dear everyone,
because i miss sending and getting letters. however, now that i have TIME (i'm not in school and don't live anywhere near civilization), you can expect to receive a lot more of them.
so here i am, 3000 miles, 3 moose, 8 dall sheep, 1 porcupine, 35 eagles, and 700 mosquitos later, in cooper landing, alaska. who wants to come see me? we'll be here until august 14, and flights from seattle run $230 on continental. are you convinced?
honestly, i haven't even explored my surroundings that much yet because i have been SO busy between work and school! BUT last night i finished ALL my graduate coursework FOREVER and mailed it off today. wellllllll, i put it in the mail, but the mail service here isn't the most timely, so it hasn't actually left the mailbox yet. but it will today. and that shall be a glorious moment that i will witness from my little post in the alaska wildland aventures log cabin office.
my co-workers are really fun. they take me to softball games and bars to see bands and out to dinner and to the convenience store here to buy weird mixed drinks in tiny aluminum cans, which we proceed to spill all ourselves while cheering for josh at the softball games.
josh and i live in a giant tent--a real tent, not like a yurt or other type of house tent that has floors and furniture and stuff. we do have a raised giant table made of scrap lumber with a foam pad on it for our bed, and our tent is draped over a wooden deck that serves as our floor. hastily constructed and mismatched yet charming shelves align the sides of our tents, serving as bookshelves, nightstands, and dressers. we made it homey with pictures, a giant exercise ball (for me :), a rug, mosquito netting for a screen door, and lawn chairs on our porch. there are photo collages of our last nights in tucson that i taped onto pieces of cardboard and propped up on our tent sides.
our neighbors are almost all couples, and several of them went to prescott college. one even knows my friend lee, who lives in prescott. small fucking world. they are all SO nice. i mean like, amazingly nice. it's almost startling. you know, in a good way.
at night josh and i either pass out early, play on our computers in the employee lounge, or head down to the campfire by the river to listen to our coworkers play guitar and sing, tell jokes, drink beer, relax, and share stories. or we take walks around the property, finding blue-green shells of bird eggs. we usually take walks after spending an hour in the wood-burning sauna with our friends james and meg, after which we are thoroughly warm, relaxed, and happy.
the skies are usually cloudy, but the giant snow-capped mountains peek through the grayness and reflect the most beautiful alpine glow i've ever seen at dusk, which usually begins around 11:00 pm. the air is cold and fresh, and we bundle and layer up for warmth in our new jackets and long underwear, provided to us at cost by our company. we use two sleeping bags every night and wake up warm and cozy, grumbling at the cold that is sure to hit us the minute we sit up to stumble to the composting toilet at the end of the wooden walkway. we hope that no one else has taken a shit before we need to so we can enjoy our outhouse time without such a stench, take a warm shower, refusing to get out until someone else bangs on the door, and then jump on our bikes to ride the 1/2 mile to work down the trail alongside the highway, perhaps stopping for hot tea and a muffin at the employee lounge if time permits.
what a different world than anything i've ever experienced. it's much different than denali even. much more isolated. backcountry camping involves hiking about three miles from our house to your choice of waterfalls, lakes, creeks, rivers, and rock walls.
in other news, josh and i got jobs in japan! we think we'll be departing for asia in september but will update you when we know for sure. yay!
well, i hope you are all doing well.
sending you love,
callie.
so here i am, 3000 miles, 3 moose, 8 dall sheep, 1 porcupine, 35 eagles, and 700 mosquitos later, in cooper landing, alaska. who wants to come see me? we'll be here until august 14, and flights from seattle run $230 on continental. are you convinced?
honestly, i haven't even explored my surroundings that much yet because i have been SO busy between work and school! BUT last night i finished ALL my graduate coursework FOREVER and mailed it off today. wellllllll, i put it in the mail, but the mail service here isn't the most timely, so it hasn't actually left the mailbox yet. but it will today. and that shall be a glorious moment that i will witness from my little post in the alaska wildland aventures log cabin office.
my co-workers are really fun. they take me to softball games and bars to see bands and out to dinner and to the convenience store here to buy weird mixed drinks in tiny aluminum cans, which we proceed to spill all ourselves while cheering for josh at the softball games.
josh and i live in a giant tent--a real tent, not like a yurt or other type of house tent that has floors and furniture and stuff. we do have a raised giant table made of scrap lumber with a foam pad on it for our bed, and our tent is draped over a wooden deck that serves as our floor. hastily constructed and mismatched yet charming shelves align the sides of our tents, serving as bookshelves, nightstands, and dressers. we made it homey with pictures, a giant exercise ball (for me :), a rug, mosquito netting for a screen door, and lawn chairs on our porch. there are photo collages of our last nights in tucson that i taped onto pieces of cardboard and propped up on our tent sides.
our neighbors are almost all couples, and several of them went to prescott college. one even knows my friend lee, who lives in prescott. small fucking world. they are all SO nice. i mean like, amazingly nice. it's almost startling. you know, in a good way.
at night josh and i either pass out early, play on our computers in the employee lounge, or head down to the campfire by the river to listen to our coworkers play guitar and sing, tell jokes, drink beer, relax, and share stories. or we take walks around the property, finding blue-green shells of bird eggs. we usually take walks after spending an hour in the wood-burning sauna with our friends james and meg, after which we are thoroughly warm, relaxed, and happy.
the skies are usually cloudy, but the giant snow-capped mountains peek through the grayness and reflect the most beautiful alpine glow i've ever seen at dusk, which usually begins around 11:00 pm. the air is cold and fresh, and we bundle and layer up for warmth in our new jackets and long underwear, provided to us at cost by our company. we use two sleeping bags every night and wake up warm and cozy, grumbling at the cold that is sure to hit us the minute we sit up to stumble to the composting toilet at the end of the wooden walkway. we hope that no one else has taken a shit before we need to so we can enjoy our outhouse time without such a stench, take a warm shower, refusing to get out until someone else bangs on the door, and then jump on our bikes to ride the 1/2 mile to work down the trail alongside the highway, perhaps stopping for hot tea and a muffin at the employee lounge if time permits.
what a different world than anything i've ever experienced. it's much different than denali even. much more isolated. backcountry camping involves hiking about three miles from our house to your choice of waterfalls, lakes, creeks, rivers, and rock walls.
in other news, josh and i got jobs in japan! we think we'll be departing for asia in september but will update you when we know for sure. yay!
well, i hope you are all doing well.
sending you love,
callie.