So this is that thing called ‘Civilization’
Wow, what a different world, and yet as different as it feels, it’s not. Getting on the OCTranspo bus at the airport to take me home didn’t really feel any different. Driving past the ginormous Walmart at South Keys made me question (again) what the heck is the point of that monstrosity and how it could possibly exist, but all in all the culture shock I thought I’d have coming back south never really happened. Guess I’m becoming a traveler – which is a good thing because my future has lot of that in store. Now that I think about it though, there was culture shock – but it was in the Iglulik airport. The arrival of the daily plane from Iqualuit isn’t like the ho-hum of another plane landing at some southern airport, it seems like half of Iglulik was in the tiny, one-room airport waiting to greet those who were coming home. The welcome wagon was in full force, everyone from 90 year old grandmothers to 9 month old infants, with many small kids running around screaming and playing. In my two weeks in the north, I’d gotten used to being in small groups (10 at most) and so being there with even 40 took some getting used to.
Getting off the plane in Iqualuit, I subconsciously reached behind me and re-buckled the seatbelt before getting up, just as the helicopter pilots had trained me to do. Two weeks isn’t that long, but it was long enough I guess. I shared a laugh with the three people sitting next to me who were coming out from Aviat Camp – and had also rebuckled their seatbelts.
One the plane back to Ottawa, I recognized two Sci ’06 engineers from Queen’s. Chalk up another point for random encounters in the Arctic, my chance encounter in Iglulik with the ESG person who interviewed me back in April for a job, and Trystan in Yellowknife brings the total to 3 so far. This world is tiny…
I don’t want to go back to work, so I think I’ll take tomorrow off. It’s somewhat justified by the fact that I really need to spend some time getting set for India, Oct. 12 is the tentative departure date, and hopefully tomorrow will make it official – as I plan on booking my ticket. There’s so much more to do though: visas, immunizations, confirming with the language school, deciding about NGO’s and what the heck I plan on doing, and tons of other stuff related. I am going, as crazy as it seems (especially having just been in the north!), now all I have to do is build up the courage to go and confirm all these details and commit to it, something I think I’ve been putting off for some reason.
So I’m “home” again – for now – as I’m moving on the weekend when my current sublet runs out. Conveniently, I’ll be house-sitting for a family friend for a few weeks while I finish my job – I never thought about the fact that it might be hard to find a place for only one month when I agreed to this three month sublet back in May, but the only other thing I could find was a hotel-esque suite complex that rented daily, weekly and monthly, for the discounted rate of $600 a week or $1500 a month!
I think I should stop this random string of thoughts that is pouring out, and just go to sleep. However, I’ll leave you with this. Being a healthy vegetarian in the North is effectively impossible (especially if you’re an environmental one like me), and I can now justifiably say that I don’t understand why people like to make those plain meat sandwiches (with white bread) smothered in gravy, now that I’ve had one. Either have a sandwich, or have meat and gravy, but gravy and white bread just don’t mix…
This is the online home of one Shane Warner, my place to attempt to tell some of my stories, as well as just spout off whatever comes to mind.
