Last day

It's my last day of work here with a flight out tomorrow afternoon.  I guess there is mixed feelings about leaving, but its mostly good.  I really feel I have had enough up here and really cannot wait to get back south.  I guess since it was always a temporary stay up here and I never got to settle in or make a permanent home its harder to enjoy it here, and maybe if I moved here it would be different, but the North is hard to live in regardless.

I won't go into the negative on here, as they are mostly obvious, but here are some of the things to miss:

-The quiet.  Its always so quiet up here, especially at night.  Basically no cars on the road after 7pm.
-The people.  I have never seen a happier or friendlier group of people in my life, especially considering the conditions.
-The culture.  You see it more in the communities, but there is a lot of old thule culture still alive.  A lot of people only speak Inuktitut still, and some of the elders in town were actually born in iglus.
-The money.  Lets be honest, anyone can make a lot up here.  Working for the GN you get $15k a year just as living allowance on top of whatever you make.  Granted costs are higher, but wages are even higher.
-The cold.  No, I won't miss that.



It's been a great experience and I am very happy I did it.  There were ups and downs but thats just part of the adventure.  I'm going to take one last walk around town tomorrow and take some last pictures.

Coming up on the end of my tour here, have a flight booked out next week.  A few things left to do but nothing too exciting.  We were going to try and go dog sledding this weekend but theres just not enough time.  I also don't think there is enough snow/ice to go anyway.

We had quite a few cold days a while back, down to about -40 windchill.  On the walk home I had ice building up on my eye lashes.  Had to make sure I didn't close my eyes or they would freeze shut.

Almost back...

Our flight was a few hours late leaving Arviat this morning.  The 2nd engine wouldn't start and after a few checks they decided to use a hair dryer to thaw it out.  After a few mins they were able to fire it up and we were off.  Unfortunately it wasn't a smooth flight though as the landing gear was frozen and wouldn't go up.  So they weren't able to continue on and we are stuck in Rankin Inlet for the night.