Au Nord Du Quebec

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....

The winds of winter have been unkind to us these past days, we have accumulated almost 2 more feet of snow! Snow up here is very light and fluffy which means that when the wind blows, the snow blows. When we got back from Chibougamau last night, the snow was past my knees going up to my front door, and this morning I could barely fit through the front door! We had to shovel our way out into the yard. Although I may not enjoy walking through knee-deep snow to get to my car, Lily loves climbing the snow drifts and digging in the snow. Here is a snapshot of her sitting on top of her snow-throne in my yard. Otherwise, the snow is making the community and forest trails that much more beautiful. The walks we take are on trails surrounded by snow past our heads, like we are walking through a tunnel. It is so beautiful to be surrounded by natural sights and smells. This week's weather is also starting to look up, the temperature is slowly rising showing more sun and numbers ...

I had a warm welcome to the North when I was taught all about Goose Break!  To all you American's, I hope you are enjoying a nice President's Day and week because up here not only do we not have a week off, we also don't even have a President! Unfortunately we do not have a Prime Minister's week, and unlike the rest of Canada, we don't have Family Day either. Today (Monday) was a holiday in the entire country of Canada, except for Quebec because we like to be different here.  You might think that we must get some sort of Spring Break here since we aren't getting one in February. You thought (sort of) RIGHT! Our equivalent to Spring Break is called "Goose Break" and it is the first two weeks of May. This is very late in the school year AND is  2 weeks long. I guess that equals a February break plus an April break that most of you get in MA and in the US.  Goose Break is exactly what you would expect...it is used to hunt geese in the bush. The...

Before coming to Mistissini I didn't really know what cold was. In Boston, it never gets below 0F (-18C), but I don't think it has gotten above 0F in the past month here! This week has been one of the coldest weeks so far and it's only Monday! This morning it was -35C (-31F) it was so cold that it hurt to breathe. If you're outside for more than 10 minutes your face gets numb and your fingertips start to freeze. It is really crazy to think that I chose to live in a place this cold!! Here is the forecast for the next week (Note: All of the temperatures are in Celsius but you can covert them here ) BRRRRR! Other than the cold which will continue through the end of March...the sun has been rising earlier and setting later which means that I am not going home from school at 4pm in the dark! Sometimes it is the little things that brighten my day. Today it was light outside until almost 5pm, that is so exciting considering it was getting dark at 3:45pm only 2 months ...

Hello again everyone! Sorry it has been so long since you've heard from me, but I had a wonderful holidays back in the States spending time with family and friends. I was lucky enough to visit my grandmother in New York and spend some quality time with my parents in Boston. After 2 short weeks, I made the trip back up north, stopping for a few days in Montreal. Back in Mistissini I was met with bitter cold, not surprising since it is winter here! It was high's of -25C (-13 F) for a few days when I got back. Then suddenly it started raining! RAINING! That is unheard of this far north at this time of year. The rain made everything into a skating rink and even froze the gas cap on my car. The temperatures rose to above freezing for that day and evening then sunk low again the next few days. I was lucky enough over the break to invest in a larger car for the winter up here, I got myself a RAV4 and let me tell you it is a dream to have in this snow and cold. There is so much s...