A Week of Warm Weather

I have now had a week to acclimatize myself to the new environment and I can say it hasn't been as cold as expected. From what people are saying, the -10 temperatures won't be lasting long and I should soak up the last of these warmer temperatures before the real -30 wake up call creeps up. Now a lot of my time spent indoors is spent bundled up since my bedroom is in the basement of a house with a floor that feels as if someone took a nice rug and laid it professionally over a foundation of ice. I should have brought warm slippers however I do thank my dad for giving me a couple pairs of his thermal socks before I left. Little did I know at the time that I would be using them more inside than I am anywhere else so far. Anyway, from what I can gather about Whitehorse so far is that you must love the outdoors to even think about wanting to come here and not hating your stay. It seems everyone is active outside of work doing lots of stuff like skiing (downhill and cross country), snowboarding, snowmobiling, physical activity at the recreational center (working out, playing hockey, etc.), fishing, hiking, camping, and I even overheard a conversation the other day about someone owning sled dogs. Now no one should assume that my observations are representative of the population but the mass majority of the people who I have met so far are extremely friendly and above all else, generous and helpful. I say this because I'm frequently finding myself accepting a lot of favours or generous gestures that I never asked for in the first place. For being a capital city, it maintains more of a village-like atmosphere especially since it's against the law to build any structure larger than 4 stories. It's not because they can't, it's because since the daylight is limited in the winter that smaller buildings shadowed by larger ones would essentially be sunlight deprived all day. I went out at lunch a few times around the area including downtown and took some photos.

About my job position, I am a coop student working as a geotechnical technician. I will be doing AutoCAD drafting, data summarization and interpretation in such programs like Excel, I will do some report writing, I will do on-site testing of material as well as testing of possibly asphalt, concrete, and soil in the lab. I have a nice office in the upstairs section of my workplace.

One thing I want to mention is the abundance of ravens around here. They look like massive crows and they scavenge for food in places like parking lots and dumpsters. I got a couple photos of some in the Walmart parking lot. They're not at all creepy in my opinion. In fact, after seeing two fight over a McDonalds burger bun, I thought they were quite funny to watch (I'm not a bird watcher....well in this case I am).

Quoth the raven: "We Sell For Never More".

Anyway, before I end this I have to say that I have lost a once close friend of mine this past weekend. He was an integral part of my elementary school days and I had some good adventures with him throughout high school as well. I wish I had kept closer contact with him up until now because he really meant well and apart from some of the strange things he did it was always in good fun. May Kevin Hogan have an afterlife twice as good as this one. Apart from that, I hope for better news from back home in the future and I bid all readers adieu for now.