porcuPINE tree

This little fellow was enjoying a nice needle-y snack outside our dorms the other night:

He looks guilty.

And speaking of dorms, this is my little room, still lacking a bit of decoration. Pretty cozy. The main annoyance is that their aren't bathrooms connected to the building, so you have to go outside, downstairs, across the road and into another building, kinda like camp. I probably won't complain so much once it's warmer, but right now it's tromping through snow, and pretty darn cold. Like winter camping, only if I were in a tent I'd probably go about 3 feet from the tent to pee at night, and call it good.

The cold weather and snow (about 7-8 inches the other day/night) is apparently very unusual this late in the year. I blame myself, as this tends to happen when I go new places. Sorry, everybody. I came up with a new motto to get myself out and have fun in it, though, instead of getting all SAD. "When it snows in May, best get out and play!"  and went snowshoeing with some new friends, for the first time ever! It was really gorgeous, so even though it should be summer right now, it was cool to snow shoe in the park. The view was tolerable:

 

And I got to practice my cursive shuffling:

Today, as a lovely sight for sore eyes, the sun came out and it was all clear and beautiful. The sun already melted the snow off of the paths and some of the roofs. It might be Spring/Summer soon, after all. (yay!)

Arrival to the Land of the Midnight Sun

I'm here! I'm in Denali National Park. This is night number two and so far both evenings after dinner I've gone on hikes with some of the other girls here. Because, you know, you can leave for a two hour hike at 7 and still come back with lots of daylight. We're not actually going very far, just short trails around the Wilderness Access Center near the entrance (where we live) but because of all the late snow they had up here, it hasn't melted yet, and the trails are still covered.

But let me back up. I flew in Thursday evening getting some pretty spectacular views of mountains below, and was picked up by a family friend and taken home to a most ridiculous view overlooking a lake and gorgeous mountains from their beautiful home in southern Anchorage. Oh, and some yummy leftover salmon.

The next day I borrowed their jeep and met up with my twin from college and had a really nice coffee date, then went to the Anchorage museum, which was quite nice. I got to watch a planetarium show on the aurora, which I'll hopefully get to see in the fall up here.  I walked along the coastal trail a bit, and did some errands. In the evening my awesome hosts took me down to Girdwood, which is a cute little ski town, and treated me to an amazing halibut dinner.

The next day I hopped on a school bus (aka Denali tour bus) for employees and we had very scenic drive up to the park. Didn't see much wildlife other than a bald eagle, but the mountains were impressive enough to hold me over. As much of an anti-winter person as I am, the snow covered peaks are really rather lovely.

Still not too sure on details of my job description, mostly doing orientation type stuff so far, but I saw where I'll be working today, which is in a cabin! And we get to split wood and make a fire everyday as part of the enactment! Nice! Although I'm sure there will be some warm and/or humid days in July to which it will not be very pleasant to add heat, but all in all, it looks like a good time. Can't wait to see our uniforms/outfits.

Oh and I can also go play with sled dogs from time to time. (High of the day:)

coffee songs

So one time my friend Hermes and I made a bet about who could learn a song on the guitar first (he was considering buying a friend's old guitar) and I don't recall the details of the bet, or what the winner got (or even if such stipulations existed). Today I have a really gravelly voice from a music festival on Sunday which involved me singing loudly and screaming a lot, so I thought it would be an excellent day to record myself (so every error can be blamed on the poor condition of my voice, right?). Here it is, One More Cup of Coffee (ish):