Happy New Year!

Phew! My holidays down south have quickly sped up into a whirlwind of activity.

They began with a comedy of errors. My flight into Ottawa on the 23rd was diverted to, of all places, Windsor, where I spent 2 hours on the tarmac, stuck in the plane until we flew back to Ottawa again, 4 hours after our scheduled arrival time. My mom, who drove from Kingston to pick me up, thankfully was still there.

On Christmas day, I had my knapsack stolen out of the backseat of my mom's car - inside the bag was my laptop, my iPod Nano, and my digital camera.... practically every electric gadget I own of any value. Oh, and they got my mom's and my aunt's christmas presents as well, both one-of-a-kind pieces of Inuit art. So, basically, worst Christmas ever. During dinner at my aunt's I drank more wine than usual to chase away the pain. I can deal with the financial loss, since I'm finally making money these days... but I sure wish I had my pictures from my past 6 months in Nunavut back, as well as numerous other irreplaceable files.

Oh well, on the plus side, I guess I'll be buying myself a fancy new MacBook earlier than I expected.

Since then, however, as expected, I've been immersing myself in a flurry of friends, food, and beer. Which continues tonight as I help DJ at the bar 751 on Queen St. West.

I don't believe I fly back on Friday! Time flies! Happy New Year, everyone! May your 2008 be happy, healthy, and free of theft.

Merry Christmas from Nunavut

Taken last night on the way to curling: the Nunavut Legislature, decorated for Christmas. Notice the cold taking visible form in the top left of the picture.

Today the temperature spiked to around minus 15 degrees, which seemed remarkably warm to me. Imagine how I'll feel when I'm back down south!

Oh, and as for curling, with our regular skip Stephanie out of town for the holidays, I skipped the team for the first time, which was fun. With my, oh, month or so of curling experience we managed to do quite well... no, we didn't win, but we got a couple of points, made a few good shots, and didn't get killed. (And we welcomed Bob Izumi Jr. to our team.)

Oh, and happy winter solstice. Damn, it's dark alot here.

Too many Christmas dinners...

...lead to some kind of stomach bug which has made my day miserable.
Luckily, my holidays have officially begun, and I head down south in 4 days.
In Toronto, it's around zero right now, which sounds downright balmy compared to the minus 30 (minus 40 plus with the windchill) temperatures we've been having in Iqaluit lately.

Christmas concerts, dinners, and assorted festivities

Tonight I went to the Christmas concert at my school. And, no, no fights broke out, and it wasn't at all excruciating. In fact, I'm filled with something that feels kinda like pride, especially for the grade 4 class I help with in the mornings, who were great (although I can take no real credit for any of this, since I wasn't responsible for any of the performances). This feeling is taking some getting used to after the feelings of frustration that often pepper my working days. I'm hoping for more of it.

Sick Day

One of the viruses or whatever that circulates through this town has hit me like a cold wind off Frobisher Bay. I stayed home today. I slept alot, found a blog about a coyote in Wyoming, and turned myself and Kate Nova into elves.

Cold weather, cold beer, and urbanity (or lack thereof)

Hmm, not to much to report here in the frigid north, other than my usual busy schedule. Today was an unearthly cold - or at least based on my past experience living on earth. I won't dwell on that since people continue to tell me it's going to get even colder. Once I've updated my blog 8 times in one day, you'll know it's gotten cold enough to stop time.

Last week, I went to the legion for the first time ever here in Iqaluit. It smelled of beer and other depressants as soon as I walked in. I'm not sure why I would join for the privilege of spending time in such a cavernous, institutional, windowless place. Unless there was some decent live music (which there was that night, thanks to Kate Nova and others.) Maybe it's just the snobby urbanite in me talking, but generally speaking I'd rather go somewhere like the bar at the new hotel in town, where the bartender remembers people's drink orders.

I received a Lego catalogue in the mail last week, which was exciting. For you Star Wars geeks, you can buy a 3-feet long Millenium Falcon (only $679.99). However, since I'm totally missing civilized cafe culture, I might be more likely to get my hands on a $200 "Cafe Corner," which hopefully includes a French Lego-man waiter whose rudeness is only exceeded by his prompt service. And possibly a tiny Lego espresso machine. Also, if I really want to pretend I'm in Paris, I could also get a $300 Lego model of the Eiffel Tower.

Speaking of urbanity, in 3 weeks I'm heading back down south, to towns with trees, buildings higher than eight stories, and temperatures higher than minus 20. I intend to eat and drink and socialize to great excess, and I'm pretty excited about it.