: The Heli-Arctic.

(posted by Jaime)

Mini Sealift Day

Wow, we got lots of mail today!

I got an article about the Beatles from my dad, all of our redirected mail from Jeff's mom, and a 23lb box of dried groceries also from Jeff's mom.

I actually ended up having to pay $25 for Linda's box because it was underpaid. I asked how that could have happened if Linda had taken it into a post office in Ontario. I was told that what was paid was enough for shipment in southern Canada, but up here it was not. So there you go, $50 in shipping for a 23lb box. I didn't mind at all because $25 for all that was in the box was a great bargain.

I was excited to haul that box home and see what was in it. There is so much stuff, thanks Linda! There's pasta and drink crystals and cookies and garlic and gravy mix and whiskey and vodka and so much more. There's a LOT of stuff in it. It's our own mini sealift day, haha. Plus Linda is apparently sending us two more of these very shortly. We're running out of cupboard space!! Haha...seriously, this apartment is pretty bad on kitchen space. There is about a square foot of usable counter space and then a bunch of small cabinets.

(posted by Jaime)

Anticipation

Well, we've got the marriage license and the rings.

Jeff and I had a very profitable weekend in Sarnia.
Not only did we get several lucrative wedding gifts, but we got our upcoming wedding completely sorted out. All that's left is to leave the cooking up to Jeff's mom and everything will be finished.

We got the first rings we looked at today in the mall. They're some "comfort fit" thing but they are true to their name! I am excited for a new piece of jewelry. Jeff and I keep trying on the rings. Unfortunately, they're going have to be resized after the wedding and we won't get them back until July 28th. At least we'll have them for when we leave, that's all that matters! I wish we could just keep them but we have our whole lives to wear them, what's a few more days?

Besides some very generous money (wedding) gifts from three different relatives, Jeff and I have received The Joy of Cooking (ha ha), a deep-fryer (woo hoo), a food processor (woo hoo again), and long-johns. I meant to buy us some long-johns so that gag gift worked out very nicely.

Anyway, this blog isn't a wedding blog, it's a Nunavut blog. Back to business. This weekend we got:
1. A bread maker.
2. A humidifier.
3. Some fancy coasters.
4. A toaster.
5. A microwave.
6. A vacuum cleaner.
7. $131 worth of cat food (60 cans and five extra-large bags of dry food)
8. 4 large boxes of laundry detergent.
9. 3 large bottles of all-purpose cleaner.
10. Other boring stuff I can't remember.
11. Several large (used) suitcases.

We are following advice from the Nunabloggers and the the Gone North bloggers who both gave us some excellent advice. There is pretty much nothing but shopping and sorting until the movers come, which hopefully is later than sooner.

Anyway, we learned this weekend that we have some regular readers. Funny, you'd never know by the amount of comments we get. ;)

Well, I'm not sure how much we'll be posting this week. My cousin is coming to visit me from Barrie this week and then it's our wedding on Friday. Hopefully we still have some energy left by the time this week is over.

(posted by Jaime)