Sunday, March 11, 2012

Musings of Living in Alaska

I've been home for the past 4 days.  The first day I had a meeting with the CEO and human resources director in the morning.  They wanted to know why I was leaving and what it would take for me to consider staying.  I felt that I had an open forum to share from my heart some of the concerning things happening in the clinic.  For the rest of the day I enjoyed studying emergency medicine topics.  In the evening we were hoping to see some northern lights, which we did, but the show wasn't too spectacular.

In the evening I started reading a biography about a woman named Hannah Breece who was a school teacher in old Alaska.  I loved reading what the land and culture was like 100 years ago here.  There were no cars or planes and she did a lot of traveling by boat, dog sled and on foot.  She taught in several schools across the state and took weeks to travel from one school to the next bringing most of the stuff she would need, including food and school supplies for a year away, traveling like this.  She would at times be dropped off by one guide and left hundreds of miles away from civilization before being picked up by the next guide.  She'd just camp out with her gear by herself and wait patiently for the pickup.

On the second day, Friday, my family and I went to Alyeska to go skiing with my 12 year old's 5-6th grade classes.  All the kids had lessons, and I'm pleased to say really enjoyed learning to ski.  Tim and I took turns going up the lower lifts and skiing down on our own.  Some time I'd like to go skiing with some friends maybe, but I really look forward to skiing with my kids when they get better.  I just hope they all don't surpass me too quickly...!

Yesterday we stayed home and moaned all day for how sore our legs were after skiing on Friday.  They seem to be a bit better this time.

Over the whole four days we've been watching the Iditarod online.  I've really gotten into watching Aliy Zirkle take the lead for the first several days.  Right now she is within 4 miles of the leader, and still in the race.  We've been keeping track of the race through www.iditarod.com/race/current-standings/ and through http//:app.ionearth.com/2012/iditarod.  Our local racers, Mitch Seavey, and Dee Jonrowe are also in the top 10.  The current leader is the son of Mitch Seavey, so he also grew up in this area.  I'm glad to be getting a zeal for one of our Alaska sports, because I'm not really all that interested in (dare I write it?)...hockey.  I guess it is because I don't really understand the sport of hockey and the rules.  Dog mushing, on the other hand, is pretty understandable. (I still like basketball, though, and we did enjoy watching both the Cook Inlet Academy boys and girls high school teams win their regional conferences).

I hope to get some pics up soon to go along with this post.  I think my husband may be putting them onto the other computer as I type.