I've Got Sunshine

Current temperature in Fairbanks: -9 F

“Alaska has long been a magnet for dreamers and misfits, people who think the unsullied enormity of the Last Frontier will patch all the holes in their loves. The bush is an unforgiving place, however, that care nothing for hope or longing.” ~Jon Krakauer

       The sun has begun to return to this cold part of the world. The days are much longer now than they were when I arrived. When I first arrived there was a little over 4 hours of sunlight a day. Sunrise was around 10:30am and sunset was at about 3:00pm. Now I am starting to see significant changes. The glow of sun can be seen peeking over the horizon on my way to class at 8:00am and is visible until right before 6:00pm. The sun now hangs much higher and much brighter than before, it is beginning to feel like a winter's day back home again. It is hard to believe the length of my day has practically doubled in just a little over a month. 

The Magic of -40 F

Current temperature in Fairbanks: -12 F

So I promised a video of boiling water evaporating in the air however I don't think it is going to get cold enough again to do it, so just in case here is a video of someone else doing it!

Let's Go Nanooks

Current temperature in Fairbanks: -6 F

Nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun." ~Jon Krakauer

     Hey guys, sorry it has been so long, my number of adventures has been inversely proportional to the amount of work I have had lately, but I do have a lot to fill you in on from this past month. At the beginning of the month I went to Chena Hot Springs Resort which is about an hour northeast of Fairbanks. It is a resort with cabins, a museum, a spa, pools, and best of all, a huge natural hot spring. I went with a group of friends on a Thursday night and if I didn't know any better I would have thought I was in a horror movie being driven into the wilderness which would become my final resting place. The road to Chena was long, straight as an arrow, and barren. Once outside of Fairbanks, we didn't pass another car for the rest of the drive. Being miles away from the closest city the road was shrouded in darkness and lined with pine trees that seemed to edge ever closer to the road, swallowing it up. I was waiting to see a disheveled stranger standing on the side of the road slowly becoming illuminated by the glow of the headlights. Or for the moment a bright light appeared and begin to lift the car off the road. 
    When we got to Chena, we changed in the locker rooms with heated floors and made our way to the spring. We stepped outside into a wood tunnel lit by a dim orange glow that led to the spring. The tunnel ended with a door, I pushed it open and was greeted by huge clouds of fog and steam and the pungent smell of sulfur. I stepped forward expecting earth when my feet started to become submerged in warm water. It was dark with intermittent spotlights, but nothing was visible more than 4 feet in front of you through the steam. The spring was the size of a pond and got no deeper than my neck. When you got close to the boulders lining the spring, the water would get uncomfortable warm due to the natural water seeping into the spring. Cold water is constantly pumped into it to keep it at a tolerable temperature. I am told that it is believed that in the spring under the aurora provides the greatest possible chance for conceiving a boy.

    Oh yeah, and they had a huge snowman at Chena too. 

    One thing I have observed while being here is that almost every single car has a cracked windshield. This is because instead of salting the roads, they rock the roads. It is actually okay to have a cracked windshield in Alaska as long as it doesn't impair the driver's view. I also learned that my dreams and thoughts about UAF were actually not as far off as I had originally thought. I have been told that there are underground tunnels between buildings for the water lines that students used to be allowed to use to get from class to class. There are apparently maps down there and everything. However, they had to stop letting students use the tunnels due to the high number of assaults and rapes reported. As far as the skiing to classes part of my dreams, that wasn't terribly crazy either. There is currently a decent terrain park right on the hill on campus and the other day I actually saw someone skiing to class. I was walking up the hill to upper campus alone when out of the woods ahead of me popped a guy with classic skis and a backpack on. He stood there for a minute, the tips of his skis suspended over the small sharp drop ahead of him. After a slight hesitation he jumped, nearly fell, then disappeared down the hill in a tuck. 

    There have also been a few girl group events. Me and a few of my girl friends here went window shopping around town. For those of you that think New Hampshire is limited on clothing stores and options, come to Fairbanks. There are thrift stores, Sears, a store akin to Super Walmart called Fred Meyer, and a mall that I don't think can actually be considered a mall. It has no more than 20 stores. If you want anything remotely name brand in these parts, you need to buy it online. I also went bowling with a few friends one night. For my statuesque roommate's birthday, who towered over me in heels, we dressed up and went out for sushi. My roommate and I split a screaming orgasm sushi roll. 

    It has been quite warm these past few weeks, well, relatively speaking. It hasn't been colder than -20 F in weeks. There was actually a chance of rain a few weeks ago, luckily we didn't get any. Here rain in the winter is even more dangerous than snow.

    I have gone to a few hockey games this month as well. The games are played at an arena downtown, which is a good deal larger than the Whittemore Center back home. Amazingly, you can actually get a student ticket on the same day as the game, and even get a seat without getting there over an hour before the start of the game. At the beginning of the game, the Nanooks skate onto the ice through a huge blow up polar bear.

    The first game I went to was against the Ohio State Buckeyes. They had won the first game of the weekend against them 6-1 so I was expecting a fun and victorious game. We lost 2-1. I have been trying to bring some of the racy UNH cheers to the Nanooks, but they haven't caught on. One cheer they do, and I am so glad they do, is "sit down, bitch!" when an opposing player gets a penalty. 

    The next two games I went two were this past weekend against the last place Michigan State Spartans. I got to the game an hour early with my friend Will because he had to do color guard (not the flag twirling kind). Michigan state scored a goal early on, but thwarted every attempt by the Nanooks. I swear to God Michigan's goalie has more luck than a pot full of gold horseshoes at the end of a rainbow growing in a field of four leaf clovers. We lost 1-0. At this point I was starting to think I brought some kind of bad New England joo-joo with me or something. 

    The next day they had another chance at a win against Michigan State. While doing homework, We Will Rock You and Another One Bites the Dust played on my Pandora. I thought it must be a sign. I put on my UAF shirt and my polar bear underwear. I was pulling out all the stops. When walking to our seats at the game, a puck from the practicing players flew over the glass and whizzed over my shoulder slamming into the empty seats. It nearly killed me, but I got a puck! The game started out much like the night before, Michigan got off to an early lead. The Nanooks pulled ahead in the second period but Michigan tied it up again in the beginning of the third. With a minute left in the game the Nanooks pulled ahead, the stands went wild. It was the first time I was seeing them win! With 8 seconds left to play the Nanooks scored again. This resulted in a long brawl which left the ice littered with gloves, jerseys and pads. The Nanooks won 4-2. It must have been the lucky undies. 

    I may be going to Anchorage this coming weekend for the Governor's Cup hockey game. I was also invited to the military ball at the end of March. When I found out my first thought was 'where do you get a formal dress up here?'. The answer? Online, of course. Although my mom kindly suggested I make one out of animal hides. Speaking of animal hides, I am working on making a hair clip in my Native Art Studio using moose hide, porcupine quills and caribou hair. I will post a picture when it is finished. I saw the northern lights again, but they weren't bright enough to get pictures of. I learned that it is believed they are dancing spirits of those who have passed and there is a myth that if you whistle at them, they will come down from the sky and take you away.

Lost in the Wild

Current temperature in Fairbanks: 7 F

"We like companionship, see, but we can't stand to be around people for very long. So we go get ourselves lost, come back for a while, then get the hell out again." ~Chris McCandless

     Today, I decided to do a little more solo exploring. My intended destination was the Large Animal Research Station, which is five miles off campus and home to musk oxen, caribou and reindeer. After a late breakfast I laced up my shoes, put on a hat and some mittens, grabbed my iPod and camera and set out. I was going to walk on the roads to the large animal research station and Google maps directed me down a small road at the edge of campus. When I got to it, it was more like a hiking trail than anything. It was a beautiful clear day in the balmy single digits. I wandered into the woods, the tall pines all around me made me feel so small. It felt so good to be out exploring alone. I came across a map of the trails, primarily intended for nordic skiers and I must say I saw a lot of them. I realized there was a walking trail all the way through the woods that came out right at the Large Animal Research Station. I started walking, my feet were wet from trudging through the snow but with the endless nature, Into the Wild soundtrack and complete solitude I was in my own utopia. 
      After over an hour of walking, with many photo stops, I finally popped out in front of the Large Animal Research Station. Unfortunately it was closed, but I was able to see some of the animals way off in the distance. I then made my way back towards campus, the sun was on its way down and the sky was a beautiful orangy-red. I could have stayed out there forever, I really didn't want to go back. I am sure I started to feel a little bit of what Chris McCandless felt when he saw the beauty of the wilderness here. Fifteen miles and three hours later, I made it back to civilization. Here are some of the pictures I took on my exploration.