Fall into Fairbanks

2007-07-23T14:22:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Fairbanks after three weeks in Western Alaska. It was an event-filled time. We hauled water, sang songs, swam in 58 degree water, accidently set my hair on fire, canoed, hiked, watched a muktuk (whale blubber) eating contest, picked berries, and ate a dangerous amount of s'mores.

Our first stop was Kotzebue where we held a 4-day Girl Scout camp for girls ages 6-12.

We created solar ovens, decorated t-shirts (which Alanna models is the adjecent photo), made clay refrigerators, and had a crazy hair fashion show (Goody donated 500 of its new hairbands to our office last month!). Yes, that is a side bun on my head:)

After Kotzebue, we headed to Nome for our high school girl camp. We stayed at a cabin on Salmon Lake, 35 miles outside of Nome. There was no running water or electricity, and the girls complained about not being able to charge their iPods.

We canoed on the beautiful lake, and the water was so clear that I could see my toes when I was neck-deep.

After Salmon Lake we headed to Camp Dexter, which is a camp owned by the Girl Scouts, five miles out of Nome. We hosted camps for Brownie and Junior Girl Scouts, the photos for which are on a memory card I have yet to upload.

Our last few days in Nome were spent at the home of a gracious Nome family, the Horner's. They fed us real food and let us shower! They also took us sightseeing to Anvil Mountian and the Train to Nowhere.

2007-06-30T19:06:00.000-07:00

I'm currently traveling to camp in Kotzebue and Nome.

Check back at the end of July for pictures.

I hope you're having a great summer!

2007-06-22T13:44:00.000-07:00

As a thank-you gift for running an errand at IKEA when I was home earlier this month, my co-worker's husband took me up in his plane on a siteseeing trip over Fairbanks. We saw the city, the rivers, and about 8-10 moose hanging out in remote ponds. This trip was definitely a highlight of my time in Alaska.
The longest day of the year just passed, and Fairbanksians go crazy for Solstice. There is a huge downtown fair that runs from noon until midnight with a dunk tank, climbing wall, bands, food, crafts, and a midnight sun baseball game that starts at 10:30pm and is played without artificial lights.
I ran into this "Taste of Chicago, Fairbanks, AK" truck and I had the owner take my photo. He asked where I was from, and I told him that I'm from the north side of Chicago. He said, "Oh, you must be a Cubs fan." I said yes, and he proceeded to tell me that he's a Sox Fan from the south side. He was already holding my camera, so when I found out we were cross-town rivals, I told him not to "accidentally" drop my camera. He took my photo and invited me to visit his restaurant that is decorated in all Chicago paraphernalia.

2007-06-13T12:50:00.001-07:00

I'm back in the Land of the Midnight Sun after a fun trip back home to Chicago to see the Liz graduate from the University of Chicago.
Congratulations Liz!!

2007-05-23T17:22:00.000-07:00

Kirsten recently visited me in Alaska and we toured around Anchorage with our gracious host Rich.We also took a fun glacier cruise with my friend Chris off the coast of Whittier, AK, just south of Anchorage. We also hiked, visited the Alaska Pipeline (which carries oil 800 miles from Prudue Bay to Valdez) camped in Denali (still freezing!), kayaked down the river (got sunburn), hung out with friends from church and AmeriCorps*VISTA, shopped, and relaxed in a Hot Springs.

It was a great week!!

2007-04-24T17:28:00.000-07:00

Sunset at 9:58 pm

2007-04-20T15:40:00.000-07:00

Girl Scout Annual Meeting

As a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, Girl Scouts is required to have an annual meeting. The Board of Directors conducts official business, and we hand out Adult Volunteer Awards. The staff all wear official Girl Scout outfits. Look closely and you'll see my nametag and pins. We were all teasing our executive director (in the middle) that she was once step away from looking just like Shelly Long in the all-time classic movie Troop Beverly Hills.

2007-04-04T10:59:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend my friend Emily and I traveled to Bethel, AK to attend the Cama-i (cha-my) Dance festival and visit her mom and some of our Americorps*VISTA friends. Bethel is on the tundra in the southwest part of the state in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. About 6,500 people (~65% Alaska Native) live there. Trees are absent from the landscape, and the flat tundra extends for miles and miles. It’s quite beautiful. Cama-i is an amazing Native dance festival that draws in hundreds of people from surrounding villages.Here is one of the youngest dancers that performed at Cama-i. She is from Nunapitchuk, AK ,and her dance fans and headdress are most likely made with caribou fur.
Here are some other dancers from Nunapitchuk, AK. Male dancers use a different type of dance fan and often have different motions as well. The Tsimshian dancers have fabulously crafted costumes. The symbols on the back indicate the clan to which the dancer belongs.During a "Close-Up" with a dance group from St. Lawrence Island (35 miles from Russia) I learned how to do some native dances. The picture below is of me and the dancers practicing the "Basketball Dance". Basketball came to St. Lawrence in the 1970s, and one of the elders who loved the sport composed a fun song with motions that incorporate native culture and the game.

2007-04-04T10:47:00.000-07:00

My friends and I attended the Indian festival Holi (Festival of Colors) that celebrates the arrival of spring. The Indian student group at the University of Fairbanks hosted the event which included a delicious potluck and some great dancing. The university wouldn't allow the dyes used in India because they would have stained the room, but our friends improvised with washable dyes.My friend Jamie and I show off our colors.

2007-03-26T13:14:00.000-07:00

Eating breakfast in Alaska....

2007-03-12T12:38:00.000-07:00

Only in Alaska..... the 28th Annual Chatanika Outhouse Race.
What, you may ask, exactly is an outhouse race? Good question. Basically, a group of people push an outhouse down the road and try to beat the other teams in this great race.

We didn't win. In fact, we came in 5th out of five teams.

But our outhouse was decorated the best.

2007-03-09T16:44:00.000-08:00

thin mints, samoas, tagalongs, do-si-dos.....

holy cookies Batman. We got our Girl Scout cookie shipment in. Somewhere in the ballpark of 12,000 cases come to town (that's 144,000 individual packages!)

2007-03-09T16:04:00.000-08:00

At the end of February, my boss and I traveled to Portland, OR for a Girl Scout training. I flew down a few days early to visit my relatives there and see the city. It was warm (45 above!!) so I spent a great deal of time outside.

During the training, we visited a local non-profit, The Rebuilding Center, that sells used building items at a fraction of the usual cost.

They also employ community residents and pay a $10 minimum wage. The windows on the outside of the building were put together like a puzzle from donations.

Yes, we also did some work:)

2007-02-21T15:05:00.000-08:00

My boss and I recently traveled to Barrow, AK to train our Girl Scout leaders and attend a Healthy Living Summit.

Barrow is the northernmost city in the U.S., accessible only by air and water, unless you snowmachine (a.k.a. snowmobile) or drive on the ice road. The population of Barrow is about 65% Native Alaska. The Inupiat people have inhabited the Arctic coast for thousands of years. They hunt whale, seal, caribou and other animals in the region.

Kivgiq (a bi-annual Native festival that brings in about 800 people from around the North Slope) was also going on, so we were able to see some great dancing and eat some native foods.

Here is a photo of one of my meals. I tried Muktuk (the skin & blubber of bowhead whale). It's very chewy, and has a lot of protein. Muktuk is a staple for many natives. One of the men we ate lunch with said muktuk filled him so well he didn't plan to eat for another 24 hrs.

As you might imagine, the cost of living in Barrow is quite high. Goods are flown in, housing is scarce, etc. Thankfully for residents, the average income is over $60,000. But when milk costs $7.99/gallon, I'm sure money goes fast.

We visited the Inupiat Heritage Center which has a "People of Whaling" exhibit, and the jaws of a bowhead on display in front of the building (I think I would have been a pretty tasty treat:)

Here I'm standing beneath two whale rib bones on the beach (yes, that's the ocean behind me. The open water starts where the clouds are)

The bowhead whales' migration pattern takes them by Barrow during the spring and fall. The Inupiat still use wooden boats to hunt the whale. Usually, the whale is 25-50 ft. long. The International Whaling Commission regulates how many whales each community can catch. Currently, I think the limit is set at 3 whales per year. If a community catches 3 whales in the spring, they do not hunt whale in the fall.

Barrow felt much colder than Fairbanks (that Arctic wind is brutal). I felt like I was back home in the Windy City:)

2007-02-06T16:07:00.000-08:00

Yeah, Alaska's big.

2007-01-23T12:21:00.000-08:00

Bear down Chicago Bears.............Make every play clear the way to the SUPERBOWL!!

A bunch of Fairbanksans (including a New Orleans fan) joined me at my apartment to watch the Bears beat the Saints. There were discussions of a road trip to Miami, but we would have needed to leave after the game to make it to Florida by Feb 4.

Rumors circulated prior to game day that my cat, Genghis, was a Saints fan. He wore a Chicago Bears belt to show his true colors:)

2007-01-09T13:20:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!! After a fabulously refreshing vacation in Chicago with my family, I returned safely to Fairbanks on January 8th. Unlike Chicago, Fairbanks has lots of snow and cold. I missed the fluffy white stuff and my fluffy cat, so I'm glad to be back in Alaska to continue my work with Americorps.

2006-12-12T15:39:00.000-08:00

I'm headed to Chicago for Christmas........check back in January for more updates:)

2006-12-12T15:32:00.000-08:00

Last week I was back in the lower 48 for an Americorps conference in Reno, NV. I saw the sun and enjoyed warm temperatures.

The conference brought together over 300 people who work in Native American communities for a cultural training. It was a fabulous conference.

2006-11-27T13:15:00.000-08:00

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack frost numbing my feet, hands and face....
Americorps VISTAs (that's me) volunteered at the annual Holiday Festival at the local historic theme park.

Below: Me, Emily, Katrin, Toni, & the train conductor

I roasted chestnuts, served apple cider, and took a ride on an antique train.

It's averaging -15* these days, but next week I'm going to a conference in Reno, so warm weather here I come....

2006-11-15T18:52:00.000-08:00

I attended the 24th Annual Athabascan Fiddler's Festival in Fairbanks this past weekend. The Athabascan people are the Native Alaskans who inhabit interior Alaska. There was a delicious potluck, dozens of musicians, and lots of spirited dancing.

Yes, it's getting cold here, and Alaskans snuggle up by the fire when it's negative ten degrees - my friend's fire just happened to be outside - burr!

As an aside, The best radio commercial I've heard yet goes something like this, "It might still be fall down in America, but up here in the frigid north it's winter, so come on in to the tire store for your winter tires." Alaska may be remote, but last time I checked it is still the 49th state of America (even though there is a considerably large contingent of people who want to secede from the Union - maybe they paid for the commercial...)

2006-10-31T17:36:00.000-08:00

Well, Alaskans know a thing or two about bears, and apparently the best team in the NFL hasn't escaped their notice either.

Speaking of Bears fans, here someone dressed as Brian Urlacher (okay, it's me) helps run the Duck Fishing Pond at the Church's Fall Festival

2006-10-25T12:40:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone for making my 24th Birthday a special one!

I got a beautiful bouquet from my mom & sisters and a gift package from my Nana.

No Birthday would be complete without a Girl Scout cookie tasking at a staff meeting!

2006-10-23T13:33:00.000-07:00

I was in Anchorage last week for the National Indian Education Association's Annual Conference. The Girl Scouts had a booth in the exhibitor's hall promoting its work with indigenous cultures. About 3,000 people from over 20 states came to the conference to learn about Indian Education, watch cultural performances, and, of course, buy jewelry (I bought some earrings as a birthday present to myself:)
Amy (from Anchorage), my boss Bobbi, me, Jane (from Anchorage)

Above, Yupik students from Bethel, Alaska dance after their school district received the Cultural Freedom award in recognition of their work with Native Language revitalization.

On the flight home, I finally got a view of the elusive Denali (Mt. McKinley).!!! Yep, I took this photo from the plane.

2006-10-17T16:49:00.000-07:00

Yes, this city girl housesat for a llama, 6 chickens, a turkey, some phesants, a pig, a cat, fish, and a dog.
The pig eats a loaf of bread each day along with his dry food, a boy is he happy when it's dinner time. Little does he know, the food is meant to fatten him up for when he becomes bacon:)

Peri, the llama, is a darling. He followed me all around the pen trying to eat the other animals food.
When I wasn't tending to the animals, I was sitting in a hot tub over-looking the rolling hills. Other than the crazy dog (an agressive aketa), it was more of a vacation than work.

2006-10-09T14:41:00.000-07:00

My boss, Bobbi, and I recently traveled to Unalakleet and Nome for a Girl Scout Retreat and a CPR Training for our leaders. The two cities are located off the Norton Sound in the Bering Sea.

In Unalakleet, we ran an annual retreat for girls ages 11- 15. The town has a population of about 800, and there are three churches, two stores, and one school.

About 15 girls came to our retreat (some girls who aren't girl scouts heard about the retreat and showed up at the school where we were having the retreat. Things in rural villages in Alaska are informal, and we invited them to have dinner and play games with us).
We attended a church service on Sunday, and the entire Girl Scout troop, myself included, joined the volunteer choir on the altar. Although we hardly slept at the retreat, it was a success. The kids in Unalakleet are very sweet, and I enjoyed my first visit to a rural village.

In Nome, we attended a Girl Scout ceremony during which we handed out awards and enjoyed the highly coveted Samoa cookie (In Fairbanks we have girl scout cookies all over the office, but never the Samoas.)
We also walked the beach, taught a CPR class, visited the museum, attended a Rotary meeting, had a live interview over the local radio, drove out to see the location of our summer camp, and checked out the shops.

I think I offended a local shop owner when I asked if he was open year-round. I was just making small-talk, but then he asked where I was from and inquired if stores in Chicago close for part of the year. Worse, I didn't buy anything from him. I guess I'm not a model tourist.

Next week I'm house-sitting for a llama, so check back soon for more photos:)

2006-09-25T11:17:00.000-07:00

I played in the Fairbanks Interior Table Tennis Fall Tournament at the local university on Sunday. I won 1st place in my division (beginner-level). The higher levels featured excellent players, including the second highest ranked player in the state who can up from Anchorage for the tournament and won the main event.

2006-09-19T16:21:00.000-07:00

No, I didn't get more pets. For the past few days I've been dog-sitting for friend who lives up on a ridge over-looking Fairbanks.

She has four beautiful, rambunctious dogs: Foster, Nika, Doogie, & Maggie. It was next to impossible to get a photo of all four dogs together - they have some territorial issues.

2006-09-18T12:37:00.000-07:00

My boss, Bobbi, and I recently traveled to Tok, AK for a girl scout leader training and CPR class (both taught by Bobbi). Along the way we stopped at Mukluk Land (sadly, it was closed for the season, so I didn't get to see the "World's Largest Mosquito"). Tok is a small town with a strong community. We stayed at the home of a Girl Scout leader and ate moose steaks with potatoes and carrots from her garden.

2006-09-12T16:59:00.000-07:00

The living room in my apartment

My friend Emily and I at a picnic by the river during our lunch break.

Cool photo of the sky!

2006-09-05T12:55:00.000-07:00

On Labor Day, I went to a cook-out with some friends. The menu included moose burgers (one of the party attendees killed the moose last season) and salmon from a nearby river - yummy in the tummy!

Here's a newspaper clipping of the northern lights I saw on Sunday night!!!

2006-09-03T20:42:00.000-07:00

I visited Chena Hot Springs today with some friends. It's about fifty miles from Fairbanks, and most of the resort is powered with geothermal energy.

The 110 degree water was relaxing. I had a good time even though the water discolored my ring, and I almost fainted when I left (I guess I was dehydrated though I drank a jug of water beforehand).

Some regulars recommended that we return in the dead of winter so we can stay warm in the spring while icicles form on our heads:)

2006-08-23T11:23:00.000-07:00

Greetings family and friends! Hopefully, this blog will keep you updated on some of my life's happenings. I moved to Fairbanks on August 17, 2006, and I have since settled into my job at Girl Scouts and my apartment in Fairbanks.

View from my porch at sunset

My 1986 Mazda in front of my office building, the Farthest North Girl Scouts.

This is my cat, Genghis. I inherited him from my friend, Jordan, who was the previous Americorp VISTA member at the girl scout office in Fairbanks.

Fairbanks is a beautiful city. I live in an industrial area of town so it's not that pretty, but just the drive around Fairbanks offers some nice views. On Tuesday night I saw the Northern Lights dance across the midnight sky! And the clouds in the photo below look a bit different to me than clouds in Chicago.

Some family members visited Fairbanks for the Geothermal Conference, and I was able to tag along for a trip to Denali (also known as Mt. McKinley, Denali is an Athabascan word meaning "the great one"). Thanks for the tour David and Diane!