Images of Anchorage

I have attached two photos - both from out a window on the 14th floor of our hotel, one from about 9 pm and one from 1:30am. The night one shows the extent of darkness here in Anchorage - it reminds of about 30 minutes before sunrise or after sunset at home, dark but not pitch black. The daylight one shows how Anchorage is located in a valley/bay surrounded by ragged mountains on the side not facing the water. The city reminds me of other western towns I've visited - very flat and spread out (much more land available than back east!) and laid out in straight lines. It would be a great town to have a bike and commute to work!

First Full Day in Anchorage

Today, our first real, awake day in Anchorage, we all got up very early and went out to breakfast at the Snow City Cafe.  After that, we headed over to the Alaska Native Heritage Center to learn about the traditional and contemporary ways of Alaska Native cultures. 

Website: alaskanative.net. Check it out!  We learned about the Athbascan, Yup'ik and Cup'ik, Inupiaq (the culture most present in Barrow), Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian and more. I chatted for a long time with an artist named Doug who engraves clan crests.  (see below) He explained to me that one is born into the clan of their mother's heritage (matrilineal) and a clan is a large extended family which connects communities.  Doug is Tsimshain and Haida and is of the Killer Whale Clan. You can see a print of his Killer Whale Clan 2-D Totem below.  Or check out his website for more info on his art at www.douglasyates.org

Next, I met and talked to a high school student who was part of the high school program at the center. High school students can spend a certain amount of hours at the center learning dance, legends, crafts, etc about their and other native cultures. They can receive credits for this.  The idea is that the younger natives, who don't have as much opportunity to learn the culture from the highly respected elders, will be able to learn their culture and pass it down. The student I spoke with was very excited about this and felt he had a really important role in his community and the world. 

Here is a picture of a group of 15-23 year olds performing a native dance:

Here is a video of one of the dances (don't know if this will work!): 

<---- Spirit Mask from the Museum

Me, warm in the sun in downtown Anchorage:

Below: The crew: Molly, me, Janet, Hal, Diane Hirshburg who had dinner with us to share her research about education and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (the BIA), Matt, and Alanna. Poor Judy was sleeping in the hotel with a migraine!! 

That's it for now, but stay tuned in and write us your comments, questions, feedback, etc! That means you, div 1 students- hopefully you will be learning these dances and art next year!  Now I am off to bike on the coastal trail until 10 pm, when the sun will be getting lower in the sky. 

~Amanda : )

Arrival

We have safely arrived in Anchorage, with some interesting adventures along the way. We arrived at Logan for our 6am flight, but we stuck in line at security for about 45 minutes - it wasn't clear what happened, but the entire was shut down for that period. All of the flights were delayed, and that meant that we landed in Chicago with only a few minutes to spare before our next flight departed. Judy ran ahead to the next gate, and we were the last passengers to get on the plane for Anchorage. Unfortunately, our luggage did not make the flight (but it came on a later flight and is back in our possession).

Anchorage is a very spread-out city. It is flat, being located in a valley surrounded by mountains, and would be a great city to own a bike in. There are a handful of tall hotels and corporate (mainly oil/gas companies) buildings but otherwise it is a very manageable scale. It was beautiful weather this afternoon - sunny, in the 60s with a slight breeze. You can see, feel and/or hear the water as you walk through the city, and the air feels fresh and clear. It is very bright now (just past 8pm) and it will be interesting to see how difficult it is to sleep in such a light environment (supposedly sunset is 11:30 and sunrise is 4:30 - in Barrow it will be 24 hours of light), but we are all so tired that we should overcome that challenge!

Weather update

Today's weather in Barrow: partly cloudy and 30 degrees, but feels like 22. 

(I am definitely packing long underwear!)

Today's weather in Anchorage: Partly cloudy and 59.

Today's weather in Ayer, MA: Cloudy and 68.  

Preparing for the trip

As I pack for the trip, I have an extra challenge because I fractured my fibula last week and I am in a walking cast. On the one hand, I only need to bring footwear for my left foot; on the other hand, I need to bring garbage bags for the mud and I need to figure out what pants I can wear. The main advice we received was to wear layers, so I am planning on bringing underlayers that keep me warm while also releasing heat and moisture, and then fleece and wind/rain jackets for warmth and bad weather. I'm also packing some vegan-friendly snacks, in case there are limited options in Barrow, where I have read about their delicacies of whale blubber and caribou meat ;-).

Our destination: Barrow, Alaska

Barrow is 330 miles above the Arctic Circle, the most northerly place in the USA. The sun never sets for 84 days from May to July. Of course the opposite happens in the winter when the sun doesn't rise at all for 84 days.