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Hi.

I am Green, also known as Aputii which is my Inuktitut name and it means 'Snow.' This name was given to me by my boyfriend who is Inuit, and for those of you who have no clue what that is, just think Eskimo. Though they do not like being called that... It's Rude! *Shakes her fist*

Anyway, I am origionally from Ontario, I am turning 21 in September. I spent a year in a place called Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, for work, which is where I met my boyfriend. Again, if you have no idea where that is... Think of extreamely North in Canada, where there are no tree's and the snowdrifts build up to cover transport trucks.

Life there was great. I loved the land, flat almost with huge hills of rock, no grass, just moss.. Sik siks all around, Huskies, Caribou(Yummmmy!), and distant Muskox(Umingmuk- In Inuktitut). The people were very friendly, although the town is overrun with booze and weed($150 for a 40 of vodka and $50 of one gram of weed), Which leads to the gradual distruction of the people.
Another great thing, it's the first place that I have come across where the only vehicles you need are a Four wheeler(Honda), and a Ski-doo(Machine) for daily life. Having cars is useless because of the amount of snow in the winter, you would walk out to your car in the morning and not be able to find it because your standing on it, though you don't know this because it is burried in ten feet of snow. Also, If your lucky enough for it not to be burried, I doubt your be lucky enough for it to actually start then it is -55c with the wind chill.

Most people would get trucks, but they still get stuck.

There, they have maybe 2 months of near summer, the rest is snow.. Oh, and they have the whole 24 hour daylight and opposit in the winter.

The Northern lights are cool, though I did not see them as often as I thought I would before I went up there.

I lived there for a year, really enjoyed it, however I was itching to go back to civilization... In Rankin, the only way in and out is by plane.. which costs about $1200 per person for a one way ticket.

Oh, this is another thing about up there... Stuff is very expensive. Everything has to be flown in or brought twice a year by barge. Therefore, you pay for shipping and handling.. So instead of milk costing $6 for 4 liters... Your paying $13 for that same amount. We had a one bedroom apartment there for $1100 a month, plus heating and power and water... It was costing us about $1600 a month.

That was too much.. and when your only earning $13 an hour.. It's too much. So, we decided to move.

Easier said than done.

We checked online and found a resturuant that offered staff housing in Fox Creek, Alberta(We picked Alberta because of the need for workers, and holy s**t do they need people!). We bought our tickets, sold everything and went there only to find that it was a dive of a town which lived off of booze and they stuck us in an old house with a bunch of partying crack heads.. That are whores... Yeah... I don't drink, nore do I do drugs, and my boyfriend is learning not to be an alcoholic. This place was bad... Really bad.

Oh, by the way... I'm a Cook.

Anyway.. We stayed there for a month, no sleep, crappy shifts and bad food. Then a friend of ours from Nunavut came up to work there too... He hated it just as much as we did, however, the difference was.. Instead of keeping quiet about it, he would go get piss as drunk at the bar(at work) and tell everyone who walked by about our problems. Yah... He's a bit of a jerk... You'll hear more about him later.

So, we made up our minds one night. I called up a family friend in Edmonton and she offered to let us stay with her until we found an apartment. We had a little more than enough money to buy our bus tickets and get a place. So, we stayed up all night packing( I was suppose to work at 8am)... 5am rolled around, our friend came home, drunk. We told him that we were leaving... He deicided to come to, and said he could stay with his sister in Edmonton till he got a place. Which would work.

The bus ticket counter opened at 6am and the first bus to Edmonton was at 7am.. Now, the problem is... the bus ticket place is in the same building as where we all worked. sweatdrop

So, we headed there at 6am with all of our luggage... Got our tickets... And our bosses came out to find out what the hell we are doing. They wanted us to sit and have coffee with them and tell them what was going on. So we reminded them of the problems that we told them about our first week there and said that they had not done much to help the home situation.. One of our bosses got REALLY pissed and just left. By that time, we had to get moving to catch our bus.. God, it felt so good to get on that thing and wave good bye to Fox Creek...

We ended up in Edmonton just after 2pm where my guy and I got picked up and we went to my friends' place.. They are such great people.. they helped us search for an apartment in a good area, signed as references and everything.

The origional plan was that we would get a one bedroom, but my guy talked me into letting our other friend from Rankin move in with us. I did not want him to, I had lived with him before in Rankin(staff housing) and he was the main reason I moved out... Due to his constant drinking and bitching.

So, stupid me, I agreed, we found two bedroom for $700 a month, within budget. and we all moved in. For the first while, things were okay.. We were looking for jobs, and soon we all had them.

But as s**t goes.. I quit my job because it was just crappy, and required too much traveling, My guy quit his because he was treated like a kid( he is also a cook).. This was the beginning of hard times.. We were both looking for work, but it was harder now for us because the kids are almost out of school and lining up to get summer jobs... After a few weeks and no word, we were starting to get really worried.. But, then I had a call from Red lobster on the South side..(I live on the North end).. Went for the interveiw, my guy came with to hunt for jobs in the area. The interveiw went great, they offered me a job right then and there, and of course I took it.. $12 an hour.

When I went outside to see my boyfriend, he informed me that he too had gotten a job! I was so happy!

Working at Red Lobster was really fun, after three days there they said I was faster than people who had been working there for years.. I really enjoyed it, it was very fast paced.

Now, things were not working for my boyfriend at his workplace, so I told him to apply at red lobster.. he did and was hired.

He liked it there too... Now... The problem was(His problem, not mine), that it took 45 minutes by bus to get there, and if we missed that curtial bus, we had to take a $30 taxi ride. Which happened too often, and we were going broke..
So, He decided that we should quit... I did not want to, but I understood his point and I also had another job to go to.. A job as a cook at a Goth/punk night club called New City Suburbs, which I though would be great because it would allow me to be myself. And we followed through...

It took a little while for my guy to find another job, but he did and is still working, as am I, at New city.. However, I am only getting $8 an hour and I am working just part time.. Which is not enough.

Our roommate, he has until the end of the month, as he does little more than lie and drink...which was the first rule of the place... no drinking. I cannot wait until he is gone... Get rid of his bullshit.

Also another reason why I want him out is because My guy is trying NOT to drink, and our roommate likes to offer him drinks... which is wrong.. because if he has one, he wont stop.. and before you know it, he's had too much and is trashing the place... Yes, this happened... we are very close to being kicked out of the apartment..

sweatdrop

So, currently, I have applied to work as a Camp cook, and am waiting for them to call me back. My guy has promised me that he will take care of the apartment while I am out.. 3 weeks gone, 1 week off.. If all goes well, I'll be making at least $1000 a week and our debt problems will be quickly solved... heart

I really hope they call me!

Well, that is the story... I will do my best to keep you posted.. but if I am hired out to the camps, you wont hear too much from me for a while.

I want to visit my mom, I have not seen her in over a year... Not since I left Ontario.. and if the camp thing works out, I can fly down and visit for one of my weeks off.