Time Out

Made a few phone calls and sent a couple of emails - achievement for the day I guess. Another tiny step that makes me feel like I am really on my way to Nunavut. I wish I can start a countdown but I don't have a definite flight schedule yet. A countdown can make it more real. And I love countdowns.


Of course it goes without saying that in the past few months I have been hungrily devouring whatever information I could get about Nunavut. I am so all about psyching myself up for this big move. A lot of things can be said about the internet but you can't help but love how you get more than instant gratification..ask a question and you get infinite amount of answers. The good, the bad, the lofty, the grounded, the practical, the crazy..you name it...all you need to know! I love the Nunavut blogs most of all, followed by that you tube video  by alexandluke.com which I have replayed and replayed ad infinitum ad nauseum. I love Townie Bastard's funny but definitely practical and uber useful FAQs about life up north. I love reading the freeze with ease blog - I enjoy the "he-she" perspective of their posts (my experience there will purely be on a me-myself-and-I dimension). And I also read Melissa's My Nunavut Adventure blog which I find amusing but with a lot of heart. These blogs not only help give a face to the unknown for me, they also make me more excited than scared. When I go out these days to buy stuff that I need I have their tips on my mind like voices in my head. Note to self: if you have the honor of bumping into any of these guys when you're there, don't forget to say a big thank you! Angels come in many forms - I have my own cyber angels, though they don't know it.


This is the part where I am talking to myself:


I started this blog as an online journal. Not too many people get to have the opportunity to work in the Arctic region - it's one of those once in a lifetime thing. As I said I am someone prone to forgetting so I want to make sure I get to document this journey. I also want to make this as a sort of growth chart for me. They say living and working up north can be a life changing event for a lot of people..so I want to see how this would change me. Maybe if I leave behind a paper trail, albeit in an online form, I can look back at the journey and realize that I have finally found what I've been looking for. Myself. 


I was going over some of my posts here and I am realizing how cringe worthy  most of them are. Although I am saying this is a journal for my own benefit (and maybe to some extent for my parents' peace of mind), there is still that conscious awareness that you are throwing your blog to a world wide universe - so there's always a chance of having an audience and a critic. And along with that awareness comes the tendency of "playing out" to the audience...sacrificing honesty for the sake of poetic justice or literary correctness or showing off or whatever you call it. There's only one word that comes to mind right now, bogus. And that defeats the purpose of a journal.


So once again, I am telling myself - before it gets too far..or before I go too far..or before I reach Iqaluit. I just have to be true to myself. My goal is to remember. My wish is that years from now when I look back I can say, yes that was my journey..


I think I'll step outside and go for a walk . .

Things I Promise My Blog (When I'm Up North)

There will be more pictures than words . . but I will keep my soundtrack for the day. There's always a song playing in my head wherever I go and whatever I do. I happen to have a very musical auditory hallucination.


I will not write about work...only what happens before and after work hours and days off, of course. Unless I have some aha moments at work then I'll write about it. Though I'll be writing more about insights rather than details.


I will gush more and rant less.


I will write as if I am writing a letter to my mother. Because one thing I know for sure, when I go public with this blog she will not only be my most avid reader, she just might be my only reader.

Just Thinking... In Between Paper Works and Urgent-Matters-Needing-Attention

I was born and raised in a city that is the southernmost part of an already southernmost part of the world. My first taste of the north was when I migrated three years ago to Alberta. And as if it is not north enough for me, I am now in the process of getting myself ready to move even way up north..where everywhere else that is not there is considered south.


I have always been fascinated by that thing they say..that when you are lost, just go north and you'll find your way back again. I don't really consider myself as lost..just somebody in constant search of something (self?). So I do not really know if this is going to be a sort of metaphorical journey for me. All I know is that I am northbound. Let's wait and see what's in store for me.

The Prelude Will Be Like An Agonizingly Long Overture Score

And it's also going to be like the awful, long title of this post.

So after all the excitement and adrenaline rush last week (when I found out I got the job in Iqaluit), this week seems to be dragging in contrast. Don't you hate it when you're just about to gain momentum and hit full speed then all of a sudden the lights turn red? 


Well I did say I need to hurdle a mountain high pile of paperwork and to-do-stuff first before I trek northward so there's no point whining and imagining symptoms of adrenaline withdrawal. And it's not that I have been unproductive at all. Had the blood works done as preparation for my medical check up - to prove that I am fit to work up north. Went to the police station to get my criminal records check - to prove that I am a safe enough citizen. Watched endless videos on youtube and read countless blogs about life in Nunavut - I need to visualize being there and I need to own the vision. So there's movement there..slow but still movement nonetheless. Not as if I am in a standstill or anything. Oh yes, I have also been canvassing online for boots, jackets, etc..I do need those things don't I?


Sans drama and adventure for now. Reminds me of that poster I saw somewhere long time ago: "everything comes to him who (fidgets while) he waits". Now I have another cardio activity aside from aimless wandering and deep thought walking - fidget while you wait.

The Journey of 1851 Miles Begins

The Road to Iqaluit (yes that's where I am going!!!) is initially paved with paper works. I won't dwell on that phase for now because it takes away all the drama and adventure from the story. So between now and November there will be a lot of skip and fast forward because years down the line I don't really want to look back on this (hopefully) exciting and life changing chapter of my life remembering all the papers and forms I needed to fill out. Ok so I got a little bit ahead of myself there...so yes I got the job offer!!! Yay! I am in many ways a practical fatalist which is why with the implication of all these weighing heavily at the back of my mind I still would like to say - if it's meant to be it will be. The girl from the tropics is ready for her polar shift!

Still Waiting

I think it's still an optimistic thing to say that I am living my half life to the full. the problem with existing in one plane but wishing you're somewhere else is that you're half here and half gone..and since I don't really want to sound like a miserable, ungrateful whiner, I would rather say then that I am doing the best that I can with that half of me who's still here.

All I am saying is that..as of today, no phone call yet..no email telling me that I got the job. Last I heard is they are done with the reference check. Then nothing. And just when I was inclined to just let go of this lofty plan of going up north, I chanced upon one of my superiors who I asked to be one of my references. And it seemed that the check went well though she didn't want to give me any false hopes...she seems to think that I would get the job. Then again, that doesn't confirm or negate anything. Though it does give me just cause to keep on waiting. 

And so for now my half life goes on.

Isn't It Good?

      I know it's a little bit presumptuous to name my blog as such since the eggs haven't even hatched yet... but there are two things I know for sure - I believe in the power of positive thinking and I love the Beatles! So I will stick with this name for now. Yes I am planning to go way up north..not in a Norwegian Wood though. Nothing is final yet so there's still a chance that this might be my first and last post but then again..I just might be writing about the first step of one very exciting journey. I mean, who knows. Will see...