Summer in Capital City

Where else in the world can you live and be dying for a little air conditioning...and it's only 14C outside? I'm sitting here in a tanktop, fanning myself, and it is only 14C! Granted my windows were closed all night while I was out, but it is really just ridiculous how hot 14C is.

It was very warm yesterday as well, so I went out for a walk and took some photos. Although I've been in the north for 2 years (3 summers), I forgot about this little equation:
Warm weather + bare flesh - bug-repellant = hell

Anytime the wind died down temporarily, mosquitos would come out of nowhere and swarm me. I was really getting annoyed with it and with myself for forgetting to spray some repellant on. In Rankin Inlet, the bugs weren't bad at all in town. It was as soon as you got past the buildings that they'd get annoying. But here they are just everywhere (as far as I can tell, I haven't been out on the land yet). The mosquitos are the only thing I truly dislike about living here. I can take the cold, the darkness, the sunlight, and everything else people nag about, but I hate the bugs.

Anyhoo, I'll post the photos at the end of this entry.

I found the other day that one of my close friends from Rankin Inlet will be coming to Iqaluit for work at the end of the month! I am beyond excited to see her. I'm excited to be able to show someone around. Nobody from down south has ever come to visit me, so this is the closest I'll get to that. I can't wait to bring her to the restaurants, movie theatre and the Storehouse. And I think some midnight Snack deliveries will be in order! Speaking of The Snack, I have an unhealthy addiction to their chicken burger ("The Snack chicken burger"). I just tried the poutine last night, too. I almost wish I hadn't...it was amazing. Anyway, I'll have a vehicle when Erin is here and I'll be able to take her on the dime tour. Erin will also get to meet Moon Unit and Dweezil, too.

It's great, I have so many things to look forward to!

And here for the first time in many months, are some photos:


This is the view from my front porch.


Dock thingy


The graveyard.


Iqaluit with the 8-storey building in the centre.


Apex way in the distance.


The mall and CBC.


Construction of the new Anglican church. They just tore the Kamotiq Inn restaurant down, and now they're replacing it with yet another igloo-shaped building.


Looking downtown.

Blah blah blah

I'm a terrible blogger, but I'm zen with it!

Summer, although not officially over, is definitely over in Rankin. It has snowed a few times and there is frost on the ground in the morning. I'm grumbling about the idea of having to pull the parka out of the closet again. I was really getting used to the idea of just wearing spring jackets.

We had an excellent summer, one that will surely be hard to top. Buying an ATV is definitely one of the better choices we've ever made.

I am considering the idea of going to Yellowknife for a few days in November. Jeff needs to go for work and I really want to see Yellowknife (and trees and Wal-Mart, heh). When we're finally done living in Nunavut, I would really like to buy a house in NWT or Yukon. I love the north, but I'd like to live where I can actually go for drives, have fast food, and go to movie theatres. That said, we're still relatively glad to be here. I'm not going to write about it here, but we've been going through a pretty awful experience which has caused us to seriously consider leaving, but we've decided to stay. Although it's been a generally unfair experience, we've learned lessons we probably wouldn't have otherwise learned.

Anyway. Other than that, not much else is new. I was off sick from work for 2 weeks due to some kind of strange skin condition. Between that and recent going ons, we haven't been out on the land lately. There are photos from the last time we took the ATV out on our Flickr (link on the right bar).

Be sure to check out A Journey Northwards. Jackie is moving to Rankin in a few weeks. We've been chatting on Facebook and I'm looking forward to meeting her. :)

(posted by Jaime)

Summertime

I'm not sure if anyone checks out our Flickr page so I decided to post some of the neat photos we've taken lately.


We found this old bottle in the park (Iqalugaarjup Nunanga). Does anyone know how old it is? I'm interested in knowing. There are old pop and beer cans all over the place here, some older than others.


This is the largest piece of bone we've found yet.

This caribou must have had a good dentist in its day because even though it's dead, it still has whiter teeth than me:



Jeff and I are enjoying summer here. Going on vacation really helps to refreshen your passion for the north. Anyone who's been north knows that you really, really need to get out every now and then or it just stops being enjoyable. Since we've been back, I've gotten re-excited about things that I hadn't thought about since we moved here. After the long winter, I had forgotten about most of the things that made me glad we moved here. By May, all I could think about was how much I wanted to see people and places I've known my whole life, but by June I just wanted to be back with all the new people and places.

We've gotten fully back in the groove here. Our number one excitement has reverted back to Mail!! Yipee!! not unlike most people I know here. We slept one night in a cabin here (which was awesome) and I woke up the next day to see Jeff had ordered us a tent and two sleeping bags. So I guess camping is going to become our new hobby. I'm not aware of any of the northern bloggers regularly camping which is interesting because it's so much fun. I'm considering buying a cabin next year as well. Now that I'm working, I need something (other than retirement) to save for, or else I'll end up spending everything.

I'm really looking forward to the idea that somebody, anybody! will come visit us next summer. We haven't had any visitors which is too bad because I think most people I know would love it here, especially now that we have an ATV and camping stuff on the way. They're all going to get some major pestering next spring so they might as well admit defeat now and start saving money. ;)

(posted by Jaime)