A non-blizzard in Cambridge Bay: Spring is coming, kind of

This weekend we apparently did not have a blizzard. It was not a blizzard because Environment Canada didn't post any weather alerts that it was a blizzard, although given the fact that it seemed to have met all of the conditions for a blizzard in terms of windspeeds and visibility, I wonder if someone just forgot to update the website.

 

As someone who actually went outside and walked through it, it certainly felt like a blizzard. And from the way the trucks were getting stuck in the snowdrifts that were piling up in the middle of the road, I wasn't the only one that noticed it. Driving through nearly zero visibility conditions was perilous (but also kind of a fun adventure).

The next morning, the sun was shining but the blowing snow continued, giving everything a rather surreal science fiction feel.

Last week things actually seemed to be warming up a bit.  On one day, my friend in Oakville, Ontario informed me that it was colder in Oakville than it was in Cambridge Bay. Of course, at that point, Ontarians were screaming bloody murder about frostbite while Nunavummiut remarked on how pleasantly warm it was at -30 rather than -55.  Perhaps spring is coming after all. Perhaps.

 Cambridge Bay heat wave

Meanwhile, as the day gets longer, we are getting some beautiful skies.

sun dog 

watching the wind do pretty things with the snow in front of my house #nunavut #arctic

A video posted by Gloria Guns (@gloriaguns) on Feb 23, 2015 at 2:07pm PST

the "last chance" Christmas bazaar

On Saturday, Cambridge Bay held its "Last Chance" Christmas Bazaar, named as such to distinguish it from the other Christmas Bazaar held earlier last month, and not because it's actually the last chance to buy Christmas gifts because everyone knows that you can always run to the store ten minutes before closing on Christmas Eve (not that this is a habit of mine...)

The opportunity to go shopping in Cambridge Bay is very exciting for me, and I'm sure for a lot of other people too. This is why the fact there was a blizzard did not stop us from going shopping at the bazaar.

Of course, walking through a blizzard is not the easiest thing. Even with my parka to keep me warm, I had to battle the winds which threatened to pick me up and blow me away like a kite.  And to protect my face, I had to pull my coyote fur-lined hood down low, which basically means I had no peripheral vision while walking. You'd hope that as I'm blindly stumbling across the street that the drivers in the car would watch for me, but I find that their peripheral vision is often limited by their parka hoods too.

It's kind of surreal to listen to Teen Daze's Beach Dreams record while walking through the Arctic blizzard.

Once I got to the Bazaar, it was clear that I wasn't the only one battling the blizzard to do a little shopping. The high school gym was packed.

Vendors included crafts, Mary Kay cosmetics, Bangladeshi food from Salma's Kitchen, photography from Denise Lebleu Images (our band photographer), a bake sale to raise funds for the food bank, and Red Sun Productions selling their famous prints on muskox poo paper.

I had gone to the bazaar with the intention of buying Christmas gifts but as you can see I spent most of my money on food.  Again.

Oh well, I could always run into the Future Shop at the last minute on Christmas Eve...

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snowboarding lessons in the Arctic

It was only -25 degrees and everyone could feel spring in the air! My friends were going out for their first jog of the year, or going for leisurely strolls outside, taking in all the warmth. Some went for bike rides. 

Brent and his ridiculously awesome winter bike, that he uses to BIKE ON THE FROZEN ARCTIC OCEAN. Look at those tires!

We barely knew what to do with ourselves in this unseasonable warmth. What am I supposed to wear in -25 degree weather? When was the last time I felt that? I could imagine teens going streaking in this weather.  

I decided with the warm weather, it was time to take up snowboarding. I'd never gone snowboarding before, so why not learn how to do it in the Arctic?

Where's the nearest ski resort to Cambridge Bay, you ask? Well...the whole tundra kind of is our ski resort. Just pick a hill and tear down. No expensive prices for lift tickets. We walked over to Jack's Point, mainly because it's a four-minute walk from my house and if you go any further, you're snowboarding in the dump.

Snowboarding in the Arctic surprisingly means sweating a lot, because after you snowboard down the hill, you have to walk up all those hills on your own. What, you think there are chairlifts in the Arctic wilderness? Sometimes folks on snowmobiles did stop to watch us, but not to offer their assistance in hauling us up the hill (like I secretly hoped), but rather to laugh hysterically at the sight of me, falling down the hill.

snowmobile spectators

I don't fall as much when the ground is flat.

My Canada Goose parka became unnecessarily warm during these treks. Unbearably warm in fact. Next time I'm snowboarding in my long underwear.

even little kids board better than me

Luckily, Jack's Point had a fairly comfortable slope for beginners like me, except for that cliff ridge that appears out of nowhere if you slide too far east, as I discovered on my first run down.   I eventually mastered the skill of making it to the bottom of the hill without falling once.  Except I still hadn't figured out how to turn or stop.  The problem is if you don't stop in time, you'll continue right on to the frozen Arctic Ocean ice. And then you'll just keep going...and going...until maybe you'll hit Kugluktuk on the mainland. So you gotta learn to stop.  My main method of stopping was to fall down. I'm really good at falling.

I learned a lot of important lessons. Like, contrary to what you might think about outdoor sports in the Arctic, wear less clothes.  Also, as I also learned when I surfed for the first time, balance is not really my strong point. But I had a lot of fun and I'm eager to hit the slopes again to try to learn all the other important snowboarding stuff. Like turning. And stopping. 

psssst...can you vote for our song The Longest Night for CBC Music's Searchlight Contest? Thanks!

blown away

"Wow, it's only -10°C today," I said to myself as I got dressed. "I can totally wear my spring coat. I can totally wear my leather boots. I don't need to wear a hat at all. Hey, maybe I can actually dress nice to work today!"

wind inappropriate wardrobe

So I said to myself, walking out the door. Then I was blown away by the gust of wind that had apparently been waiting for me outside my house. I had forgotten to check the wind. Rookie mistake. Always check the wind, Gloria, always check the wind.

At first, I thought I could just grit my teeth and bear with the wind. This was mainly because I was wearing what I perceived to be a cool outfit and didn't want to ruin it with a hat. But the wind was biting. It felt like it was cutting right through my forehead into my skull. At some point, I lost the feeling in my ears. I felt defeat was imminent. Time to turn around and dress more sensibly. Luckily, I was only 100 metres from my house.

wind appropriate wardrobe

Yeah, it was windy. It g

ets pretty windy up here sometimes. It's nothing like I've ever experienced before. Down south in the city, sometimes I'll feel a gust of wind and be like, "Golly, that wind almost lifted my skirt. How embarrassing that would have been." Here, it could probably lift a cow like in that film Twister, if we had a cow up here, and that cow was on a diet. Winds gust up to 70km/hr. Have you ever experienced 70 km/hr winds before? I have not. It took some getting used to.

"Don't worry, I'll put up these flyers advertising for new board members around town." I said to my boss at work. And then I stepped outside, and the wind whipped those flyers right out my hand and out toward the frozen Beaufort Sea. Maybe some of the polar bears out in the wilderness are looking to become board members.

"Let me get that box out of the trunk," I said, reaching for the back of the office car, and found out that the reason why you're supposed to hold on to the car door when you open it is because the wind might snap it off.

There is a road under that blowing snow. Can you see it?

Then there was driving home from work. I had to stop by the police station on the way home, so I decided to take the coast line road home, because, stupid Gloria, I thought that oceanside scenery would be nice. Wrong. It was nice only if you had a thing for feeling terrified. Turns out that what the wind does is blow all the snow in from the frozen ocean and on to the road. Kids might think that riding through snow banks in the middle of the road is fun, but kids are stupid. The worst part was that if things went wrong and I lost control of the car (and the snow banks underneath my tire certainly were fighting me for control), I was painfully aware that the truck would go sailing off the road and towards the ocean, because there was literally, like, nothing between the road and the water. Suddenly I felt no comfort in the fact that I was driving in a four wheel drive truck. All the bigger thing to go down in. It didn't help that the best way to drive through snow banks is to speed up as you approach it. It is totally counter-intuitive to speed up towards a thing that is going to potentially cause you to lose control of the car. But then, you don't want to get stuck in it either. So...ramming speed. With each snow drift I drove over, I hoped that the crazy winds were at least pushing me in the right direction.

But even the fierceness of the wind is something you can get used to, and folks around here have adapted to it. I watched in amazement as my friend that I invited over for dinner arrived at our house on foot, having walked from the other side of town through the 70 km/h winds, pulling her two year old baby on a sled behind her.  Did I also mention she's 8 months pregnant? And then when I offered her a ride home after dinner, she declined, hoping that the walk home would put the baby to sleep. That's one tough mom.

in search for the Dutch equivalent of Preloved

despite having lived in Vancouver (Random Rain City) and Ottawa (where the climate ranges from -40 degrees to plus 40 degrees), i am finding it extremely difficult to dress properly for Amsterdam weather. i was given the name of a reliable weather watching website - however, it's entirely in Dutch. i've come to the conclusion that i simply did not pack the right clothes. so i found myself needing to go shopping once again. as if i didn't spend the whole summer in vintage haven Vancouver replacing my entire wardrobe.

Spui and its surrounding streets seem to be a major shopping district. most of the shops are not my style - Mexx, Esprit, H&M etc., all the places you can find in any city. i'm still searching for the local Dutch designers, but during my shopping trip, i made a pleasant discovery: the Individuals brand produced by the Amsterdam Fashion Institute. all of the clothes are designed by the students at the college, and even better, the store was having a major sale. i found the clothes to be rather hit-and-miss in style. some outfits were breathtaking, and others were probably a bit too hipster for my tastes. my main complaint was the available sizes - clearly these dresses were designed for tall Dutch folks, rather than wee Asian girls. still, i'm glad to find this store and do intend to keep an eye out on it in the future for the next season's releases...hopefully in my size. i can dream.

on my way home the other day, i came across a band rocking out on the roof of an old building. they were doing a cover of the Beatles' Get Back, and a crowd was gathering in the streets, dancing and enjoying the free show. it was pretty sweet to watch. colin comments on the fact that he finds the Dutch to be a cold people, practical, sensible and direct almost to the point of being rude. obviously it can't be all true - Vincent Van Gogh was certainly the emo rock star of painting, for example - but i do agree that all we foreign students ever see of the Dutch is them carrying out their every day duties, grocery shopping at the Albert Hein, biking to work, feeding their kids at Ikea. tourists and foreigners remain quite insulated from the local arts culture. so it was pretty nice to see people hanging out and enjoying the spontaneous street party. one day i'll break out of the foreign student bubble and find the cultural underground. maybe i need to learn some dutch first though.

i weighed myself at the Ikea today on one of their sensible practical bathroom scales, and i weight exactly the same as the last time i weighed myself in Canada. I guess all the weight i would have gained from my cheese heavy diet is being balanced by the fact that i bike between 20 to 40 kilometres a day.