Stumbling about in the Twilight Paradise

Nothing here is static, seasonal displays changing as often as choices made based on my decisiveness. Fall made its brilliant display of beauty much like many things around here seem to do, an intensified experience jammed into a brief time. For it only seemed a little while ago, when I would be standing and listening to the leaves rustle and vibrate excitedly in the wind, thinking to myself I can't wait to get out and photograph the seasonal change. Now weeks later, it appears as if winter has been upon us for some time, wading through half a foot of snow and watching people migrate to their homes like bears to hibernate as early as five o'clock.
Though the world seems to be trapped in an accelerating helix of time, this place offers a certain perspective of tranquility that allows one's thoughts to ponder on an idea or feelings for once without it getting swept away.

The lake at the end is currently frozen over and offers a spectacular view for auroras, unfortunately I was without my camera

With Physicists, the world is their oyster and experiments conducted use the environment to find the behaviors of everything around us...sadly though this does result is only one very mild display

The devious chemists work busily behind these doors...we also work behind closed doors but only to hide the fact that we are dropping, crashing, and spinning objects (sort of like a bunch of kids on the playground)

As the first semester is quickly passing by, I am back in full swing again into pondering knowledge and ideas (sometimes to avoid the looming homework right before me) and look forward to the direction of developing friendships. Picking up my bass again with a passion I haven't had yet, I depress all of this thinking at times by jamming with some fellow musicians and let the notes trickle into my subconscious and weave discreet wisdom to be hidden there but yet felt in its presence.

Jammin to a New Rhythm

Official a physics student, time to embrace the punk

Visiting the Museum of the North & seeing large bears

Very large

Deer antler table?

Postcards coming to a post office near you

Flight delay means we get to explore my dorm together

An hour walk and improve my bed to something actually sleep-able

     The move into my new dorm has happened with little issue.  The place is pretty incredible for a dorm apartment, so far the largest dorm I've seen yet.  As of now its just two of us in the dorm though there is room for four students total and haven't even seen my roommate all that much so its like having the place to myself.  With the sad and difficult farewell to Marissa as she heads back south (luckily her flight delay gave us some more time together), I have turned my attention to capturing what I can from Fairbanks.  Exploring the campus, I run across my new friend from the hostel, Micheal.  At this point he has settled into his dry cabin 8 miles out from campus and takes me out to check it out (I forget to take pictures of it because we are always chatting but soon).
     Chilling for hours in is his small and cozy cabin, I begin to realize that living in a remote cabin is not as frightening as some would think and might be something I look forward to in the near future.  Talking about Alaska/Portland, fields of educational studies across the the board, and striking it rich as we witness his neighbor's recent finding of gold, its hard to not think that this is the life well drinking some beers and eating pizza.  Only thing left is seeing what winter has in store for changing my mind.

Finding the value village store was a huge score (bought a cheap coffee grinder, jackpot!) and there is a good chance I'll be in there a lot.  Not to mention I was helped by an enthusiastic ape and witch, employees who were already dresses to advertise the coming of Halloween, it seemed like a hot spot to shop for cheap.  Later Micheal and I found ourselves asking for directions from a gas station a few miles north of town to the closest fresh water creek, while seeing the oil pipeline on the west side of town, to collect water for his cabin.  Man, was the water refreshing! A bit of background first about the water up here though...since being in Fairbanks, water from town has a distinct taste and not a good one.  So tasting refreshing creek water, which is where all the dry cabin folks go because it is actually drawn from an underwater stream, was quiet the treat.  Coming back to the dorm, I relaxed and listened to music given to me by Kyle Carpenter.  He was a musician I met at the hostel. I hope you (Kyle) have found your musk ox north of the campus!

Have a hangover, so it seems like a good time for a blog

A book Micheal exchanged with me to read for a book I had; trading sea stories

Community kitchen, showers, and washrooms lie all to the left

The main "office"

 Pipes used for air exchange to underground facilities (really cool)   

  Having familiarized myself with the campus now, we decided that a visit downtown was in store.  Embarking from Sven's Basecamp, we rode by bus (a $1.50 ticket to get on, free for UAF students) towards downtown and found to my surprise that it was pretty bland and actually lacked in tourists.  With tourist summer season almost done, the burned-out downtown area reminded me more of HP Lovecraft's description of his town, Innsmouth, from his story "Call of Cthulhu." Finding ourselves sitting in an almost empty restaurant named "Soapy's", we hoped to grab some much needed energy before heading back to the West Valley region of Fairbanks.  Splitting a meal with a bowl of the "locals favorite" soup, a "hardy" burger, and a milkshake, we came away owing $20 and feeling sick and hungry.  The greatest irony about Soapy's was that their water actually tasted like it had soap in it though wasn't sure if I had the right to complain if it was their way of being "authentic" to their name.  After Marissa talking down the price down to $10, we made our way back onto the last bus, comforted knowing that I will enjoy being on the edges of town. 

Do you see him?

Soapy's

Fairbanks: Arrival

     Having said my goodbyes to friends and family, I turn my focus towards my journey north to a part of Alaska where I have only the vaguest idea what was in store for me.  With the exception of the numerous musical instruments and books I planned to ship later, everything I owned was packed into three backpacks.  Taking a ferry trip from Bellingham to Juneau, I spent a week with my parents before departing for Fairbanks.

A cabin on the ferry

  
  It was great being back in Juneau and seeing my parents, who were as excited for me to attend University of Fairbanks as I was.  I explained my childhood around Juneau to Marissa, received free rides on a whale watching boat and saw many whales near the boat (thanks Sarah, Pat, and Captain Micheal), rode on the tram for the first time since I was a kid, watched local films by the Jump Society, and even stayed at a house with a shark in our room and a chill parrot in the house named Bones.  Most of the documentation was kept by Marissa at this time while I was on a mad search for manual film...only film available was roughly $13 for one roll.     

     Flying north, it began to dawn on me that beyond my own informed understanding of the vastness of Alaska, seeing glaciers as wide as mountains and a wilderness unsettled for hundreds of miles by even a small community, experiencing Alaska's size firsthand is a personal memory that is hard to explain.  Arriving in Fairbanks, we stayed at a hostel named "Sven Basecamp".  It was well priced, awesome environment, and the people are extremely warm and friendly.  Sven and Rachael, who run the hostel, are really welcoming and everyday

people come and go, introducing themselves and their destinations.  There are a few people like ourselves staying here till the 1st.  Two were UAF students: Bobby, a UAF graduate student from Hong Kong who left this morning for a quick trip to the arctic, and Micheal, a UAF transfer student from Portland (like myself).  Staying up late and talking about sailing, Portland, and our goals here (and how close I was to having the exact same goals), I look forward to hanging at Micheal's dry cabin located a few miles from the campus.
    Marissa and I explored the campus yesterday and found that it has one of the best views in Fairbanks. Along with that, the dorms look roomy (I think my dorm is a two floor apartment shared with only one other person).  Afterwards we rode our bike down to College pizza, stuffed myself silly with what were called "Diablo Cheese Sticks" (above on left), and digested the mass of food at Gulliver's Books.

     I will continue to tell my journey, hopefully a bit more updated, and work on capturing more while exploring.