I can has internet?

Well since I made my post yesterday, our Internet has plummeted in speed to almost nothing.  It’s worse than dial-up, if you can believe that.  We are going to talk with the store manager tomorrow about this.  If we’ve been throttled because we’re not currently paying, we will be glad to pay to get our connection back.  Sure, it didn’t compare to the 25 Mbps we had in Toronto, but it’s better than what we have now.

We are also going to find it somewhat of a challenge to eat a balanced diet.  I had hoped to go on the primal diet while up here, but given the amount of money we’re given per month, that won’t be feasible at all.  Instead of primarily eating protein and no carbohydrates, we are going to have to subsist mostly on carbohydrates instead.  There are almost no fresh fruits or vegetables, and only a small variety of frozen vegetables, compared to the south.   Real meat is, for now, going to be a Sunday supper sort of thing.   Considering a T-bone steak is $18 and two chicken legs cost $6, meat won’t be a regular thing.  Peanut butter and eggs are so far our main meat replacement for now.  We’re also going to eat Vector cereal for breakfast, since a bowl of that gives you 30-50% of your vitamins and minerals.  Up here it’s only $1 more than other cereals, so that’s pretty affordable.  Once we fall into a pattern of weekly groceries, I’ll have to share a receipt to give everyone an idea of just how expensive everything is up here.

We start work tomorrow, but our internet is pretty unreliable for now, so hopefully I will be able to post an update.

Stay warm,

~K

Welcome to Deer Lake!

Welcome to the new blog of K and A, chronicling our adventures in the Great White North.  We’ve started this blog as a way for our friends and family to keep in touch and see how life is treating us up here.  We are working for a company called the North West Company, which runs a chain of grocery stores called Northern in remote and semi-remote areas.

We arrived at Deer Lake First Nations last night, 2-3 hours after we were expected to land.  However we landed with enough time that the store at which we will be working was still open and we were able to buy a few groceries and supplies until we could get back there to do a proper shop today.  The flights were a bit nerve-wracking at times, but we made it safely.

When we arrived we were brought to our new house, which is about the same size as the 1 bedroom apartment we had in Toronto.  The kitchen is about 4 times larger than the one we had in Toronto (which had about 1 metre of floor space), which is definitely a good thing.  We didn’t have phone or internet when we arrived.  Today we figured out the modem and router that are in our new home, but the phone still has no dial tone.  Interestingly, the hot water faucet in our bath/shower has a vice grip affixed to it.  Our store manager is aware of both issues and is going to look into it on Monday.  So at the moment our primary amenities are internet and cable television, which is better than having neither.  🙂

Today we woke up to an outside temperature of -21°C.  We only know that because we have a thermometer outside our kitchen window.  It’s not too bad.  A keeps complaining about the cold, but for the distance we have to walk to the store, you don’t really get cold.  Oh, did I mention we live behind the store?  So yeah, not far to walk at all.

We start work on Monday so we might not have much to say between then and now.  🙂

Stay warm,

~K