Bigger than Christmas??

The last week and a half have been an absolute whirl-wind for me. I've decided to go with the most concise form of blogging and a teachers best friend the bullet point:

• I arrived safely in Kuujjuaq last week and realized how much I like our community because Inukjuak is much more beautiful (I think)
  
• I went to workshops all day Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday = BORING but important because I was learning about the Secondary English program here in Quebec. Sitting all day was incredibly hard for me. I think remembering how hard it is to sit still will make me a better teacher.
  
• Kuujjuaq is the only town out of 14 Northern communities to sport a proper restaurant and BAR. I had to take full advantage of both situations. Thank-you Kuujjuaq!
  
• Happy Halloween!! Apparently Halloween is bigger than Christmas up here and after the amount of candy Markus and I dished out tonight I'm starting to believe it! Generally, our students have really bad teeth and I can't help feeling a little guilty about contributing to the problem... But they were so cute dressed up and so happy.
  
• Since Halloween is absolutely huge up here we managed to party all weekend long. Thanks for the party Nancy! I dressed up as a bad 80's punk rocker and I'll be sure to post a glamour shot as soon as we locate our missing USB connection for our camera.... It has to be at someones house...
  

Happy Halloween Everyone!!

Out With The New, In With The Newer

Let me just start out by saying that this week has been an emotional roller-coaster. My role as the grade 7 math and science teacher has now been formally transferred to the new arrival who’s name is Melanie. What's funny is that it makes me feel relieved and yet disappointed all at the same time. I really felt like I was beginning to connect with some of the kids, but at the same time, somebody with actual training and experience will probably be able to do a better job at teaching them. In any case, I'm going to continue teaching as a sub now, and funny enough, I'm going to start with Colleen's class. She's going to Kujjuuaq for a week so I'm takin' over. She won't recognize her room when I'm done. :-)

Something that definitely got our spirits up this last week was a fantastic care package from my grandparents. It was packed to the brim with chocolates, coffee and even a container of Bresso (which took only 48 hours to disappear). Packages like these do wonders for our mood, even if it does mean a little more working out time to burn those extra calories.

That also reminds me, Colleen and I had our first caribou roast tonight. I got some from one of our friends down here and the slow-cooker was perfect for it. The roast was pretty big, though, so I guess I'll be having Caribou sandwiches for lunch all week long.

In any case, I have to get going here. I still have to go through Colleen's lesson plans for this week and I've got to prepare for a transfer session with the new teacher tomorrow.

Hope everything is going well with all of you.

Markus

P.S. Just wanted to throw out one more huge thank you to Grossmama, Grosspapa and Daniel for the packages. You really make our week when we get mail like this.

Friday the 13th!!!

Happy Friday the 13th!

I woke up to some more of Inukjuak's perpetual precipitation. The amount of rain this area gets is incredible! It also makes it really tough to get out of bed in the morning. However, today it seemed fitting since it was, after all, the Devil's Day.

The little red man, and I don't mean Santa, must really be up to no good as the school's water supply has been contaminated with fuel. Which means no school. This is actually the second day in a row that the school has been closed which has given me the opportunity to get a lot of things done that I have been putting off. So, I guess I should stop using the blog as a procrastination tool..... ;)

Tootles!

ps - Happy Birthday Christina!

Merry Thanksgiving

Hey Everyone,

First of all I want to apologize to all of you. As Christine pointed out in her comments, I promised you pictures of the house long ago and have yet to deliver. Well, today I make good on that promise, even if they are a little late.

To make things a little more interesting, I thought I'd take a picture of the house in the morning and then again in the evening. See if you can spot the differences.

Here's the Morning Shot. Now let's take a look at the evening one...

What's that you say? Second picture is a little hard to make out. Lots of white things in the way. Oh, did I forget to mention that we had a snow storm and that winds were howling at about 50 billion miles an hour?

Both of us couldn't quite believe how hard and fast it was coming down, so it wasn't that much of a surprise when we woke up this morning the town looked like this:

Other than freak snowstorms, things have been going pretty good for us. The long weekend has treated us especially well in the food and friends department. You see, a lot of the teachers up here are originally from Newfoundland and they tend to make some sensational stuff for Thanksgiving. We managed to score an invitation to Nancy's house to partake in the festivities and as you can tell from the picture below, the food was plentiful. Not to mention scrumptious. That's my plate on the right of the table overflowing. Did I mention that I had seconds AND dessert. I ate so much that it hurt to breathe afterwards, but if you gave me the choice, I would do it all over again.

In any case, after a few hours went by and I was able to move again and we were eventually able to get ourselves home. The wind was so strong that the entire house was shaking, something I've never experienced before, but have a feeling I might be getting used to. Since we made it home safe and sound, I guess it's time to show you what our cozy abode looks like. Here's the informal tour:

Here's the living room, where we spend far more time than we should. Damn you free cable.

This is Colleen showcasing our lovely kitchen. Colleen is sporting a roots t-shirt accompanied by a luxurious pair of silk pajama bottoms that may have been stolen from a clown.

This is our slightly sparse guest room which also sometimes doubles as our office.

Right now my office is set up in the bedroom...

I know that it's a little student ghetto, but I'm used to it, especially after the cubicle lifestyle back in TO. There are a couple of other rooms in the house, but they're really not that interesting. The bathroom isn't anything special. Same goes for the laundry room, and the bedroom is much too messy for me to post a picture of currently.

Other than thanksgiving the only interesting news I have for you is that I might be forced to give up my grade 7 math and science position. I've heard it through the grape vine that a real teacher is coming in to take my place. I think this is probably the best thing for the kids, as I have no formal training at all but I shouldn't count my chickens quite yet since I haven't heard anything from the principal. Rumours have a way of being less than reliable, especially in a small town like Inukjuak.

Well, that's about it for now. I hope that every one of you had as excellent a Thanksgiving as we were lucky enough to have.

Until next time,

Markus

Happy (Belated) Birthday Amelie!!

This weekend started really well as it was our new amigo’s (Amelie) birthday party last night. It was a great way to bring in the weekend! I would put up some pictures of last nights fun but, alas, I left the camera at home. In all honesty, this might have been for the best. ;)

I had planned to post the above brief post on Saturday but tragedy struck Inukjuak – the community’s internet went down! Markus took it pretty well in spite of the temporary loss. The internet was back up and running last night which goes to show how important it is as someone went in on Sunday to fix it. I didn’t think anything happened on Sunday here! Although not quite as tragic as the internet, I came down with nasty flu-like symptoms late Saturday night and am just starting to feel a little bit livelier. I am home from school today but I think the worst is behind me as I’m starting to feel hungry again!

Happy October!