Anchorage Experiences

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Bureaucracy is alive and well even in Alaska. I am working at the Alaska Native Medical Center here in Anchorage and orientation is 2 weeks and sometimes it's hard to stay awake. One highlight--we went through cultural and geographic orientation. The native Alaskans seem very organized and strong up here. There are 12 native "corporations" and they seem to run most native Alaskan business up here. Many of them at least grew up living a subsistence life, ie fishing, hunting and growing their own foods. A common question if you are eating fish is if you caught it or bought it!

Did you know that there are more bald eagles in Prince William Sound (a small area of Alaska) than all the other states combined. So far I have seen 3.

There are more earthquakes here than in the rest of the US combined, more than 4000 have been recorded per year. Morgan and I have felt several small ones but on 7/27/06 at 5:18am, a 4.9 earthquake woke us from a deep sleep! That's the strongest earthquake I've ever felt and I've lived a good part of my life in California.

Anchorage is a city of around 250,000. You can see 6 different mountain ranges from the city and they are so steep that they appear to be rising straight up from the water. Even though it's a city, you still occasionally see wildlife around town, and I don't mean squirrels! We have seen moose on a bike trail!

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Comments

[susan]

nice job
Hey guys nice job

[holly]

wow!
hey shel! you are fantastic- thanks for sharing your travel adventures! glad to hear that morgan is there with you- what a fabulous experience:) love to you- holly

[Theresa]

glad to hear from you
shel, How wonderful that Morgan is with you. I'm so happy for your adventures. Worcester Academy has been a great success. Hani has grown his hair long and Amel is as sweet as ever. How's your Mom? Sister? Take a deep breath of fresh air for me and eat some fish from the clean water. Sleep under the stars and know that we love you.

[melissa]

hi shelly. sounds beautiful! xo

[Leah]

Shelly
Good to hear from you Shelly! It sounds so beautiful there. I'm glad Morgan is there visiting you also. Actually, I just saw Susan on Saturday and she told me you were already in Alaska. As I remember you were planning on staying there for 6 months or possibly longer. What is your living situation like? Having Morgan there I imagine you would have room for me at some point? What are the daylight hours like? Well, as I said good to hear from you. Love you and miss you. Your Friend, Leah

[Darla]

Glad to hear from you
really glad to get to see your blog. What a great adventure! Thanks for sharing Darla