What is there to do in North?!

Ever since moving here and not working, I get asked the question, “What do you do?”  Let me start by saying there is no movie theatre here, no walmart, no restaurants or coffee shops in fact there aren’t any shops at all.  We have 2 grocery stores.  One of them, the Co-op carries a little bit of everything including a 10” compound miter saw,  fur, a ski-doo, a fishing boat and broccoli etc.  The other carries a little bit of all your household goods.  i.e. food, tools, shower curtain rods etc.  Needless to say shopping is not one of things on my list of daily duties up here.  So we get back to the question at hand…what do I do with myself?  I’m actually very busy, and not just because I have a16 month old whose idea of sitting down is climbing up onto a chair (or any surface) and seeing if I’ll catch him as he walks off the edge.  I usually do, although he has gotten by me on occasion.  (Since writing this a couple of months ago, Reed has figured out how to climb up and off of things on his own).  Now I'm busy chasing him around and making sure everything is out of his reach, I think he's going to be a giant, everyday he can reach just a little bit further on the book shelf or table.  

So in the North, you become very fast friends with the other non-Inuit people in the North.  Don’t get me wrong we’ve become friends with some Inuit people too but we spend most of our time with the other teachers.  And luckily even though I’m not teaching this year some of the high school teachers here have adopted me as one of them.  So I have no prep work and I don't have to deal with a classroom full of kids, but I get to participate in the activities put on at the schools.  Like indoor soccer, Thursday nights from 7 until 8:30.  There is also Ultimate Frisbee on Sunday afternoons .   There is Badminton on Wednesdays  although so far I’ve opted out.  Now it’s not all fun and games up here there is also some serious television watching.  There is a group of girls who get together (including me) to watch Prison Break on Friday nights.  (we were a bigger group a while ago but have lost 2 friends to other adventures in warmer climates of the world).  Now this is a production, there is always lot’s of good food.  It’s potluck style supper and this is not your run of the mill casserole potluck.  It’s coordinated (to an extent).  We’ve had some delicious meals fallowed by 3 or more episodes of Prison Break.   A while back we were also getting together on Sunday nights for a show called Occupation Double (this is a quebec show, that’s a cross between the Bachelor, Big Brother and the Amazing Race)  It’s not my usual TV fare but it was fun and of course another reason to make food and get together.  I know what your thinking…What do Tyler and Reed do while you’re out potlucking all the time and watching TV?  Well Reeds goes to bed at 6:30 so he’s asleep and Tyler works all day and is very tired so he too is usually napping or planning for the next school day, or working out.  There is a gym in town but Tyler has turned our spare room into his own personal gym.

And now that that’s all figured out you’re thinking…but Michelle, that’s only a few evenings a week, what else do you do?

 Sometimes there are other potlucks, either on Saturday nights or Sundays for brunch, it just depends on the week.  We’ve gone sledding on the mountains around us (as a reference the mountains are bigger than Brookvale Ski park (RIP) and smaller than the Rockies. 

Reed and I sliding down the hill.

Noémie and I walking up for some sliding, you can't see him but Reed is in the amautik on my back. 

We’ve gone skating on the frozen river.  

 A bunch of kids pulling Noémie in our sled.

The family skating away....well I skated, Reed walked and sat in the sled, Tyler fallowed Reed and pulled him in the sled when the local kids weren't pulling him around.

We play outside in the snow etc.

 Also, I knit, I knit facecloths I gave for Christmas presents and headbands and cowls.  And I‘ve started knitting a sweater and other cowls, necklaces and bracelets and scarves…oooh and socks. 

Here are some pics of things I've made since arriving in the North.

I have all the necessary tools for crocheting and have started some basic projects. 

I cook, I make bread from scratch on occasion (although it usually doesn’t turn out).  But I did learn to make baguettes that were pretty tasty.  I make soup, lots of soup.  It turns out homemade tomato soup is easy and delicious and so is mushroom soup, sweet potato, leek, squash, it's all good!  I make quiche (with from scratch pie crust.  Turns out pie crust is very easy to make...I always thought it was one of those things that was very difficult).

 And bake muffins, and puree vegetables to sneak into Reeds smoothies and other foods. 

I bake (these were delicious!  Peanut butter chocolate oatmeal bars!)

There are still some things that I would like to do but just haven’t had the time.  I have a small loom here I’d like to break out and start working with.  I’d like to make mittens (some of the teachers here have made them).  They're made out of leather and fur and they are SO warm.  I’d like to go to the sewing center and see what all the women there are working on, get some lessons and some inspiration.  I’d like to clean up my computer, organize my photo's and write more blog posts, email more frequently with people, but I just don’t seem to have the time. 

Well there’s always next year!

Travelling with a Toddler

So remember back when I said I loved Air Inuit?  It's still true, I still love them, for a brief moment First Air took the number one spot in my heart but I'm back to Air Inuit and here's why.  

Recently it was March break.  We decided to head to Calgary for a week.  It turns out it takes A LONG time to get to Calgary from here and one week really isn't long enough to do everything and see everyone we would like.  We did get to see a lot of people and we accomplished most of what we wanted.  

Anyway to get to Calgary there are two flight options, you can go the way we arrived here in September and the way we went home for Christmas.  Which is with Air Inuit through many communities, the biggest one called Purvirnituq (POV for short), this is traveling the Hudson Bay side since you are basically fallowing the Hudson bay south until you can get a flight to Montreal.  Then there is the other coast, fallowing the Ungava coast south until you reach Kuujjuaq, where you can get a flight to Montreal.  Depending on what community you live it is shorter to go one way over the other, unless you live in Salluit (which we do) because we are smack dab in the middle.  No matter which coast we choose we have the same number of stops along the way.  The benefit of taking the Ungava coast is you leave earlier in the morning and therefore arrive in Montreal earlier in the evening (in theory).  Arriving earlier in the Montreal doesn’t actually matter if you are heading to PEI as there is only one option from Montreal and you can’t make the connection so you are always going to stay the night there.  There are many flights to Calgary from Montreal and therefore arriving earlier in the day via the Ungava coast actually gets us to Montreal in time to catch the connection (again in theory).

For this reason we decided to ask to take the Ungava coast south for March break.  We were not the only teachers who had connections to make and therefore wanted the earlier flight and this is where the two airlines come in.  From Salluit Air Inuit flies either to Montreal via Hudson bay coast or to Kuujjuaq (via Ungava) where you can then connect with First Air for Montreal. 

On the way to Calgary we were relatively on time, we made all of our connections and we arrived in Calgary only an hour later than expected (and that was on Air Canada, not one of our northern air lines).  It only took 7 take offs and landings, three different airlines and 20 hours of travel.  I should note here that Reed was a trouper!  He is a great traveler and did better than can be expected from a 16 month old with such a long day of travelling.

On the trip to Calgary is when I decided First Air is better than Air Inuit.  You see both airlines still feed you a meal but First air gives you free wine with your meal and a specialty coffee for dessert (on top of your dessert of course).  While Reed ate from my lunch tray and sat quietly and watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on my Ipad, (a necessity for anyone travelling with a toddler), Tyler and I enjoyed our lunch with our glass of wine.  He even got a refill!  They were totally my new favs!  I would also take a moment to comment on the difference between taking a child on these two airlines vs Air Canada.  Night and Day!  Nobody cares on the two Northern airlines that Reed is walking up and down the isles after sitting in his seat for an extended period of time, no one gives us dirty looks when he cries (for 5 minutes) while Tyler tries to put him down for a nap.  The people in front and behind us on first air and Air Inuit make faces at him when he’s crying to make him smile.  Some people on Air Canada do that for us but there are just as many who roll there eyes at us, give us dirty looks and make huge sighs when they realize they are sitting beside or close to a kid.  I have some 4 letter words to say to those people but I’ll keep those to myself for now and just say that I bet my son has clocked more flights than the average Canadian in his 16months of life (even more if you consider when I was pregnant) and he is better behaved on a plane than some adults I’ve witnessed in my life.  Anyway back to the story!

On the way back to Salluit from Calgary was a much more eventful trip then the way south.  We left Calgary and made it to Montreal for the night as planned.  The next day, in the Montreal airport we met up with the other teachers from our village, they were all heading up the Hudson bay coast and we were heading up the Ungava coast, not sure why we were the only ones on this flight but I’m sure glad we did not end up in the predicament of the other teachers. 

They boarded their flight first, we said our “see ya’s at the end of the day’s” ,and then while we were waiting for the our flight we said our “what the heck are you guys doing back?”  The run way in their first stop wasn’t fit for landing so they had to wait.  We should have realized this was the first sign of disaster.  Anyway we ended up leaving before them and we arrived in sunny Kuujjuaq on time.  That was the end of our trip with First Air it was now time to check in with Air Inuit and continue our journey.  There were 5 or 6 stops before Salluit and according to the pilot there was a 50% chance we would land in Salluit at the end of the day, otherwise we would go to POV or back to Kuujjuaq.  Now if you’ve read my very first blog post you know we only had a 10% chance of landing in Salluit on my first flight adventure north so 50% seemed like we would definitely land, so off we went.  In the town right before Salluit we learned we were heading….. back Kuujjuaq. 

There was the possibility of going to Puvirnutuq which is where all the other teachers were stuck and I have to admit the idea of at least being stranded with friends was appealing but we were heading back to Kuujjuaq solo.  And this is why I love Air Inuit again (although to be fair, the gate agents for Air Inuit and First Air in Kuujjuaq are the same 4 people)  Anyway we arrive back in Kuujjuaq and we’re talking to the agent, she says we will be flying out at 8am direct to Salluit in the morning.  At this point there are about 4 people going to Salluit and we are three of them but they’re going to fly us anyway.  I ask if there is a cab (I know there is in Kuujjuaq, thank goodness) and explain we will be going to the hotel.  The agent says to me, “I’ll just drive you, the cab doesn’t always answer the phone and probably won’t tonight, do you have a room booked at the hotel?”  No, or course we don’t.  Ok she decides to call for us, the lady at the hotel is only there for 15 more minutes.  The gate agents asks her stay we will be there soon!  And she drives us to the hotel.  Then she says she'll be back at 7:15am to pick us up.  Oh and by the way we have 3 suitcases and a stroller, but at the gate agents advice we transfer all we need to one suitcase and leave the other two behind with the stroller.  (I mean what other airline would let you do that?!)

The next morning at 7:15 we are ready to go! The agent arrives at the hotel and says, “You can come with me now, but we aren’t leaving at 8 anymore, or you can stay here and I’ll call you when we’re leaving.” Well we’ll stay here thank you, I mean at least the hotel has a tv with cartoons and internet for us bigger kids who need entertaining.

Back at the hotel I come to find out that the other teachers are at the Airport in POV and their flight for Salluit is cancelled and not going until the next day.  Court is also coming to town in POV so the hotel is totally booked up, which means the teachers have to be farmed out to other teachers in town.  I’m glad I’m not in POV.  It’s one thing to have to stay at someone’s house suddenly, it’s a little different when you also have to bring your 16 month old.  Where would he sleep?  Would they have a playpen/crib?  Would he be up at all hours of the night thus not letting anyone else sleep?  And here is the worst part of their stranded story, they were all at the airport and did not leave the airport until the end of the school day when someone could come and get them and bring them to other teachers houses.   For those who don't know, airports in the north are just big rooms with a bathroom in one corner and a desk for the gate agents.  There is no food to buy, there are metal seats, no cushions, there is nothing at all to do.  No I’m happy at the hotel in Kuujjuaq that has a restaurant.  I know what you're thinking....a restaurant!!! We were that excited too! (no other town up here has a restaurant).

Another thing about travelling with a toddler is having enough supplies.  I had enough diapers to get us to Salluit and if we had to stay over somewhere, but now it looked like we would be staying over for a second night….we did not have enough diapers for that.  So Tyler ventured out into the cold and wind to find the grocery store to buy diapers.  $13 for 12 diapers and that’s probably a little cheaper than Salluit, crazy, which is why I don’t buy my diapers in the north, more about that another day.

After he got back with diapers and other supplies, I called the airport and the flight was leaving at 2:00pm, the agent was on his way to pick us up (it was 1:15pm). We made it to Salluit at 4:30pm, we only had 1 stop on the way, the other 3 (or 4) where too stormy to land.  I know how much that sucks for the people of those villages but man I was glad!  It’s hard repeatedly doing take-offs and landings with a toddler and it’s hard for someone like me who gets motion sick.  The more take offs and landings there are the more nauseous I feel.  (some of you may be thinking…didn’t you use to work as a flight attendant, yes, I did and if we had 5 flights in a day by the end I was nauseous.)

Anyway we arrived one day late, the rest of the teachers arrived two days late.  Our thoughts and feelings about our experiences differ pretty greatly.

Just as a side note does anyone know Mark Gallant from PEI who works at the Kuujjuaq airport?  When I showed the guy the airport my ID he said “Hey there’s a guy that works here from PEI, his name is Gallant, Mark Gallant, do you know him?”  I didn’t bother explaining that Gallant is probably the most common name in PEI aside from Macdonald, and there are likely many Mark Gallants on PEI although I can’t say I know any of them off the top of my head.  But this does support my theory that you can find someone from PEI no matter where you go, I now know there are at least 2 in Kuujjuaq, Mark and a teacher named Courtney (Macdonald of course lol).