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.

A Hiking We Will Go

So my roommates and I totally hiked up a mountain today. In Chugach State Park just east of Anchorage lies Flattop Mountain, the most climbed mountain in the state. The mountain is 3,510 foot tall, but to be fair it was only a 1280 feet climb from the parking lot. I was very proud of our car Old Blue for making it up to the parking lot AND back down. Way to go blue.

The first leg I entitled the Thigh Master. It was like regular hiking; very steep to begin with, stairs in some sections. The second leg was going through a rock quarry. The last leg was rock climbing. I found this to be the easiest part while Kristen thought is was the worst. I was like Spiderman creeping my way to the top. I felt like I was on Nickelodeon Guts and climbing the Agro Crag. Kristen was nervous about several spots but we coached her through it and all three of us made it to the top.

Going down Kristen and I were doing the crab walk/ butt slide down sections while Jean was walking down no sweat. We saw a bull moose on our way down, our first full adult male moose with antlers that we have seen. Along the way we met many happy families with children and dogs of all ages and types. If I am ever hiking up the mountain with my dog in a backpack please inform me that I need a reality check.

On a side note Stephen is coming up on Wednesday, how excited am I!!!!!!! He is staying for about two weeks so that means I won’t have any entries until after 4th of July. But fear not my dear loyal readers; I will have much to say when I return.

Crazy I tell ya!

Work has been very grueling this week. I had four days when I put more then 12 hours in, I had one no-show where I ended up taking the shift and I was awaken by four phones calls this morning (Saturday) between 7-8am. The busyness is because we have all three halls open now so we only have one person running each shift, which is hard on the newbies who are still making mistakes. Also we are full to capacity this weekend.

In North Hall we have both the contestants of a kids’ soccer tournament, plus a summer baseball league. This has been a good birth control experience for all of us because after dealing with all these screaming monsters I no longer want children. They are screaming and running down the hall ways, kicking the vending machines, locking themselves out of their rooms and trying to get the elevator stuck.

Then in West and East Hall we have the Special Olympics teams from across Alaska. The buses dropped them off in swarms and we weren’t exactly ready to handle it, but everything went okay. I was running back and forth between halls helping any way I could whether it was changing light bulbs or washing coffeemakers I did it. I had to let some people into their rooms not because their keys didn’t work but because they didn’t understand how their key cards worked. I am trying to rush around but the participants all wanted to start up conversations with me and its hard to walk away from them. Then whether I thought I could go back to my apartment I would get a call to come back to the halls. Crazy I tell ya! Hopefully after this weekend everything will die down. We won’t be full again like this. Plus I have vacation coming in two weeks when Stephen is coming. Can I tell you how excited I am!!!!

My only non work adventure this week was going to the mall. I got the chance to sneak away to the mall this morning to get my dad a present for father’s day. In the bottom floor, in the center of the mall here is an ice rink. You can see it from all three floors. A lot of people were ice skating. They were probably missing the cold weather and temperatures sky rocketed today to.....probably 60 something. I even got to take my jacket off today, whoooowho.

Oh and this sun thing all the time needs to stop soon. I go home from work at 11pm and its still bright as day out and I think everything is okay that A it’s normal to work that late and B it’s normal to be that light out. It totally throws off all concepts of time. Kristen and I were both fed up with the light coming from our shades that we each took our own solution. Kristen re-arranged all the furniture in her room so her bed was now facing the window. I put sheets of aluminum foil in my blinds to block out the sun. My plan was simpler and got the room darker but then when the heat kicks on from the vent the sheets of foil clang against the blinds making a loud nose and light show. I am definitely not the winner of life this week.

Okay now here is a real adventure

So with things starting to run smoothly at work, Jean and I wanted to further explore Alaska and took a weekend trip to Seward. Seward is 2 ½ miles south of Anchorage. It’s a touristy town near the Kenai Peninsula. It’s very beautiful there. We rented a car because the tempo wouldn’t have made it that far. They gave us a PT Cruiser. One thing to note about Alaska is that the streets are kept up well. They are also quite flat. So there are mountains or flat land, not much in-between. We took the Seward highway all the way down which again is very beautiful. On the way down I saw a guy along side the road walking his two alpacas which are like llamas. We also saw a Dall Sheep which live in the mountains.

Seward is a two road town. It is very small in size and population. We went down the road and went from mid town to down town in two minutes.

We had reservations for a guided sea kayaking tour with Sunny Cove Kayaking that was at the end of a dirt road off of the main road. It had been raining and the road was very narrow with a mountain on one side and a cliff on the other so driving was a little nerve wracking. But we made it and joined our group. We were in tandem (2 person) kayaks. The four other kayakers and two guides and us went from Lowell Point in Resurrection Bay in the Gulf of Alaska area. We did the half day afternoon trip. It was a little rainy but the water was warm. The view was breath taking and the water was like glass. We didn’t see much wildlife other then the head of a sea lion from a far distance and two bald eagles. I have our kayaking pictures on my water proof disposable camera, so you’ll have to wait till I get them developed to see them.

Next we headed to our hostel to shower and get dry clothes on. It was my first time staying at a hostel and well um it was okay. It was clean but it was old and rustic, yeah rustic is the word, we’ll use that. It strongly smelled like gasoline so I was a little concerned the place was going to catch on fire. The first floor was a kitchen a couch and an old little TV. The upstairs opened into the Men’s room with seven beds and the door to the women’s room which had five beds. There was one bathroom in the whole place and the toilet had issues so we were afraid to flush it. Although we were told when we made the reservations that the place was booking up fast, there was only two other people staying there: a girl who came in after us and before us that we didn’t get to meet, and Art, an old man who probably doesn’t have any family and who stays at hostels a lot. Art seemed nice enough although he was probably wearing my underwear when we left.

We ate dinner at Terry’s Fish and Chips, which had five different types of deep fried fish. Then to kill time we were looking for a nearby lodge to sit in their lobby by their fireplace. We drove all around Seward, (took five minutes) but all the hotels we came across didn’t look ritzy enough to have lobbies. In our travels we did discover a coffee house/ fine arts museum in this small church. We checked it out. As we are approaching we hear piano music. There was this high school student playing the piano at the front of the church, paintings hung up behind her and along the walls, four rows of seats (some of which were old pews, others were folding chairs), tables on the right with craft fair type items for sale, and a coffee bar in back. It looked like something out of the Gilmore Girls’ Stars Hollow. We entered and the lady asked if we were here for the show. We replied that we wanted to look around and might grab some coffee. After looking around we sat down and listened to the girl play piano. She played a variety of music from today’s pop hits to classic wonders. She hit most of the notes but the thing is if you are playing in front of people you should probably hit almost all of them.

After Mozart got done they started this one act show about Alaska Nelly, this pioneer chic who wrote a book about her boring little life, housed railroad workers and told stories for money. It was pretty boring but we didn’t want to be rude and walk out early so we stayed for the painful hour. As we made our escape a different lady then before asked where our tickets were. Apparently we needed them. First I was robbed of an hour of my life and now she wanted me to pay for it. So I pulled out my wallet looking to make a donation to the performing arts and she informs us that tickets were $10 a piece. WHAT!!!! That’s almost another night’s stay in the hostel and two and a half beers I could have had that weekend. Unfortunately I actually had cash on me so I reluctantly paid. Jean and I were bitter for the rest of the night about it. Oh well the money can go to buying her daughter music lessons.

All became better soon when we went to the local bar the Yukon Bar. It’s a townies meet hippies type place. The ceiling is covered in one dollar bills. The people were very friendly and nice as anywhere in Alaska (minus the stupid church/art/coffee/ one-act crap lady). And who was playing……Lulu and the Aqua Nets. This Alaskan band is the best I’ve seen in a while. Lulu I swore was a cross dresser but local fans claim she is a chic. They were very funny and entertaining, Lulu would crack dirty jokes, play parody songs they created, and encouraged audience participation. People any age would go up front and dance, didn’t matter if they were alone or not good. It was just a fun atmosphere. A guy Jean and I were talking to even spilled beer all over me and I still had a good time.

The next morning we went to the Sea Life Conservation. Unlike the zoo, this place didn’t suck. In fact, it was great. We saw puffins, seals, seal lions, jelly fish, anemones and a variety of different fish. The center is a rescue and release center so animals are only temporarily on display until they are well enough to go back into the wild, or not entertaining enough to keep.

We grabbed amazing gelato from this nearby shop. I had also bought some fudge which Jean accidentally through away in the car ride home not knowing it was my fudge, sigh. Again Seward is only really one, two roads of stuff. On it was three Chinese restaurants so that’s where I grabbed lunch and then we headed on the road.

On the way back we stopped in Girdwood. If you wanted to go skiing in Alaska you would go to Girdwood. It’s where Arnold the Governator broke his leg that time he went skiing. You can go skiing up till June there. Anyway there is a multi hundred dollar a night hotel there, the Alyeska Resort. So we stopped in, took a look around, and made ourselves comfortable. Then on the way back to Anchorage, we stopped off at Beluga Point. No whales out today but the sceneary was pretty, we climbed the little rock mountains to get a better view. Then we made it home safe and sound after our first real Alaskan adventure.

Click on the following link to see my pictures on my facebook page. No facebook account is required to view them or so it says.
http://suffolk.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029661&l=17707&id=17909864

Welcome Barbara Fienman's Class

As part of my internship, I will be calling in to class both with Barabara Fienman's class at Salem State and with Mike Siegel's class at Suffolk University. Why two classes about the same subject? Cause I like the teachers and I like to talk about my Alaskan Adventures. So welcome newbies.

I finally got a picture of a moose. Kristen and I were driving back from the Snow City Cafe and saw a moose on our way back to campus. This was taken about 10pm so you can see how light it is.