Airline and Housing Thoughts

Hey Everyone

I am not going to be very long this evening. I just want to mention a few things to all the people thinking about coming up here to live. The price of plane tickets is getting outrageous. I know everyone says we get a northern allowance to cover that but, does it really? I know in my case I take 3 trips home a year, one at Christmas, one at Easter, and the big one in the summer. In my case my 3 trips times $2600 will cost around $7800. Then factor in the $7200 I pay for rent (I know I am getting off cheap but I live with another teacher), the $2400 I pay for utilities ( my share of the hydro, phone, cable, internet) and the extra cost I pay for a little sealift and it is easy to see we are not making the buckets of money that everyone thinks. If you have a spouse or partner with you your costs pretty much double. It is costing some people in the vicinity of $3000 per person to get home for Christmas. Rent just keeps rising along with the cost for travel. I really enjoy my school ,staff, and job but the added cost really has to make you think. I am pretty positive most of the time but these are 2 things that really tick me off. Does anyone else have any thoughts on the State of Housing and Airlines?
Don't forget to purchase your Christmas plane tickets as the price seems to be rising almost daily.

Cheers for now

Blake

A Day at the Beach

Hi Everyone

Just making a quick post on the happenings here in Cape Dorset this week. It is a fairly dreary Saturday but yesterday was a great day as we held a cultural for our students out at the park. As you can tell by the pictures everyone had a great time. We played games, had elders come to tell stories, and fed everyone over a campfire. The other treat was the fact that our school rented a vehicle so we could usher around the elders and get our gear out to and back from the park. The one down side of the day was our principal, Ed, was not present as he was attending meetings in Iqaluit and Cambridge Bay. It was the first time I had ever been involved with something like this so I thought things went really well. It couldn't have been pulled off without the assistance of the Cultural Day Committee and the whole school staff. They did a bang up job. There were a few hitches in it but when we do our next one we know what we have to do to improve it. I hope everyone finds the picture entertaining. I am also going to try and add the Carving video. I hope it works.

Cheers for now

Blake

Tuesday September 11th 2007

Hey Everyone

Just trying to make a post before we get too far into the week. I tried to make one last week but I tried to upload some video I did of some Cape Dorset carvers but the connection here is so slow that it would have taken 3 days to get it transferred. On the positive side, I got my phone line fixed. Joey and his helper were here last night around 9:00 pm to put a new outside drop in. On the long weekend we went on a brutally long but beautiful hike around Dorset Island. We seen some truly amazing sights of which I will post some pictures of. Thanks to Cal of the Coffee Shop, and his family for being our guides. It took us around 7 hours of steady walking and if anyone is familiar with the terrain it wasn't what you would call a walk in the park.
Attached are some pictures of the group and some gorgeous scenery. I certainly won't be making this trek again anytime soon.

Cheers for now
Blake