Aurora Photos

Hi.  We are sitting here on family chat, looking at our adorable baby niece and talking about moose.  It makes me think (what makes me think this is really that Amy asked me whether I had put them up..) that I have photos to put up of the aurora.  So, without further ado:

9/30/2012

10/8/2012

10/8/2012

10/8/2012

10/8/2012

10/8/2012

10/12/2012

10/12/2012

We have got to see many beautiful northern lights. It's ok to be jealous.


I fly out to Bolivia tomorrow.  So far, I don't think that I have realized that I am actually going to south america for two weeks.  So far, everything has been about what I need to finish before leaving.  Of which there is plenty.  I still have a few assignments to finish up, but luckily I am ~4/5ths through each of those. Still, I doubt it will hit me that it's going to happening until it's happening.

Laura

Laura is going to Bolivia!

And I hate her.

Just kidding.

Laura will be in Bolivia for two weeks. She is going down with a team 6 or 7 people who are going to collect data and then take down part of a seismic array. Though the seismic stations have been collecting really good data, they can't keep them there for political/import reasons or something. So, they're going to go take them down.

Hopefully Laura will talk about the trip after she is gone, because I don't really know too much about it. All I know is she will be spending a day or two flying down there, then another few days travelling to the first site, just to take down the station and travel for a few more days to another site. Then they'll travel for a few days back to get back to a big enough city to fly home. Basically it will take a lot of travel to get a few stations down.

Laura has had to do a lot of prep work for the trip. She has gotten her passport renewed, gotten her visa and gotten a slew of vaccines. But that is only part of it. She is also going to be missing two weeks of school. Luckily all of her classes are in the department, so they are understanding to the need to travel (more fortunate than some students). But even though her teachers are letting her go, that doesn't mean they're too happy about it. Plus, Laura has to do all of that work ahead of time.

So, Laura has also been extremely busy with school work. Things are getting busier and busier, as she now has mere days until she leaves.

As for me, I am trying to make sure that I can survive the two weeks without her! I don't really like to drive that much, though I have when needed. But now that the snow is here, I am even less inclined to drive. Of course I would drive if there is an emergency, but I would like to make sure I don't have to drive to the store or anything silly like that. Since we don't have internet at home, it makes more sense that I'd decide I need to come to campus and watch TV.

That means we need to make sure we have enough water, oil and food. Plus I need to make sure I have enough stuff to entertain me, arts and crafts, new TV shows to watch, etc. The important things, you know. I have also spent this week on campus with Laura so that I get sick of the internet and, you know, watch all my TV shows that will expire. Because it would be horrible if I missed one.

I will have company though. Chloe will be dropped off a few days after Laura leaves. Another advantage to that, besides the having-someone-to-talk-to thing, is that Chloe will have me there around the clock during her transition to our house. I figure it will be great to get her used to us and the house before she gets used to our schedule and being home alone.

So don't find it odd when I don't post anything here for a couple weeks! Hopefully Laura will be able to take pictures and write a good post afterwards... but considering how busy she'll be catching up, we'll see if that happens....

Northern Journey Wins!

With this post, Northern Journeys has tied European Journeys in number of blog posts. I only know this because our three blogs are all under the same user, so when I come to this blog I see those as well. Tying with that blog is not necessarily a feat in and of itself, because this trip has now been in equal length to that trip. However I thought it interesting that the one time I notice the number of posts is when the two are the same (39 each). Another interesting tidbit? There are thirteen times as many views! Much more fun! So, to honor that, here are some cool pictures and another random tidbit at the end.

Scrape the car in the morning, and in the afternoon. Scrape it in the evening and underneath the moon!

 

Wispy!

That's the "lake".

 

That was 13 photos in honor of 13 times as many views. As for the random interesting tidbit... did you know Moose are actually quite vocal? They kind of sound like a cow mooing, but you know, different. I've heard them many times. I think its their mating season. Plus with the snow you can see moose tracks. Fun stuff!

Meet Chloe!

This is Chloe:

She belongs to the people who used to own our landlord's house. They spend their winters in Oregon, and so they find housesitters for the winter. Since they owned our landlords house, it has been the tenant who dog sat. So even though they moved out of the house, when it came to looking for a dog sitter they still came to us, the tenant. Chloe knows the property and the house so well, afterall.

 

Since it is a long term commitment (from October to April), they want to make sure we're the right people. Likewise, we needed to make sure Chloe is a good dog. We met the owners and Chloe a few days ago and everything well. They asked us if we would like to do a trial run - an overnight of dogsitting, just to see how it goes.

So they dropped her off on Monday morning with her food and leash and blanket. The two of us hung out during the day. She got a lot of back rubs and we spent time exploring the back yard. She is 8 years old, so she also spent a lot of time napping.

 

She did throw up a couple hours after being here, but since I know she hadn't gotten into anything it was either the result of anxiety or excitement, or both. I would imagine it must be tough to change owners so much. Really she only lives with her owners half of the time. They said she is getting better at the transitions, but I still imagine it will be hard for her.

 

After sweeping the snow! Isn't it cute?

Monday night Laura and I took her for a walk. It was the first time we walked down the street even though we've lived here for a month, but I guess that makes sense because why would you walk down a street without a dog...?

Snow!

As the weather forecast in my last post suggested, the snow has finally arrived! It came a little bit earlier than expected, by a day or two. So on Sunday we woke up to snow on the ground, and it has been snowing near constantly since. That doesn't mean that a lot of snow has accumulated though, because it is so dry and and it snows so lightly. I'd say we have a few inches at most.

Laura and I had a few errands to run on Sunday, so we got our first real snowy driving experience. It has snowed once before, but all of the roads were clear by the time we had to drive. This time the main roads were still pretty clear, but the side roads were snowy. Luckily, it doesn't seem that bad to drive in. Not that I've driven in it, but that's what Laura says...

I stayed home on Monday instead of going to campus, and Laura reported that there was mild slipping on her way home. There is a pretty good sized hill in between here and campus, and the roads were covered when she was driving. She was able to switch into 4 wheel drive and recovered quickly, but slipping is something I'd rather us avoid completely. Especially while we still have Washington plates on the car, because well.. that's just embarrassing.

Anyway, that was enough words on snow. Now for some pictures!



Sunday morning, after just a few hours of accumulation.



Ittle bittle of snow.



Also Sunday, on the way to campus.



Monday, a walk along the road to our house.



More pictures along the walk.



Walking down to the pond near our house.



The pond, nice and snowy.



Look at that evidence of the wispys! I love the wispys.



The new normal!

Luckily, even with the snow, it isn't that cold. You can be outside without gloves on for a reasonable amount of time, and I'm still good in converse as long as I wear a couple layers of thick socks. Of course I don't walk that long of distances out in the snow, and if I did I'd want more layers. But I figure it's a good sign that I feel fine when the temperature are in the teens, because that means I'm not screwed for colder temperatures. I think it's all due to the dry cold - it's great!

See, it's dry!

Moose, Auroras and Ice, oh my!

We saw our first moose in Fairbanks a week or so ago. It was a massive female, and she was right on the side of the road so we got some good pictures.

Since then, we've seen a few more moose! We saw the aftermath of an accident - smooshed car and partially covered moose on the back of a clean up truck. The moose looked like it was in good condition... besides being dead. It was a very large male with humongous antlers! Luckily the car wasn't in too bad of shape - the engine was smooshed but the cab looked intact.

The next day we saw two more moose in the same area. At first we thought they looked like horses, but that would be silly, of course! It looked like a mama and an almost full grown child moose.



Kind of a where's waldo?

Oh, and one of the grad students here was chased by a moose the other day. Don't know the story... but sounds fun! :P

In other news of Alaska-y things, we have seen numerous awesome auroras. The only problem with that is that I find it very hard to stop watching an aurora... And that is a problem when they last hours upon hours!! So a few nights ago I spent about three hours watching the aurora, and I only stopped when the aurora stopped. So, last night I had to do something I had never done before - stop watching the aurora while it was still going. I had watched outside for an hour, and then alternated between inside and out for a good half hour (because you can see it easily from the windows as well)... but eventually I turned the lights on and ignored it. It was very difficult to do.

It was an amazing aurora last night though, it filled the sky completely at points and was the greenest looking yet. Even cooler - it was filled with awesome movement and detail. Possibly one of the best yet... Laura is the one who takes aurora pics, so maybe I'll have her do a seperate post at some point when she can!

The last relevant Alaska thing is the weather forecast. It has been an unusually warm fall thus far, according to locals. Normally the snow would have come and stayed by now. But now the cold weather has finally come! The highs have been in the low 30s this week, and they aren't supposed to get above 32 for the next week. Snow is forecasted for next week, and then possibly again the week after that.



I didn't do good cropping. Shush.

I'm really excited for the snow because, well obviously it's very Alaskan, but also the aurora lights up ground so much that I'm eager to see what it looks like when there is snow to reflect the light and make it even lighter!

To end the post... just a few random pictures!

Puddles made of ice.

Long, beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

Uniquely shaped ice crystals...

Ice in places you wouldn't think ice need be.

Laura making horrible noise.

Doesn't that look cool!?

What's with this shape?

Recognize the lake, parents? It's starting to get icy!

I'm a student!

Ok that's a lie.

But, I do go to class once a week! One of the classes that Laura is enrolled in is a seminar class. Attendance is manditory for those who are enrolled in the class, however whoever else wants to attend can. There are quite a few people who attend who aren't in the class. At the end of the lecture, those not enrolled leave and the actual students stay for a 'post discussion' where they are supposed to ask questions.

I didn't go to the first lecture because we didn't know it would be so casual. I missed the second because we were running late, I wanted to pee and I couldn't find my camera so I had to go back to the car to make sure I left it there, and not on the way....

But, I've attended every lecture since! There have been lectures on uplift in the Alaskan Range, summaries of Grad Student's research, infrasound and today's lecture is going to be on something to do with NASA.

After class we all walk over to the pub on campus for a weekly geology gathering. A professor and a chair buy pitchers of beer for everyone (like - 10 pitchers - they're very generous). The rule is you have to be standing and socializing to get the free beer. At first I didn't grab beer because that didn't seem fair. I'm not a geology student after all. However everyone, including those that buy the beer, insist that I am practically a student and that I should drink as well!

Seminar and pub make Friday a really fun day. Plus it facilitates setting up plans for the weekend. Laura doesn't have any other classes on Friday either, so even though she is doing a buttload of homework for the following week, she is generally less stressed and busy. Really, Friday feels like the weekend, which makes Thursday feel like an extension of the weekend. In addition, since Laura doesn't have classes on Wednesday, that makes Tuesday feel like a Friday too... so really there are quite a few weekend days! This is, of course, ignoring the fact that I do not work nor am I in school, so every day is the weekend.

Photoshoot?

Laura was wearing a turtleneck and we joked that it reminded us of one of the outfits people would wear for senior pictures. So, what could we do but go outside and do some dorky poses? Besides vanity and our egotistical desires to take pictures of ourselves, an extra advantage is that it does show what the area around our house looks like. Since it will look pretty different pretty soon, it is probably a good idea to document the current appearance. It looks like the trees just can't wait for snow now that they're bare and grey!

 

Speaking of... look at the last photo to see what we got a (temporary) glance of last weekend...