Oh so quiet

Ick, working on Sunday is for the birds. Although it would be awesome to only work 1-5:30 five days a week.
I have a sick husband so we both had a veg out day yesterday and Drew spent many hours sleeping. He wasn't any better today but there was work to be done.

Since it wasn't a normal 'office' day for me I spent my time cleaning up the mess that happens with remodeling the store. Moving and stocking shelves, putting things back on the right shelf. It went by really quickly but I have gotten use to my two days off a week. The Sunday work day is because the Friday coming up is a holiday and the store will be stored. The way the company does the schedule is Sunday to Saturday. Because management cannot have more than two days off in the same week it meant that I work today so that I have Friday and Saturday off, and Sunday, which would be my normal day off. It's seems very confusing on paper.

My 'view' at work

It's a thing up here, the thing of nothing makes sense but it does make sense at the same time. It's frustrating and comical all at the same time.

After work we came home and relaxed for a bit as Drew had to go back for the plane at 6:30. I made a crock pot roast, which wasn't ready yet so it was actually a good thing that the plane was late. (it's normally in at 5:20).

 

Plane landing

Once he left I took Tia for her run down the cemetery road. As that is normally a morning activity for us I was amazed at how different the light was and how much more I could see of the landscape.

I want to apologize for my rather fluffy post as of late. I really want to write about other things than just my day to day life and I intend to do just that. I may start writing not on scheduled as I find that some days I feel like writing and it's not Sunday. Stay tuned, as I'd really love to share things about living here that you just never hear about. And wouldn't know about until you were here. After all that was one of the main reasons I wanted to write this blog.

To end, two videos. One taken today and one a few weeks ago.

There she blows

This one is going to be a short one. I had a post written out last weekend ready to upload and the laptop had a freak out and bye bye went my writing.

My bible, Drew bought it for me at the library.

Let me tell you about the language of Inututuk. Being that I am a person who has only ever tried to learn French, the native language here is like nothing I have ever heard before and to make it worse I am told that every community has different dialects. Oh man. Here have a listen. Not sure is this video is North or South Baffin Island dialect but you will get the general idea of the mountain I have to climb to retrain my brain. I now wish I had focused a little harder on learn French as I have also been told that the French speakers pick it up much quicker.

The girls at work tell me I am doing well with learning, but the Q's and R's are going to be the death of me.

By the way, qanuippit (how are you).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPGAbctSHuY (Have a listen)

On Monday we experienced our first blizzard. Drew walked backwards halfway to work, while I laughed about how hard it was stand up and about the general all over craziness of mother nature. 

We had winds up to 70km/hr and 2 feet of snow in about 5 hours. Locals tell me that the wind brings the warmth and it seems to be true as we have now been sitting in the -20's instead of the -30's for the week. We don't get much snow here due to the lack of moisture, the snow just stays because of the cold. I am happy to say that the snow is starting to melt with the amount of sunlight that we have during the day. The sun starts to rise around 5am and doesn't set until after 9:30pm. It's funny how quickly the light has changed from when we arrived a month ago.

The first week I remember the sun coming up 11am and setting at 4pm, ick. I am still not sure how we will cope with the 2 months of dark next winter.

 The Blizzard

Almost 9am here, you can barely see 30 feet down the road.

There was only a few inches of snow this morning.

I left my water bottle outside for four hours. I love the pattern that the ice made.

Sorry the picture is a bit blurry, I had to use a delay on the camera to get the shot. This is our view of the Northern Lights. We are too far north to get the light show, instead we get the northern 'Glow'. Picture was taken at 10:30pm.

Bring on the sun.

March 15th
Tia and I made it to the end of cemetery road today. The first weekend we were here I made it halfway. No easy feat wearing many layers and heavy snow boots. I assume this accomplishment also means that my fitness level is increasing. One of the perks of living here is that food is included and the budget goes much further if you stick to the good stuff. Old habit die hard though and we still grad a few bad things here and there. I am glad that there is no fast food here, it was the killer of us while in the city. I'm sure it gave us both a 10 pound gain in the last year.
I'm sure that Drew has lost 10 pounds already because his job is so physical. I am slower at the weight loss but feel like I'm also losing. We have been walking to the library together on Saturdays to use the internet and  I have been going for long walks on Sundays when Drew's at work and doing my Just dance game once a week. Now that I seem to have adjusted to the long hours at work I am going to try to do dance a few times a week.
It's still dark when we finish work so Tia has limited walking at the moment as it is just too cold once the sun goes down. The 24 hours of daylight starts around the end of April so I would think that in a few more weeks we will be able to get a quick walk in after work.

  Cemetery road going out of town. Stating the obvious here, the cemetery is at the end of this road.
    Not sure if this road has a name, only a few roads in town actually have names.

'Hurry up mom'

Tundra boulders

Frosty face

Pretty snow

Airport fence

Looking back towards the town.

Seems like a good thing to do with a quilt?

Yesterday I took cupcakes to the flea market, not much of a south style flea market. More like many many baked good, half the town and jello. The people up here have some sort of obsession with jello and whipped cream.
One of the girls at work is trying to raise money to start a food bank here so I said I would help her out. Within 10 minutes of me getting there half of them were gone. They sure do love their sweets here. (Update, they raised $500 for the food bank, yaa!)
It was great yesterday that we actually had people to say hi to us while we were at the arena. We went the second weekend that we were here and it was a little overwhelming with all of the unfamiliar faces.

Have I told you how much I love it here, we really should have done this crazy thing sooner.

Now that I have caught up to the current date I'm planning to post every Sunday. On my next post I will fill you in on becoming bilingual, haha, yah right. And how the walk to work on Monday was something out of comedy. :)

One week

One week down (Originally written, March 5th)

Today is our one week anniversary of living in Nunavut. every day I notice something more beautiful. And some days i really do feel like I'm living on the moon.
The landscape here is like nothing I have ever seen and is most likely only ever seen in the north. It is breath taking. One of my fears about moving here was not being accepted by the community. saying that we are anything but would be an understatement. Never in my life have I ever met so many friendly people in one place. And always so happy. So happy all the time. I will leave my thought on the reasons for constant happiness unsaid for now. But having the munchies seems to be an issue for many.

Little Tia took a few days to settle but in but she seems to be back to normal now. Since she isn't built for the weather we do have to put boots and a coat on her if we want her to poop or to take her for a walk. It is starting to warm up now so hopefully we won't have to do the dressing her thing much longer.
Speaking of the weather, it really isn't as bad as I thought it would be. It can be ikki (cold) but because it is so dry it just doesn't feel the same. Yes sometimes it takes your breath away and makes icicles on your eye lashes, but it truly is amazing.
One thing I never read about before moving here was really just how dry it is inside. Every time you move you are getting electrocuted. The poor dog, who has now weaseled her way into sleeping in the bed, gets zapped constantly. Take off your coat, zap. Touch the fridge, zap. Touch lips, zap. I have added a humidifier to the growing list of 'things to buy from Amazon.ca'.
Drew is taking to work like a fish to water. He even came into work on his day. My job is not like any 'office' job I've ever had. It's fairly slow right now. But tax season is coming and the store is being renovated so it will become increasingly busier. For right now I'm just learning the ropes but eventually I will actually be the admin supervisor, floating around the store and helping where I am needed.
I will leave you with some more pictures.

                                                             Another view of the house

                                                                  Our neighbors

                                                          The view from the deck

                                                                  Another deck view

                                                                              Sun dog

                                 The red and green building is the Ministry of Natural Resources

Houston we have a problem.

February 18

Hello McFly?

Did I really think that this journey would go off without some sort of drama?

So poor little Tia was MIA for about 45 minutes.
We dropped her off at cargo like we were told to do by the travel agent, she was even there ahead of time. Because we thought better to be early than late. So we leave her there and go off to check in for our flight with Westjet from Toronto to Ottawa.

I haven't been on a plane in more than 10 years so that alone was causing stress. We wait as you do in the airport since you have to be there 2 hours before you board. Keep in mind the flight to Ottawa is less than an hour.
At 1:30 they call us to board, we get on and wait, and wait and wait some more. Around 2:15 (we were suppose to take off at 2) a Westjet employ come to us and asks do you have a white fluffy dog. My heart stopped. No. We are then told, we are having an issue locating your dog. EXCUSE ME?
5 minutes later she comes back and shows us a cell phone picture of a fluffy white dog. Are you sure this isn't your dog. Seriously, I know what my dog looks like.
Another 10 minutes goes by and she comes back again. We are still looking for her, did you want to go on to Ottawa or get off the plane. As if that is even a question.
So off the plane we get.
In the waiting area an employee keeps asking me stupid questions like where did you drop off your dog. I keep telling her at cargo and she looked at me like I had 6 heads. I don't understand she says why would you drop her off there. Because that was what the travel agent told me to do. After all what would I know about flying a dog? I had to rely on the information provided to me by someone who I assume is knowledgeable. Nope. Tia should have been checked in along with our baggage. Flying with a  dog is considered excess/over sized baggage not cargo.

So two hours later, a food voucher for both Drew and I and a bump up to the plush seats, and ALL of us are on the plane and off to Ottawa.

                                                             Tia after she was found

                                                           The very helpful West Jet guy,
                                           taking Tia back into the right part of the airport.

But if I thought that the stress was over I was very wrong. I'm not sure if the pilot screwed up the take off but I felt like I was in a rocket, straight up and a crazy amount of thrust. Drew threw up. Even I who hasn't flown much but have never had an issue with it felt sick. And just when we were getting settled we were landing again.
Into the airport we go. I checked my facebook for a message from my old co-worker and friend Andrea and see that she has decided to drive out and pick us up. We had planned to have dinner with her but with the delay the plan kinda got derailed. Down to baggage we go and at the bottom of the escalator is a beautiful smiling face, oh Andrea you made the day so much better.

We then discover that they have misplaced one of my suitcases. UUUUgh. I leave our contact info and head off to the hotel. Be the time we get in a settled Drew and I are both exhausted. I felt bad for Andrea but she was completely understanding. After the stress of the day we both had the best sleep ever.

Feb 19
We aren't in Kansas anymore.

As I am actually writing this three weeks after it happened due to lack of internet access I might have skipped over a few details. But I do remember that the second part of the journey was much smoother.
In Ottawa or first plan to the north was boarded by a staircase on the tarmac.
First Air flights were much less dramatic. I made triple sure that Tia was on the plane and settled in.
About 30 minutes in they came around with breakfast, and for airplane food it was damn tasty. A breakfast burrito, muffin, fruit cup, apple juice and tea. Drew was still a little queasy so he just had his muffin and a juice.

The flight was smooth and peacefully and just when I was ready for a nap they brought us a huge warm oatmeal raisin cookie. On one of the blogs I follow I had read that it was important to always take all of the food they give you on northern flight because you never know when something unexpected might happen that may leave you stranded at an airport in the middle of nothing.

Landing in Iqaluit was a little bit surreal. This whole experience has been nothing but. The terminal here is bright yellow and you get out of the plane via stairs and back into the terminal the same way. With an hour long layover we had plenty of time to relax and people watch. One thing that was very apparent is the fact that I have now become a minority in regards to being a white person. I love how different people look here and I feel like a child with the wonder of it. Drew and I both took Tia out for a quick walk.

                                                           The plane from Ottawa to Iqaluit

                                                           Drew on the airport bus

                                                                The tiny plane to Pond

The airport here like most airports in the north is right in town, but far enough away that we didn't want to venture in alone.
Boarding time again, I wheel Tia to the cargo/over sized area and cross my fingers. Unlike the big airports there is no security here, at least not for flights going further north. We show our tickets and go back down the stairs to the tarmac and get onto a bus with about 6 other people on it. Yes a bus. I look at Drew, 'what's happening'? As the bus wheels away we head toward a very small plane. Maybe 20 seats. Off the bus and onto the tiny plan with four narrow steps. Drew and I sit across the aisle from each other and I sit beside a tiny women (an elder) with beautiful seal skin mittens. The plane is freezing because the doors have been opened to load passengers and cargo in the front section and tail of the plane. So I take my coat off but leave on my hat and mittens. Within minutes we are closed up and taxing off the the runway. About 15 minutes into the air, more food. This time a chicken breast wrap, macaroni salad, carrot sticks, a piece of cake and a drink. Not much to see on this flight, we aren't all that high in the air but it's just white. And the windows are small. It seems that the smaller the plane the better the experience. You could barely feel us taking off and no ear popping.

                                          Display in the airport building at Clyde River

One more stop before we are in our new home, Clyde River. I later learned that Clyde has horrible blizzards and it's not such a fun place when that happens, since it means no planes can land. Back in the day Clyde was the best place for Arctic Fox and was really not meant to be a settlement. Landing here was like being on the moon. Very open with NOTHING around. It was clear and crisp and the sun was starting to come down (about 3pm). We were here from about 30 minutes while they unloaded the cargo and then back on with only 3 people. Drew, me and a nurse named Teresa who was also going to Pond. We chatted with her on the ride up and before we knew it we were here, but not before we were offered another snack.I have to say you certainly aren't going to starve flying First Air.
 Our store manager Dave met us in the airport and then when off to load the truck with cargo for the store. It was dark by the time we got into the truck to drive to the house, so Dave said that he would take us around the next day to show us where everything was. At the house the guys from the store brought all of our bags in and then Dave told us that once we were settled to come over to the store to get some food. Bedtime came early and on waking up the next day we were greeted with an amazing view of the mountains.

                                                          Flying into Pond it about 5:10pm