Hello Everyone,
The move was less than fun. Lets just run over the highlights. We left Repulse on time and arrived in Winnipeg a hour and half late after the usual 5 stops down the coast of the Hudsons Bay. When we arrived it was a blustery -11 in Winnipeg and it was a race to take off our coats and get to the hotel. For the last few days we had dreamed of what we would eat when we hit town but with the evenings adventures practicality pulled ahead of desire (OK that and apparently only one restaurant delivered after 11:00 on a weeknight in Winnipeg). The next leg of the journey to Toronto the next day went off without a hitch. Where we were met by my father for the trip to Oshawa. I was suprised by Melissa, when after being in TO for 30 minutes she said she missed home and wanted to return to the North.
Throughout booking we had concerns about the next leg of our journey, that being to Montreal, we only had 50 minutes to get our animals off the Air Canada (whom I personally despise) flight and get them registered, checked in and get to our First air flight. In Montreal we waited, and waited for our animals, then after sprintint through various checkpoints and hallways we made it to our First Air flight and comfortably sat in our seats after holding the flight up for 20 minutes... when we were asked to leave the plane along with everyone else. It seems the toilets weren't working and they wouldn't be able to leave until they where repaired. We were told this would take about 30 minutes. A hour and a half later we were given lunch vouchers and told to be back promptly at 12:15pm. At 12:15 we were told nothing. At 1:00 we were told we would spend another 5 hours in the airport waiting for a new plane to fly down from Iqualuit. So we waited, with a 4 year old who was woken up at 4:00 am for his trip to his new home. I made all the nessassary calls to home office and told them we wouldn't make our connector that left 15 minutes ago. And waited, with Christopher, who doesn't like waiting, we waited. We looked at planes, we walked the long halls, we enjoyed all the airport has to offer... and we longed to get out of the city. At 6:45 (fifteen minutes after we were able to get Christopher to fall asleep for a nap) we got on a plane with a ticked off 4 year old and headed to Kujjuuk where we would now be spending the night. We arrived in Kujjuuk and spent the night in some "Northern" housing that could have been cleaned with a sand blaster, but its just one night so who cares. The next day, we gathered up all the luggage and the animal crates and found someone to give us a ride to the airport, then found someone else who would actually show up to give us a ride and went to the airport. We unloaded all our bags and crates into a neat 8 foot pile (that I affectionlly call the crap from here on in), and went to get our tickets, which I confirmed at 9:00am that morning. Now, apparently syntax is very important at this point, I confirmed we were booked on this flight, not that we had seats on this flight. This was explained to me at the airport. I went outside to reflect. Then I waited for our ride and went to a hotel. The 8 foot pile of crap seemed to have gown to a 12 foot pile at this point.
The next morning I called the airport and confirmed we had "seats" on the next plane. We loaded the crap and ended up in Kangiqsuaq with no sanity but a pile of crap waiting fo us. Now we were supposed to move into the mangers house right away and the old manager was supposed to be at a hotel. Apparently this wasn't explained to the old manager who had not moved out (probably due to the parties he was hosting the next few nights), or booked us into the now full hotel. So we started calling teachers and housing associations looking for a place to stay, which we found and I won't tell you about it, but attempt to wrap this sucker up and say, we're happy to be here in our house. Our boxes have arrived, our animals are happy and I look forward to spending a couple of years here.
