Confident Calgarian Conibears

Wow, what happened to February?! I feel like Jack Frost dropped a roofie in my drink during those heady days in January and now face March bleary eyed and a little wiser. Okay so it hasn't been that bad, but certainly busy times. The first week of February brought in the new semester here at the high school and along with it a visit from Turtle Concepts, a confidence boosting group aimed at convincing Aboriginal youth that it's okay to be confident in who you are and succeed at life. It sounds like it's been dusted with le fromage, but kids were really receptive and caught on to the message that you have a choice in your life's direction. You have to realize eventually that it's okay to be who you are, otherwise you'll never be comfortable.

I spent the next week prepping for my med school interview at the University of Calgary and then found myself being whisked away to the balmy temperatures of the Rockies. It was great to stretch my city legs for a bit, eat some delicious food, walk on pavement and most importantly taste a delicious pint of beer for the first time in 6 months. Can you believe you can't get draft beer anywhere in Inuvik? I got to tour around Canmore with Nikki, who played a fantastic host and who's friend Lucy managed to secure us a fantastic dog sled ride in the moutains of Spray Lakes Provincial Park. Oh yeah I had an interview somewhere in there too. I guess I wasn't thinking too much about that possibility when I packed to come to Inuvik, but quickly realized that I had nothing suitable to wear. Plaid shirts and holey pants are not the norm at those sorts of things, despite supreme comfort. So after some hunting around my outfit consisted of 2$ pants from the Inuvik thrift store, shoes 50% off in Calgary, belt 50% off in Canmore, shirt and tie from prep school teacher Dan and suit jacket from Scottish Murray. Somehow it all came together into a pretty professional looking outfit. Thanks to all who contributed, including the recession that enabled me to buy clothing on sale.

The interview itself went really well I thought, but it seemed like everyone had the same thoughts, so maybe the entire process is geared to lull you into a false sense of security. Hopefully I presented my burning desire to practice medicine somewhere in answering ridiculous scenarios that seemingly had little to do with the actual job and more to do with tip-toeing around dicey ethical problems. It was a really positive experience though and a much bigger feel than the Northern Ontario campus. Something about being nestled in a newly built medical complex with soaring skylit atriums, that makes you feel important. Definitely wouldn't be a bad place to spend 3 years.


No sooner did I get back from Calgary than I was whisked out on a skidoo-fueled adventure in the Mackenzie delta where we took 6 outdoor ed students on a trapper training program sponsored by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. While not exactly a serene picture of nature, snowmobiles certainly made traveling 70 km out to the cabin and roaming around setting traps and collecting firewood a hell of alot easier, plus who knew careening around portage trails and blasting over frozen lakes could be so much fun. Two Gwich'in elders accompanied the trip and brought their knowledge of trapping practices and stories along with them. We managed to catch 3 snowshoe hares (enough to make rabbit stew) and learn the different techniques for skinning both marten and rabbit. Our muskrat trap didn't yield any animals alas. I'll be posting some pictures soon and I'll try to keep them tasteful, but it's tough to make a skinless animal look anything but alien like. It was great to get out on the land though and work with a small group of interested kids. Once the apocalypse comes, I'll be snaring rabbits left, right and centre.