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.

Jordan and Steph

I keep forgetting to include this on posts so now it's getting its own post!

Check out Shelter-The Journey to Nunavut by Jordan and Steph. They're in Ontario and about to move to Nunavut. I love their blog, it's easily one of my favourites. So if you know what's good for ya, you'll check it out!

P.S. It was 23C here yesterday. Although it's nice to have some variety in our weather, it's way too warm for me. That's how I know I've been northernized.

Labels and Coincidences

1. I added a list of all my entry labels on the sidebar. Now if you're here looking for information, this will make the search through entries easier.

2. I am going through all my entries without tags and adding tags. It struck me just how many names of commentors are names I recognize now from work, town, friends, etc. It's such a small world here, but it's great knowing people are walking around here and my blog helped them or inspired them or whatever it does.

3. It was a whopping 7 Celsius today. Outside, I thought, "I never thought 7C could feel like summer but here we are." I wish I had an explanation for why it feels so much warmer than it actually is. I don't know why a sunny 7C is t-shirt weather here and warm jacket weather in Ontario. It's more than a state of mind.

4. If you live in Iqaluit and you're one of those people who drives 20-30km the whole way down Niaqunngusiaq Road, just know that I'm out there and I'm getting very annoyed.

Blazing Through the Summer

Once again I find myself babysitting pets while a coworker is away. This time it's 2 cats and they are staying in their own house. I don't think I could handle 5 cats in one house. Well, that's a lie. I'd love to have 5 cats in one house but I'm not going to do that with someone else's cats in someone else's house (since the place I'm in isn't mine).

The perk of cat-sitting these two is that it comes with the use of a Chevy Blazer! Admittedly, I live extremely close to work and the grocery store, but it's still nice to have a vehicle to bum around in. I finally got to see Apex and the dump! Ah, the dump. Always a good time to be had at the dump. In actuality, if you look past the garbage you get a very nice view of Iqaluit.

On the topic of nice views, I need to buy a new digital camera. I bought a very cheap one in March because it's green. I chose form before function and it's a piece of crap.

If you're moving north, I highly suggest buying a decent camera beforehand because you will take loads of photos that you will have forever. Nice cameras make all the difference.

In other news, it is ridiculously hot here lately, as I have mentioned. It's been anywhere from 14-22 and it's just killer. It feels so much warmer than it really is. I haven't felt heat like this since I was down south...last June. I hate the heat and it makes me feel sick. Yesterday morning on the way to work, I thought I was going to throw up because I had felt so hot for the last few days. I felt stupid when I reminded myself where on the globe I live!

Of course, air conditioning is not an oft-used term up here. I've never seen a dwelling with one and very few business have a/c. This means your windows are always cranked open. My place doesn't seem to have screens for all the windows so only 3 can be opened (out of 6). I have a screen for my bedroom window but unfortunately I can't keep it open all night. I live next to the infamous White Row, a notoriously seedy part of town. I also live across from a playground. These two things combined mean that every single night I end up having to shut my window because there are either drunks or children screaming in front of my house. It was humorous at first, but now I just get extremely agitated and I slam the window shut, hoping they hear. I can count on zero hands the number of times I've been able to keep my window open all night.

Anyway. I've restarted the Structure of Inuktitut course I was working on in the winter. That time and this time I've been constructing a list of vocabularly to add to my Inuktitut dictionary (link on the right). After I finish this entry I am going to update it, so check it out. My dictionary is now a smorgusbord of Kivalliq and South Baffins dialects, but I guess that's okay.

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.

Two Months In

Okay so I haven't exactly been writing in here that often. The truth is, I've had another online writing outlet for the last 6 years so it takes precedence over this blog.

So right now I am two months into Iqaluit and two months away from living in Nunavut for two years. Two years! It has flown by faster than I could have ever imagined. I can barely comprehend how fast 2008 is going. It's going to be over before I know it, and I still feel like it just began! This has been a crazy year for me. I've lived in 4 different places just this year alone, and between moving, starting a new job, going on vacation, and all the personal things going on with me (or that were), it's made for a busy year. I haven't really felt I can just relax yet.

For the most part, I've settled in Iqaluit. It looks like I'm going to be in the same staff house for the next few months and then I will eventually get my own place (through work). I'm eager to get my own place but I'm not complaining by any means! I really like this staff house.

My expenses have gone up a little bit, though. I adopted two kittens in May and they eat everything like it's their last meal. I now have 3 cats and it's great. I had always been adament about not getting another cat while I had Leah (my first cat), but fortunately she has taken to the kittens like I figured she would. It took her less than a week to get used to them, I was quite proud of that.

Here's a photo of my new kittens:



The black and white one is Dweezil and the tortishell is Moon Unit. I've been waiting to use those names for years.

In other news, I have joined the gym and I quite like it there. There are fitness classes almost every night so I've been going to the ones that interest me. It is so awesome that we have something like that here. Iqaluit has so much more to offer than Rankin Inlet. I've also been going swimming and I enjoy that quite a bit, too. I ordered myself an iPod shuffle to clip to my clothes when I run at the gym. I tried it out yesterday and it was perfect. I was jogging (on a treadmill) regularly in Rankin but I got out of it because of vacation and moving here. It was great to be back on the treadmill yesterday, it made me very happy. I was impressed to find I didn't need to start at square one again.

The best news I have lately is that I am looking at buying a vehicle this year, even as early as a few weeks from now. I was going to leave it to next year but I'm too impatient to wait. I've got my tax refund coming so that will help soften the blow to my savings account. I think I'll probably end up staying here in Iqaluit for awhile so I'll have plenty of time to build up the savings again.

Having a vehicle here will be a nice luxury. I'll be able to go on food mail since I'll have a ride to cargo. And I'll be able to go for drives and visit my friends without having to walk for a half hour up hill. It also means that when I get my own place, I won't have to worry that it's far from work. That was kind of stressing me out; the impending inconvenience.

I've been bugging my sister to come up and visit me this summer and I hope she does. I just have to keep showing her pictures of the kittens to keep her interest, haha. It'd be nice to have some company for a few weeks, though I am making friends quickly here. I miss my close friends from Rankin but it's a nice thing to start fresh, too. It's an adjustment getting used to making friends by myself as opposed to as a couple. When you meet people (other couples mostly) with your S.O., you have protection. But by yourself it's all you.

Speaking of Jeff, I hear (well, read) that he's doing well. If you read the other blogs hard enough, you can read about his new life, too. And that's all I'm gonna say about that!

And now the obligatory weather/sunlight update. It's light out 24 hours a day here. Surprisingly, it's not bothering my sleep at all. The blinds in my bedroom work well and I haven't needed to resort to tinfoil. I have a sleep mask and that helps things a lot. I typically don't sleep very much during the work-week anyway and I can sleep through a nuclear holocaust after work and on weekends. So overall, my sleep hasn't changed from the sunlight. The weather has been pretty nice, though it does dip to 0 occasionally.

I say this everytime but I'll try to write in here more.

blogmi titiraqtunga*

I apologize, I haven't really been keeping our blog up. I feel bad when people say they like our blog because there's not much to it anymore besides old posts. I think I'm going to start writing in it once a week. I can handle that.

Luckily, this fall has been pretty mild so far. The temperature has been hovering just around zero, which isn't too bad. The roads and "sidewalks" have been really muddy. Usually the mud is frozen when I walk to work in the morning, but by lunch it's a huge mess and I'm surprised I haven't lost a shoe in it. I have to admit I am not looking forward to another long winter. Jen once wrote about this and I completely agree...as Nunavummiut (especially ones who have left warmer climates to live here) we are expected to enjoy the winter and not say that it sucks. But the winter does suck! It can't be denied. Who can say they don't love those balmy 17 degree days in the sun more than they love the -50C windchill days when you grab a metal door handle and learn what real pain is?

I keep meaning to take photos of the Inuit art we have purchased so far. We've bought a few things recently. A large drawing, a painting (I think), a wall hanging, and a bookmark. I forgot to ever mention that my ivory ring broke while we were on vacation. I was in a McDonalds bathroom in PEI or Nova Scotia and I swung my hand too fast and the ring fell off and broke into a few pieces. Jeff's dad was able to glue it back together but I haven't worn it since, out of fear it'll break again.

Anyway, Thanksgiving. We were invited to dinner at a friend's place last Sunday. The food was amazing. I don't think I could ever complain if wine and lamb are involved! Of course, the company was excellent too. We're lucky to have such cool friends here. That's the major difference in our lives here since last year. I'm pretty sure that Thanksgiving was the first time we went out (socially) last year, and we had been in Rankin for two and-a-half months by then. I could be forgetting something, but I'm pretty sure it was the first. After that, we didn't really make any friends until December and things have been great since then. Last year it never really occurred to me that I should be making friends to hang out with. I was friends with people, but we just didn't hang out. Now I can't imagine going back to that. One of the interesting things about living here is that if you're hanging out with a group of friends, usually the provinces and territories of Canada are pretty well represented. However, we have met far fewer Ontarians than I originally thought we would. For the most populated province in Canada, I only know a handful of Ontarians here. I actually once met someone who was living in our hometown (Sarnia) before he moved here. It was at work and I needed to see his driver's license and boy was I shocked when I saw "Sarnia" on it.

This week marked an interesting (albeit sad) "milestone" for our blog. Someone who read our blog last year while preparing to move to Rankin has moved on to another job outside of Nunavut. If you're reading this Mike, we wish you the best of luck! :) You taught me to stop replying with, "ME?" when someone asks me a question about myself, haha.

For the time being, I have removed my email address from our blog as I have had zero motivation to answer questions lately. I sincerely apologize if you have sent me an email and I haven't replied. I always procrastinate replying until I am in the mood, but I am still waiting to get in the mood and I'm not sure if it's going to happen for awhile.

The last thing I have to say is that I am in the process of learning Inuktitut. Inuktitut qaujisaqtunga. I don't know if that was correct, but if it was, it was supposed to mean, "I am working at discovering Inuktitut." Jeff brought home a CD-ROM that teaches the structure of Inuktitut and I am trying to learn as much as possible. It's a very thorough, lengthy, informative CD-ROM. I am not even half-way through and I have learned quite a bit. I am so excited to keep working on it. Learning Inuktitut is pretty much the most practical thing you can do here and I would absolutely love to be able to understand it enough to listen to elders tell stories about their lives.

*If that was correct and blog actually has no Inuktitut translation, it meant, "I am writing in a blog." I don't know the word for "my" yet.

(posted by Jaime)

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)

Smoke?!

Ummmm I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that this is in fact not good.




P.S. I added a Nunavut FAQ section (see the sidebar). Let me know if there's anything I can add or change!

(posted by Jaime)

Home Again

Well, we're back from vacation. We're just in time for the longest days of the year, too. How convenient, says Jaime sarcastically. I'm not sure if the sky actually gets dark because I've been asleep if it has. And that doesn't really say much, since sleeping has become quite difficult for me since coming back. We have two-thirds of our bedroom window tin-foiled but the pesky one-third left is enough to keep me awake.

Our vacation was very relaxing and we were able to do and see and buy everything we wanted (well, within reason). After Summerside, PEI, we spent 2 nights in Halifax and 2 in Lower Sackville with Jeff's aunt and uncle. Jeff felt sick for most of the time so we ended up taking it easy in Halifax/Lower Sackville. Once we arrived back in Ontario for 2 weeks, we really learned the definition of taking it easy. Other than visiting Tobermory and Windsor, we really didn't do too much other than shopping and spending many hours on Jeff's parents' patio. Jeff's parents have a nice piece of property which was perfect for relaxing.


Jeff's parents' front yard.

As for the sun, here is what I'm talking about:


The sun at 9:41pm.


The sun at 10:29pm.


The sun at 11:07pm.

Let me also point out that last night (when the photos were taken), it was cloudy. Right now it is clear out and it is even brighter:


The sun now, at 10:10pm. I gotta figure out a way to clean that window without buying scaffolding...

I'm going to stop bragging about our sunlight now because we're not even north of arctic circle, where the sun actually does not set. In Rankin it does set, just briefly. In other Rankin news, it appears that many people have left for the summer. Our apartment building seems completely dead, though I do know of a few people in our building who haven't left.

In other news, I also started my new job as the Detachment Clerk for the RCMP yesterday. It's a temporary gig -- just until March -- but I anticipate it to be enjoyable and a good experience. Everybody is really friendly so I imagine the time will fly by.

We finally were able to take out our ATV and take a few rides. It's amazingly fun and I can't wait to take it on the land. As soon as our fishing rods arrive in the mail, we'll be in real business.

To finish this entry, I leave you with the best purchase from our trip.


A gigantic, behemoth remote control.


"To obtain a dialing wand, mash the keypad with your palm NOW." (Any fellow Simpsons buffs reading?)

I'd also like to point out that Jeff is so bored right now, he is reading the phone book.

I'm not lying!

(posted by Jaime)

Sunshine and Insomnia-Induced Entries

Ah, there's nothing quite like being completely wide-awake at 4am because you haven't gone to bed yet because your body is confused by the lack of a schedule and the excess amount of light coming in through the windows.

I think it's even more confusing for the body when you watch the sun set and then rise again a few hours later and you're still sitting on the couch.

It's getting light here somewhere after 3am and isn't getting dark until nearly 11pm.

One more reason to look forward to vacation! It's only 4 days away now. I feel like I have a bunch of loose ends to tie up before leaving, but other than packing and preparing the cat's stuff for a sitter, I can't think of anything. It's a frustrating feeling. I feel like I'm going to get on the plane and remember all the errands I needed to run.

Let's see...I've been awake for 17 hours now, and in another 18.5 hours, the sun will set again. Hopefully I can fall asleep before then...eek!

(posted by Jaime)

At least it's warm out (-5C)...

...but that pesky 50cm of snow that has fallen since last night isn't too much fun.




(posted by Jeff)

Spring has Sprung

Look at that weather! I'm not sure why I'm inside right now, because it feels amazing outside. Everytime I take a deep breath of fresh spring air, I half-expect to look up and see flowers and trees. I don't typically miss the foliage I'm accustomed to; I believe this is only the second time I've missed trees (and flowers). The first time was when fall started. I had my mom send me up some orange maple leaves which our cat promptly ate.

Nothing overly exciting has been going on with us lately. We recently bought an ATV from our friend who just moved back to St. John's (hi Christine!). We're anxious to take it out and go for a drive. It's supposed to be nice this weekend too, so if we don't take the ATV out, I'd like to drag my bike out and ride around.

Jeff has booked his vacation and a plane ticket from Iqaluit to Ottawa, since he will be in Iqaluit for a work trip at the beginning of our vacation. My own plans are still up in the air. I had originally planned to fly to Toronto at the beginning of May (before meeting Jeff in Halifax for the start of the actual vacation part), but my employment status (or lack thereof) might be changing shortly. I have a few possible jobs lined up, but nothing confirmed in any way. It's frustrating not knowing exactly when I'm going to be leaving. It doesn't leave me with much to look forward to, ha.

I'm almost done college. I have 7 class days left and I'm pretty happy about it. I'm eager to finish and start working. I finish my Simply Accounting course on April 20th and I think our Hamlet Days start April 21st. I'm looking forward to the games and things.

Anyway, Jeff was in Chesterfield Inlet today and meant to take photos, but I just noticed the camera is sitting on the desk. That's the second time he's done that when going there. Maybe we're just not meant to have photos of Chesterfield Inlet.

The sun has been setting later and later these days, as it's supposed to. It doesn't get dark until 9-ish and I absolutely love it. Jeff has different feelings about it, though, and so I somehow consented to having foil put on our bedroom window (he must have asked me while I was asleep, because the sun in the bedroom doesn't bother me).

I think that's everything from us. In blogging news, I plan to set up an FAQ soon so people can consult it to answer their questions about moving here. We've had an influx of emails lately and I think an FAQ would be more helpful.

(posted by Jaime)

Update of Dictionary

I just finished a large update on our Inuktitut Dictionary.

Check it out!

P.S. We are also in the middle of another blizzard. It's Sunday night right now so we're really hoping it keeps up for even another 14 hours so we can sleep in tomorrow. Is that so much to ask? Haha

(posted by Jaime)

General Post

Not too much to say right now, but I felt like making a post.

1. I have just updated the Stupid Keywords section. I have been updating it about once or twice a month since I first created it, and it seems to be a popular page on our blog. So check it out, if you haven't already.

2. I bought our first piece of inuit art today. As I was leaving school for the day, a man was showing one of my classmates some jewelry. He had a really nice ivory ring so I said I'd run down to the ATM and come back to buy it. I don't have a lot of interest in carvings, but I do like the jewelry.

When we have working batteries for the camera, I'll post a photo of the ring.

3. I don't know if it's warming up for good now, but this -26C (before windchill) weather feels great. Our themometre actually shows the temperature now, for the first time since about November. I've been amused by southern Ontario's recent "cold snap." Our friends and family find it of utmost importance to inform me when their weather is even remotely similar to ours.

4. I posted some photos of some Northern flyers onto our Flickr last week.

5. We finally have a working computer/TV in our bedroom. We splurged on a nice desktop with a screen far bigger than we'll ever need. The computer has a TV hook-up and with Windows Media Center we can record TV onto the hard drive and watch it later. You can even pause and rewind live TV. It's pretty neat, I love it. I don't know how I lived without it. It's great being able to pause TV when you need to get a drink or something, and then fast forward through any commercials (assuming you were away from the TV for a few minutes). Well listen to me, I sound like an advertisement. Just mentioning Windows Media Center is going to open a whole new world of stupid keywords! Possibly far stupider than "What is Nunavut in Inuktitut?"

That's all for me!

P.S. What IS Nunavut in Inuktitut? Haha...obviously kidding.

(posted by Jaime)

Blizzard Days!

There has been a major influx of Northern bloggers! Man alive, pretty soon we'll be a virtual community larger than some of the actual communities in the north! We probably already are. I'd say we're bigger than Umingmaktok (census counted a population of 5) but that's a gimme.

Well, like the rest of Kivalliq (and other regions, apparently) we are in the middle of blizzard day #2. Let me tell you, we have been waiting for a blizzard day since we moved here so we are hoping to hold onto this little stint for as long as possible. It is looking like we will be back tomorrow, but I hope I'm wrong.

I pressured Jeff into giving our plans in May a little more thought, and he came up with a great idea. We're going to drive out east to Nova Scotia for our vacation. Hopefully our good friends Matt & Allie will be joining us. I am very excited because I've never been any further east than Montreal and I've always wanted to see the Atlantic ocean. Oops, my brother reminded me that I've already seen it several times. Umm...uh...yeah, I knew that...I just wanted to see if anyone ELSE saw the fib. Hahaha...no, I guess I just had a "blonde" moment.

In other news, I was finally forced into signing up for Blogger beta. I tried to avoid it for so long but they finally made it impossible to log into your account without switching over. I wish they wouldn't try to present it as if it's an option, because it's clearly not. I hate being forced to try new things like this, so I'm a bit mad at Blogger/Google right now. You can tell I don't have a lot to be mad at when I get annoyed by stuff like this, heh.

(posted by Jaime)

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)

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)

Sissy Blizzard

Well, our much-hyped (by Environment Canada) blizzard was a measly one at best. I woke this morning around 10 and saw blowing snow outside. I was hoping it'd get worse but it never did. :( Oh well, there's still lots of time left until spring for blizzards!

Here are some photos of the "blizzard":


Here we see just how wussy the blizzard really was. We shouldn't be able to faintly make out those houses in the distance, let alone the college. What a gyp, haha.


Here we see the lame gusts of wind. Pfft, I can sneeze stronger wind than that. :(

In completely different news, I think the Sugar Rush Café has a new cook because I bought these the other day:


The raw fish was actually cooked shrimp, but they were tasty nonetheless.

I think the sushi was a hit because when I purchased them, there were 4 or 5 plates left. The next day there was but 1 plate left. I hope the cook makes them again. Any food out of the ordinary tastes so good these days.

Well, this weekend was pretty slow, as per our norm (even in London). Together, we only went outside once and it was to the Northern for a ($20) 12-pack of Pepsi that Jeff used to bribe me with for a can of Coke earlier in the day. I'm so easy to please...!

Our good friends Matt and Allie from Sarnia sent us up a "care package" full of goodies. Jeff got season 1 of the Gilmore Girls...which he has now been watching for 10 consecutive hours.

I spent a good chunk of my day putting DVDs on my mp3 player.

Quality time with each other is definitely our #1 priority...ha ha ha.

(posted by Jaime)

Imminent Storm Threatens Village

We have our first-ever blizzard warning in effect as residents of Nunavut. Straight from the lips of Environment Canada:

Blizzard warning for Rankin Region including Whale Cove upgraded from winter storm watch Blizzard conditions will develop overnight or on Sunday morning. This is a warning that blizzard conditions are imminent or occurring in these regions. Monitor weather conditions..Listen for updated statements. An intense low pressure system moving into the region will bring strong northwesterly winds of 60 gusting to 80 km/h in its wake creating blizzard conditions overnight or Sunday morning. Conditions will improve by Monday morning.

We're very excited. We've heard so much about the bad winter storms this area is subject to, but this is the first evidence we've seen that supports it.

In other news, I was in Repulse Bay this week, here's a couple of pictures... The first is an overview of about half the town, and the second is an arctic circle monument as seen from my hotel window.














(posted by Jeff)