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Monday, September 24, 2012

The Answer to Many Questions......

I have been rather bad about blogging this past month it has been very busy at work but now things are settling in again and I am swiping the inspiration for this blog from my friend Sarah's blog post on one of her friends blogs.

Alot of people ask me what is it like living in Nunavut. My mom is always telling me of people asking what it is like .. People are generally curious about the North. It is kind of like stories of the Wild West that we absorb and want to know about but are unsure if we would ever want to experience it ourselves.

I am  going to let you in on some of the differences between Kimmirut Nunavut and St.Stephen New Brunswick. There are many and some are trivial and others are not so much!

 Family- In Kimmirut my family consists of my cat as the rest of my family is back home. I am very lucky though that my family has invested in some great long distance plans! I just call them and they call me back. I am also lucky that we have Skype for when I have a moment of homesickness and want to see my family.

 No Trees- Yup I left the land of the forests of Maple, Oak and Birch trees to the land of no trees. It is kind of a weird experience not having any trees to look at especially as we are now into fall a time in New Brunswick that is filled with falling leaves of many different colors. However Kimmirut has amazing rocks and hills that makes you feel as though I have a rocky forest around me!

 My water is delivered by a truck... due to the permafrost there is no in ground plumbing! I have a yellow plastic tank in my entry way two -three times a week the big silver water truck comes and fills my water. Also because there is no in ground plumbing my water comes from a lake.. a very pretty one at that . The water is ok for cooking but I wouldn't drink it out of the tap it has a different taste to it. My sewage is also on the truck system. Twice a week they come and suction out the tank that is sunk into the ground.

Shopping is another thing that is very limited.. there are two stores in town. The Northern ( where I work) and the Co-Op. Both stores are not very large and are very General Store types offering groceries to general merchandise. The other thing is Internet shopping is a great tool only you have debate if the shipping is worth the product. Alot of items I want cost almost double their price in shipping or won't ship here!

Another thing most would miss is getting in the car and going for a drive... not really an option here the roads go to no where . Also the roads are unpaved so the chances of your car surviving would be pretty slim!

I miss random trips to the city for a movie going out for dinner and the like... the closest spot I can do that is Iqaluit which is a 30 min flight away or 120kms! It would take alot of planning and is definitely not something I can do in a day unless I found a friend who has a skidoo who would go to Iqaluit just to watch a movie lol!

Although there are alot of things I miss from home ... but there is alot I don't miss

I use to drive 30 mins to and from work rain or shine and on some not so carefully tended roads. Now I get to walk 30 seconds to work... I guess now no more weather days for me :(

I get to try new foods I would normally never have an opportunity to try such as seal, beluga, char and bannock. I also got to try some new experiences such as going boating amongst ice bergs hiking some pathes that people traveled for thousands of years and got to explore an area of the community that has been around since 1909.

I have to say that moving to Nunavut has been an amazing experience so far and I look forward many more experiences!