Observations

Today: cloudy and high of -9 C in downtown Whitehorse. 

1. Like in Calgary, if you so much as angle your shoulders towards the road cars slam on their brakes to allow you to jaywalk. Apparently its the law and it's SO unsafe and horrible! Sucks the function of jaywalking right out since it's so unpredictable for oncoming traffic, and people walking out into roads without even looking. It's reliably cringeworthy every time I go outside. 

2. There are full length radio commercials for Pepsi that are only songs about how great pepsi is and how it's the Yukon's choice. Are there radio ads like that in Ontario? I feel like it's old-timey to just have a full length Pepsi jingle for an ad..no talking, no sound effects, no story line.

3. There is no cheap pizza in Whitehorse. A medium pizza from Pizza Hut is $24. There is no Pizza Pizza. 

4. The superstore up here is a Loblaws one which means if an item scans wrong you get it free up to $10/item. I check my receipt every time and I've had well over $50 free stuff for the three times I've shopped there. When I get clever, I'll go back every day to exploit the system (like my clever sister!).  Apparently lots of the kids they hire to do carts and price changes just don't show up for work. 

5. There are no milk bags here. Only cartons and plastic jugs. A 2 litre carton of organic milk is almost $9. 4 litres of regular milk is about $4.50. Prices for food and things are generally on par to Ontario with some exceptions like produce. I like the shop the deals just like home and when we know what our income will be after recover from moving here costs, I will have a food budget.  

6. The superstore has a weekly flier special where if you spend more than X then you qualify for some free deal. On week you had to spend more than $250 and you got a huge box of chicken. Or he next week it was $150 on your bill meant a free box of oranges. Sometimes you qualify for a gift card. If you have a big family or do a  big shop every now and then or buy furniture or kitchen stuff there it works out okay.  I like flyer deals even if there is no way I'm spending $250 in one shot ever. 

7. Whitehorse, being he big city is the butt of city jokes up here, which I find hilarious since it's still a small city to me. 

8. I never used to drink regular tea and now I do every day. Now I take milk  with it too. I don't know why that changed. 

9. We "spring forward" with time this weekend which is funny because we are still very much in winter over here. I hear April is the thaw month and I'd bet not the beginning of the month. 

10. I like that the Yukon Quest,  local cross country ski races and snowmobile association rides make the local daily radio news. 

11. Call-ins for the radio actually describe songs like so "yeah hi, Kevin here! I wanna hear that song, uh, from that girl who sounds like (insert some girl's name here)..uh, something about love?"  and the DJ figures it out and plays the tune. Also, where Ottawa stations seem to love Tom Cochrane with the undying fire of a thousand suns, over here it's "classic" 80's "hits" like 'Rock Me Amadeus' by Falco.   I'm not sure how I feel about that yet. 

12. Everybody here is freaking chatty. When we went to get our driver's licenses*  we stood in line for 10 minutes, were helped by 3 different people (there were 4 of us in line, an afternoon rush I guess) and she chatted with us for like 20 minutes easily. And then it turned out that they messed up Rob's license and he had to get a new one. They put periods between his initials an apparently you can't do that. 

13. I'm still not used to the view. From asking around, some people get used to seeing the mountains and the forests and relegate them to background scenery and some don't. 

14. I start my job on monday and I haven't held a day job in more than 3 years. I have a mug and I'm getting a lunch bag probably today. Do I need anything else? I can't remember anything but making sure I have snacks and tea at all times. 

15. I have started making weekly meals lists. I never did that before but since going for groceries is a trip or something to remember on the home form work, it pays to have a plan of what we'll need. Plus when we get home we can pick from the list and have all we need to make the food. I think Pizza fridays are going to be a regular on the list especially since we heard we can get local organic wild game at the deli in town. I think that'll be good on pizza and it's a cheap way to spread meat out. 

Fin!

* The licenses here are amazing! They are, no joke, laminated with a library laminating machine and typed! Typed! I hear it's annoying to get carded anywhere else because the licenses look like they were made in a someone's basement. Someone told me that their kid needed a motorcycle designation so he unlaminated his card, added the designation, and re-laminated it. And the health cards. The health cards are plastic cards with no magnetic stripe or photo, and you get a sticker mailed every year and that's you covered. Unreal. 

ETA: Unreal, the local radio station is playing the Flight of the Conchords Bowie's in Space song!




They bleeped out part of the word bastard, but not any of the parts about nipples! It's 12:41 in the afternoon. wow.