Chunks of snow

Fridays are picture taking days. Through the week, I'm too busy and stressed to notice the world around me. But on Friday, Mike and I meander our way home, taking pictures of anything that strikes us as new and interesting.

Like chunks of snow!


These are pieces of snow that have been shoveled off of the sidewalks on campus.


Though they also resemble giant hamburgers.

Yesterday, we also watched the sunset change on our walk home. From golden


to electric pink.


Hooray!

What I have learned so far

I wanted to post beautiful pictures of our cabin. I wanted to document a new living experience - all of the wonders of outhouses, no running water, a place away from busy streets and lights.

We stayed for a few days after we first arrived with an MFA student in a cabin at the far end of Goldhill Road. We walked to and from campus everyday (as we left our car in AL), and although Mike did really well I wussed out. In Alabama, walking anywhere is dangerous. In 7th grade, a girl in my Health class died when the side mirror of an eighteen-wheeler hit her on the head as she walked home from school. There are no sidewalks where I lived, and even if there were everything is so spread out and the heat so oppressive that if the cars do not take you down the rest of the environment will. So when I arrived in Alaska I was green to walking as my major form of transportation. I could probably make the walk from Goldhill now that I've been walking everyday, but a month ago it wiped me out. Mike found an apartment that is between Fred Meyer and the UAF campus. We have a monthly lease, which is a cool and completely unexpected method. So far the apartment is working out fairly well. The road in front of the apt. is quieter now that it has snowed. Still not quite as quiet as would be good for studying and writing, but I'll take it for now.

Thank you so much to everyone who sent information about places to live. Coming to Alaska was much less terrifying knowing that there are such awesome people here.

Thank you to Mom and Mrs. Cross for setting us up with winter gear. I love my parka and my mittens. The mittens facilitate lobster action on a daily basis.

Graduate school is so much more work than I had ever thought possible, but I enjoy it immensely. And then just when I think I'm too tired from school to care about anything other than going home and sleeping, I step outside and into the snow.

We made it!

Mike took this picture just a moment before we stepped onto our first Alaska Airlines flight. At midnight tonight we will have been in Alaska for a week.

We've had interesting and exhausting adventures in trying to find a place to stay. An hour ago we dropped off our suitcases at our new apartment, and we're about to ride our bikes down to Fred Meyer. We need to get the funk out of the fridge and scrub down the bathroom, but I think it will be a good place to live.

In Los Angeles

We made it safely to Los Angeles, and now it is time to relax and hang out with Mike's family. After two busy and stressful weeks, an abundance of free time where we have nothing to work on feels wonderful and a little strange. I feel like I am living someone else's life right now. And the concept of arriving in Fairbanks in 9 days, where I'm going to be teaching and studying, also seems like someone else's happy life that I am dreaming about living.

Some pics from our trip so far:


The napkin reads, "More legroom than any other U.S. Airline - United Economy Plus".
Somehow, Mike and I managed to sit on the only row of seats that has substantially less leg room than any other airline.



Murals on the windows of the harp shop that we visited to buy a replacement string for Mike's mom.


Driving into Burbank. The mountains are beautiful and very different from the short, conifer-filled hills in Northern Alabama.

Fruit!! Suddenly, I'm surrounded by fresh fruit. The backyard has so many fruit trees and my first ever visit to Whole Foods was wonderful.

The Crunch

We're leaving Alabama tomorrow to fly to California.

The last two weeks have been a non-stop blur of packing things for storage and deciding what to bring with us. In an hour, Mike and I are going to meet my mom for dinner and to deliver my red-eared slider to his new home in Mom's kindergarten classroom. And since none of us will probably sleep tonight, Dad's coming over to join in an all-night movie fest.

Tomorrow I'll leave Brawley, my cat, at Dad's house and we'll drive down to Birmingham.

I'm looking forward to the first leg of our trip in California. I've always wanted to visit, and I'm really excited to meet Mike's parents.

So, ten days and then we'll be in Fairbanks. Woot!


If you see two bicycle-riding geeks looking super happy to be out of the hot Alabama sun - that's probably us.

Yard Sale!

The yard sale description Mike posted online:

Yard sale at my place tomorrow: Saturday, August 4th, starting at first daylight (we'll be awake all night getting it together). Come see what horrors two geeks can amass and eventually sell (in this yard sale, of course) in preparation for a trip to a far-away land of bears and snowmobiles. We will have a crap-ton of damn fine-looking clothing for sale (we have good taste, but precious little suitcase space), many, many honestly geeky books (including subversive/ political/ revolutionary/science-fictionary insanity, and a few boring(i.e. "good") books as well), toys (including a rocket!), games, furniture(bookcases, desk, shelves) electronics, antique cameras, sporting goods, picture frames, a cute little tv/vcr, a musical instrument or two, cages for rabbits/ ferrets/ chinchillas/ rats, some good shoes, a well-loved motor scooter, some pretty things, and if there's any left when you get here, free coffee! Shockingly low prices for everything, I promise.

We had around 5 people show up, and made $35. It was scorching hot at 9:00 am, so I'm not surprised most people decided to forego stopping at our yard sale. Still, it was worthwhile to separate what we are going to give away/ donate from what we are going to store or take with us.

Cabins vs. Dorms - Take Two

Around the beginning of June I received a letter from UAF Residence Life saying that Mike and I were on the waiting list for a dorm. At the end of June I emailed Res Life to check on the status of the dorm, and they said they would know whether we would have a dorm room around mid-July. Last week I emailed Res Life again to check on the status. Right now, Mike and I are 3rd on the wait list for a dorm room. The only openings for a co-habitating couple are 2 bedroom dorms in Hess Village for $965/ month.

So - a cabin it is!

We're arriving very early in the morning on Sunday, August 26th. Hopefully we'll be able to look at some cabins that day. I'm a bit worried there might be a pre-term rush for cabins that are close to the UAF campus. Starting August 27, I will be in Teaching Assistant training from 9-4 everyday. I'm really looking forward to the training, but I am worried about Mike going cabin hunting by himself. We went through a similar situation a year ago in Birmingham, and it was very stressful even with the aid of his motor scooter.

Right now our plan is to pick up the Daily News-Miner and two bicycles and see where they take us.

Present and past Fairbanks insiders, if you have any advice or secrets on securing a good cabin near the UAF campus please share them with me. I would love any help!

Breaking the News: Mom, Dad & Andrew

After several 6 day work weeks, last weekend I had three consecutive days off. One day to recuperate, one day to wait out the brunt of a nasty stomach virus that has been making the rounds, and one day to drive out to my mother's house. After a tour of the new vinyl siding that has replaced the old wood portions of the house, we climbed into Dad's truck and headed down the mountain to the small Mexican restaurant. Snacking on chips and bean dip, Mom and Dad started asking if I wanted to find a better job. "Actually, I kind of have some exciting news." My Mom looked down when she heard this. I told them about Grad school and Alaska. They were both excited and happy for me. Andrew, who had been distracted by our surroundings, suddenly put his arms around me.

Mom said that she had spoken with my sister the day before. My sister told her she was mad at me. When my mom asked why, she replied "I'm not at liberty to say." My mom tried to think of a secret reason Jess would be mad at me, and decided the most likely scenario was that Mike and I had eloped. Jess, she supposed, was mad because she had not been able to be the Maid of Honor at my wedding. This strikes me as a really strange concept, but with a cousin getting married this weekend and another recently becoming engaged Mom probably assumes I'm not far behind. Actually, Jess was tired of being a secret keeper and wanted me to tell Mom and Dad about Alaska.

Surprisingly, Mom said she will want to visit. "I missed my chance to see Japan."

After dinner, we drove back up the mountain and Andrew gave me a tour of his tree house. I recorded his tour with my digital camera and promised to send him a copy soon.

Nana called while I was there, and I told her as well. "That's a far piece," she said.

My reply: "Yes! I'm so excited."

Where I'm Coming From

A few scenes and thoughts from my current place in Athens, Alabama.


Hair Mechanics & Bujinkan Martial Arts
There is a large open field behind this establishment. I had hoped to see people doing handless cartwheels and slicing through blocks of ice with their bare hands. The students of Bujinkan must need more room than the small building to practice their art. I have never seen anyone go into this building. And do the Hair Mechanics specialize in 1950s greaser styles?


Yesterdays Welcomes the Destined


A View from beside the front porch
When Mike and I moved into the Mouse House (a nickname Dad gave it, because it is very small and cozy), I imagined myself soaking in the summer from the front porch. With a glass of sweating iced tea in my hand, I'd muse about life and write stories and poems at a steady pace. Not so. I started working 2 days after we moved in, and since I work the night shift I rarely have a chance to enjoy the sun.


Sunflowers
Another goal of ours was to beautify the outside of the house by planting lots of flowers. These sunflowers are the only ones that made it into the ground. They've gotten so tall, but no flowers yet. I hope they bloom before we leave.


The Shed at Sunset
The grass was dry and cracked beneath our feet for most of the summer. And then last week, with only 3 days of rain, the grass shot up to nearly 2 feet in height. The neighbors had been eyeing our private jungle, wondering when we were going to mow it. Mike spent 2 hours on the lawn mower, and now the yard is full of large grass clumps. We're going to have to rake the excess grass away, and probably trim the yard again, before we have our giant Moving to Alaska yardsale in two weeks.


* Thanks to Mike for the pictures of Hair Mechanics/ Bujinkan Martial Arts and Yeterdays.*

Book Musings: Coming Into the Country

Coming Into the Country
by John McPhee
ISBN: 0374522871
Cover Price: $15.00 (Trade Paperback)
My Price: $1.00 (Huntsville Friends of the Library Bookstore)
Pages: 438

My library's copy has yellowed pages and the spine is broken in several places. In the small used bookstore at the entrance to the library, I found a gently used copy for $1.00. It is paperback, has a small mushed area on the bottom of the spine, but is full of crisp and clean pages.

Before I began reading, I made a decision. This was going to be an interactive book. Most of my books are still in their original, great condition. But every now and then, I find a book that pulls me to highlight passages, print notes or definitions in the margins, and bookmark pages with brightly colored tabs. There were several benefits to taking this approach with Coming Into the Country. Interacting with the text kept me alert during long night readings. And if I happen to use this book in a class, I will already have key passages pinpointed. This is a book I will definitely read again, so I can use a different color pen for future readings and compare future notes with the passages that resonated with me before I ever entered Alaska.

The language is wonderful. It is so fun to read. Never having been to Alaska before, I have no idea how closely these observations mirror reality. But the words are lovely either way. Some samples:

pg. 54-55. They (game trails) were highways, share and share alike, for caribou, moose, bears, wolves - whose tracks, antlers, and feces were strewn along the right-of-way like beer cans at the edge of a road.
*
pg. 212 When you drive along an old back road in the Lower Forty-eight and come upon a yard full of manufactured debris, where auto engines hang from oak limbs over dark tarry spots on the ground and fuel drums lean up against iron bathtubs near vine-covered glassless automobiles that are rusting down into the soil, you have come upon a fragment of Alaska. The people inside are Alaskans who have not yet left for the north.
*
pg. 409 I profoundly wish it were winter. The country has seemed more friendly to me then, all the bears staring up at the ceilings of their dens. The landscape is softened, in illusion less rough and severe - the frozen rivers flat and quiet where the waves of rapids had been.

This one is going in my suitcase.

Overall: Yes!

Breaking the News: Work

Several months ago, my father worked the weekend night audit at a small, independently owned motel down the road from his apartment. After he decided it was too much to have his regular job and the weekend job, he quit the motel. The girl they hired to replace him slept through the audit and ran up long-distance phone bills on the office line. So when I moved to Huntsville, they hired me on the spot.

It's not a bad job. It's perfect for writers or people who stay up all night using the internet. The only complaint I have is that sometimes the male guests think that I am part of the hotel package. I wonder if this happens at all hotels/motels/inns, or just the ones with cheap rates. I've been thinking I might try to make a mini-comic zine out of the whole crazy situation, and call it "Motel'inn", or some other crappily clever title.

Today I put in my notice through the Manager's preferred form of communication - a letter left on her desk. It is pretty mundane, but I thought I would post it here so I can look back two years from now (when I am writing a blog entry that is actually about living in Alaska) and be very glad to no longer be in the Dark Times, Part III.

Hi Ms. Elaine & Ms. Mary!

I have been offered a position teaching English Composition at the University of Alaska. The University will pay me a salary & will pay for my tuition. I am going to be in the graduate creative writing program, working on my Masters of Fine Arts.

I will be leaving Alabama on August 15th. I would like to have around a week before this date to finish packing and visiting family members. If it is possible, I would like to request that my last day of employment at The Inn* be August 8th, 2007.

I know it is hard to find someone to work the weekend night audit position, so if it would help please rearrange my schedule as you need to. I would be more than happy to switch to working weekends, and/or to help train my replacement.

I apologize for the short notice. I was not sure until recently that I would be able to accept the position.

I have enjoyed working at The Inn*. I promise to send a postcard from Alaska!

Sincerely,

Jenni Moody
07/09/07

And for complete documentation, my handwritten letter:





* The Inn isn't the real name of the motel. Since I'm still working there, I thought it might be best to leave it anonymous.

Alaska Excitement!

This week we bought our plane tickets from Alabama to California, so now we have our main travel expenses covered. As I let myself believe that all of this is actually going to happen, I get more and more excited.

Other things that have heightened the Alaska Excitement:

• Help from Alaska Bloggers.


• I have an awesome reading list (thanks to Brett!).


• I know what a Toyo is (thanks to Mary and Theresa!!)


• Reading Coming Into the Country.


• I am split between wanting to read it all right away and not wanting the book to end. It is such a good book.


• Power Haircut


• For the last few months I have been frustrated with my hair, pulling it back in a lax, low-lying bun. After a while, I began to feel like an unfortunate animal had taken up residence on the back of my neck and died in its sleep. No more! I present my freshly cut hair, shorter than I have ever had it before. It feels wonderful.

Movie Musings: Balto

(Modeled by Brigit, who is spending the week with us while Dad is in Tennessee for work.)

Balto
by Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment
ISBN: 0783218575
Length: 1 hour and 18 minutes
Published: 1996

A Mixed Race Hero
"A dog cannot do it alone, but a wolf can."
The theme of this movie is not Alaska. It is not about enduring harsh landscapes using strength and sense. Balto is all about being of mixed race. Yes, there are close encounters with sharp icicles, avalanches, and frozen water. But really, this could be set anywhere. The characters might as well be walking through grass. The feeling of Nome as a far away and inaccessible place is done well, but the landscape is otherwise unimportant.

Balto's mother was a dog and his father was a wolf. Balto gets a lot of crap for this from the townspeople. Mostly, he is set-up by Steele, a nasty but competent sled dog. Steele takes some sausages from the butcher, then when he hears people coming he throws them over to where Balto is standing. Steele is a good dog for catching Balto at stealing, and the butcher basically says, "Well what can you expect? He's part wolf." Variations of this happen over and over throughout the movie. Balto is a great guy - nice, compassionate, and energetic. He is alternately defiant and depressed when his mixed race is constantly flung in his face as a bad thing.

If Mike and I decide someday to make our small effort to keep the world from turning into an Ideocracy by passing on our okay genes, then I will show this movie to our progeny. And I will talk about how being different is wonderful and beautiful.


Overtly Sexual Comments, that will probably only register with adults
"Hey Balto, I've got a message for your mother: Awooooooooooooooo!"
Steele is calling Balto's mom a slut. And not only is she a slut, but she does it with wolves!

Annoying sidekicks
"I'm getting people bumps."
Boris the Russian snow goose is almost as bad as Aladdin's Iago. The two polar bears, Muk and Luk, are boring and easy to ignore. But Boris is there to make us laugh. And as you might expect in a movie about children severely ill with diphtheria, all of his jokes fall flat.

Real World Bookends
"Come on, Grandma Carrie!"
When the animated portion ends and we return to the memorial in New York, we are hit with the harsh realization that Balto, Jenna, and most of the people that lived in Nome are now dead. Why? Because the little girl is now an old woman. Yes. They killed off everyone (except for Carrie) that we had been rooting for or scowling at during this movie in a moment. Gone. Most adult movies aren't that harsh.

Fashion Realizations

• A tasteful red shawl makes a lady dog look very elegant. Jenna is the Audrey Hepburn of animated canines.


• Musher hats never go out of style.

Overall: Rent it for yourself, buy it for your kids. Not much Alaska goodness, but the other strangenesses make up for it.

Tickets!! We just bought our plane tickets!!

!!!!!!!!!!

Mike and I just bought our plane tickets from Burbank, CA to Fairbanks, AK. We'll be arriving late late late on August 25th.

Woot!!

Now we just have to buy the plane tickets from Alabama to California.

And pack.

And sell stuff.

And find homes for the ratzelles and the turtle with no name and the Brawley monster.

And...

Well, small steps towards a kick ass goal.

Gerbils and Why I Am In Love

(e-mail conversation with Mike, during my shift working the night audit at the hotel)

Me: oh so cute animal!!

Mike: Is that one of the famous bloodthirsty snow-gerbils?

Me: oooooooooooo. bloodthirsty snow gerbils???? I had not heard of these!!!!!!1

Mike: Ah, yes. Alaska is famous for them. Just look at this completely unretouched photo of one taken right after it massacred a large family of orphans.



Mike: In case you couldn't tell, that's blood all over its mouth!

Me: OH MY GOODNESS!!! Absolute #1 on my To Do In Fairbanks List: SEE DEADLY SNOW GERBIL!!!!! :D

UPDATE: Not a snow gerbil, but a pika. Thank you Theresa!

This Way: Alaska and the Yukon

This Way: Alaska and the Yukon
by JPM Publications
ISBN: 2884520511
Price: not listed
Pages: 64

This book is hand-sized and, as modeled by Brawley, slightly larger than a cat's head. Another library book. This one seemed mildly promising when I flipped through it in the stacks. But when I brought it home and tried to read through it, my interest evaporated. Filled with bland tourist brochure language and a few nice photographs, this is a book that is definitely not worth the paper it is printed on.

The most interesting quote:

When one of the many Texans working on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline got a little too uppity, a local would tell him: "If you're not careful, we'll divide Alaska into two halves and then Texas will be the third largest state in the Union."

And this was on the first page. I skimmed the rest, and couldn't bring myself to read much more. The big problem of this tiny book is that it tries to divulge history and tourist bait in as few words as possible. The result is a scary world that I'd like to stay far away from.

Overall: Craptastic. Not even worth opening.

Dorms vs. Cabins

I got a letter yesterday from UAF Residence Life. It's pretty ambiguous.

Dear Jennifer:

We now have your completed application on file for Student Family, Graduate & Non-Traditional Housing at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Your name is being placed on our waiting list for Fall 2007.

You will be notified as soon as we are able to offer you an apartment in Student Housing.

BARG. I was really hoping for a clear answer. Although this letter does not state it, I am assuming Mike and I have been accepted as a Financially Interdependent couple. Hopefully, we'll get moved from the Waiting List to the Send Us Your Money List.

Mike and I both want to try living in a cabin, but we won't have a car in Alaska and I'm a bit scared of going last minute cabin shopping. I can see Mike searching through dingy cabins while I'm at TAship training all day, with our money being eaten up by a hotel. Not a good way to start the year.

But if it does come to that, it won't be the end of the world. After all, Alaska is all about new experiences.


UAF Cabin Life, Part 1
UAF Cabin Life, Part 2

Breaking the News - Dad

Mike and I ate dinner at Dad's house last night. While we were sitting at the table eating bean burritos and tacos, I got that nervous pang in my stomach and decided it was time to break the news about Alaska.

Dad was really happy for me, but very surprised.

"How long is the program?" He asked.

"It's 3 years."

"3 years? You were only in Japan for one year."

Beyond the years I'm guaranteed to be in Alaska, there's the nebulous After Grad School realm that we didn't talk about. When I studied abroad, my parents knew I would be coming back to finish my undergraduate degree. But when I leave for Alaska, I'm leaving Alabama without knowing if or when I'll ever live here again.

Yet, I think I will actually see them more after I move away. When I come back to visit I will be dependent on them for a place to stay and transportation. Thanks to crap jobs, the last few years I haven't been able to spend more than two days at a time with my family. I'm not sure exactly how different grad school will be from undergrad, but if I am able to be off for even half the usual vacation time it will be much much more than I have seen since getting my diploma.

Dad has promised to visit at least once. He said Alaska is a place he has always wanted to visit, but never thought he would have an excuse to go there. Dad visited Japan, so I'm pretty confident I'll be showing him around the campus before a year has passed.

And he's already springing into action: offering to share storage space with me, and making plans to move into the mouse house after Mike and I leave. One project I want to complete before we leave AL is to get my ham radio license - so we can have a channel of communication open with Dad all the time.

There were many things I did badly the last time I was living far away. They're still fresh in my mind, even though it was 4 years ago. This time, I'm determined to do better. At the top of the list is keeping in touch with my family, and showing them through pictures and stories what my daily life is like.

Alaska Scrapbook/ Binder

Someday, my posts will have more to do with living in Alaska. But until I arrive in Fairbanks in late August to begin my TA training, all I have are books and preparation reports.

Today I made an Alaska scrapbook/ binder for artifacts and musings that don't fit on this blog. I bought the original scrapbook several years ago at a thrift store for 79 cents. I have several scrapbooks all with the same style of photography on the covers. The others show Spring and Fall landscapes. The one I have chosen to be my Alaska scrapbook looks like this:



And the inside cover has a lovely pattern as well:



The only problem with the original scrapbook was the pages. There were only around 25 of them. And the clear plastic covers on each page were loose. The pages were yellowed and browned.



So, I removed the pages. Then I cut the front and back covers off of a sturdy 1 inch binder, and super-glued the binder's spine into the scrapbook cover:



Huzzah! Now I can use it for on the road journal entries, sketches, pamphlets of kisch, leaf pressings - whatever I want. Anything that can be hole punched can go in my new scrapbook. And if I decide I want to take it out or rearrange the pages, it is no big deal.

:D.

In other news: Mike and I sent in our dorm housing application a few weeks ago. They've taken the application fee out of my bank account, but I haven't heard anything on whether we have been accepted as a Financially Interdependent Couple. If they don't accept us into on campus housing, it will be time to start searching for a cabin. I'm hoping we can ease into Alaskan life by having a dorm room the first year, and then finding a cabin for the next two years.

Sled Dog Trails

Sled Dog Trails

by Mary Shields

Illustrations by Nancy van Veenen

ISBN: 0882402587

127 pages

paperback - $8.95

Mike found this book at our local Friends of the Library bookstore. We were looking through the traveling section, and he found this on the shelf above where I was looking. An unexpected bonus of having a tall boyfriend! Immediately, I could tell I was going to like this book. Her pigtail braids, her frank smile, and the cool illustrations on the bottom of the cover all signaled that this is a person whose life stories will interest me.

Then I look at the inside cover and see this:

And it's signed by the author!

The book is in great shape. The pages aren't yellowed and the spine is sturdy. There is a small black smudge on the back cover, but it would probably come off with some Goo Gone. The bookstore is usually pretty pricey for my standards - a paperback in ok condition is at least $1.00 and usually more. So I was surprised to see that this perfect condition, signed paperback was only 50 cents!! Woot!

The writing in this book is excellent. Here is a taste from the Introduction:

There is comfort in having a piece of home with you, one hundred miles from the nearest cabin in the middle of a February snowstorm in Alaska. The wood of this sled once stood as the straightest-growing birch tree, down by the creek near the home cabin. For 50 years the sapling reached toward the sun and listened to the wind, but swayed only a few feet from where its roots took hold. Fancy that wooden spirit enjoying all this exploring, all this traveling, taking in the sights and sounds of foreign forests. Perhaps at night, long after you are asleep, your vagabond sled creaks tales to the eager seedlings encircling your camp.

Yes. I like this book very much. The first half of this book is my favorite. Mary talks about discovering her love of Alaska and dog sledding. She also talks about how she became the first woman to complete the Iditarod. The last half has some interesting sled dog trips, but for me the excitement was in the first half. Maybe I will enjoy the second half more once I have spent some time in Alaska.

Another wonderful suprise about this book is the illustrations by Nancy van Veenen.
They too, are not as present in the later half of the book. But I enjoyed them very much wherever they appeared.

Overall: Worth 50 cents and worth the cover price. A book to buy and love, and maybe someday follow the trails Mary made.

Alaska 24/7

Alaska 24/7: Amazing Photographs of an Extraordinary State
Created by Rick Smolan and David Elliot Cohen
ISBN: 0756600413
Hardcover
192 pages
Cover price: $24.95

I've passed by the 24/7 state books at the bookstore, but they never appealed to me. The Elementary School cover design, the phrase "24/7", and the disproportionate size to number of pages all put me off. But there aren't many books on Alaska at the Huntsville Public Library, so I decided to give this one a try.

The photographs, especially in the first half, are interesting and fun. The captions are informative and concise. My only complaint is the format. Thumbnails span the top margin of the pages, with large photographs completing the rest of the page. So, on each page I would pull the book closer to my face to try and discern the thumbnails, then pull the book back to see the larger pictures, then pull the book closer again to read the caption for the main photos. That is a lot of movement for a large, hardbound book. On some of the photos, it is great to see them so enlarged as to cover an entire page, or even two pages. But there are so many pictures that are only small thumbnails at the top of the pages. I would have traded in the giant photos for more medium-sized ones.

Overall: Good to check-out from the library, but I wouldn't pay for a copy of my own.

Braving Alaska

Braving Alaska: Experience Life in America's Last Frontier
by The National Geographic Society
ISBN: 0800137752
Length: 60 minutes
Published: 1992


This is the first good non-fiction video I've seen of Alaska. Narrated by Martin Sheen, we get a brief glimpse of the lives of several families living in the Bush.

Some awesome moments:

• Kick Ass Beaver Trap - I wish they had gone into more detail on how this is done. A man pushes some snow and squares of what looks like cardboard away, reaches in a dark hole by the frozen river, and pulls out a beaver. He quickly rubs snow over the beaver's wet fur, and suddenly the fur is dry and lovely in the wind.
• Self-Sufficient 15 year old girl - Traveling with her sled team, checking her traps, staying overnight miles away from her family's cabin - I admire her and feel so inept in comparison.
• Last Moments of a Caribou and a Moose - Cleanly shot and moments later the fur is off and enormous legs are being laid on a sheet of canvas. It is jarring, but real. There is no comparison between this and travel vids of Skagway & Co.

Overall: Definitely worth checking out from your local library. There's no dearth of beautiful scenery, but the humans of this environment are the most interesting aspect.

And Onward: I want to read the book that continues the story of one of these families, The Final Frontiersman: Heimo Korth and His Family, Alone in the Arctic Wilderness by James Campbell.

TAship Update!

Woot!!

I got an e-mail today from UAF offering me a TAship for the full 2007-2008 academic year - including the Fall! And of course, I've accepted. This is great news. Now I can focus on other finanacial aspects of the trip, like paying for the airfare and acquiring a nice suitcase.

Mike and I went to the Huntsville Public Library today and I picked up two Alaska books:

• The Great Land: Reflections on Alaska edited by Robert Hedin & Gary Holthaus
• Alaska 24/7: Amazing Photographs of an Extraordinary State from the 24/7 series created by Rick Smolan and David Elliot Cohen

I'll post the book musings here as soon as I've finished them.

A Northern Future

This Fall I will be moving to Fairbanks, Alaska to attend the Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at UAF. Finding personal insights to Fairbanks, UAF, and the MFA program there has been quite difficult. This blog will serve as a place for my memories and experiences, and aims to smooth the breach between cold guidebook facts and the actual experience of living in Alaska.

On March 8, 2007, I received an e-mail from UAF stating that I had been accepted into the writing program. I was so excited! But I was on the wait list for a Teaching Assistantship, so I tried not to daydream about it too much. I couldn't help myself. Alaska! How beautiful and exciting and harsh and real.

On April 13, 2007, I received an update from UAF offering me a Teaching Assistantship starting in the Spring 2008 semester. As a Teaching Assistant, I will teach one composition course per semester and will tutor for 5 hours each week in the Writing Center. In return, each semester I will receive a stipend of $5,358.00 and will have 10 hours of graduate tuition waived. I'm currently on the waitlist for a Fall 2007 Teaching Assistantship as well. Once you are awarded a TAship, it can be renewed each semester as long as you stay in good standing. So, now that I know I have a TAship for the Spring semester (and hopefully the subsequent semesters, as long as I stay on top of things), I can take out a loan for the first semester without feeling like I am jumping into space without a tether.

I have never visited Alaska. But I have traveled and lived outside of the United States. From 2002 - 2003 I lived in Saijo, Japan, as an exchange student through the Hiroshima University Study Abroad (HUSA) program. During the long University vacation that spans February and March, a few friends and I traveled for 3 days in Hokkaido. My main reason for wanting to visit Hokkaido was the Sapporo Snow Fesitval, where giant snow and ice sculptures are displayed in Odori Park. But as we traveled from Sapporo to the small onsen (hot springs) town of Noboribetsu, I realized that Hokkaido was by far my favorite place in Japan. I loved the snow and ice and the communities rich with individuality.



I'm looking forward to the challenge of graduate school and living in Alaska. Mike, my partner and best friend, will be moving to Fairbanks with me. We are applying to live in the dormitory there as a Financially Interdependent Couple, which basically means that you live together and share expenses but are not married in a legal sense.

We are reading everything we can find about Alaska to prepare for the mental and physical shift to the North. This blog will share everything - from books and media I find on Alaska to my life there.

Alabama's state motto makes little sense for a Red state to bear - Audemus jura nostra defendere (translated from Latin = "We Dare Defend Our Rights" or "We Dare Maintain Our Rights"). But Alaska's motto is less pretentious and extremely prescient - North to the Future.