Dining Out

Current temperature in Fairbanks: 25 F

“My point is that you do not need me or anyone else around to bring this new kind of light in your life. It is simply waiting out there for you to grasp it, and all you have to do is reach for it. The only person you are fighting is yourself and your stubbornness to engage in new circumstances.” ~ Chris McCandless

      Sorry, sorry, sorry, I know it has been a long time since I have posted. I have been busy with school work as the semester starts to wrap up. I can’t believe it is almost time for me to leave, it feels like I just got here. As Spring begins to return to the land of Alaska, it brings with it wildlife and sunlight. Small song birds can be seen fluttering around and singing and there are plenty of little red squirrels scampering around. The ravens have also become much more vocal and man, ravens make some pretty exotic sounds. They croak, cluck, caw, and make lots of other unusual noises I don’t even know how to describe. I find it interesting that in native lore, ravens are thought to be people’s ancestors. Along with the return of wildlife comes daylight. The length of the day has almost quadrupled since I arrived. Sunrise is now at 5:59am and sunset is now at 9:38pm and it stays light out until after 10:00pm. It is so strange, and yet the days are still getting longer and longer.
       Along with Spring also comes warmer weather, at least, it’s supposed to, right? The end of March was nice and warm, in the 30s and 40s! T-shirt weather! You know you are fully acclimated when anything above 25 F is T-shirt weather. However, the warmth of March was short lived and the first week of April brought another six inches of snow. 

There is still a little less than a foot of snow clinging to the ground. Even though the weather is definitely warming up, more often than not it still remains below freezing here.
       On March 22nd I went to the ROTC dining out event with my friend Will. It was at the Westmark Hotel in downtown Fairbanks. It was so much different than I was expecting, though I don’t really know what I was expecting. It was a playful and fun formal event with dinner, dancing and plenty of opportunities to mess with cadets. Before dinner a grog was made with ingredients representative of different aspects of the cadets’ daily life. Just a few of the ingredients were protein powder, onions, Mountain Dew, brown sugar, garlic, cranberry juice, cool whip, energy drinks, coffee, maple syrup, and baby food. This grog was then consumed by some of the cadets who could also send others to the grog to drink for various reasons throughout the night. Some people puked while drinking it. There were skits performed by some of the cadets after dinner making fun of each other. At one point some cadets were forced to perform I’m a little teapot in front of everyone. For dessert we had cake with black frosting, and the people who tried it first ended up with black teeth and lips, making a lot of people look like Heath Ledger in The Patriot when Anne puts ink in his tea.

        Three weeks in a row I also went to a place just outside of town called Hilltop Truck Stop. I was told they had the best pie I would ever have, and I have to say I was skeptical. It was a little hole in the wall place, exactly what you would expect a truck stop to be like. A small area with snacks and other items a trucker might need, a small dining area, and a boxed off smoking area complete with a sign that says ‘Please don’t tap on the glass it scares the truckers’. Boy, was that a flashback. Despite the hype, I have to say the pie lived up to expectations. The slice they give you is huge, about a sixth of an entire pie. The first time I had strawberry rhubarb, but the next two times I had a slice of fatman pie. It is a thick piece of pie with chocolate mousse, whipped cream, and a walnut crust. I guess we are not the only people who love their pie, their bumper stickers say ‘I brake for pie’.

  I also went back to Chena Hot Springs a couple times and I must say, it isn’t as neat when it is warmer and lighter out. With the warmer weather, there is a lot less steam, and that mixed with long daylight hours makes all the people you are bathing with clearly visible. Not only that, but you realize how many of them are freaking weirdoes. Last week I went glow putting, it is a small little indoor mini golf course that is a glow in the dark jungle. It was pretty neat (and I totally kicked everyone’s butt).

On a not so happy note, I took a trip to the ER yesterday for a cut on my left hand. I am carving a mask in my native art class right now, and while I was working yesterday afternoon the gouge I was using slipped and when directly into my thumb. I casually got up and left the room to rinse it and get paper towels. The bathroom looked as though I had murdered someone in just a few short seconds. I walked back to class and told my teacher, Da-Ka-Xeen that I had cut myself. “Okay, let’s get you a band-aid,” he said. I told him I didn’t think that was what I needed and pulled back the wad of paper towels to show him that my tendon was clearly visible in the open wound. He walked me to health services who took one quick look and decided to send me to the ER. They had to check and make sure I didn’t damage my tendon, and luckily I didn’t. A lot of localized numbing and nine stitches later I was free to leave. That night my RA brought me a get well card signed by everyone in my dorm. It was really sweet and definitely ended a painful day on a good note.

Before:

After: