The Days are Running Together

WOW!

Time is flying by here in the North I cannot believe that we are already into the second week of December. It has been a really hectic time here.


When I first got to Kimmirut my store manager Sheryl told me that Christmas would be our busiest time of year. I didn't think it would be that busy but oh boy! We run alot of events at the store from Moonlight Madness to Ladies night and more

Each of these nights has games, specials and more. It is pretty fun running them everyone is hyped up for the games and really get into the spirit which is awesome to see.

The past couple of weeks have seen many parcels come through the door of our store from my family back home . I am not allowed to have them because they are sooo sure I would peak and or unwrap my Christmas presents early ( I soo would) so they are in my bosses name and I will get them when it is Christmas Day.

I have to say that this Christmas is going to be tough for me being away from my family. I will be the first person in my family to miss Christmas at home. It sucks and I wish I could be there but I knew when I signed up for this that I would be here for Christmas . It was even a source of many days worth of tears when I first found out about coming to Kimmirut.

I am so glad that my family has been sending me care packages filled with Christmas goodies and decorations. I have been able to keep certain Christmas traditions alive such as putting up my Christmas tree the first weekend in December ( I slightly preempted this) and making Christmas cookies.

This is my first fake Christmas Tree!

When I first came North I was so sure Christmas would suck for me without my family and while it will not be the same  I have found that some of my friends will be in town over Christmas. Most of my friends are transient like I am and we have formed a great group. So I will not be at home alone sitting on my couch  crying ( like I imagined myself in the early days of moving North) I have two (possibly three) Christmas dinners to go to and one of my good friend's I met here is going to stay over at my house Christmas Eve.

I am also looking forward to seeing how the Hamlet celebrates the holidays .. There seems to be games and fireworks and a skidoo parade I am sure I will be out there snapping pictures and trying to capture it all so I can have it for keeps.

On a happier note I also (Finally) got my Canada Goose parka! I don't know if I shared the saga of my parka with you all or not but I ordered my Parka once I was in Kimmirut and I ordered the Canada Goose Resolute men's 2XL parka and I waited.... It took two and a half months to get here. In the mean time my boss let me use her parka I then found out hers was a 1XL men's parka... Needless to say when it got in it was too big! Which lead to a call to Iqaluit Northmart to see if they would swap my parka for a smaller size. They were cool with it and then came back and told me they had a 1XL Expedition parka in Red and Black... I chose the black and packaged up my parka to be sent to Iqaluit.

I got the "new from Iqaluit" parka and it was a 2XL... I was slightly pissed but then I tried it on and found it fit wayy different than the Resolute parka and still fit nicely so I kept it.

Here is me rocking out to my new parka!

So This Is Fall?

 I am back after a short intrenetless hiatus! I went over my limit for the month of my Internet so I could only do the basic of things and even when I bought an extra GB of bandwidth I was still overly cautious ( YouTube is my downfall sometimes!) I was very worried about making it until my anniversary date of the 18th !

Now that I have finished my rant over the lack of Internet, here is what has been happening in Kimmirut.


Fall has descended on Nunavut.... I have a hard time typing this because I do not believe it is fall .... I am pretty damn sure it is winter though everyone tells me that it is fall and winter is not yet here. I did miss the leaves turning and the smell of fall in  New Brunswick this year but  I got to have some awesome adventures this fall/winter.

One of the things I have been doing recently is socializing with friends more. Almost every night we get together for dinner and tv or a movie. We also go to each others houses and just chill. It is a new thing for me as I would have people over once in a while but generally stuck to myself now not so much which is great now that the days are getting shorter!

Ever since daylight savings time ended I have been having a hard time adjusting to the fact that the sun goes down before my lunch  is over.. ( I normally have lunch at like 2-3) It is pitch black when I arrive home it really messes with your mind. It is hard when I am off and sleep in till like 10 , 11 or even 12 ( sometimes I need the sleep ) and I only have a few hours of day light..

This is what sunrise looks like ... this was taken about 9 am

 

 

Sometimes we don't even get sun just little teasers! This was about 12pm

Then the sun goes away

Through all this change of daylight hours the weather has been very inclement as well! Blizzards and snowfall warnings have hit Kimmirut twice in the past two weeks it is now officially Canada Goose weather ( for me it has been for the past two weeks!) I did not purchase my Canada Goose parka until I got up here mainly because in New Brunswick that is not possible in May so I ordered mine through work and it isn't here yet :( So Sheryl lent me her Canada Goose Resolute parka ( the same model  I ordered )  she does not need it because she is way acclimatized but I do!

 

 

 

Loving the Goose!

 

 

Liebster Award Nomination!!!!

The other night  I came home from having a get together with friends at about 1am and was checking my email and found a Tweet from my friend Sarah who blogs as www.sarahontheroad.com telling me she nominated me for a Liebster Award and giving me a link to her blog post ... I had to admit I was curious as to what exactly a Liebster Award was.

The Liebster Awards are given by bloggers to up and coming bloggers who do not yet have 200 followers.

                                                       

The meaning: Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing and welcome

RULES:

1. Each Person posts Eleven things about them
 

2. Answer the questions the nominator made for you, and create 10 more questions for the blogs you nominate.

3. Choose nominations and link them to your post.

4. Go to their page and tell them.
 

Here are Eleven Random Facts about Me !

- Books are a passion and something I cannot go a day without reading! My friends have even described a bibbliomaniac and I fear some days it is true! I have spent many a nights awake just finishing the last pages of a book sometimes even the sun is coming up!

- I love to bake but I hate to clean up my baking dishes... I wish I had a person just to clean up all the dishes you accumulate from baking.

- I hate mornings .. it is kind of sad how much I enjoy sleep I have the most annoying ring tone on my old cell phone as I can ( a Roster crowing ) and I set my alarm for three different times before I wake up..

-  My favorite city to visit is Boston so much history and love walking around Cambridge

- I have way too many travel ambitions and they vary from wanting to see Greenland to lounging on a beach in the Bahamas

- Before moving North I would never eat anything that was not Chicken , pork or Beef ... Now I love seal and muktuk... but I would still never eat a Mushroom

- I am a huge Criminal Minds and NCIS freak.. I could watch them for ages and never get bored

- I believe there should be a recipe for everything... Soups , baked beans and things that my family tell me is just a bit of this and that annoy me so I make them give me more precise measurements

- Grocery Shopping relaxes me.. Nothing better than finding yummy foods to eat and being able to take as much time as you want... Grocery shopping on the fly frazzles me

- My musical tastes vary depending on my moods... I love everything from rap to classical , heavy metal and country

- Nothing is better on a cold winter night ( or in this case Fall night) then watching Disney cartoon movies... reminds me of being a kid!

My TEN Questions form Sarah are:

1. Where is your happy place?  My Happy place is sitting outside in the sunshine reading my books.

 

2. What is your least favourite thing to do? Dishes... I don't know why but that is my least favorite chore

 

3. Why did you choose to live where you are living? I didn't choose Kimmirut per say as this is where they placed me but I did make my preference known for Nunavut and above the Tree Line.

 

4. What is your absolute comfort food? It may sound gross but elbow macaroni cooked and then you take a can of Campbell's tomato Soup and do not dilute it and mix it with the macaroni... it is my child hood favorite.

 

5. If you had to pick three friends to be on your team to survive a zombie apocalypse and explain why they are on your team! Humm that is a hard question.. I would say Jen because she is the person that I think would have the most level head and could keep the hysteria down. My friend Hanna would be the one who would find food because she is always trying new things and could probably convince us to eat crazy things.  My sister Whitney because she has enough survival skills to keep us all alive!

 

6. What is your most favourite song? That is for sure a hard question! I like too may songs but if I had to say if there was one song I favorite is a Parody of  LMFAOs Party Rock Anthem... Called Potter Rock

 

 

7. What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done?  Craziest thing I have ever done was break out dancing and singing loudly in the middle of  the store I work in because the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" came on

8. If you could have coffee with anyone in the world who would it be? and why? I would love to have coffee with Hannah Howell she is my favorite author and I would love to just talk to her about how she comes up with her ideas and can make them carry on through many books.

9. If you could go on an all expenses paid holiday for 2 weeks – where would it be? I would go to the Scottish Highlands... it has always been a place that fascinates me the mystery and the history .. I would explore every castle I could.

10. When did you start blogging and why did you continue to blog? I started this blog because I wanted to share my experiences living in the North. I also wanted a way for my family to keep in touch with my adventures without having to send out a million emails every time. As well not everyone gets to experience the North and alot of people have questions so I hope my blog answers some of them.

My 10 Questions for my Nominees are:

 

1) What is your favorite move of all time?

2) What is one skill you do exceptionally well?

3) If you could go anywhere in the world where would you go an why?

4) What is one food you would never stop eating?

5) What is your worst habit.. Would you change it?

6) What is the one thing that always comes with you on all your moves?

7)  If you could dance with one celebrity for an hour would you dance with?

8) What drew you to area where you live?

9) What is the one piece of clothing in your wardrobe that you love?

10) Why do you continue to blog?

 

 

My Nominees:

 

 Darcy- http://eighteightyone.blogspot.ca - A former Nunavut Blogger who now resides in Fort Mac and I love reading his adventures out West.

 

Townie Bastard- http://towniebastard.blogspot.ca/ - The Godfather of Nunavut blogging ... Have to say he is a plethora of information!

 

Golda- http://justgolda.blogspot.ca/- A teacher here in town who has become a great friend this blog is her adventures as a teacher in the North

 

Hailey- http://allofitornunavut.blogspot.ca/- A teacher in Whale Cove NU, her adventures in the North

 

Snowstorm!!!!!

My next blog post was going to be about my visit with my Nannie  as she was due to leave today.. Guess what she is still here! We got a wicked snowstorm last night and into today. Lots of snow down and mixes of freezing rain and snow needless to stay no planes flew today.

After spending the better part of the morning re- arranging Nannie's travel to Monday so she wont miss any of her connections ( and possibly saying a few choice words for her travel agent who said they did not take care of cancellations or weather delays) and calling home to make sure that people back home knew she was not coming. She got all settled in I had to go to work which sucked but oh well.


Before work I decided I would go take some pics of the outside and the weather .

Looking out on to the harbour ... that is actually fog not snow but love the pics.

After taking these pics I decided to indulge in some snowman building... It was just the perfect snow for snowmen! I did not have much to work with to make the snowman but I grabbed two green thumb tacks and a baby carrot and a piece of licorice and green food coloring.

This was my final creation:

Sadly when I came home from work for lunch Mr. Snowman was no more due to the freezing rain :(  It was still fun to dress up in all my winter gear (snow pants and all) and romp around in the snow!

I am Here!

It has been so long since I wrote a blog post I figured  I should let all my readers know I am still here!

It has been hard to get motivated to write sometimes as things are getting busier and busier. October so far has been great here in Kimmirut! We already have snow on the ground and the temps are definitely what I would call winter back in New Brunswick , however they keep informing me that it is only fall!

To kind of give you an update on what I have been up to thus far in October ( yes I know it is almost over) I went to two Thanksgiving dinners! One with my group of friends here in town ( it was pot luck and oh so yummy!) and the second with my store manager Sheryl and her family.

For the first part of October we were getting flurries off and on until finally it just decided to snow! Here are some pics from our first "official" snow fall....

 
I also finally ordered my Canada Goose parka! I really debated on weather or not to buy the Goose or to go with a three in one parka.. After input from people I know who live in the north and knowing the wussy I am I ordered the Resolute parka.  I was not adventurous and ordered it in Navy. I still haven't gotten it yet ( it is probably sitting in Iqaluit waiting to be shipped to Kimmirut) I will let you all know how it is once I get it.

Until I get my parka I spent the earlier part of this month layering cloths! I only had the spring jacket I came up in May with which definitely did not cut it when the wind was whipping through Kimmirut. Sheryl lent me her "winter" parka ( She is much more acclimatized than  I am ) as a Training Parka... I feel like a Nunavut toddler!

I also got some new items in October! I bought an upright exercise bike from amazon.ca which is awesome and will keep me somewhat active in the winter... and my friend Golda brought me back a single serve blender from her trip down south..... I am loving making smoothies in it though I do need to find some recipes that are not so blah!


On October 16th my Nannie arrived in Kimmirut from New Brunswick, I cannot tell you how awesome it has been to have a familiar face from back home here. She will be staying with me until November 2nd ( I will post more on our adventures in another blog post). It is really awesome just to hang out with her and have company to talk to. She is really enjoying it here so far! She didn't even freek out about the matchbox sized plane you have to take to come to Kimmirut!

I promise I will remember to post more! Until then here are a few pics for my friends who do not reside in the North!

 

 

 

The Answer to Many Questions......

I have been rather bad about blogging this past month it has been very busy at work but now things are settling in again and I am swiping the inspiration for this blog from my friend Sarah's blog post on one of her friends blogs.

Alot of people ask me what is it like living in Nunavut. My mom is always telling me of people asking what it is like .. People are generally curious about the North. It is kind of like stories of the Wild West that we absorb and want to know about but are unsure if we would ever want to experience it ourselves.

I am  going to let you in on some of the differences between Kimmirut Nunavut and St.Stephen New Brunswick. There are many and some are trivial and others are not so much!

 Family- In Kimmirut my family consists of my cat as the rest of my family is back home. I am very lucky though that my family has invested in some great long distance plans! I just call them and they call me back. I am also lucky that we have Skype for when I have a moment of homesickness and want to see my family.

 No Trees- Yup I left the land of the forests of Maple, Oak and Birch trees to the land of no trees. It is kind of a weird experience not having any trees to look at especially as we are now into fall a time in New Brunswick that is filled with falling leaves of many different colors. However Kimmirut has amazing rocks and hills that makes you feel as though I have a rocky forest around me!

 My water is delivered by a truck... due to the permafrost there is no in ground plumbing! I have a yellow plastic tank in my entry way two -three times a week the big silver water truck comes and fills my water. Also because there is no in ground plumbing my water comes from a lake.. a very pretty one at that . The water is ok for cooking but I wouldn't drink it out of the tap it has a different taste to it. My sewage is also on the truck system. Twice a week they come and suction out the tank that is sunk into the ground.

Shopping is another thing that is very limited.. there are two stores in town. The Northern ( where I work) and the Co-Op. Both stores are not very large and are very General Store types offering groceries to general merchandise. The other thing is Internet shopping is a great tool only you have debate if the shipping is worth the product. Alot of items I want cost almost double their price in shipping or won't ship here!

Another thing most would miss is getting in the car and going for a drive... not really an option here the roads go to no where . Also the roads are unpaved so the chances of your car surviving would be pretty slim!

I miss random trips to the city for a movie going out for dinner and the like... the closest spot I can do that is Iqaluit which is a 30 min flight away or 120kms! It would take alot of planning and is definitely not something I can do in a day unless I found a friend who has a skidoo who would go to Iqaluit just to watch a movie lol!

Although there are alot of things I miss from home ... but there is alot I don't miss

I use to drive 30 mins to and from work rain or shine and on some not so carefully tended roads. Now I get to walk 30 seconds to work... I guess now no more weather days for me :(

I get to try new foods I would normally never have an opportunity to try such as seal, beluga, char and bannock. I also got to try some new experiences such as going boating amongst ice bergs hiking some pathes that people traveled for thousands of years and got to explore an area of the community that has been around since 1909.

I have to say that moving to Nunavut has been an amazing experience so far and I look forward many more experiences!

Birthday, Boating and more

I have not been very good about writing my blog for the past few weeks.  I have been try and experiencing new things recently.


I have had the opportunity to go boating twice now which was amazing! Although I have yet to realize I need a Parka to go boating. I tend to get cold way too darn fast!

My second boating trip was with friends from work for my birthday. August 6th was a holiday here as well as back home .. it also happened to be my 25th birthday! The plan for our day was to go out to a spot called Iqaluit ( no not the city however there were times that I thought we were almost there) to go fishing. Possibly a bonfire and more.

When we started out it was sunny and beautiful a light breeze was awesome! We have been having a really interesting summer here in Nunavut. The city of Iqaluit has been without sealift because of the ice in the bay. Well some of that ice has come hit the outskirts of our bay and I got to seem some large ice bergs!

I love this iceberg! It looks like a lion...

We stopped off to an area where Randy and Ning's families had cabins. We wandered around and I found a caribou antler and decided I wanted a pic ..

Also during out outing we got to see killer whales! I have never seen a whale before and that is saying something considering I am from the Bay of Fundy!

After we hit the Iqaluit spot we got to do some fishing... I didn't catch anything but still had fun and would love to go fishing any time!

The weather turned chilly and to say I was cold would be a lie ... I was frozen solid the winds coming off the boat and the rain chilled me to the bone. We stoped to grab some food and such before we headed back into town.

While we were there we decided to take the guns out and shoot at the ice bergs. I have never shot a gun before in my life so I was not allowed to shoot the 308. So I got to shoot the 22 which was cool no kick back or anything. I got Ning to take pics so I would have proof I shot it .

I got to shoot it twice and then I let someone else take over since I haven't got a clue about guns.

I had a great birthday and amazing time boating with some awesome people!