Helenenorth

 Hello all Thanks for the great times this past week!  I had so much fun connecting with people, and eating delicious food--now I will really have to work at losing those extra pounds, plus the other pounds I gained over the winter. Travel was interesting on the return.  After I figured out how to check in online, things went pretty smoothly.  Got to Montreal as scheduled.  Sunday morning, we all arrived at the airport and got on.  About 20 minutes into the flight the captain said there had been a computer failure, so we had to return to Montreal.  After a couple of hours, the new computer was installed, and we were off--but we missed the connecting flight, so here we are in Kuujjuaq overnight!  We just had a lovely dinner in the hotel, with all of the other stranded visitors, and now we are in in our lovely, if basic rooms..and it looks like a blizzard is coming in so we might be here for awhile!! At lunch, I ordered a pint of beer--and you will ...

 Hey.. Well, we have sun until about 5:00 these days--spring is coming!! I also am on Star Link now--the Elon Musk answer to the internet in rural areas.  A colleague two houses away has it, and it is being transmitted via another residence.  The power is more then I have with the local provider--so, I am cancelling that, and paying less to my colleague for this amazing service.   It was a hassle getting cable this year.  I finally gave up, and am using the internet for my tv--with Star Link, no more circles, and much better picture quality.  My zoom lessons are also so much better--life is good!! My former principal is currently in a place called Ivujivik, pronounced, E vue you vik, which is the most northerly settlement in Quebec. She has invited me to teach there next year, so, I have agreed.  The weather that we are getting here, up to minus 60 and lower, is training me for next year.  Apparently, Ivujivik, is the coldest place in Canada,...

 Hello my dear friends Another interesting week in the north land!!  First, my year old computer started making a noise like a race-car!!  I took it to colleague, he cleaned the fan, and gave it back to me saying it was fixed.  Well, guess what, it is not, so I use it very sparingly and it hope it does not just " blow up".  Then, I got a call from the fraud squad saying that my card had been used for an escort service, and purchases at a gift store----I wonder who sits in front of the computer to monitor transactions--but they do, and they do a pretty darn good job of it!!  So, cancelled credit card!!  Finally, my cell phone, a motorolla, will not accept the School district internet for some reason--just stopped working, so that is a nuisance .  Yeah--so I had to try and get zoom on school computer.  What a hassle that was, it took 3 days for the IT guy to get back to me.  Well, that sort of works, but it blocked my Chinese students!!...

 Hello Yes, I am back in the saddle, so to speak.  Already  a month since Christmas.  Where does the time go when you are having fun!!  We were hit by a severe blizzard last week, closing the school because of the high winds, over 100 k an hour, cold temperatures of up to minus 50 and blinding snow.  It took one full day for the loader to clear the roads so that the water trucks could run, so, we were out for 3 days.  I can not imagine what it was like before our modern way of living.  The Inuit were tough people!! I have a new neighbour, and his name is not Jaques or Pierre--I can hardly believe it.  He is Germaine!! Germaine is the new, trained, maintenance guy--how lucky he lives next door.  He wants to use my internet--sure--fine--but--I want him to drive me to get groceries and water--fair trade, don't you think! There are 4 trucks here.  In the past, it has been very easy to use the truck--kind of the honor system.  When ...

 Hello Welcome to winter--and I understand old man winter has visited the sunny side of Canada too!! We have just come through a 3 day blizzard with winds of up to 100 miles an hour, blowing snow and drifting snow.  Yes, there is a difference.  Blowing snow is when it is falling and blowing.  Drifting can happen when the wind blows it across the landscape.  All three can happen at the same time making any kind of outdoor activity, including walking, extremely dangerous.  I have no idea how the Inuit of past gone days ever lived or survived here.  Yes, they had the ice houses--but they had to build them--and what kept them warm--not a stick of wood anywhere--so they had to depend on the whale oil or seal oil--not exactly something you could buy at the local Hudson's  Bay Store!!   With school closed on Friday, I invited my Inuit neighbour in for coffee.  She is the kindergarten teacher.  She is about 45, has three children, is d...

 Hello all 12 full school days left or fewer, depending upon the weather--but who is counting!! As always, each day brings tears, delights, frustration and great joy, plus a few surprises. On Monday afternoon, two little girls came in after lunch.  We had launched into a social studies lesson, and the girls were just starting on their seat work, when one child told me that she had seen a man with a black mask on a ski-doo with a hand gun near the back of the school.  She also said that this man was uttering bad words, and pointing the gun at the school windows.  The other little girl agreed.  I immediately called down to the office for the principal--he was their in seconds.  He questioned the girls, and the story was exactly the same, so within 10 minutes, the police arrived, and we were in lockdown.  Not only us, but the whole community.  This lasted for about an hour, and then we were released.  Yes, their was a suspect--but who, what, whe...