Au Nord Du Quebec

Hello Everyone! Thanks to the heavy snowfall and dropping temperatures I have been keeping myself busy these days. Daylight Savings cut back my afternoon sunlight, so I have about 15 minutes between leaving school and sunset now...this is not ideal when wanting to take 30-minute off-leash walks every day! My friend and I have come up a new solution to the sunlight problem, we chase the dogs around the backyard for 30 minutes instead! This gives us the heart-rate workout we want, as well as some quality exercise time for the pups. The Mistissini Lodge is a ten-minute walk from our homes, so we have started taking the dogs to the lodge and lake in the afternoon when it's not too windy. The dogs love it because sometimes they see other dog friends and the views are beautiful. The photo above was from one of our sunset walks, the sky is very pink at the horizon and what you see of the snow is actually Lake Mistassini! The snow has almost covered the entire lake at this p

Welcome back Winter! Long time no see.... Just kidding because it has only been 5 months since snow was last on the ground. This year, winter has decided to make an early appearance, covering everything in sight with a thin layer of wonderful white powder. I cannot be too upset, because snow is ALWAYS better than rain. Try taking your dog out on a walk in the rain: Miserable! Take them out in the snow: Bundles of Fun! This is the latest picture of my snowy home. The lake has not frozen over yet, it is still look warm for that. It will begin to freeze little by little, but it will not be safe to walk on or ski-doo on until at least the beginning of January. Lily always enjoys our walks, rain or shine or snow. I think the snow gives her a thousand more things to smell and she looks so darn cute with her snoot in the snow!  My students and I are preparing for Halloween, which is right around the corner. This past week, we worked on creating our own haunted houses out of

October is officially here, and with it come the magnificent colors of fall. The month of September went by in a flash, it was just yesterday I was kayaking in 70F (21C) weather. Unfortunately the weather has taken a turn for the colder... we have been having specks of snow here and there and my kayak is frozen solid in my backyard! Thankfully, the snow did not stay very long, as it was warm and sunny the day after. As much as I love snow, it boggles my mind to be seeing heavy snow in mid-September. The walks are as gorgeous as always, rain, shine or snow. Lily enjoys the weather no matter what. As long as I layer up, there won't be any issues! There was a heavy rain and wind storm a few weeks ago that caused a lot of damage to the forest, as you can see in the picture above, a few trees could not withstand the strong winds. It was shocking to hear about a tornado touching down outside Ottawa, Canada's capital. My thoughts go out to those who were affected. We were lu

Summer is nearing an end here in the North... We had beautiful 25 (77F) days with sunny skies, but it is time to say goodbye to summer. The image below of the end of the docks watching the sun set puts exactly how I feel into an image. It is appreciating the warmth and sunny afternoons that were enjoyed...but now it is time to prepare for winter.  I learned this morning that the Geese have started to fly south which can only mean one thing: winter is coming. I even checked my weather application this morning to see that the emoji for next weekend's forecast had flurries! Although the cold is inevitably approaching, my friends, dogs and I took advantage of the weather this weekend to be outside as much as possible. We went on a wonderful forest hike leading us to a very calm part of Lake Mistissini where the dogs had a blast swimming and playing.  I also have the pleasure of taking care of a friend's dog for the next week, his name is Luke and he is the sweetest boy ev

Joyeux September to everyone! The weather has started to get cooler day by day, but still much warmer than last year. I enjoy a walk to the Mistissini Lodge that overlooks Lake Mistissini every other day in the evening. This particular picture was taken one evening as my friend was walking a 4 month old puppy, persuading her to jump in the water....she did not give in and refused to wet her paws! One weekend ago I celebrated my birthday with a few of my closest friends (and dogs). We spent 3 days in Quebec City shopping, eating and enjoying the beautiful views. This Quebec City trip is becoming an annual tradition! It definitely is one of my favorite cities in the province, and it's only a six and a half hour drive from Mistissini. We enjoyed the views of the Chutes de Montmorency, the beautiful waterfalls just outside the city. Lily had the pleasure of enjoying the falls as well! Please enjoy this awkward picture of me holding Lily to make sure she doesn't jump off t

Can I just say how excited I am to be back up north! My summer break was jam packed with traveling and spending time with family and friends. I was lucky enough to spend 4 weeks of my summer traveling across Europe solo. I spent two weeks in France, a day in Switzerland and Belgium, another week in Germany, a few days in the Netherlands then a week in London! A big purchase for me in early August was my first kayak! Since I live on the largest freshwater lake in Quebec, I figured I would take advantage of my time when the water wasn't frozen and try my hand at kayaking. Below is a picture of me on my first (very windy, very rocky) kayak outing on Lake Mistissini. The moment I came back I was spoiled with this beautiful sunset. It was oddly satisfying to drive 10 hours north, knowing that I was going to a place I now call home.  The first few days of school went by in a blur, setting up the classroom, finalizing orders from Scholastic (aka life) and catching up wit

Our community celebrated Annie Whiskeychan Day this past Wednesday with a wonderful array of cultural activities including history of the Cree School Board, Moose Hide Drying, and baby-wrapping. To give some background, Annie Whiskeychan lived in Waskaganish (another Cree community) and is one of the reasons why the Cree Language program was created and implemented in Elementary Schools throughout the Cree Nation. She is viewed as an educator, elder and innovator in Cree Language Education. It is partly thanks to Annie Whiskeychan that the Cree Language is being taught in our schools. In honor of Annie Whiskeychan, the community came together to set up an amazing day full of activities for the students in the elementary and high school. Typically in the morning of Annie Whiskeychan day, there is a walking out ceremony. I have written about the walking out ceremony before, but this is to honor a baby's first steps on the earth. A child has their walking out ceremony around the

Has anyone ever asked you, what's your perfect day? Maybe it's relaxing by the beach, maybe it's hiking for hours on your favorite trails or maybe it's just being with your favorite person. For me, that day was today: Sunday, June 3rd, 2018. It has been the most perfect day spent with the most perfect people and the most perfect dogs at the most perfect lake. I know that when you think of me you would think it would have teaching in there somewhere but I have to say that so far in my 10 months in this community, today was perfect. I know that I have not updated on my Goose Break and my month of May but I'll get to it...first I need to tell you all about my day today. It started with a lazy wake-up, the sun streaming in through my bedroom window at 5am...definitely not time to wake up yet. I look over the side of my bed at Lily, who lifts her head, looks at me and flops it back down. She knows me, I need more sleep. 9am rolls around and I finally stretch awak

This is a quick update before our well-deserved Goose Break! Less than one week until I am Texas-bound with two of my good friends from up north. After Easter was a somewhat relaxing 3-day week before 2 professional development days. Those two days were jam-packed, so not exactly a break. My friends and I decided to get away that weekend to Chicoutimi, which is about a 5hr drive away from Mistissini. The drive is much more do-able in a weekend than Montreal. I had only been to Chicoutimi once before and just for a day, so it was very nice to spend more time and explore the city. Chicoutimi has around 65,000 people and reminds me of a small Sherbrooke. It has a river running through the center and has one long road with basically all of the shops in the city. The mall was wonderful because we got to go shopping for the first time since Easter! It really is a big deal when the closest Wal-Mart is 5 hours away. Our view of the river from the motel We were lucky enough to find a

Happy Easter and Passover everyone! I am happy to be giving everyone another fun update on my life up North! This weekend was our long Easter weekend, so we got Friday and Monday off from school. My friend and I drove the 10 hours South right at 3pm on Thursday and arrived in Montreal around 1am. It was a very long drive but at least I had good company and it was light for about a third of the ride. This holiday break is the first true break we have had since starting back in early January. Needless to say, it has been a long winter and the break to go south was much needed. We now have 4 weeks of school until our Goose Break then 6 weeks of school afterward then it's Summer! I say that I live in the Land of 1000 Seasons because I feel like we have gone from winter to spring and back to winter about 3 times since March 1st. The week before leaving for Montreal was beautiful, cloudless skies and positive 3 or 4C (35-38F) in Mistissini and the snow was starting to melt. We le

Hello Everyone! Sorry for slacking on the updates for the past few weeks, I have been over my head busy with life things! The most exciting part of this update is that I moved to a new apartment! I was originally in a small fourplex with one bedroom and a small kitchen/living room combo, but I got the opportunity to move into a spacious two-bedroom place right across the street from the school. I now can see the front doors of the Elementary School from my kitchen window. It's unheard of to move in the middle of winter literally one kilometre down the road...but that's what I did! There hasn't really been any more snow since the beginning of March, maybe a centimetre or two, that's nothing to what my family in New England is getting! Feet on feet of snow. I still think that our snow banks are bigger ;) Above is a picture of the snowbank right outside my new house. Lily has been getting bigger every day and took some time getting used to the new apartment.