We are housing all of the participations for the World Eskimo Indian Olympics. Last night my roommate Jean, her friend visiting from Ireland Jenna, and myself went to the games. They have many unusual events like the Muk Tuk (Whale Blubber) eating contest, Seal Skinning, Ear Pull, Knuckle Hop, and Walrus Blanket Toss. Check out http://www.weio.org/games/index.html to read more about the games.

When we were there we saw the talent competition for their beauty contest. Then some dancers from New Mexico came and did some traditional dances in their costumes. They invited everyone to participate and lots of people did. We saw the championships of the “One-Hand Reach” competition. This game requires the athlete to balance their whole weight on one hand and reach a target, controlling their balance and coming down to the original position.

Then they did the fish cutting contest. It was not about carving fish like jack o’ lanterns as I was hoping. They received 20 donated salmon from Gordon’s Fishery and the winner was the one who could score and fillet the fish the quickest and the cleanest. They had some extra fish and they were looking for some volunteers to participate. So my roommate Jean jumps in. Someone lent her a pocket knife and she joined in. Jean came in last even having someone take over for her. But, we did get a big salmon out of the deal. Pretty nifty!

The Frame is Bent, the Muffler Went, the Radio it's ok.....

I haven't been updating this web blog as often as I used to because from July 2nd to July 20 I have/ will be working everyday. Therefore I have no life for things to happen to. Plenty of work issues pop up though, like today.

Let's see I had a lot of common issues like guests being charged wrong, guests complaining about XYZ, or people not checking out of their rooms. But then I had the odd ball ones like: one of my employees checked in 1200 children who were staying for a night at a time over the course of the summer instead of the 25 kids staying for just that night throwing off all future reservations and housekeeping reports, so I had to manually change 1200 reservations. We are housing the participants for the Eskimo-Alaskan Native World Olympics but 25 of them decided they didn't need to make reservations in advance so I had to find them rooms. They are all cramming into 5 doubles we had left so good luck there. Prep crew as usual didn't clean all their rooms, so when a guest checked into her room and found lots of porn on the walls, chewing tobacco and beer bottles all over, she was upset. I had to clean another room myself so she would have some place to stay. We had to deal with cops because someone dialed 911+ number instead of 91+ their number on their room phone. Then someone dropped their car keys down the elevator so UPD had to be called again. All of my cash drawers are mysterious missing money. And now it's 11:30pm and my last task of the day was to collect several pounds of whale blubber from one of our Eskimo guests and find a place to store it. This wasn't a last minute thing though. My boss informed me in advance that I would be the designated blubber picker upper.

This job is draining me. I can't even sleep through the night anymore because I anticipate phone calls, which I usually get a few of during the night. I will never take a 24/7 job again.

The 4th of July I didn't do anything again because I was working. I was still bouncing hall to hall at midnight and it still wasn't dark enough for fireworks. Apparently they still try to have them but I didn't hear anyone actually going to them or see anything. For the last two weekends my roommates have been gone and my co-intern has been on vacation so I've had the apartment to myself. So when I am not at work I have been pretty bored lately. I actually helped Kristen clean and prep a room because I had nothing else to do. Why am I not in Boston right now? Why am I not in Texas or New York right now? Alaska has had its fun moments but I am in a boring stretch now.

Then there is Old Blue, our not-so trusty 87 ford tempo. According to the police officer that pulled it over, it hasn't been inspected since 1991. Now if I hadn't been to the doctor since 1991 I should probably be put out of commission too, but not Old Blue. My boss swears that it's perfect to drive. So if you are reading this out there and later read I die in a car crash, please relay this information to whoever is my legal representative.

Stephen and Audrey's Alaska Vacation

Hi all!

So after a much needed break I am back to tell you all the details about my vacation. Here is the link to my photos: http://suffolk.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031525&l=d7075&id=17909864

I have like ten million more on my computer but I’m sure you get the idea.

Stephen came up on June 20^th. We hung out in Anchorage for a few days while I had to work. Then we took a four day trip to Denali National Park. Denali is home to Mt. McKinley which is the tallest mountain in North America. We borrowed a tent and went camping at the Riley Creek Campground. Sleeping was difficult because the sun never goes down and the tent doesn’t do a good job at blocking all the light. But having the sun up for long periods of time let us hike as long as we wanted or cook a late dinner in daylight.

The first day we went hiking on several nature trails and then the four-hour hike up/ down Mt. Healy. It is one of the tallest mountains in the world (or at least seemed that way on the hike up). Okay actually its quite small in comparison but it was still a good workout. The second day we went white water rafting, that was very fun. I would like to go rafting at least once more before I leave here. I like it more then kayaking because you get more of a thrill ride. I have pictures of us in our spacemen-like dry suits on my disposal water camera I’ll have to show you guys sometime. The last day we saw a dog sled demonstration. They have a kennel full of huskies at the park that break trails in the winter.

When we got back from Denali I was informed that one of our guests killed themselves in our dorm rooms. We were also providing emergency housing for the fire fighters which caused the biggest mess to date. 150 Firefighters would come in at any given point and need rooms stat. I was very busy on my two days back at work before the second leg of our vacation.

Our second leg of the trip started in Soldotna as we went Salmon Fishing. We were in the boat with Larry our fish guide, and a mother with her 8-year old son. The boy caught two fish and the mom caught a 30 pound king salmon. I caught the first fish, a stupid 3 pound rainbow trout but I didn’t catch anything else, and poor Stevie didn’t catch anything. Well poor me because I had to put up with him whining for the rest of the night.

We drove to Seward where we stayed in a camper’s cabin at Miller’s Landing. The next morning we went to Exit Glacier, then in the afternoon we did the sea life center. At night we went on a wildlife cruise on the Kenai. It was very awesome. We saw puffins, eagles, sea lions, a harbor seal, humpback whale and porpoises. The whale and porpoises swam right up by the boat. We didn’t get a good photo of them though. We ended our vacation going to the Wildlife Conservation Center which is ten million times better then the stupid Alaska Zoo. Here the animals lived in big pens that resembled their actual habitats and there were families of the animals not just one.

Sadly I had to return Stephen to the airport on Monday :(

Stephen is gone. My vacation days are used up. All the other interns will be gone this upcoming weekend. Work is busy and difficult. Hhmmmm, I wonder how much I am going to really like the rest of the summer.