Weather: - 19 and cloudy
Sunrise – no…nay...never
Sunset – no…nay...never…no more!!

Hmmm…what happened today? Well, for one, it’s cooling back down. I walked to work this morning, and even at the end of the short fifteen minute stroll, I was starting to get cold. It doesn’t take long. It is still very weird to be walking to work in the dark…then walking home in the dark. Surprisingly though, Lorie I and I are both dealing with the darkness fairly well. It’s just one of those things you have to live with. There are quite a few activities to do indoors here, and once we get settled away, we’ll likely be engaging in some of them.

I will be traveling to Yellowknife at least once in January, and probably twice. I have a few training sessions to complete and they can only be done in Yellowknife. This will be a great opportunity for me to see the city and to do some shopping down in the south…gotta love that cheap southern shopping!

I guess the big news of the day is that Lorie has found a job! We got here after hours on Friday December 2, 2005, so you can’t count that day or the weekend, or this last weekend. So that leaves five days of job searching and she found one…that’s my girl!

Lorie will be a Project Officer with the Department of Public Works and Services – Capital Projects division. Although it is only a term position until the end of March, I have no doubt that she will beguile them into keeping her on forever! She’s kind of good at that!

Okay, so you have been reading my drivel for over a month now. I thought we’d do something a little different tonight. I thought I’d play journalist and interview someone for the blog tonight. Hmmm…let’s see who we have in the room…there’s Ripley and there’s Lorie. Ripley has, thus far, ignored all my questions, so let’s interview Lorie.

So here’s 20 questions with Lorie (okay…would you believe nine questions?):

BloggerGuy: What was your first impression of Inuvik?
Lorie: When we were driving in, the lights made it seem much bigger that I thought it would be. Then we stopped by the hotel and we saw the dog by the door, I thought “WOW, this is different”. Then we drove down Main Street and there seemed to be people everywhere! I thought that we had to find somewhere to stay because I was really tired. I convinced you to go back to the Nova Inn where we had seen the puppy dog by the door. It’s been great to stay at one of the nicer hotels.

BloggerGuy: What do you do on an average day here in Inuvik?
Lorie: Well as an unemployed person, I get up at 9AM (because you let me sleep in) and start my day with breakfast. Then Ripley and I hang around the hotel room, until the twilight starts. While we are waiting, I search the internet and check up on the news at home. I come back and try to come up with creative meal ideas that can be made on a stove top (interviewer’s note: there is no oven in our hotel room). Of course, I use the internet and take advantage of the websites with recipes (Interviewer’s note: Lorie named a particular website, but the rules of TraveLog Inuvik prevent us from promoting the corporate giants…actually I just made that up…but then it’s my website!!). Ripley and I go on a walking adventure around town – exploring. That usually takes at least an hour. Then I go grocery shopping, if required. Also I check the mail which is usually pretty interesting because it is busy there all day long and there’s never a parking spot. Then I do whatever chores have to be done, like calling the utility companies for service in the new house, address changes – administrative work, laundry and cooking. Then you come home and we eat supper and clean up. Then I do some studying for my Masters program, some reading, cross stitch, and watch a little TV.

BloggerGuy: Wow! That’s a pretty full day. I had no idea! What’s the biggest difference between Inuvik and St. John’s, NL?
Lorie: There’s nowhere to shop here compared to home – which should save money. Also everything seems to be in slow motion. Everyone seems to be more relaxed than even Newfoundlanders are. Nothing fazes them. People seem to be amazed that we moved from Newfoundland to here.

BloggerGuy: How are you handling the 24 hours of darkness?
Lorie: Ummm…makes it harder to get up in the mornings. I try to take advantage of the hour or so of twilight each day. It’s different, but not as bad as I expected. Ask me again in a couple of weeks and the answer might be different!

BloggerGuy: Are you excited now that you have found a job?
Lorie: Yes! A little scared perhaps because it’s in an area that I am not familiar with. But I look forward to doing new things, especially Project Management, which is an area that I have wanted to get a little experience with.

BloggerGuy: Did you enjoy your trip across Canada?
Lorie: Yes. There were times through Ontario that I thought we would never get there. It was fun to see the provinces I hadn’t seen. It was really neat coming up through northern BC and the Alaska Highway. There was nothing, then you’d come upon a spot in the middle of nowhere, and you’d wonder what keeps them open. Coming up the Dempster was a different story. Not seeing another car for five hours really made it seem like we were in the middle of nowhere. But it was pretty at the same time. It was very different than the endless fields of the prairies.

BloggerGuy: What was your favourite part of the trip? Favourite city?
Lorie: My favourite part of the trip would have to be driving thorough the Rockies. The mountains just kept going and going. It was pretty compared to the rolling hills of PEI. My favourite city…well it’s not a city…but Liard River…I really enjoyed that Lodge. It was a nice room (even though we didn’t have TV or internet) and really good cooking. It had a very “wintery” feel. Coming up the Dempster was pretty interesting. In the dark you couldn’t tell what was road or mountains, or sky or snow.

BloggerGuy: Ummm…I’m running out of questions…what’s your favourite colour?
Lorie: Blue. Any shade of blue.

BloggerGuy: Make a closing statement…say anything you want
Lorie: The one thing I missed was coming across the ice roads. It was night and it was dark. I look forward to driving them in the light and seeing a ploughed ice road on the river. It’s not as cold as I expected, but then again we still have to go through the coldest month of January.

TraveLog Inuvik would like to thank Lorie for taking time out of her busy schedule to do this interview. And...ummm... sorry for interrupting your TV show!

If this works out, and if people like it, I may go out and find people in the community to interview. Getting the perspective of a local may be interesting! Thoughts?

Cheers!