So it begins...
Well, I am here at last. Thus begins my “Life in the ‘knife” (clever name, no?).
So far, things seem pretty normal for a small Canadian town. The Wal-Mart parking lot is full of the Tim Horton’s drive through overflow. The local government offices are adorned in Totem poles (aren’t the nearest Haida people thousands of miles away?). And a lot of people drive new trucks. The sideways traffic lights take a little bit of getting used to.
There are some quirks. Today, KFC ran out of chicken when I went there for lunch. A meal at A&W will run you $10. And occasionally, the Extra Foods grocery store has nothing by empty boxes in the display stands at the checkout. Picture that for a minute. They are out of a high-profit, impulse-buy item. Shipments of food up here are actually a factor in the cost and availability. Savagery!
Some of the more interesting geological items are the abundance of lakes and rocks. Taking a rental car north for about 50 km will bring you to Cameron Falls. The number of small lakes you pass on the way out is incredible. And with all of it being (technically) drinkable, I understand where Canada finds its claim to the world’s largest supply of fresh water. The catch is that for six months of the year you need to chip it out of the ice. On the subject of ice, the glacial handiwork is evident everywhere. The huge rocky hills are all quite smooth to this west-coast boy. If this was costal BC, all the rock would be under a carpet of moss, but here there is nothing. Just bare rock.
The weather here is actually not that bad these days. The mosquitoes are gone (the balcony of my apartment is ominously equipped with a fly screen to keep the vermin out), the sun keeps to pretty regular hours, and the temperature is quite pleasant. However, I fear that this is coming to an end rather quickly. The sun sets noticeably sooner than it did a week and a half ago when I got here, and it is certainly getting a bit chilly out there.
My job is good so far. I’ve been in training, but I have recently moved onto proper work. Now, it looks like I might be heading up to Rankin Inlet as of Friday (it’s northeast of Yellowknife on the coast of Hudson’s Bay). Farther north, in Iqaluit, my firm’s sister office is equipped with bars on the windows to keep out bears. How exciting!
But, on a more somber note, the nearest Starbucks is thousands of kilometers away. Woe is me.
And now, pictures!
And video too!
That's all for now. I will try to update this whenever is appropriate, but I am lazy, so who knows. I'll try to send off an email notification too all you important people when I do.
So far, things seem pretty normal for a small Canadian town. The Wal-Mart parking lot is full of the Tim Horton’s drive through overflow. The local government offices are adorned in Totem poles (aren’t the nearest Haida people thousands of miles away?). And a lot of people drive new trucks. The sideways traffic lights take a little bit of getting used to.
There are some quirks. Today, KFC ran out of chicken when I went there for lunch. A meal at A&W will run you $10. And occasionally, the Extra Foods grocery store has nothing by empty boxes in the display stands at the checkout. Picture that for a minute. They are out of a high-profit, impulse-buy item. Shipments of food up here are actually a factor in the cost and availability. Savagery!
Some of the more interesting geological items are the abundance of lakes and rocks. Taking a rental car north for about 50 km will bring you to Cameron Falls. The number of small lakes you pass on the way out is incredible. And with all of it being (technically) drinkable, I understand where Canada finds its claim to the world’s largest supply of fresh water. The catch is that for six months of the year you need to chip it out of the ice. On the subject of ice, the glacial handiwork is evident everywhere. The huge rocky hills are all quite smooth to this west-coast boy. If this was costal BC, all the rock would be under a carpet of moss, but here there is nothing. Just bare rock.
The weather here is actually not that bad these days. The mosquitoes are gone (the balcony of my apartment is ominously equipped with a fly screen to keep the vermin out), the sun keeps to pretty regular hours, and the temperature is quite pleasant. However, I fear that this is coming to an end rather quickly. The sun sets noticeably sooner than it did a week and a half ago when I got here, and it is certainly getting a bit chilly out there.
My job is good so far. I’ve been in training, but I have recently moved onto proper work. Now, it looks like I might be heading up to Rankin Inlet as of Friday (it’s northeast of Yellowknife on the coast of Hudson’s Bay). Farther north, in Iqaluit, my firm’s sister office is equipped with bars on the windows to keep out bears. How exciting!
But, on a more somber note, the nearest Starbucks is thousands of kilometers away. Woe is me.
And now, pictures!
And video too!
That's all for now. I will try to update this whenever is appropriate, but I am lazy, so who knows. I'll try to send off an email notification too all you important people when I do.
posted by Byron at 8:57 PM
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