Canadian winter : NWT, yellowknife. Last night..

Just like i predicted.. Auroras were not visible tonight! That concludes my trip and adventure up north! I dont want to be negative but this place is known for its high chance of seeing auroras! Theres 95% chance of seeing it! Guess our luck/7oba/3ain made us fall in the 5% of bad luck. Sigh...

Al7amdallah 3ala kol 7al! Maybe im meant to see it some other time! Maybe im meant to see it with some one special! 

Maybe..

One day, We shall meet ..

positive shift

Positive shift !

Never underestimate mindfulness. Its amazing and mind blowing when you are able to catch yourself dwelling in negativity and then be able to switch it to a more positive attitude by being mindful. Its an exhilarating feeling as if now you are dealing with a completely new situation.

Ive traveled all the way to Yellowknife to see the auroras. I couldn't used this vacation to do other things that are guaranteed to make me have fun but i chose to gamble and pay all this money to come here hoping that id see the real beauty of northern lights ..

ive spent 3 nights here with no luck and tonight is my last night and it doesn't look promising at all. The weather is bit, its snowing and pretty cloudy add to that that the auroras are not so active tonight so ive made peace with the fact that i may return to Toronto without seeing it ..

i was feeling really sad this morning, cursing my luck and just i was really feeling down.

But i kinda managed to take a step back and revisit the whole trip and i realized that :

although i havent seen the auroras but :

1. ive spent my long weekend outside Toronto which is always a good thing.
   2. i made so many friends from different countries in yellow knife
   3. ive been to a new province and a new city that most Canadians havent even visited
2. now i know how the true Canadian winter feels. Ive felt how -40 feels like .
   4. i know the pain of having a frostbite
   5. i was introduced to MAPLE BUTTER !! omg !!! these Canadians add maple syrup to everything and boy oh boy maple butter is something else ! I could eat it with a spoon lol its such a treat
   6. ive tried real winter things: dog sledding, ice fishing
   7. IVE BEEN IN A REAL IGLOO !! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT !! A REAL IGLOO !!!! checks it out of my bucket list
   8. ive been to a new airport ( calgary )
   9. i learnt how to gear up for winter ( the hard way lol )
   
   it is true that i havent fulfilled the whole purpose of this trip and it is true that ive spent alot of money on that and i guess its easy to feel disappointed and to consider the whole thing as a failure but there is always a positive side to everything. there’s always a gain when there’s a loss. Theres always something good happening despite the chaos around us.
   Yes i havent seen the auroras, yes im financially compromised, yes my trip partner is a disaster , yes i was not able to give myself the auroras as a valentine gift but ive done something now, ive challenged myself and made a progress. And by typing this, i guess im getting more flexible mentally and hopefully with more positive attitude.
   I guess the positive side of not seeing the auroras this time is that now i have an excuse to go to Iceland or Norway for another auroras hunt :P

We come to life with our expectations and our own agendas but no one can tame life and no one can control the outcomes of our decisions. And this can easily feel like a failure and you can easily be disappointed when things dont go your way but remember, YOUR way is NOT the only way and it doesnt matter where you end up in as long as you made it somewhere .

Being positive feels differently and definitely doesnt feel like myself but the truth is, it feels GOOD !! exactly my point, if its not my way ( myself ), it doesnt mean that its bad.

Let go and let life steer you around and you’ll be surprised about how exciting it is.

Canadian winter adventure: NWT, aurora hunt: 3rd night

When the bus picked us up! We could see some auroras on the aurora liveview so we were racing against time to reach to the camp before they are gone since their timing and length are very unpredictable. 

Another extended stay, another 6hrs in the cold weather but no luck! Ppl actually managed to take photos of a very faint line but then it turned out that it was the auroras through their camera but nothing impressive with your naked eyes *pouts*

I got one more night... Ya rab... Ill really be heart broken if i dont see the auroras tomorrow! I paid 2000 dollars for this and i want my moneys worth :(

Canadian winter adventure: NW territories: day 3

We decided to try ice fishing today we booked a 120-dollar-3hrs-ice fishing trip. They picked us up around 10 am, we were at the lake by 1020. They broke the ice, threw the net inside and pulled it out in 10min. Ppl were taking photos of the fish and we were back in the bus by 1040!!!!!!!

This is NOT ice fishing and i didnt pay 120 dollars to take photos with fish!!!! *mumbles* this is a rip off and humiliation to fishing!!!!

The frozen lake #nofilter

Then the second part was to eat our own fish according to the advertisement. The net only caught 3 fish and the bus had more than 20ppl so definitely thats not going to feed us all unless they are planning to make sushi with it!! Which will work perfect since me n my friend were the only non asian on the bus lol. But seriously fish at 11am!!!!

Next on the list was DOG SLEDDING!! I guess igloo building and dog sledding was the most north-polish activities anyone can do!! It started fun but then i started to feel sorry for the dogs! 3 dogs pulling 2 big girls!!! I felt really guilty :( 

It was extremely cold though! After 15min, i was not able to feel my face, fingers or toes though i was wearing double socks n a really fat mitt!!!! So at the end of the ride, i was guilty and cold lol!! I was really cold that i freaked out about having frostbite!!! It was painfully numb!!!!

Seriously!!! This kind of cold is pretty dangerous!!!! 

Kittens overload!!!

Our two domestic cats ran out of the house once and came back. Months later, we discover that both pregnant!!!

My mom hates them and when she knew that both are about to to give birth for more cats, she went nuts!! Lol demanding to kick them out of the house!!!

So my dad was trying to get rid of them

Lol anyway, he is serious about getting rid of them and has made an agreement to hand the two pregnant cats to my aunt in a couple of days.

However,

The first one gave birth to 6 beautiful kittens yesterday and that made my dad even more mad lol

And

The other one gave birth this morning!! I think my dad will have a stroke now lol!! 

So we got a total of 11 newly born kittens lol! I have no idea how the hell we are going to hide thess from mum anddad but lol the situation is HILARIOUS!!! Anyone looking to adopt kittens?? We got plenty lol 

My sister is thinking about taking the. To paws but im not sure that they will accept 11 newly born kittens lol !! Thats just insane

Sorry i had to post that coz i thought her " 5al traye7 " comment was halorious lol

Day two of NW territories adventure

Day two was okay. Not as productive as i hoped. We returned to our hotel from aurora viewing at 1.30 and were in bed by 2. It was hard for us to get up early in the morning! We were up by 11:30 and out of the hotel by 1:30 ! It was too late to book any activity for the day so we decided to explore the town!

We walked around the tiny city of yellow knife! Saw princes of wales museum of aboriginal culture. I was impressed by the museum to be honest! It was too good for a lil town! It was rich with cultural and wild life things!!! So much to touch!!! So much to try!!!

This is the closest i got to petting a polar bear ha ha!!

We also found *drumsroll* IGLOOOOS!!!!!! Built beside the museum!! Omg omg omg omg omg!!! I ran like a mad woman towards em!!  Do u know how badly i wanted to see a real igloo???? Omg its so cozy and warm inside!!! Too warm for -30 C out there!!!!!!

After that, we headed to pilot monument where you get to see the whole of yellow knife city and then walked to the ice castle!! A whole castle made of ice!!! Its soo huge!! Too bad that it was not done yet

We had lunch at a local restuarant! Had very interesting walls!!! It had stuff written by visitors n it was ALL OVER THE PLACE!! Literally!!!

I decided to order something aboriginal so i went for the buffalos steak! Was too chewy and didnt really like the taste of it

Our second auroras hunt was also a failure! Although we extended our stay at the aurora village for 6hrs, there was no sign of it! According to the official website for aurora watch, there was a strong activity but no one saw it *sobs*

We got 2 more nights left and tomorrows weather doesnt look promising :( *pouts*

Can you see the ice cubes in that water bottle? They formed inside my bottle while the bottle was inside my bag while waiting for the auroras!!! This is how cold this place is!!!!!!

Canadian adventure: winter : yellow knife - northwest territories .

The Northwest Territories (NW It had a population of 41,462 as of the 2011 census, 

The Northwest Territories reaches for over 1,300,000 km² (500,000 sq mi) so there is a large climate variant from south to north. The southern part of the territory (most of the mainland portion) has a subarctic climate while the islands and northern coast

The NWT is one of two jurisdictions in Canada – Nunavut being the other – where Aboriginal peoples are in the majority, constituting 50.3% of the population.^[18]

 Whats striking that is they get 20hrs of daylight in the summer. Imagine fasting ramadan there :/

---------------------------

This trip is one of the most spontanous mad adventures ive ever made for so many reasons;

1. Though ive always wanted to see the Northern lights, but i never imagined me seeing it anytime soon. Hell when february started, i never knew that id be going to yellow knife to see it.

2. Ive grown up in a very hot country where the average temp os +40. Torontos winter which is considered mild ( average -15 ) has given me hard time already but look at me heading towards one of the coldest spots in canada with temp of -40 at such time of the year!

3. Yellowknife is too cold for outdoors and actually the city is pretty small ; ( has few flights and only 5 hotels in the whole city ) yet all this money and time are spent chasing the northern lights!

Its crazy i know but ive made peace with the mad side of me long time ago lol. The only times that i question my sanity is when i say no to crazy adventures. 

Yes im allergic to cold weather and canadian winter but no pain, no gain! 

Hopefully, ill come back home without losing any part of my body to frostbite!

Day one.

I flew air canada from Toronto to yellowknife.

My flight was Toronto to Calgary then to yellow knife ( almost 9hrs in total )

Our transit was in Calgary airport.

Such a tiny airport like really tiny with a limited dinning options! Im glad that our transit was only for 2hrs or id have gone crazy. I noticed a big population of indian immigrants there which was obvious. 

We arrived at yellowknife airport!! The airport was smaller than a can of tuna!! It had only one bag belt and thats it! Lol n there is no bridge between the plane and the airport, youll walk for 2-3min! I didnt expect that so i packed my jacket in tne big bag and had to run to the airport lol since it was -32 and i only had a hoodie on lol

We took the shuttle bus to our hotel and god, our hotel and plane was packed with asian!!! Something is totally wrong in here!!!!

The city is so small. It has only ONE TIM HORTON!! Can you believe that!!- canadian city with only onetimhorton and its not even in downtown! Its located in the upper town lol 

One thing that caught my attention was how friendly people are here! One lady offered us a ride to the tourist Centre and people smile and wave at u! Its a very cold city yet it has a special warmth in it!

Speaking of cold, did you know that there is 24/7 daylight in yellowknife during summer??? YES THE SUN NEVER SETS!!! How confusing is that lol!!! The great side to it that you can hike and do outdoors as long as you could without worrying about dark!!

So we were tired so we only went to the aurora village to see the northern lights ! The place was also packed with Japanese tourists!!!

It turned out that According to Japanese myths, having sex under the Northern Lights supposedly gives baby boys, beautiful children or happy children. So they actually rent tends and try to conceive there!!! Wa5ziaaah lol

We were there by 9.30 and stayed till 1am with no sign of the aurora :( !! The sky too hazy though the aurora watch indicated strong activities :( i hope we have a better luck tomorrow!!

The weather was freeZing!!!! Although i was wearing 3 layers, i couldnt stay outside the tent for more than 5min and i couldnt feel my toes at all!!! God!! Torontos weather is nothing comparing to this!!!

Ohh we were served a bun with butter mixed with maple syrup!! It was phenomenal !!!! Maple syrup makes everything super tasty!!!!

Lets hope tomorrow will bring better luck and AURORAS!!!

relocating

ive always hated bloggers.. i feel exposed whenever i post things here .. never felt secure and never felt at ease when i spoke about personal stuff ...
i think im going back home and leaving bloggers .. ill be posting events and stuff that i dont mind shaing with the world but definitely nothing personal anymore ..

this place stinks

black or white thinking

once upon a time , i was a perfectionist .. well i still am but im getting better everyday ..
i guess what im still struggling with the most is the black or white thinking, all or nothing and it can drive me nuts sometimes ...
for example, ive started a new training program, ive started it 2 weeks ago but i keep restarting it everyday i screw the diet or miss the workout and now its really getting out of control .. although ive done lke 75% of it but the fact that i screwed up some days made me thing that it was not good enough and i restarted the whole thing .. but thats not the issue, what i noticed is that most of my week became cheat days .. every time i screw a meal or miss a workout, automatically, the day turns to a cheat day and i end up feeding myself to sickness .. not only that, but i even noticed that my cheat days are crazy, i end up eating like a 3 different sandwiches , 2 dfferent salads and 3 different fruits for a meal and ive always felt out of control and couldnt stop myself although i knew that this was too much .. and today i came to realize why this has been happening ..
going on a strict diet where there is no variety in food, no flexibility at all made me go crazy everytime i have an off day .. there's just too much that ive been craving and wanting but couldnt have during the week and im not talking about desserts and crappy food .. im talking about bananas .. apples .. cereal .. or even a cheese sandwich so whenever i have my day off, i try to cram it all in to satisfy my craving but i end up feeling all sick and i dont get to enjoy my cravings ..
i think its time to let go of all these strict rules and diets .. ill still stick to the big frame of 5 meals with major focus on proteins but if i ever crave an apple, ill allow myself to have one .. and if i ever craved something unhealthy, ill create a healthier version and eat it .. i am starting to an aversive reaction towards food and im starting to connect food to pain now and this is really unhealthy