14 days.. :)

just some of my thanksgiving..

Thanksgiving was wonderful. I actually attended two thanksgivings, and thankfully didn't gorge myself too much! I'm so happy that I was able to spend this past semester with so many truly fantastic friends. I've met so many people across so many cultural backgrounds, I've had a few difficult times and definitely a few different experiences, but overall, I'm happy I made this decision. I thought I came to Alaska to get away from people, to get away from the drama, to get away from the monotonous grind, but I think I was actually running towards something, something much grander that I could even imagine. I've found a person inside of me that I really like and can live with, I hope when I come home that this person doesn't disappear, and I hope everyone else will like her. :)

our thanksgiving feast!

Mat's delicious turkey!

Homemade sangria :)

Homemade cranberry sauce!

happy thanksgiving!

What are you thankful for?

I'm thankful for the amazing experience that I've had since arriving in Juneau just a few months ago.

I'm thankful for meeting some of the greatest people and finding such true friends.

I'm thankful that I will have the opportunity to spend this Thanksgiving with these friends.

And even though I am a little sad that I won't be with my family this year, I've found another family that I hope to never forget. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

dan moller cabin :)

Here are just a few photos of the weekend in no particular order..enjoy!

in front of the cabin getting ready to head back home.
(Back) Josh, Claire, Flo, Gutschi, Max, Stausi, Emma, Julie
(Front) Schyler, Me, Coco & Mat

in front of the cabin :)

Stausi & I hiking up in our snowshoes!

Mat, Stausi, CoCo & I

Dan Moller Cabin

The view from the upstairs balcony

CoCo & I

what a view :)

Flo, Gutschi & Stausi

The infamous snow angel woman!

Josh, Mat & I

such a beautiful weekend..

home :)

Of course I'm going to come home and see my family. But Alaska is starting to feel more and more a lot like home. We got over a foot of snow in less than 24 hours. A true winter wonderland. Tomorrow we are hiking up to Dan Moller cabin and having a party. I'm so excited. We went to the bar last night and had the time of our lives. I skipped class for the first time today, to be honest, it didn't feel very exciting. I was slightly anxious but I skipped to see Stausi, Gutschi and Flo's presentation. I can't wait until I can get to Europe and go to all of the places they pointed out in there presentation. Maybe Oktoberfest 2014 Munich, Germany. Next Le Mans, France Summer 2015 as well as England. Maybe Graz, Austria to summit a few peaks. Who knows…

walking to class

the path to campus

can't wait to trade in the extra tuffs for some ski boots

winter wonderland

girls night out at rendezvous :) with Emma, CoCo & Stausi

Stausi as Caesar!

CoCo

Emma & I

Stausi & CoCo

the night got a little weird

i don't know what it is about the violin..but it is just so beautiful

Nate on violin, bartender singing, nice guy who drove us home on the guitar :)

Home.

the TRUE alaskan experience

I just am having the worst time keeping up with these blog posts. It's not that I don't have the time to be posting on the blog daily. I'm just slowly losing interest I guess. It's much easier to write to an audience when I'm being asked questions and I am able to reply to those questions. Unfortunately no one comments on my posts except my parents and I talk to them almost everyday so the only thing they are getting out of my blog are the pretty photos that I post. So let me rewind a bit and let people in on my weekend. But first I'd love it if you had this nice soundtrack playing in the background. So please make sure the volume is up on your computer and I'll give you the scoop on what I believe to be the true Alaskan experience. Please click All the Little Lights by Passenger for music!

So this is me just sitting on my couch listening to Passenger's All the Little Lights album. I just got back from my professor's house, he invited my whole class over to watch the movie Gidget, it's this old movie based on this girl who tries to make it as a surfer. Of course the movie was made in 1959, so not only are the effects awful, but the whole story is based around her trying to become a "woman" and how she can't really become a woman until she finds a man. Thankfully women have come a long way within the outdoor industry and aren't solely participating in outdoor recreational sports for the sake of finding a man to complete her. Although I believe that women have come a long way in trying to make a name for themselves in this difficult and highly competitive outdoor industry, I can't help but feel like I'm incapable. I definitely feel held back compared to the rest of the guys within my class. We read this article not to long ago about how women always second guess their abilities and how we usually think before they jump and how we don't use our whole bodies when trying to accomplish a task, we only use a portion of what we are capable of. I hope I can get over this fear of getting hurt, and I hope I'm able to become great at something while I'm here. I'm tired of being an average dancer or an average rugby player. I want to be a badass skier, I want to say I've conquered mountains, I want to stand more than a mile above sea level, I want to live in a tent just to prove that I don't need much to survive, I want to prove myself as more than a woman in the outdoor industry, I want to change peoples lives..and hopefully someday I will. :)

So this weekend started on Thursday night for me. Flo, Stausi, Gutschi and I decided to have a sort of girls night out. We went to the movies to see a ski film called Valhalla, it was pretty good but it didn't contain that much actual skiing. Many ODS students attended and get this, it was a BYOB event. That's kind of what I love about Juneau, you would never find yourself at a movie with a bunch of your friends, your professor sitting a few rows behind you, drinking beer and enjoying a film inspiring you to follow your passions. It was a good night. After the film we went to a bar called Rendezvous, we watched Nate Wiley and Adam Wood perform. Nate plays the violin and Adam plays the guitar and writes the music. Man, they were incredible, I can't wait to see them play again! After they got tired of playing song after song.
They took a break around midnight and Stausi decided to give it a go. Ha, she is so funny sometimes. She had to make sure the chords were right on the guitar or something so she borrowed someone's guitar and went into the bathroom in order for it to be quiet enough to make the necessary adjustments. I couldn't help but get a photo of her! I'll also include the video of the song that she preformed. It's a German song that she wrote herself. It's called Körperwärme, and it's about body heat. A song about hypothermia is in the works! I know the entire chorus of Körperwärme which is kind of funny seeing as my German sucks, but anyways enjoy the video and you will be able get a quick glimpse of Adam (tank top and tattooed guy in the back) and Nate (adjusting the microphone) in the film!

Friday was pretty relaxing. I didn't have any real serious plans. I ended up hanging out with some friends and watching a movie until we caught word that the northern lights were out. Then we crammed ten people into a five passenger car and drove do the Mendenhall Glacier. We weren't actually on the glacier, we parked in the visitor parking lot and walked along the beach towards the glacier. The lake seemed to have frozen over quite a bit since I lasted visited. It was a beautiful night though, the sky was clear, the stars were out, it was the night before the full moon and I was surrounded by friends. I wore my black diamond jacket which makes me look like a green marshmallow, but I promise I was the warmest one there. I ended up laying down on the beach and just staring at the stars for hours. With the full moon reflecting on the snow, the whole world lit up. While everyone else decided to break away the ice and attempted to lift these massive ice blocks and throw them onto the ice watching them break into a thousand pieces. Unfortunately the northern lights weren't out for very long and we never go to see them. But it was still a spectacular night and I can't wait to sleep under the stars this summer.

Saturday morning CoCo, Emma and I went for a trip downtown, another girls day. ;) Although I miss going out on outings and getting all of that experience that will be necessary in order for me to become that specialized mountaineer or badass skier, it was kind of relaxing to just walk around downtown and not have to be bushwhacking for hours or carrying fifty pounds of weight on my back. I was able to get nearly all of my Christmas shopping done, other than mum & dad, which was a relief!

Last night I ended up going back downtown after our shopping trip. Unfortunately the bar scene is already getting a little old for me. I love dancing and I love listening to Nate and Adam perform. But man, alcohol is expensive! I think I'm just going to make Thursday night be my bar scene night, the rest of the weekend I can devote to snowshoeing up McGinnis, walking on the Mendenhall Glacier or learning how to ski. :)

I'd now like to conclude this very long post by just letting a few people know that I've finally responded to your letters! Katie Voynik, Ali Howe & Kristina Phomvongsa, make sure to be checking your mail by the end of this week! I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to reply, but I'm just so anxious to come home and I have a lot of final projects going on right now so my time will continue to be limited for the rest of the semester. Oh, and I'd like to remind everyone yet again. December 14th, 26 days from now, meet at All Stars at 8pm. The more the merrier, I can't wait to see everyone and hear all about all the wonderful things that I missed, and I can't wait to tell you all about my new life!

I could get use to looking at a view like this every morning. :)

The True Alaskan Experience: it's not about seeing the northern lights, experiencing that first snow fall or taking the prettiest pictures of the prettiest views. It's about getting dirty, it's about getting lost and having to find your way back, it's about making some of your biggest mistakes and forgiving yourself afterwards, it's about accepting everything that Alaska has to offer and feeling humble by simply being in its presence, it's about understanding how dangerous this world is and realizing that you're only human. I wouldn't say that I've had the true Alaskan experience, yet, but I'm certainly close.

sorry dad..

I got back late from downtown. No I didn't drink to much, only a beer and a lovely shot from Ariel (a fellow ODS student). I promise to post tomorrow when I wake up. Have a great day!

superb

Today was a great day. I got two free lattes from Elizabeth my barista friend. We also talked about entering into a beer pong tournament at Squires (a local bar) because everyone underestimates us girls when it comes to beer pong. I received my midterm grade in Earth and Environment, I got a 93! I spent several hours at the library today reading 6 articles for my term project. I had much needed bonding time with Mercede. Tomorrow Stausi, Anna, Flo and I are going to see a ski movie playing downtown and then we're going out to a bar to hopefully see some friends perform at an open mic night. Overall, this week has been pretty great. Still haven't replied to the letters that were sent to me, I really need to get on top of that. Anyways, I'll be safe, no worries. I hope you have a wonderful day today!!

my oh my..

So the bus system in Juneau is pretty awful. Maybe it has something to do with all of the construction around Auke Bay, but my bus was over 10 minutes late today. This didn't really bother me though, I actually enjoy riding the bus, as long as I'm not in a time crunch. It's highly inconvenient for me to wait for a bus that's takes only 15 minutes to get me to my destination and even if I'm just running a quick errand I still have to wait an hour for the bus to return. However, Tuesdays are usually my bus riding days. I don't have class until 3pm and so I have all morning to go to Fred Meyer's and buy groceries. Which is usually what I do on Tuesday mornings. Sometimes I bring homework to read on the bus, other times I just sit and listen to music and watch people. That's the best thing about riding the bus, you can just sit and watch people. Normally the old men are really polite and allow me to enter on to the bus first, there's almost always an annoying teenage girl who's talking loudly on the phone, I use to see tons of tourists but now they're slowly dwindling away. The bus kind of makes me feel like I'm in a big city, even though Juneau is smaller than Portland, ME. But either way, I like riding the bus.


I am officially registered for classes today. I'm taking 19 credits and I'm already feeling stressed about it. I needed the registrars approval in order to register for classes because I'm taking more than 18 credits. I'm worried I'll have to drop my Personality Theories Psychology course, I'm going to check in with UMF to see if they'll transfer the credits first though, if they don't, I'll most likely drop it. Here's the list of classes I'm taking next semester!

Outdoor Leadership
Personality Theories (not required for ODS certificate)
Literature and the Environment
Winter Backpacking in SE Alaska (Skills course)
Introduction to Ice Climbing (Skills course)
Glacier Travel and Crevasse Rescue Fundamentals (Skills course)
Mountaineering (Skills course)
Outdoor Leadership Capstone (May 2014 - Eldridge Glacier, Denali National Park)

If you want to read a little bit about the classes here's the ODS courses link.
ODS Courses

Have a wonderful day!

let her go..

This weekend was insane! I was lost. I was found. I saw the northern lights. I saw spectacular sunsets and sunrises. I built a fire. I didn't sleep. I fell down. I got up. I fell down again. I pulled Devil's Club thorns out of my body. I got stuck with more Devil's Club thorns. I ascended and descended. I trudged my way through snow past my knees. I slid down mountain sides. I made wonderful friends & I saw breathtaking views. This weekend was a trip. :)

 Day 1 - Sunrise shinning on the Chilkat Mountain Range

Nate's group starting their ascent

Lost..not disoriented..lost.

Day 1 - Sunset

The view from out makeshift campsite…
we still haven't found the everyone else.

Forest rescued us last night.
We saw the northern lights.
Sunrise Day 2.

Oh, just trudging my way through the snow.

It's all about looking good. ;)

It's beginning to get really beautiful.

I'm exhausted, but the view only gets better the higher up you go.

I'll never forget the way the snow looks like
millions of diamonds when the sun reflects off of it.

That's Echo Cove and Berners Bay!

Still trudging along in Forest's footsteps..

All of this photo credit goes to Gutschi.

Yeah..what a trip. :)

Stausi & I

Nate, Flo & Stausi

Stausi, Quintin & Phil

Gutschi

...

I just can't get enough..

Out of the woods and headed home. :)

So it's nearly 30 days until I arrive back in Maine. I'm excited & anxious. I can't wait to see everyone when I'm home but I'm a little nervous about leaving this life I've created in Alaska. I know I'll only be home for a month, but with one semester down I only have one more to go. I hope to see all of my friends at All Stars on December 14, 2013 at 8:00pm. I know that this isn't really formal. It's just a get together so I can see everyone and have some fun. I hope to be able to visit everyone that's been keeping in contact with me individually during my month home. Until then..thanks for letting me go, but soon you'll need to bring me home.