In one hour, I will have been in Fairbanks for a whole day. My flight (which also had 3 other classmates -- Lydia, Sam, and Field), arrived at the tiny Fairbanks airport yesterday around 5ish, which was like 9 pm at home in Raleigh.
But back up, first I had to fly from Raleigh to Minneapolis. Let me say that the airport in Minneapolis is HUGE! Like really, really HUGE. Thank goodness I had about a 90 minute layover, because it took me forever to figure out where I was and then even longer to get to where I needed to go. Also, airport food is crazy overpriced. And my bagel sandwich wasn't even that good. But it did its job and filled me until I had dinner 6 hours later.
I was on the first flight by myself, and it went decent enough. We were about 30 minutes late to board the plane, but it took off pretty fast after boarding. There was a nice lady from Minnesota who was sitting next to me, and she kept reminding me to not forget my bag (pronounced the Minnesotan way, which sounds very similar to the Canadian way) in the overhead compartment. All her reminding did the job and I did not forget my bag.
The second flight was a little over 5 hours, yet I survived it fine. I somehow ended up with a great seat because there was no row in front of me, so I had endless leg room. I watched one of the in-flight movies (Valentine's Day. It was cute), which helped the time go by. Then I just read, attempted to sleep, or looked out the window. Flying over the rocky mountains was amazing. I've only ever seen the Appalachian mountains, which are dwarfed by the Rockies, so it was incredible to get an aerial view of the snow capped Rockies.
After our flight landed, Field, Sam, Lydia and I piled into a pink taxi and made our way to the University of Alaska at Fairbanks campus, where we will by staying for two weeks. We quickly checked in (yay for having single rooms!), and then grabbed another taxi to get downtown to the Midnight Sun Festival. Apparently this is the largest event of the year, yet it was still pretty small. There were tents lining a couple streets which sold food and various crafts. A couple large tents were set up where bands were playing. There was steel drum group that was pretty enjoyable to listen to. While downtown, the four of us met up with the 4 other members of our group who were already in Fairbanks. We all spent a couple of hours walking around and taking random photos. Finally once we were done, we all squeezed into one cab (8 people, plus the driver, in a car meant for 7). The night was spent getting to know each other and listening to Sam and Field play their guitar and mandolin. It was most enjoyable.
This morning we had orientation for our class. Dr. Rial (our professor for the trip) went over our itinerary for Alaska, and the next three weeks sound like they will be incredible. We're going to the Arctic Circle, visiting a glacier, and taking a cruise to see some fjords. Plus we'll have tons of speakers and we'll be visiting several museums. I cannot wait for everything to get underway.
In about 30 minutes, my classmate Marty and I will be cooking dinner for the group. We decided it would be best to divide up the days and cook a group dinner ourselves, which will save a lot of money. Plus it will be good bonding time. Anything to save money makes me happy.
I'll keep the updates coming and I'll post photos once I get some transferred to my laptop. I think tonight some of us talked about going on a night hike (can you call it a night hike if the sun will still be out?), so maybe I'll post some stuff once I get back to my room tonight.
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