Last Day in Alaska

Today was my last full day in Alaska. I can't believe how quickly the past three weeks have flown by. Tomorrow I get up bright and early to catch a flight to Seattle and then to Reykjavik, Iceland (I still have to look up how to spell that city. My main goal of the next month is to learn to spell it). It'll be a long day, but it's definitely worth it. My least favorite part will be the eight hour difference, but I'll deal with that over the next few days.

For our last day, we had a super long class of three hours instead of the usual two. The first half my professor spoke of his research on a Greenland ice sheet and the second half we watched a documentary on climate change. Not a bad way to end the Alaska portion of class.

After a brief lunch break, a couple of my classmates and I decided to search for the student store. We finally made it after asking several people directions. I'm now the proud owner of two University of Alaska at Anchorage shirts.

Once done with shopping, we decided to go for a hike at Flat Top Mountain. I'm a little ashamed to say I didn't make it to the top, but a couple of us were feeling lazy, and we ended up laying in the sun on some rocks. Definitely more enjoyable than getting blisters from walking uphill at such a steep angle. And I got to see Denali/Mt. McKinley all along the trail. It was so beautiful. Words can't even begin to describe the views from up there.

Finally, the best part of day: dinner. Tonight was our group dinner that was being paid for by Burch, the program that I'm currently on. Everything was excellent. I decided to be adventurous and ordered salmon (that's actually very adventurous for me despite the fact that that is a normal dish for anyone else). I figured, when else can I have fresh Alaskan salmon? Possibly never, so I couldn't pass up the chance. Plus everyone ordered a different appetizer and we all shared. And if that wasn't enough, we all got dessert. A classmate and I split a tasty peanut butter pie covered in chocolate. I was in heaven. Over 600 dollars later, we left with full bellies.

Now everyone is frantically packing so we'll be ready for our taxis which are coming to the dorm at 7am tomorrow. Hopefully no one will forget anything. I have my passport and I'm ready for the flight. My next update will come from Iceland!