Beautiful people, beautiful scenery

The weather has taken a turn for the better. With highs of 20°C this past week and nearing 30° for the next week, it feels like spring was skipped and summer has arrived. Over the past 48 hours the buds on the trees have started to open and right now there is an explosion of light-green leaves starkly contrasted against the dark-green of the spruce trees and the rocky snow-caps of the mountains. It’s a gorgeous thing to witness and I am privileged to have this epically beautiful experience.

From what I understand, the weather is particularly different up here this year. The winter was longer, colder and harder, and spring has arrived later than normal. Abnormal weather is the trend around the world these days and it is becoming increasingly more difficult to predict. You ought to leave your house prepared for 20-degree shifts in temperature and be ready for drought or floods and severe storms. It boggles the mind that there are still people who deny that climate change is real when I can clearly detect shifts in weather patterns within my short life. Though, this is a subject for a different post.

The pace of life is much slower here in the North, and people seem to be friendlier for it. It’s reminiscent of my experience in Guatemala, in that when you walk down the street you say hello to folks you encounter and they actually respond with a smile and a greeting. That doesn’t happen so frequently back home. People also go out of their way to help you out. I am routinely offered guided tours of the wilderness, receive invites to join a group of friends for the weekend adventures and am given suggestions about the best way to go for a canoe trip down the Yukon river. I have seldom, as of yet, accepted any of these offers but am keeping a detailed mental list and plan to take full advantage of people’s kindness. Hopefully, I can appropriately reciprocate their unselfish helpfulness. 

On that note, I highly recommend to anyone who is disillusioned about the state of humanity to take a trip to a different place and relish in the kindness of strangers. Go to a developing country, somewhere more economically sound or a place just a few hours away from home, it is a beautiful thing to be warmly welcomed into a place that is a little strange. It strengthens the soul and makes the heart happy. I am living proof that you don’t need a lot of money to make this happen, you just can’t be risk-adverse or be shy about asking for help.

I should’ve brought warmer clothes.

When packing for this trip, I opted to not carry my winter jacket across the continent. What a silly Southerner I am. Since last weekend the temperature hasn’t broken 10°C. It is currently -1°C in Whitehorse with an overnight low of -3°C and snow in the forecast. If you look closely, you can see the snow swirling off the snow capped mountains just waiting to rip through your clothing and send shivers to your bones. 

This is not what I am accustomed to calling spring, but the people here are outside cleaning up their yards (they sweep their lawns with brooms to remove a mold that builds up this time of year, strange) and gardens in anticipation of warmer weather. I’m not cut out for the cold and am wishing that I had packed mittens, a toque and my warm winter jacket. 

Walking into town

Besides the weather, I am in constant and complete awe of the beauty of this place. There’s a reason that they call Whitehorse the Wilderness City. A myriad of trails exist here that take you into pristine nature within minutes of leaving your door. I am somewhat surprised, though, of the amount of trash that you encounter but I am of the opinion that it’s because the snow just melted and folks haven’t had a chance to go out and do their annual trash pick-up. 

This awareness and appreciate for nature from the people is something I really love about it here; there is a connectedness to the land that doesn’t exist in the same way in Southern Ontario. I suppose when more than half your life is subject to surviving the frigid elements, you feel a certain appreciation for the land. 

I keep telling the kids that I work with to be thankful that they get to live with mountains. Most of them seem to shrug off my words, until I show them a few pictures I have from a hot air balloon ride I was fortunate to take a few days before coming North. It’s only then that their eyes widen in awe of how far the eye can see. Southern Ontario is beautiful in it’s own right, but mountains, gosh I just love them.

In other news, I have moved from living with the family I originally got set up with here, and am now staying with my friend who set me up with the gig at the Boys and Girls Club and his girlfriend. I am beyond grateful to have folks open their home to me. People really do make a place. They also have an awesome dog, Pearl, which is making separation from my pup more bearable and oddly more painful.

Less than 48 hours in the North

As the plane was preparing for landing the pilot came over the intercom system and said that the temperature outside was 14 degrees. I half didn’t believe him because I had been staring at frozen water for the past two hours, but he had no good reason to lie. Regardless, I put on a light sweater and pulled out my jacket in anticipation of the air being crisp and cold. It’s a strange thing to see snow and ice, have your brain tell you to bundle up and then to have your body tell you that it’s too warm.

The Whitehorse airport is small and quaint. Security is minimal (I left the airport to have a cigarette and then came back in to claim my luggage without anyone saying a word, weird) and everything had the orange and yellowish colour tones of the 70s. Immediately I felt like I had taken a step back in time and really felt that I was in a little northern town, though Whitehorse is a big town in these parts.

I haven’t quite found my feet, yet. That is to be expected as I have only been here for less than 48 hours. So far, I like it a lot. It is a very different experience from going to Guatemala, there isn’t a language barrier, and the cultural barrier is much less severe. Yesterday, I stopped in at the Boys and Girls Club, where I am working for the next six weeks, just to get a general feel for where I would be spending a good deal of my time. I had intended to get in and out rather quickly and then explore the city, but they were short-staffed and asked if I could start right away – of course I would.

I think the strangest thing for me to get used to is the amount of day-light there is. My body has generally been in-tune with the sun – when it’s dark outside I’m tired and when it’s bright I am awake. But here, right now at least, the sun never goes away. Last night when I returned home, I felt exhausted and had intended on taking a nap. I went into my room and before I knew it, it was 10pm but the sun was still so strong that it looked like 5pm outside. My body is either going to adapt or I am going to become an insomniac. Fingers crossed for adaptability.

The family that I am staying with is exceptionally friendly and interesting. I am grateful to have found them and have them welcome me into their home with their arms wide open. They are tentatively planning a trip to Dawson City (6 hour drive North) and Skagway, Alaska sometime during my time here…very cool!

It’s wonderful to be around mountains again. These ones are very different ones from the ones I lived with in Guatemala, extremely gorgeous but in a pristine sort of way. Well, I don’t have much else to say. I am sitting in a Tim Horton’s using their internet and should probably be productive before the battery on my computer dies. 

I’m going north! Wait, what?

My job at the electronics factory ended rather abruptly early last week. I returned home after a shift one day and received a phone call saying that I had just finished my last day. Temporary employment, sigh, it has zero job security. Back to full-time job hunting, again.

Yesterday, I responded to something a university acquaintance posted about a short-term position in the Yukon. He got back to me quickly and it felt like the job was mine as long as I could get myself there.

I’ve managed to save a significant portion of what I’ve made over the last few months and I can afford the journey. With my luck finding work in my field here in Ontario over the last nine months, I’ve been thinking that I need a change of scenery. The timing of this just seemed too perfect to not take advantage of it.

So, we chatted about the job earlier today – kind of an informal interview. Then a few hours later, I had the real interview. After answering a few questions and a bizarre one about physical abuse, I heard the golden words, “You’re hired. When were you thinking of coming?” Crazy.

I’ve booked my flight. I leave May 9th for Whitehorse (I even get to fly through BC and see the Rockies!). No leaving myself stranded in a strange place this time, so I have a flight home six weeks later.

I’m not entirely certain about what this adventure holds for me, like any good adventure, I suppose. After telling my parents my plans, my Mom said, “You never make plans.” True statement. From what I understand, nonprofit opportunities are rampant in the Yukon and there’s possibility that I could land an amazing, permanent job while I am there. Who knows? At the very least, I’ll get to experience a new environment and finally go west!

You know when you make a big decision and immediately after committing it you think, “What did I just do?” in the healthy sort of way? That’s me right now, reeling in the excitement of it all. Mountains, here I come.