We have our tickets home! Our folks generously used their air miles on us, so we bought tickets based on when they could use those most effectively. That means that I am going home on December 9th, and Laura is going home on the 16th. She has to be alone over finals week. :(
This means that I have less than two weeks left here, and Laura has less than three weeks! Crazy, aye! It's exciting, of course, because we're going home for Christmas and we get to see everyone that we haven't seen in nearly 4 months. However it's also bittersweet for me because I don't know if I'm coming back or not. If I don't come back, I'll miss it here. If I do, I have to figure out a lot of logistics.
Our 4 months away have gone by pretty quickly (in my opinion, maybe Laura wouldn't agree)... its hard to believe that it's already time to go home!
Since I probably won't come back, this is probably the end of the blog. I am the main contributor (...where is the Bolivia post, Laura? ;) ) so I assume there won't really be new posts after we leave.
So yay! And sadness. (Aren't I a great writer? Aren't you so happy you've been able to read my fancy speak words these last four months?)
So now to our last(?) two weeks of blogging...
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Thanksgiving
For Thanksgiving this year, Laura and I headed down to Alyeska with a group of friends. Alyeska is a ski resort east of Anchorage, which means it is a 7-8 hour drive. Since we love drives, and we've never been down that far, our trip down there was part of the fun! We left on Wednesday afternoon after dropping Chloe off with our friend Christina for the weekend. We only had a few hours of sunlight, but since we were heading south and sunsets are long anyway, it was a lot of beautiful light. After the sunset, the moonlight continued to glow on the mountains!
We stayed in a house right at the foot of the mountain. It was very close to the lifts, which was convenient for the skiiers and snowboarders. Even though Laura and I didn't ski, we climbed up the mountain as well to see what it was like. We brought a snowboard, and I considered renting skis, but we were told from everyone who went out on Thursday that it wasn't worth it - not much was open and the slopes were icy. That sounded unfun for trying to snowboard for the first time, and not worth the money to rent skis. Plus lots of people were staying back, and it was fun to just hang out with them.
The house itself was amazing. It had plenty of space for the 13 of us, it looked amazing and it had a hot tub. It made for a great place to just hang out and play games! Here is your tour...
Thanksgiving itself was amazing. Everyone contributed a dish or two (Laura and I made stuffing and pistachio salad) and we ended up with everything we could think of! There was plenty of food so everyone got enough (plus leftovers) and it tasted delicious.
After eating we walked up the slopes to work off all the food. We made it up pretty far before we were told to leave.... it made for a fun walk though!
And since this is already such a picture heavy post, I may as well include some of the other photos that I took over the course of the weekend....
We knew about half of people who went before we left, so we were able to get to know some new people this trip. I finally found people willing to play egyptian ratscrew with me over and over! (That's a card game that most people stop playing with me...) It was great!
Laura and I went on a walk down the road to get a better view of the mountains surrounding us and to see the snow. Though we've seen snow everyday for a month, its definitely not something that you could get sick of! Plus the snow is wetter here, and it sticks to the trees better, so it just looks different. Here are some pictures from our walk....
Overall the trip was great. It was sad that we had to leave early (Saturday morning instead of Sunday morning) but Laura had homework that she needed to do and we needed to get Chloe from the dog sitter. I would've stayed back, but I didn't want Laura to drive a 8 hour drive alone!
Speaking of the drive, I took lots of photos of that as well... (surprise?). We left earier in the day -- around 12:30 -- so we had more time in the sunlight.
On our drive we saw 4 moose, including 2 on the road and 1 that we had to break for in order not to hit. Since we made it home safely, it simply made for a more exciting drive home. That brings us to the end of our story. Happy Thanksgiving!
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| Our route, if anyone is curious... |
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| Chloe at her friend Nuna's (Christina's house) |
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| We could see Denali lit by the sunset! (It looked bigger in person...) |
We stayed in a house right at the foot of the mountain. It was very close to the lifts, which was convenient for the skiiers and snowboarders. Even though Laura and I didn't ski, we climbed up the mountain as well to see what it was like. We brought a snowboard, and I considered renting skis, but we were told from everyone who went out on Thursday that it wasn't worth it - not much was open and the slopes were icy. That sounded unfun for trying to snowboard for the first time, and not worth the money to rent skis. Plus lots of people were staying back, and it was fun to just hang out with them.
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| The glow is the mountain. |
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| The downstairs - obviously I didn't get a picture of it until people had made it their own. We didn't spend much time down here, to the right of this picture was a laundry room, bathroom and bedroom. |
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| This is the main floor. I was being a creeper and sneaking photos.... |
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| On the right there is a bathroom and bedroom. |
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| The kitchen...taken at a different time, which is why the same person from the picture before is wearing a different outfit. |
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| We kept the wood fire going pretty much constantly! |
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| The loft upstairs, where Laura and I stayed. |
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| We made this corner our own! |
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| Waiting for all the food to be ready! |
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| Everything on the table ready to eat!! |
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| Yum. |
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| We didn't have enough space to sit around the table, so we didn't even try. |
And since this is already such a picture heavy post, I may as well include some of the other photos that I took over the course of the weekend....
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| The tallest jenga tower ever. |
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| We actually "broke" the hot tub this night... too much water over the edge I think. Luckily we found a seperate breaker for the hot tub so we could continue to use it all weekend... |
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| Laura had to add in some homework, though luckily not too much... :) |
Laura and I went on a walk down the road to get a better view of the mountains surrounding us and to see the snow. Though we've seen snow everyday for a month, its definitely not something that you could get sick of! Plus the snow is wetter here, and it sticks to the trees better, so it just looks different. Here are some pictures from our walk....
Overall the trip was great. It was sad that we had to leave early (Saturday morning instead of Sunday morning) but Laura had homework that she needed to do and we needed to get Chloe from the dog sitter. I would've stayed back, but I didn't want Laura to drive a 8 hour drive alone!
Speaking of the drive, I took lots of photos of that as well... (surprise?). We left earier in the day -- around 12:30 -- so we had more time in the sunlight.
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| Sun high in the sky at 12:30! |
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| Sea ice!!! |
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| Looky! We're approaching a mountain! (Denali) |
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| :) |
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| Looking through a telescope! |
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| Recognize this, parents? |
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| You should be able to see mountains... if you can't try brightening your screen. Or if you don't care that much, that's ok too. |
On our drive we saw 4 moose, including 2 on the road and 1 that we had to break for in order not to hit. Since we made it home safely, it simply made for a more exciting drive home. That brings us to the end of our story. Happy Thanksgiving!
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Chena Hot Springs
Last night Laura and I went out to Chena Hot Springs with some friends. It was actually a somewhat difficult decision to go, because unfortunately a drag show was on Saturday night as well. Most of our friends were going to that show and then going out, which would be a very fun night. However, we also really wanted to check out the hot springs and since I'm leaving in a couple of weeks, this might've been my last chance to go! I've never been to a hot springs, but I've been to multiple drag shows... Therefore I decided to go regardless of what Laura did, but in the end she decided to come too!
Anyway, the reason that this was extra fun was of course the weather. It was -5 or -10 out, and even though we've gotten pretty used to that when dressed, it provides a nice contrast when in a bathing suit!
The drive is about an hour and a half out there, but we couldn't see it that well because sunset is around 3 or 4 these days, and we couldn't leave that early. We ended up staying in the water for a couple hours, which was great because any less wouldn't have been enough.
It was fun to stand and then get back into the water. Not sure how good the freezing and burning is on the body, but thats ok. The water is the perfect temperature, in my opinion. It wasn't too hot when we first got into it, and it kept us warm perfectly the entire time.
The funnest part is the freezing that happens when you're not in the water. You have to warm up your ears pretty often, and clear the ice off your eyelashes and eyebrows if you want to be able to see. On purpose, they didn't clear off their hair so that they could have some fun hairdos. I didn't do my hair up that fun, because its too long to stick up crazy, and because I couldn't help but get in the water too often.
It was all amazing (and I can't wait to go back), but possibly my favorite part was that it was really windy (windchill to -25 I think), which meant that the wind cleared the steam away and gave us a clear view of the sky. By coincidence, there was a meteor shower going on so we saw a handful of shooting stars. There is nothing better then floating on your back in extremely buoyant hot water with a clear view of a sky full of stars. Seriously. I can't wait to go back.
Look at how fun their hair is!
Anyway, the reason that this was extra fun was of course the weather. It was -5 or -10 out, and even though we've gotten pretty used to that when dressed, it provides a nice contrast when in a bathing suit!
The drive is about an hour and a half out there, but we couldn't see it that well because sunset is around 3 or 4 these days, and we couldn't leave that early. We ended up staying in the water for a couple hours, which was great because any less wouldn't have been enough.
It was fun to stand and then get back into the water. Not sure how good the freezing and burning is on the body, but thats ok. The water is the perfect temperature, in my opinion. It wasn't too hot when we first got into it, and it kept us warm perfectly the entire time.
The funnest part is the freezing that happens when you're not in the water. You have to warm up your ears pretty often, and clear the ice off your eyelashes and eyebrows if you want to be able to see. On purpose, they didn't clear off their hair so that they could have some fun hairdos. I didn't do my hair up that fun, because its too long to stick up crazy, and because I couldn't help but get in the water too often.
It was all amazing (and I can't wait to go back), but possibly my favorite part was that it was really windy (windchill to -25 I think), which meant that the wind cleared the steam away and gave us a clear view of the sky. By coincidence, there was a meteor shower going on so we saw a handful of shooting stars. There is nothing better then floating on your back in extremely buoyant hot water with a clear view of a sky full of stars. Seriously. I can't wait to go back.
Look at how fun their hair is!
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| They made me pose with them, even though it was the awkward "I'm holding the camera so I'm way closer than you guys are, and therefore my head is twice as big as it should be" pose. |
Homesick?
Started about a week ago...
Before I left I was worried I would be pretty homesick. I knew I would miss my two nieces the most, because leaving them isn't the same as leaving adults... I can't text them or call them in the same way.
On the road trip up here I wasn't homesick at all. I was a bit surprised, but very happy with it. I remembered back to my trip to Europe, and how it took me a couple weeks to get homesick. Then the homesickness eased away so that by the time I left, I was excited to go home, and missed things I couldn't have in Europe (like Taco Bell...), but I could have easily stayed longer.
So, I figured I would feel homesick after a couple of weeks, and that it would ease away like last time. However I never really started to feel homesick. Homesick being: strong desire to go home, extreme excitement to go home or a more negative, sad emotion. I had none of that. Instead, I was sad about the thought of leaving Alaska. I started to talk about "if I left". I started casually looking for jobs, thinking about where I would want to live. There were problems to work out... how would I get around, for example. You need a car in Alaska. But in general these were things I was starting to think about.
This lasted a couple months. I was continuously surprised that I was not more homesick. I felt no rush to go home, and though I would've loved to see my nieces, I didn't feel the need to see them at that instant.
While Laura was gone I started to think about all of the games and science experiments that I wanted to do with Evan. I was trying to get Anna to play some of them, and I realized that I wanted to play them with her, instead of have Anna play them for me. I was suddenly hit with the very strong urge to be home and playing them with her now! I also had a dream that I went home, and had been home for a few days, but had forgotten to visit the nieces. I thought I was crazy! Lastly, seeing pictures of Violet, I realized just how much bigger she is than when I left! I wanted to see what she is like now that she is a chubby, giggling baby.
Obviously these three things in conjunction would lead to homesickness. And they have. However, it isn't a negative homesickness. I don't feel like I want to be home at this very instant. I don't feel sad or emotional. But I am just getting so excited about going home!
Really, I think this is good timing, too. I have about 5 weeks left in Alaska, so that gives me time to say goodbye. I don't think I'll be coming back after Christmas. I'm wanting to be in Edmonds too much right now. But since I do love it up here, I don't want to leave here too quickly. So I think this first inkling of homesickness, especially since it is positive and not negative, is great.
I kind of hope that this homesickness grows steadily over the next few weeks -- not the negative emotions -- but this budding excitement -- so that when it is finally time to go home I am unbelievably happy and ready to be gone from Alaska!
Edited to Add: (about a week later) -- Hmm.... I still want to go home, sure... but now I'm worried that I just want to go home for Christmas. I keep switching back and forth between where I want to be. I really love it up here, the cold and snow and landscape and friends and environment. However I also am really excited to live in the same town as so many of my friends.... I am still excited to go home for Christmas, I'm just not sure what I'll do after... though I think I'll probably stay down there... It was so easy to know that I made the right decision leaving Bellingham because I wouldn't have had this time in Alaska without it and I don't regret that at all. I'm looking for some sort of similar "you made the right decision" signal for this decision...
Before I left I was worried I would be pretty homesick. I knew I would miss my two nieces the most, because leaving them isn't the same as leaving adults... I can't text them or call them in the same way.
On the road trip up here I wasn't homesick at all. I was a bit surprised, but very happy with it. I remembered back to my trip to Europe, and how it took me a couple weeks to get homesick. Then the homesickness eased away so that by the time I left, I was excited to go home, and missed things I couldn't have in Europe (like Taco Bell...), but I could have easily stayed longer.
So, I figured I would feel homesick after a couple of weeks, and that it would ease away like last time. However I never really started to feel homesick. Homesick being: strong desire to go home, extreme excitement to go home or a more negative, sad emotion. I had none of that. Instead, I was sad about the thought of leaving Alaska. I started to talk about "if I left". I started casually looking for jobs, thinking about where I would want to live. There were problems to work out... how would I get around, for example. You need a car in Alaska. But in general these were things I was starting to think about.
This lasted a couple months. I was continuously surprised that I was not more homesick. I felt no rush to go home, and though I would've loved to see my nieces, I didn't feel the need to see them at that instant.
While Laura was gone I started to think about all of the games and science experiments that I wanted to do with Evan. I was trying to get Anna to play some of them, and I realized that I wanted to play them with her, instead of have Anna play them for me. I was suddenly hit with the very strong urge to be home and playing them with her now! I also had a dream that I went home, and had been home for a few days, but had forgotten to visit the nieces. I thought I was crazy! Lastly, seeing pictures of Violet, I realized just how much bigger she is than when I left! I wanted to see what she is like now that she is a chubby, giggling baby.
Obviously these three things in conjunction would lead to homesickness. And they have. However, it isn't a negative homesickness. I don't feel like I want to be home at this very instant. I don't feel sad or emotional. But I am just getting so excited about going home!
Really, I think this is good timing, too. I have about 5 weeks left in Alaska, so that gives me time to say goodbye. I don't think I'll be coming back after Christmas. I'm wanting to be in Edmonds too much right now. But since I do love it up here, I don't want to leave here too quickly. So I think this first inkling of homesickness, especially since it is positive and not negative, is great.
I kind of hope that this homesickness grows steadily over the next few weeks -- not the negative emotions -- but this budding excitement -- so that when it is finally time to go home I am unbelievably happy and ready to be gone from Alaska!
Edited to Add: (about a week later) -- Hmm.... I still want to go home, sure... but now I'm worried that I just want to go home for Christmas. I keep switching back and forth between where I want to be. I really love it up here, the cold and snow and landscape and friends and environment. However I also am really excited to live in the same town as so many of my friends.... I am still excited to go home for Christmas, I'm just not sure what I'll do after... though I think I'll probably stay down there... It was so easy to know that I made the right decision leaving Bellingham because I wouldn't have had this time in Alaska without it and I don't regret that at all. I'm looking for some sort of similar "you made the right decision" signal for this decision...
White Mascara
Written a week ago at least...
It's been cold lately! Like cold even by my new definition of cold. Today when we woke up it was -24 degrees. Now it is -13, and I really don't think it'll get above 0 today. In honor of the weather, and the fact that I have unrelated things to say, I'm going to provide a list of randomness that is largely weather related.
-My glass of water left next to the bed (on the floor) was partially frozen this morning. Luckily we have lots of warm blankets on the bed.
-When we walked Chloe we were outside in the cold for long enough that we got White Mascara.
-People plug in the heaters on their car everywhere now, so this is the new normal!
-You can't go outside with wet hair unless you want it to freeze and break off! (My hair froze stiff last night, but I didn't get a picture of it...)
-It is soooooo quiet at night and the snow is so dry that the crunching of snow (like cotton balls) sounds like it will wake the neighbors.
-Dogs have to wear shoes outside, and not just because they have crazy owners who like to dress them up. But because they can get frostbite.
-I think this is just a sign of how dry it is, but regardless I am still not used to it. There is so so so much static electricity. Every time I pet Chloe. Every time I adjust the blanket or move on the couch. Owey! One time I moved a blanket when the lights were off, and it was like a fireworks show!
It's been cold lately! Like cold even by my new definition of cold. Today when we woke up it was -24 degrees. Now it is -13, and I really don't think it'll get above 0 today. In honor of the weather, and the fact that I have unrelated things to say, I'm going to provide a list of randomness that is largely weather related.
-My glass of water left next to the bed (on the floor) was partially frozen this morning. Luckily we have lots of warm blankets on the bed.
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| (Since then we have added a towel to cover a cool spot near where this was resting, to aid in keeping things warmer. It has worked!) |
-People plug in the heaters on their car everywhere now, so this is the new normal!
-You can't go outside with wet hair unless you want it to freeze and break off! (My hair froze stiff last night, but I didn't get a picture of it...)
-It is soooooo quiet at night and the snow is so dry that the crunching of snow (like cotton balls) sounds like it will wake the neighbors.
-Dogs have to wear shoes outside, and not just because they have crazy owners who like to dress them up. But because they can get frostbite.
-I think this is just a sign of how dry it is, but regardless I am still not used to it. There is so so so much static electricity. Every time I pet Chloe. Every time I adjust the blanket or move on the couch. Owey! One time I moved a blanket when the lights were off, and it was like a fireworks show!
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