Iqaluit Part Two - The First Two Weeks
Continuing where I left off...
The day after we arrived (a Thursday), we were invited to a BBQ thrown by my department as part of environment week. So, we wandered over to my office just before lunch time, and then walked over to the BBQ with some of my co-workers. Free food is always good (especially up here!), and we got to meet some people, including one of our neighbours who lives in the same building as us. We also did some wandering around to see our new home, picked up a few groceries, and managed not to faint at the prices (we're kind of used to them now).
On Friday, we went to the movie theater to see the new Shrek movie, and then we had a fairly relaxed weekend. Saturday morning Karen invited us over to her place to sit on her deck, so we met her cat, relaxed, visited and enjoyed fresh baked muffins! I've got a good boss!
Sunday morning we went to the Anglican church here for the first time. The Anglican Cathedral here burnt down a couple of years ago (arson), and is still in the process of being re-built, so the congregation has been meeting in the parish hall. They also are without a permanent priest at the moment, but they do have an interim priest, Brian, who has lived in Iqaluit before. He's probably around 75, give or take, but really good at what he does. He always makes sure to do something special with the children, and we've found him to be very welcoming. There is both an English and an Inuktitut service here, and the English one is by far the smaller.
After church on Sunday, we were invited out to brunch with some of the other people that attend, so that was nice, and another good opportunity to meet people. Christine was also invited to a women's study which happens every Wednesday night. She's continued to go to that ever since.
Monday is when I started work, at long last. I spent the first week mostly in training. Tuesday through Thursday I was in a wilderness first aid course, along with the other staff geologist, Steve, and then Friday was a mandatory Anti-Harassment course, which I took with my manager, Karen, among others. Fun! The first aid course was good, there were a few things covered that I hadn't learned before, so that was helpful, and the instructor was pretty cool. His name is Dominic, and he's part of a French society that translates roughly to 'the Gnome Liberation Army'. He says he has liberated a few gnomes himself. It sounds like my kind of organization!
The next weekend, we went to our first yard sale in Iqaluit. We have been to a number of them since, and we have quickly learned that it's a good way of keeping down the cost of living up here. Since people are moving away so often, there are lots of such sales, and you can find many things cheap, including food that they've had sea-lifted up here. We continued this over the next couple of weekends, and ended up with a big tub of Lego ($10), a fan for our room, a corded phone to replace the one that stopped dialing out, several bags of rice, a power bar, several boxes of cereal, among other treasures.
The next week at work, I continued doing various mandatory training (mostly online courses) and reading up on the exploration work being done in the territory. At this point I was getting kind of antsy, as I wanted to be doing some actual work, but that would come soon enough. On Friday morning there was a community clean-up which we were encouraged to participate in, so I got out there with my rubber boots and filled 6.5 bags of garbage from a stream that runs not far from our home. There was a good turn out for the clean-up, and it was obvious the difference it made.
Friday afternoon there was a BBQ and awards ceremony for INAC. Again, free food is always appreciated, and it was interesting to learn how many people had been here for two years (quite a few) and five years (a bare handful), and also how many new people had arrived since they had the last one of these in November 2009. We also met the next-most-recent hire, Stephen.
The next day we walked up the hill to the neighbourhood known as Tundra Ridge, where there were a number of moving sales and yard sales happening on the same street. It was there that we got the Lego, as well as a 10 lb. bag of Basmati rice (mmm!), and we also ran into Stephen again. We ended up helping him carry some of his purchases home, and he invited us in for a visit. We made a friend! I think he especially appreciated having someone to talk to, as his wife and children haven't moved up here yet.
Well, that's enough for this post, although I will also add that yesterday there was a running race held as a fund-raiser for a local volunteer-run gym. I found out about it a few weeks ago, and managed to raise some money for it at work. I ran in the 10 km portion of it (there was also a 5 km fun run), and won! That's my first time winning a race, so that made me pretty happy. I had some good support, too, as Christine came out to watch, as did Karen and her husband, and they were kind enough to give us a ride home afterward. That saved us a 30 minute walk, and considering I had already run about 17 km that day, I was appreciative of the chance to rest my legs.
The day after we arrived (a Thursday), we were invited to a BBQ thrown by my department as part of environment week. So, we wandered over to my office just before lunch time, and then walked over to the BBQ with some of my co-workers. Free food is always good (especially up here!), and we got to meet some people, including one of our neighbours who lives in the same building as us. We also did some wandering around to see our new home, picked up a few groceries, and managed not to faint at the prices (we're kind of used to them now).
On Friday, we went to the movie theater to see the new Shrek movie, and then we had a fairly relaxed weekend. Saturday morning Karen invited us over to her place to sit on her deck, so we met her cat, relaxed, visited and enjoyed fresh baked muffins! I've got a good boss!
Sunday morning we went to the Anglican church here for the first time. The Anglican Cathedral here burnt down a couple of years ago (arson), and is still in the process of being re-built, so the congregation has been meeting in the parish hall. They also are without a permanent priest at the moment, but they do have an interim priest, Brian, who has lived in Iqaluit before. He's probably around 75, give or take, but really good at what he does. He always makes sure to do something special with the children, and we've found him to be very welcoming. There is both an English and an Inuktitut service here, and the English one is by far the smaller.
After church on Sunday, we were invited out to brunch with some of the other people that attend, so that was nice, and another good opportunity to meet people. Christine was also invited to a women's study which happens every Wednesday night. She's continued to go to that ever since.
Monday is when I started work, at long last. I spent the first week mostly in training. Tuesday through Thursday I was in a wilderness first aid course, along with the other staff geologist, Steve, and then Friday was a mandatory Anti-Harassment course, which I took with my manager, Karen, among others. Fun! The first aid course was good, there were a few things covered that I hadn't learned before, so that was helpful, and the instructor was pretty cool. His name is Dominic, and he's part of a French society that translates roughly to 'the Gnome Liberation Army'. He says he has liberated a few gnomes himself. It sounds like my kind of organization!
The next weekend, we went to our first yard sale in Iqaluit. We have been to a number of them since, and we have quickly learned that it's a good way of keeping down the cost of living up here. Since people are moving away so often, there are lots of such sales, and you can find many things cheap, including food that they've had sea-lifted up here. We continued this over the next couple of weekends, and ended up with a big tub of Lego ($10), a fan for our room, a corded phone to replace the one that stopped dialing out, several bags of rice, a power bar, several boxes of cereal, among other treasures.
The next week at work, I continued doing various mandatory training (mostly online courses) and reading up on the exploration work being done in the territory. At this point I was getting kind of antsy, as I wanted to be doing some actual work, but that would come soon enough. On Friday morning there was a community clean-up which we were encouraged to participate in, so I got out there with my rubber boots and filled 6.5 bags of garbage from a stream that runs not far from our home. There was a good turn out for the clean-up, and it was obvious the difference it made.
Friday afternoon there was a BBQ and awards ceremony for INAC. Again, free food is always appreciated, and it was interesting to learn how many people had been here for two years (quite a few) and five years (a bare handful), and also how many new people had arrived since they had the last one of these in November 2009. We also met the next-most-recent hire, Stephen.
The next day we walked up the hill to the neighbourhood known as Tundra Ridge, where there were a number of moving sales and yard sales happening on the same street. It was there that we got the Lego, as well as a 10 lb. bag of Basmati rice (mmm!), and we also ran into Stephen again. We ended up helping him carry some of his purchases home, and he invited us in for a visit. We made a friend! I think he especially appreciated having someone to talk to, as his wife and children haven't moved up here yet.
Well, that's enough for this post, although I will also add that yesterday there was a running race held as a fund-raiser for a local volunteer-run gym. I found out about it a few weeks ago, and managed to raise some money for it at work. I ran in the 10 km portion of it (there was also a 5 km fun run), and won! That's my first time winning a race, so that made me pretty happy. I had some good support, too, as Christine came out to watch, as did Karen and her husband, and they were kind enough to give us a ride home afterward. That saved us a 30 minute walk, and considering I had already run about 17 km that day, I was appreciative of the chance to rest my legs.
posted by Matt at 4:48 p.m.
4 Comments:
This is all so neat! I told Chris that he has to read this post when he is next on the internet, because he will be especially excited reading about the yard sales and the tub of Lego.
Congratulations for winning your first race!
Thanks Maryanne! I'll try to get some pictures up in one of these posts as well, although I believe Christine put a bunch up on Facebook. I'm not sure whether you have befriended her there, but I imagine you would be interested in seeing them.
-Matt
Wow, it sounds like you and Christine are really settling in now. Do you have any pictures you can post or email?
I will be posting some pictures when I get a chance. I have been off traveling in the Kivalliq district of Nunavut for the past week, got home for a few days and am off again today to visit the Kitikmeot district (western portion of the territory, accessed through Yellowknife) until August 6th. Once I get back, I'll sort through and post some of the better pictures, including herds of caribou, musk ox, ships and other interesting things.
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