Finally, an update!

Posted by S. , Thursday, September 2, 2010 1:10 PM

So far I'm loving my job.
The school beats Centennial hands down.
They caught our bear last night... there was gunfire then a large cage thing rattled down the street. And then we all got a memo from the police that there were 3 more bears. One of which, it appears, doesn't follow that "bears only come out at night" rule and was chilling at the Northern (grocery store) at 9 AM.
The one pooping on our lawn (the one that is bullet resistant) got caught, however.


Wow I've been delinquent on posting!
So, Day 1 Arrival has been covered.

Day 2, aka tuesday:
Went into work for a bit. School got cancelled due to the 40 degree C weather. Went to the beach (um, ya) and swam. So, yes, I've swam in the waters of the Artic Ocean. Was cute there were tonnes of kids there, and a lot of them were following Ashleigh (temporary roommate who left Wednesday night) and I around, curious about the white girls at the beach, no doubt.
This was followed by a non-successful blueberry picking run near the gravel pit 30 km out of town. The berries and plants were all dried up, due to the heatwave.
After that we went to the rapids nearby on the Rupert. Some fish scooping was going on, and a really nice Cree family showed me how it worked. They were also making medicine for Bell's Palsy out of tamarack needles. The Rupert was the last of the huge Quebec rivers to be dammed and diverted by Hydro Quebec (December 2009). They told me about how the river was a year ago.
Also learned a lot about climate change from some locals. After that, dinner at Norman our neighbour's place. Ashleigh and Michel (grad students that were rooming with us) have now left, and I'm carless.

Day 3: wednesday
Our boss and driver headed home. Spent some time at the school... until classes got heatwave cancelled...again. Went for a long walk around town, down by the Rupert and the docks, and to buy milk (5.19 for 2L) at the Northern. Some prices are ridiculous (5.79 for 2 L of coka. 11$ for vanilla ice cream. 14$ for a Delission pizza), while others are ridiculously normal. They also have stuff available that we don't have back in the South that I used to get in Vermont... go figure.

Thursday: work! Classes actually didn't get cancelled today. Got to meet some of the kids. Tomorrow is a ped day (they have 1 every 2 weeks up here), Josh and I have to give a meeting so I should probably stop blogging and facebooking and get on that. Incidentally I have the best cell service ever up here... the tower is quite literally in my backyard. My mission for the 3 day weekend is to locate the black fox people have been feeding and meet him. Apparently he likes donuts. Um....

I love how random people just come up and talk to me. Some find it funny to say "are you from here?" and laugh. Others already know who I am (word gets around fast in Waskaganish concerning us foreigners). Some people have told me interesting facts, others have told me completely random stories about taking karate classes in 1968.

I have been taking pics on my cell phone as my camera died... but there is no way to get them off as picture messaging doesnt work on the old towers up here, and i left my microSD card adapters at home. Will ask Dad to post me one when he gets back from South Carolina. Will borrow work camera and finally get some shots tonight. It's supposed to rain for the next week so I'll try and take advantage of the warm sunny weather. I think I'll spend the weekend caffeinating at the Lodge if it rains. Most people seem to be vacating the town for the long weekend. Since I just arrived I'm not too keen on an 18 hour car ride for 3 days. Will probably be home at Thanxgiving for the break or a long weekend at the end of September. Purely to get pumpkin fudge, jeans, and to hike Owl's Head. Don't plan to go home again until Xmas as my goal is to get to as many other reserves as possible by chaperoning and coaching :P