Step 14 - Eat up, buttercup.

Mmmm. A freshly cooked home meal, every night, on the table at 6pm. It's clockwork.

The student diet has done a lot to keep me thin. Between biking EVERYWHERE and counting lentils as my main protein, I didn't worry too much about calories. When I moved up here, I pretty much assumed I would put on weight. The long winter, inhospitable temperatures, and hearty meals assured me of that. And though I have yet to pack on the pounds, I take comfort in four little words: “women of the north.”

Within my first month of moving here, I heard this powerful phrase. As the story goes, a friend had just moved up and was eating in a cafeteria. A some-what crazy older woman sat down and saw what she was eating. The women informed my friend that she had to eat more and put on a healthy layer of fat. With hands in the air and voice raised, she declared that we are, after all, “women of the north!”

Food in Fort McMurray, as in so many other places, tends to be the cornerstone of community. The dinner table is where friends gather, share laughs, and fight elbow to elbow for the chocolate cheesecake. In this case, it took teamwork to get all our desires deserts back to the table:

The German cannot get over what he calls “American sized portions.” He makes all the noise in the world about how large the restaurant servings are and then proceeds to eat the entire thing. He also finds the sizes of our potlucks overwhelming, but cannot resist their allure for long.

And just to make sure he is thoroughly embarrassed (so easy to do to Germans), his first Big Mac. “Ugh, it is disgusting how you Americans can eat this” he said as he devoured the cardboard burger. For the record, I had a salad.

Similarly, co-workers find it hard to contain themselves when presented with unwholesome amounts of food at a staff meal.

Even the well disciplined Cheetham's cannot subdue their joy at the taste of my first ever “moose loaf.” I believe that continued efforts on the cooking front will lead to even more productive relationships with the locals, who take their culinary endeavors very seriously:

So when I am sitting there with a bowl of chocolates calling my name, I take comfort in that powerful phrase “women of the north!” And then I help myself to another.

Step 13- Stay active.

Seriously, this is the scene when I get home from work at 4:20 pm. It is so easy to be inactive! With the snow and the -30 degree weather and the near complete lack of sunlight, it's hard to be motivated.

Staying active has a lot to do with what the social workers call “self-care.” For example, yesterday I was alone in the office and had an intoxicated, irate man come in and demand that I fix his problem. After having him up in my grills and being quite certain I would loose a tooth, and street worker I know popped in to get needles and dealt with him for me. It was pretty crazed.

And the best thing to do after something like that? Go play soccer. Soccer has become a HUGE stress relief. I get to run around and kick a ball. The hip checks are really good at letting steam out, though I do get a lot of red cards. Who knew organized physical violence could be such a great coping mechanism?

And what would life be without random limbo parties?

Even while at work, my friend and I take breaks in the afternoon to go for walks. Of course we always have reasons to head out: the mail has to be delivered or something needs to be picked up. It just so happens that we need to walk to the post office box farthest from the office and maybe had to hit up the mall while picking up supplies:

Work involves other forms of activity too, like moving furniture for our housing clients. I should note that we only look this happy while moving furniture because we had just eaten a whole bucket of Mary Brown's chicken. That may have offset the benefits of the cardio work, but only a little.

I am lucky, too, to have a forest in the backyard. This, of course, means hikes and snowshoeing. Last week, when it was -40 with windchill, I could only stay out for 30 minutes at a time. You get tired SO quickly, but I was warned by someone that "if you sit down for a rest, that's where they'll find your body the next day." The body temperature drops quicker that your heart rate. So, as a good friend, I made Jessica make me a snow angle. You know, to keep her warm:

Then there are the weekend walks in the rare and precious sunshine. Granted, this walk was to get a movie, which we watched indoors with the lights off while the sun was shining. Meh- it's the thought, right?

So staying active has just become part of the challenge, I guess. I am not going for the $75 a month gym membership. I honestly don't believe that I will be willing to put on my snow gear for the walk from the parking lot to the gym and back. It's quite a shift to go from the gym 4 days a week, and 40 or so kilos a day on the bicycle to sedentary sloth (is their any other kind?). But hey, who needs cardio around here? Half the year it is too cold to breathe deeply outside.

Step 12- Engage with the indigenous population.

Winter wishes? Yeah, I wish my truck didn't look like this every morning when I want to get to work:

Just about all possible physical activity has moved indoors. The pick-up soccer league, once enjoyed in long-johns and fleece, has now moved inside the rec centre. Walks with friends have to be less than 45 minutes, or you need to wear a balaclava.

Now that the great outdoors is closed off for any great lengths, it's time to explore alternatives. There aren't really places to hang out here, or things to go and do. (As a caveat, there are a few nightclubs and strip bars, but that's not really my scene... ) You have to make your own fun. And that's the kind of fun I like. Locals will often go to great lengths to entertain themselves. The young men in particular are prone to playing with high velocity projectiles. Here are some of the guys, working on a potato cannon:

There is a really strong sense of community here. The mentality is that we are all in this together, so we should all make the best of it. One group of friends I have gotten connected with has dinner together at somebodies house every Sunday. There were about 20 of us there last week. Following soccer, and then the meal, we talk and play games. The locals' houses become hang outs. And we use whatever we can to have a laugh. Like board games, card games (can you name this one?), and multi player moving ping pong:

This last Sunday we had a young mum join us with her daughter. Here we are strategizing our moves against our unsuspecting opponents:

The snow and freezing conditions outside make evenings like this seem so much cozier. There are these little islands of warmth and light and merriment that dot the icy landscape. And, on more youthful days, the locals will still venture outside for a rousing round of Kick the Can or Cops and Robbers. Some are sorer losers than others...

It's really amazing that households will open their houses to all of these loud and strange people every week. It is a really neat kind of dependency. It is kind of like people up here need each other and look out for one another. People offer help in very tangible ways. People are very generous with their time (and houses) and are very welcoming of new faces. And that goes for everyone- oil barons and unemployed youth. People talk in grocery store line ups. One persons problem is every bodies problem. And those of us who LIVE here, not the fly in and fly out residents, know that this town is what you make of it. And the locals make it great.