August 21, 2012

August 17, 2012

It's so blue!

 Honestly, as of right now, my brain is such a mush that I have a hard time remembering the days.  So instead of describing the day to you (other than that there were no animals seen), I will mention that we stopped off at Miles Canyon, near Kluane Lake, and saw some of the most beautiful blue water I have ever seen.  It blue my mind (punny?).  We walked along a path at the edge of the smallish canyon, though we didn't take the trail that leads to an old abandoned town. 

And since my brain is mush, that's as much as you get for today.

August 18, 2012

We made it!

 Holy cow! We made it to Alaska on Saturday, stopping off at the sign (obligatory) along with a few other people.  The road changed from more of a chipseal to a paved asphalt at the border, and there is a 20ft wide (I believe) line of trees that is cleared along the entire length of the border. There is even a sign talking about how the border is not fenced, and trying to promote peace.  Which I thought interesting, since we have such a battle with the border to the south... but... you know... we are friendly and peaceful with those Canadians. We aren't hypocritical at all...


August 19, 2012

Day 1 of being on our laptops on campus

 We stayed Saturday night at a hotel in town and were able to use their internet until noon.  At which point we headed to campus to use the internet there. Luckily, they have open WiFi and we could log on as guests. We began our house search.  It's tiresome and I'd rather not discuss it much, but many phone calls and emails were sent, and most places available now don't allow animals and have a lease we have to sign, the ones that are month to month or do allow animals are not available now.  That type of thing. Luckily, my new advisor is allowing us to stay at his place, so we headed over there in the evening, met him and his family, were invited to and went to a neighborhood party/gathering where we met a bunch of very nice people and got some leads on housing, and fell asleep pretty quickly. It's tiring being stressed about finding a place to live.


August 20, 2012

Day 2 of finding a place to live

Monday was close to a repeat of Sunday in terms of housing.  We called and emailed more people, but most things are opening up at the beginning of September, which would leave us nearly two weeks to house ourselves elsewhere.  We did swing by a few more places, checked them out, and even put in an application at one location (which I will hopefully hear back from today, the 21st).  

The better part of the day was that I got to join in on my first "Monday tea" with my advisor and his crew, met a bunch of people here, got some paper work filled out (or at least started, depending on which one we are talking about) and got a bit of a tour of campus. That really felt nice. It's starting to feel like I am a student/employee here and less of an aimless wanderer lost in Fairbanks.

August 21, 2012

Day 3 of looking on the computer

Today we spent some time in the library again, although there was less to be doing.  This morning I went in and paid the application fee for the application I turned in last night.  Originally, we had been turned off by the application- it asks for a lot of information I would prefer not to give, especially over the internet.  But by later in the day, we had decided (though investigation) that it probably wasn't a scam, and that I would apply but not supply all of the information... they don't need my bank account numbers, I'm sorry.  So this morning, I went in to pay the fee for that. With the hope- for why would I not get it?- of a place to stay soon, our moods were lifted and we were able to take a break from such strenuous searching. So while we kept looking up places as they were posted, we were less stressed about it.  That made for a much better day.  I even had a little bit of an appetite today! I'm pretty sure I've already eaten more today than I did either of the last two days.  Something about being busy and stressed eliminates my appetite. 

So today would qualify as the best so far, I think.