(no subject)
Guess what?
It's cold here. Astute, I know. Andrea and I discovered this the hard way when we decided to crack our window open our first night in the Denali room. The evening was pleasant, and we fell asleep atop the sheets. (For all intents and purposes, when I refer to myself in the first person, plural I'm not going off the deep end. Andrea and I have been attached since we got here, and unless otherwise indicated, we pretty much do everything together.) We woke up freezing in the middle of the night (there are no comforters on our beds, and the heat was turned off). This is a mistake that will not be repeated (I hope). Noted: the nights in Alaska are uber cold. I think the temperature last night was around 33 degrees.
Alaska is dry. I have had more nose bleeds in the past two days than I have had in the past two years in Ga. (Hannah, I don't know that Ak is the state for you. You might die.) My hair is staticy, too, as are my clothes. I'm a walking eighties commercial for dryer sheets.
Aside from being, at moments, breath-taking (which was anticipated), the culture of Alaska (or at least Denali park, I don't know if I can speak on behalf of the whole state based on the 2 cities I've been to) is odd. Here are several things that are puzzling about the biggest state in the US:
- Denali has an alarmingly large seagull population, considering it's an inland city. At first, I thought it was just one lost and only gull flying around in circles. But that theory was debunked when a troop of the annoying birds attacked us (no one was hurt). Jillian, who has become somewhat of a mentor to Andrea and me since she was also here last summer, told us that the gulls are attracted to the trash produced by the park.
- Coming into this job, I expected to work with an international work force, but I didn't expect 2/3 of my fellow employees to be from Bulgaria. haha. Bulgaria? Really? The Bulgarian microculture and networking here is astounding. They're everywhere, and they're loud (don't Europeans complain about Americans being loud?). I hope to come away from Alaska with some Bulgarian under my belt, which is something I could never have predicted. I'm actually listening to Bulgarian music through my window as I write this. I have this running joke: Alaska, like Texas, has a little bit of an ego problem. Everything is supposedly bigger in Alaska. But, unlike Texas, Alaska has room to talk: it's bigger than the next three biggest states in the US combined, AND it has more coastal area than any other country. Tourist refer to the size of Alaska as the "Alaska Factor." And I refer to the number of Bulgarians here as the "Bulgaria Factor." Ok, that was the joke, you may laugh now.
- Denali National Park human resources is horrible. Andrea and I have practically lived in the HR offices these few days. Why? Because they DO NOT volunteer information. We practically have to stalk our HR manager to find out what we are required to do the next day. The lack of employment organization here is unreal. For example, Andrea was told to bring dressy black pants for her waitressing job. When she talked to her manager he mentioned that jeans are part of her uniform. She was (is?) pissed.
- Alaska reminds me of my trips to Ga tech. The ratio of men to women is 4 to 1 in Denali. Except the guys here are much more foreward. Andrea and I were hit on more times in the last two days than we've been honked at on the streets of Athens in two years.
- In addition to the 'man' demographic, Denali is full of hippies. Not faux hippies, like in Athens. Real, authentic, genuine, long-bearded, stinky, grass lovers. These hippies are hard core: one guy brought a set of bongos that he plays every evening around dinner. Haha. I can't get over it. Just imagine his packing list:
toothbrush...check
sandals...check
bongos...check
incense...check
...Ok, got everything.
I must admit, I love it. Not to mention, to conservation efforts of the park are amazing. All the employees walk around with mugs that they refill at every meal so that water isn't wasted on rewashing dishes. Everything that can be recycled, will be. There are signs in the bathroom that encourage us to use as little toliet paper as possible. I feel like I'm doing the environment a favor by being here.
Somebody tell Dave I saw a moose! Yes, a moose. There's more to this story, naturally. My first full day in AK was spent traveling from Anchorage to Denali. As an interjection, I'm not impressed with Anchorage. It's unfortunate that the sun stays up until 12am, yet all the stores and any form of entertainment close shop around 8pm (or earlier, as we found, once again, the hard way as we roamed the streets after an 8 hour flight desperate for food). Anchorage reminds me of a Northern city that was abandon after manufacturing went overseas. We woke up at 4 am (which is 8 am in Ga and we weren't accustomed to the time change yet, so don't feel too bad for us) and checked out of the Comfort Inn, which lived up to its name (and was heaven compared to the plane seats). Andrea's mom had been teasing us prior to the trip about seeing mooses (meese?) in Anchorage: "Make sure to watch out for bears and moose." We thought see was joking. She wasn't. From the bus window, I saw a moose in the median of the road. I pointed it out to Andrea, but she didn't believe me. "Moose! Moooooooose!" Nothing. No reaction. I'm the girl who cried moose, apparently. She didn't even realize that I had actually seen a moose until a day after the fact.
I'd love to hear back from you!
Take care.
Much love,
Bridge
It's cold here. Astute, I know. Andrea and I discovered this the hard way when we decided to crack our window open our first night in the Denali room. The evening was pleasant, and we fell asleep atop the sheets. (For all intents and purposes, when I refer to myself in the first person, plural I'm not going off the deep end. Andrea and I have been attached since we got here, and unless otherwise indicated, we pretty much do everything together.) We woke up freezing in the middle of the night (there are no comforters on our beds, and the heat was turned off). This is a mistake that will not be repeated (I hope). Noted: the nights in Alaska are uber cold. I think the temperature last night was around 33 degrees.
Alaska is dry. I have had more nose bleeds in the past two days than I have had in the past two years in Ga. (Hannah, I don't know that Ak is the state for you. You might die.) My hair is staticy, too, as are my clothes. I'm a walking eighties commercial for dryer sheets.
Aside from being, at moments, breath-taking (which was anticipated), the culture of Alaska (or at least Denali park, I don't know if I can speak on behalf of the whole state based on the 2 cities I've been to) is odd. Here are several things that are puzzling about the biggest state in the US:
- Denali has an alarmingly large seagull population, considering it's an inland city. At first, I thought it was just one lost and only gull flying around in circles. But that theory was debunked when a troop of the annoying birds attacked us (no one was hurt). Jillian, who has become somewhat of a mentor to Andrea and me since she was also here last summer, told us that the gulls are attracted to the trash produced by the park.
- Coming into this job, I expected to work with an international work force, but I didn't expect 2/3 of my fellow employees to be from Bulgaria. haha. Bulgaria? Really? The Bulgarian microculture and networking here is astounding. They're everywhere, and they're loud (don't Europeans complain about Americans being loud?). I hope to come away from Alaska with some Bulgarian under my belt, which is something I could never have predicted. I'm actually listening to Bulgarian music through my window as I write this. I have this running joke: Alaska, like Texas, has a little bit of an ego problem. Everything is supposedly bigger in Alaska. But, unlike Texas, Alaska has room to talk: it's bigger than the next three biggest states in the US combined, AND it has more coastal area than any other country. Tourist refer to the size of Alaska as the "Alaska Factor." And I refer to the number of Bulgarians here as the "Bulgaria Factor." Ok, that was the joke, you may laugh now.
- Denali National Park human resources is horrible. Andrea and I have practically lived in the HR offices these few days. Why? Because they DO NOT volunteer information. We practically have to stalk our HR manager to find out what we are required to do the next day. The lack of employment organization here is unreal. For example, Andrea was told to bring dressy black pants for her waitressing job. When she talked to her manager he mentioned that jeans are part of her uniform. She was (is?) pissed.
- Alaska reminds me of my trips to Ga tech. The ratio of men to women is 4 to 1 in Denali. Except the guys here are much more foreward. Andrea and I were hit on more times in the last two days than we've been honked at on the streets of Athens in two years.
- In addition to the 'man' demographic, Denali is full of hippies. Not faux hippies, like in Athens. Real, authentic, genuine, long-bearded, stinky, grass lovers. These hippies are hard core: one guy brought a set of bongos that he plays every evening around dinner. Haha. I can't get over it. Just imagine his packing list:
toothbrush...check
sandals...check
bongos...check
incense...check
...Ok, got everything.
I must admit, I love it. Not to mention, to conservation efforts of the park are amazing. All the employees walk around with mugs that they refill at every meal so that water isn't wasted on rewashing dishes. Everything that can be recycled, will be. There are signs in the bathroom that encourage us to use as little toliet paper as possible. I feel like I'm doing the environment a favor by being here.
Somebody tell Dave I saw a moose! Yes, a moose. There's more to this story, naturally. My first full day in AK was spent traveling from Anchorage to Denali. As an interjection, I'm not impressed with Anchorage. It's unfortunate that the sun stays up until 12am, yet all the stores and any form of entertainment close shop around 8pm (or earlier, as we found, once again, the hard way as we roamed the streets after an 8 hour flight desperate for food). Anchorage reminds me of a Northern city that was abandon after manufacturing went overseas. We woke up at 4 am (which is 8 am in Ga and we weren't accustomed to the time change yet, so don't feel too bad for us) and checked out of the Comfort Inn, which lived up to its name (and was heaven compared to the plane seats). Andrea's mom had been teasing us prior to the trip about seeing mooses (meese?) in Anchorage: "Make sure to watch out for bears and moose." We thought see was joking. She wasn't. From the bus window, I saw a moose in the median of the road. I pointed it out to Andrea, but she didn't believe me. "Moose! Moooooooose!" Nothing. No reaction. I'm the girl who cried moose, apparently. She didn't even realize that I had actually seen a moose until a day after the fact.
I'd love to hear back from you!
Take care.
Much love,
Bridge