First Post of 2007

It's true what they say about a sucker being born every minute.



I guess it's safe to say that we're indifferent to whole price difference thing.

To anyone who was curious about the results of our first time playing Bingo... we didn't win anything, but we did have a good time.

The temperature has dropped here lately. The windchill has been hovering around -50C lately. It doesn't feel too bad. The only part I don't like is that my nose goes numb within the first 30 seconds of being outside.



This is the famous Sugar Rush Cafe in Rankin. I manage to go there about four times a week. I don't know what I'd do without that place!



This is, of course, a road in Rankin. I find it amusing that the only vehicles you can see are snowmobiles, and one snowy ATV (or Hondas, as we call them here).

I also have some videos I took while driving around town, but they take much too long to upload and I haven't got the patience to upload 4 videos. I might just wait until we're on a faster Internet connection in Ontario to upload them, because it will be a lot less painful.

Well, according to my counter, we have been in Nunavut for a straight 5 months, 2 weeks, and 6 days. I have been daydreaming (and night dreaming) about how I'm going to spend time in Ontario. We're not sure what day we'll be flying back, but I imagine it will be around May 13th or so. By the time we get back, we'll have spent just over 9 months in the north.

It's hard not to constantly think about the excitement of seeing familiar faces and places, but I try not to let it dominate my thoughts. I hope that after a few trips to the south, leaving gets less exciting. I'd rather not spend my entire time living here just looking forward to leaving for a few weeks.

Jeff and I have had a few discussions about where we'd like to live after here (which hopefully won't be for about 8-10 years from now) and so far, we can't agree on anything. He wants to move to a large city, and I want to move somewhere else that is relatively remote and north. I am definitely a person who prefers the country over the city, so if I can convince Jeff that we shouldn't move any more south than Winnipeg, I'll be happy.

(posted by Jaime)

YouTube Video

After I sent this link to my family, I figured it would be a good idea to post it here for all to see:

YouTube video of Rankin Inlet.

I'll also include the little synopsis I sent to my family along with the link:

The large building with the red roof is the Northern store. Just after it starts, you'll see a building in the background with a green roof. That's the post office and RBC bank. After that it scans over a yellow building which is the old health center.

If you pause the video at 18-19 seconds, you will see our building. It is to the right of the building with red at the bottom. At 19-20 seconds, you will see a red building which is the college.

The water you see in the background throughout the video is the eastern shore of the inlet.

In other news, I went to my first aerobics meeting tonight. Unfortunately on my way there, I tripped and hurt my elbow. It didn't bother me during the workout but it's swelled up since then. I don't think it's serious because it doesn't feel too bad. Not to mention I've broken enough bones and sprained enough muscles in my life to know what "serious" feels like.

Anyway, aerobics was great! It was nice to get a workout for the first time since...well, so long ago I don't even remember. I also got to meet the blogger behind Rankin Adventures which was nice. I always like meeting new people around town. Janice is a lot more coordinated and in shape than me! She also didn't seem to break a sweat! My face and legs were red for about 30 minutes afterward -- probably from shock, haha.

I'm looking forward to going to aerobics next week. Now all I need is something to fill Tuesday and Friday nights and I'll be booked solid through the week.

(posted by Jaime)

Good morning, Rankin!

This morning we were greeted with the first snow fall of the fall. It's currently -8C with a windchill of about -15 or -20.

I snapped some shots of the snow for all to see.


A view of the land. That white dot at the upper right corner is the moon.


A view of my lovely school, at which I just started a new class; Native Issues, which is more like Inuit Issues. It's taught by the former president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Jose Kusugak. Really the most appropriate person to be teaching such a class! I'm looking forward to learning new things about Inuit history and culture. The class is about half-English, half-Inuktitut so it's kind of hard for me to understand and pay attention because he'll start out talking in one language and end in another. So far I've been able to just assume certain things he's saying and he will translate a little bit, but it's still hard. The class is Monday to Friday 9-12 and again from 1-4 so it's going to be a big exercise of my attention span, haha.

Later today I'll be dressing for the cold for real, no fun walks to try out the parkas. We're going to be selling Girl Guide cookies (the yummy mint ones). Today is the coldest (and snowiest) day so far that we've had to endure here so tonight should be interesting. I think I should rig up some hoses or something in my parka so I can have a constant stream of hot chocolate to sip tonight. That'd be luxury!

(posted by Jaime)

Stuff Arrival Day 2

Well we made a lot of progress yesterday. Almost everything is out of the boxes. The only box that has not been opened is the one with the bikes in it, and hopefully all of our fabric softener. We bought 2 very large things of fabric softener in Ontario. The two of them together would be worth $110-$120 here and we have not found them yet. I don't want to be paranoid, but if they're not in the bike box then they were probably stolen. One was put into a garbage bin in London but the garbage bin arrived empty.

My back is quite sore today. I used to have a back of steel but it's been giving me grief whenever I try to lift anything more than 10lbs or if I'm standing for awhile. It's kind of weird, I must have developed this problem from my previous job (I was always sitting).

The two channels we get via antenna are CBC and APTN (Aboriginal People's Televsion Network). We watched APTN all the time in London so it's nice to have it again. We're probably the only two non-aboriginal people in Canada who like APTN, haha.

Anyway, here are some photos of Day 2!


What you see when you come out of the bedroom.


The bedroom which is looking pretty messy right now.


Just SOME of the cardboard boxes left over. That crate thing is our unopened TV.


This was an extremely large box that M&T put our chair and a table in. I used it as a garbage box all day but it's too big for the "dumpsters" outside so everything in it needs to be put into garbage bags. This is what's left of what Jeff calls "the devil box." See those Surge glasses? I got them at Winners for $9.99 and they're amazing!


Even more cardboard boxes. The electric system doesn't like that extension cord wheel. :(


There's some nice GN furniture right there. Check out the stuffed animal tower, heh. It's a turtle (can't see) on a tiger on a skunk on a pig.


Leah in the storage room / office. I don't think I'll be able to use the computer in there without feeling like Milton from "Office Space":

(This photo took me like 15 minutes to find, so be amused!!)


The whole kit and caboodle.

(posted by Jaime)

Arrival of Stuff

Wow, unpacking is almost as difficult as packing!

This morning as I lied in bed with my earplugs in, I wondered if Jeff would call me if the movers called him or if he would wait until later. I fell asleep after that and woke up to Jeff entering the apartment, at 10:10am. I asked him what he was doing home and he said the movers are coming!! I must have ESPN or something, heh. I threw on some clothes and we cleaned up a bit and they showed up around 10:40am.

Nothing came broken which is great however not everything stayed intact...
I was putting all of bowls and dishes in a lower cabinet on a shelf. I remarked to Jeff that it feels like we have a lot of dishes after living for a month on TWO plastic lunch plates and 3 plastic, unsturdy bowls. Once I finished I of course went on to other things. About 20 minutes later, the shelf came crashing down and with it the bowls and plates onto the floor. Several broke, probably 6 or 7 or maybe more, it was hard to tell. I stood there stunned for probably a minute before I started picking up the shards.

Anyhow, here are some photos of the move-in madness!


Ahhhhhh....look what crawled into our box in Ontario! Just kidding, I'm just a huge dork!


Jeff finding a place for the bowls, some of which would break later.


Don't just do something, stand there!


The very first thing that was unpacked. Photo coasters (with no photos yet).


What I'm staring at from the couch.


Leah trying to get our attention away from the boxes by giving us a death-defying show of walking on a door.


For my next act, I will attempt to walk across this extremely narrow door frame!


Who cares about that other crap, our featherbed is here!!!


Ahh, the boxes are invading the storage room!


Jeff fighting the boxes for world domination.


The poor movers had to work in this bad weather. But on the bright side, look how freakin' close the college is!


This is after an hour's worth of work. The going is tough.

I've opened many more boxes since Jeff has gone back to work but I took a break to write this entry.

Well, it looks like we're going to have an apartment sale or put up a sale sign on bulletins around town. We have way too much stuff, this place is going to be a lot different once everything is unpacked and we're both not looking forward to it.

Oh yeah, our TV antenna arrived...I've never been so happy to see "Road to Avonlea" before!

(posted by Jaime)

The First of Many Brrrrs!

Wow, it got down to 3.7C last night! Ouch!
For you Americans, 3.7C is 37F.

Jeff and I have a weather monitor thing. One piece goes outside and then the actual monitor part tells you the time, the temp. inside, and the temp. outside. It also records the maximum and minimum outside temperature since it's been last reset. It's pretty neat, it's fun to always know what temperature it is. Unfortunately the sun skews the outside temperature during the day. Yesterday when Jeff and I headed out to the Quickstop, I looked at the weather monitor and said, "Well, it's 32C, dress accordingly!" We both laughed while we continued putting on sweaters.

Jeff has gone to Coral Harbour until tomorrow.

Today on the agenda is to buy some more Hostess chocolate chunk cookies and to drop off my confirmation of acceptance into Nunavut Arctic College. I don't remember if I wrote about it, but I was accepted into the Office Administration program. I'm way excited to go to school again. I'm not sure how college-y it'll be (by Ontario standards) but either way I'm sure it'll be fun. I had my transcript faxed over there and I wondered if they would understand the course codes since they're different everywhere. Sure enough, they called me and told me I needed to come do their math and English test, which they only make you do if you don't have grade 12 math and English credits, which I do. I wasn't worried about it, though, since I did well in school, especially in math and English. Jeff had told me that they asked for me to come a bit before 1pm but I didn't get there until right on the dot of 1pm and I felt bad about it...until I saw that everyone was still on lunch. I used the chance to walk around a little bit, which made me more excited to go there. I finally sat down on a bench and decided to wait for someone and about 30 seconds later someone returned, knew who I was, and told me that they had been mistaken and I don't need to take the test.

I'm lucky because the college is very, very close to our building.
Here is how close it is:

The red building is the college. If I take the shortcut behind the Tapiriit building, it's like a 40 second walk. It rocks.

Our cat has serious mental problems. Ever since she got spayed last month, she can't stand not having attention lavished upon her 24 hours a day. Right now she's sitting at the door cry-meowing. She only stops when I quit what I'm doing and play with her until she gets tired or until Jeff comes home. She only seems comfortable when we're both here. It is seriously freaking annoying and I have to wear earplugs to bed after Jeff leaves so I don't lose my insanity the way I am right now. It is very, very annoying dealing with this every single day. I don't know what to do with her, she won't snap out of it. I am hoping she quits once I go to school so she won't be used to someone being home with her all the time like it has been since she was spayed.

Anyway, my brother made a neat cartoon for us. Check it out.


P.S. I also want to take the opportunity to say that because of our lovely site meter, we know where all our regular readers live. Not specifically of course, but we know what city you live in. We seem to have 1 or 2 Rankin readers. Oh how I wish they'd comment. ;)

(posted by Jaime)

Post-Nups

Well, our wedding was yesterday. It went very well might I say. It turned out to be a lot less low-key than I expected. Our original plan was have a ceremony at City Hall with just our witnesses as the guests. It turned into a 40-person, backyard wedding. I ended up getting my hair done and we were happily surprised when the next-door neighbours showed up with an organ to play The Wedding March. The neighbours even took our photos in their beautiful yard with their expensive camera.

It turned out to be so much more fun than I expected, too. Definitely one of the best days I've ever had, if not THE best.

Jeff and I have some pretty intense thank-you cards to send out.

On Wednesday the local moving company came to estimate our things. It was a strange experience. The lady got done fairly quickly and I commented that it's kind of sad when all of two people's life's collections can be counted in 15 minutes. I don't really think that as it's quite a step-up from the "olden days" when people were nomads.

As I've mentioned before, our things are being moved this Friday (July 28). It seems so close and also so far away. I can't believe we're moving to Nunavut next week, it's still surreal. It's almost too cool to be true.

I think Jeff and I are pretty much finished buying things to bring up. I don't think it's actually possible to ever be completely finished but what we have will have to do. With everything we've bought/received so far, I'm excited for our shipment to arrive in Nunavut. So many things are brand new, it's going to be like Christmas when it does arrive.

One more thing I wanted to add before I finish this is that if you are not a Blogger member and you comment on our journal, we'd like if you somehow let us know who you are. When you comment, you have to option to select "Other" for identity and then type in your name. You do not need a website for that. It would help us a lot as we've received some advice and we have no idea where it comes from or how to get back to you about it. Thank you!

(posted by Jaime)

Optimism

Wow, our prayers have been answered.

The relocation officer emailed Jeff with our flight confirmations!!
We leave August 1st (yay). Flight #1 is to Toronto. Flight #2 is to Winnipeg. Then, after a 6 hour layover (ouch), Flight #3 leaves for Rankin Inlet. This is one flight less than I thought we'd take, so I'm pretty happy about that. I'm still very nervous about taking our cat, Leah, but we are going to call Air Canada and First Air to get the information we need so I can stop having a stroke everytime I think about it.

Our apartment/townhouse (don't know yet) will be furnished, too. I am excited about that. New furniture!

Jeff and I have been eating greasy foods for the last week or so because we figure we'll have to start eating healthier once we move up there. I've heard that there are KFC Express things in convenience stores up there and if so that's pretty cool. I'm not a big fan of KFC but it's probably Jeff's favourite place so what are the chances that his favourite fast food restaurant would be in Nunavut?

Okay, so this post was kinda pointless. Jeff says he's going to call Air Canada right now and he may make a post later tonight, so hopefully this isn't all from us.

I just noticed that today is the first day since Sunday when I haven't been bugged by my family with endless phone calls! Yay! It's a good day today.

(posted by Jaime)

Pessimism

Jeff and I have still have not heard back from the HR Deparment regarding Jeff's references. So I can't really comment on anything specifically moving related right now because everything is still up in the air, but I'll just say that it's highly, highly doubtful we'll be moving when originally planned (August 1st).

Anyway, Jeff has still not handed in his notice at work. I don't personally think they're going to take away his offer; they've already given him an official offer and we know that at least one of his references said nice things about him. By the time everything gets sorted out, it's probably going to be October. It's quite irritating that Jeff is always the one to call them, I can't understand why they're not on the ball a little more.

In other news, our wedding has been set for July 21st. Excluding shot gun / Vegas weddings, I think we're breaking a record for fastest planned wedding. My family (well, my mom) specifically doesn't seem to appreciate it, but they're dealing with it. I've been complained to so many times since Sunday (when we set the date), I almost want to tell some of my family, "Okay, we'll push the wedding back to November. But Jeff and I won't be there, so have fun at our wedding."
I personally don't see what the big deal is. I keep telling my family, "Stop thinking of it as a wedding with short notice, it's just a going-away party where two people happen to be getting married."


I guess I'll finish this post letting everyone know I quit my job on Sunday. I didn't say goodbye to anybody and I kind of regret it, but I just couldn't take all the questions about Nunavut climate anymore. If anyone from my work is reading this, please comment and let me know. I sent out a mass email to all my friends at work but only one has bothered to follow up.

Sorry if this entry seems naggy, I'm just getting frustrated with everything, mainly the lack of real planning that we can do as far as moving goes, and the over-planning of our wedding.

(edited at 3:32pm)
I have changed the layout, yay. It took about an hour but it's finally exactly how I want it. Hopefully Jeff likes it too!

Also, Jeff called Nunavut today at lunch and they said everything is fine, so he is handing in his notice today. He no longer will be speaking with the staffing consultant, it's up to the relocation officer now. Yay!

(posted by Jaime)

You Want What Now?

OK... so I was about to hand in my two weeks' notice at work tomorrow when I received an email from the people hiring me. They sent a document requesting my signature so they can check my references. This worried me because suddenly I wondered if their "official" offer had been revoked.

I gave them a call and got no real answer as to whether or not I should be worried. That in itself worried me. They said that they had forgotten to check my references before hiring me which is a little sketchy. I should keep telling myself that maybe they were just so excited to have found someone as intelligent as me that they just offered me the job without thinking about it first, ha ha. I signed the document and gave them a few references to check. Part of me thinks they may not even call them; they just want them on record. I'm really not all that concerned if they do call my references - I have good ones that like me, but this situation is a bit unnerving... I'm about to start a new project at my current work tomorrow morning (going to the first project meeting) and I really shouldn't go if I'm leaving -- I was going to quit beforehand... and I've pretty much decided to quit before I go, I mean, I have a written job offer, which I signed, and returned... can they even back out now if my references say I'm the most horrendous worker they ever met?

I'm not trying to be bitchy towards the HR people -- they've been more then excellent and awesome in every way, and I think part of the reason this step was missed was because I've been pushing them so much to get everything together, almost to the point that I feel guilty when I call there. I can't help it though, I've never been so excited about a job before... it seems like so much more than just a "job." I'd say this is the first time I've been offered a job where I can say that this is 100% the direction I want to be going in, career-wise. Above and beyond that, it offers a cultural experience far beyond what anything in Ontario could ever offer.

(posted by Jeff with contributions by Jaime)

It's Official!

Well, it's official, or at least it should be. I've always been suspect of job offers, thinking they'll fall through between the time when I hand in my notice at my old job, and start at the new one. Today, I sent back my signed job offer, thereby accepting the position in Rankin Inlet.

We are so excited about this. I recognize that it is a huge change, but we think it's going to be great. Seeing people's reaction to the news that we're going way way up north is interesting. It seems to be a 50/50 split between those who think we're utterly insane and those who think it is an excellent idea. What are we going to miss out on by not being in Southwestern Ontario for 75 of our 75 years? I sort of envision staying here being somewhat like the following: buy a house, pop out some kids, retire, and die - not necessarily in that order. I think we can put all these exciting things off for a few years.

The three things I am most looking forward to, related specifically to the move:
1. Exposure to the culture/language of the Inuit.
2. The stars/northern lights at night. When there is 'night.'
3. The fresh air.

(posted by Jeff)

Blog Crazy

Good news! Jeff discovered a list of bloggers in Nunavut. I guess the Internet has more to offer for us than we thought. Jeff found this list which we are going to try to be listed on once we have more entries.

We've been spending so much time reading these blogs and I'm feeling even more excited about moving up there. It's going to be a weird adjustment but I think we're ready to take on a new way of life!

I think all of the blogs we've read have been written by teachers working up there. I wish I had some kind of game plan as far as working goes but unfortunately I haven't been to college yet. I think I'm interested in teaching up there so I wonder what I would have to do to become a teacher without going to school in another province.

I guess I'm hoping to work in a co-op store or a restaurant/hotel but I'll have to see. I do know I am very interested in going to Arctic College in Rankin Inlet so at least I have something to look forward to in my free time.

Jeff called Nunavut this morning to find out if his offer is official yet and they said they'd let us know on Tuesday. It's going to be one long weekend, that's for sure. We're letting our parents know this weekend that we're almost definitely moving there. I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but we're getting married right before we go. At least our parents will be happy about that!

Anyway, I should get some sleep. It's almost 3am but I just can't stop reading Nunavut blogs!

(posted by Jaime)

To-Do List

This is our to-do list as of June 27.
*last update: September 27*
I took out all the strikes so you can actually read it, and added some useful points.

1. Get Leah (our cat) spayed and declawed.
2. Transfer car ownership to Jeff's parents. (Ownership stayed with Jeff, his parents took his car.)
3. Buy (nicotine) patches to quit smoking. (Jeff)
4. Move. ("Duh" --Jaime) (Movers came July 28.)
5. Get married.
6. Get printer ink cartridges refilled. (If you own a printer, you may want to bite the bullet and stock up on these!)
7. Move furniture to Sarnia (Sold most of it, threw other stuff out, kept some at Jeff's parents'.)
8. Cancel rent.
9. Cancel car insurance.
10. Cancel hydro.
11. Cancel cable.
12. a) Cancel DSL
12. b) Cancel phone line.
13. Obtain Government of Nunavut health cards and other necessary documents. (Didn't worry about it until we got here.)
14. Get G License. (Jaime)
15. Find birth certificate. (Jeff)
16. Buy new wardrobe. (Jeff)
17. Look into winter gear.
18. Confirm government job perks.
19. Buy pet carrier for Leah. (Thanks Matt and Allie!)
20. Look into northern camping gear.
21. Throw out unwanted clothes, etc.
22. Pick out favourite books, store the rest (at Jeff's parents').
23. Pack shortwave radio.
24. Throw out all food.
25. Get rid of goldfish and tank.
26. Buy new litterbox for Leah.
27. Allot time for errands in Sarnia.
28. Buy a better digital camera (a very good investment so far).
29. Take back empty beer bottles.
30. Buy a wilderness survival book. (Didn't do this, we'll just read stuff on the 'net.)
31. Bring all coins to Coinstar machine in grocery store.
32. Stock up on cat food and cat litter. (Also a very good investment.)
33. Order more contact lenses.
34. Sell couch/loveseat and table/chairs.
35. Buy more food.
36. Obtain enough suitcases and Rubbermaid containers for the flight. (Buy the biggest ones you can find and fill them as tightly as possible...you won't regret it, I promise....as long as you don't go over any airline and/or GN limits, heh.)
37. Book Leah into flights.
38. Clean the apartment.
39. Say goodbye to everybody.
40. Open a joint bank account. (Don't do this unless you know what bank you'll be dealing with.)

What We Regreted Not Doing/Bringing:
-More food
-More food
-More food
-(get the idea?)
-More cat litter and food (the selection of pet things here, especially for cats, is bad)

If you're moving up here, my advice to you is to buy anything you think you will need/want at some point in the future. Get carried away. If the GN is shipping your stuff up, go nuts. It is very difficult to even get near their shipping limit (6000lbs for two people). For example, if you think you need a new TV, buy it and let it get shipped. The only real problem with buying everything in sight is when you and your things finally arrive, you likely won't have room. But that sting pales in comparison to #1 the prices of things here and #2 the lack of selection for things here.

(posted and updated by Jaime)