All-Hands EPSCoR Grant Meeting in Anchorage

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Wow...so time is escaping me and it has been over a week since I have returned from Anchorage. Well let's just say that once you've lived in the Southeast (aka...Juneau, the capitol city of this wonderful land I call home) nothing else can compare. I didn't know how true that was until I went to Anchorage from May 13th through the 15th for the Alaska EPSCoR All-Hands Meeting. Alaska EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) is the awesome foundation (yes, I use the word awesome) that gave me some grant funding to study my little sculpin. And so, since I got invited, I ventured the furthest North I have ever gone so far to the city where Sarah Palin spends her days.

Sadly, Anchorage was not what I expected. Yes, it was big. Yes, it had actual outlet stores and a mall that classifies as a mall. And yes, it was very city-like and had actually city blocks. But that was just it -- it was a city. It had lost that Alaskan appeal that we have in the temperature Southeast. And so I was a little saddened to find that I instantly hated Anchorage. Perhaps it was the smog, the big buildings, the flatness and the fact that the mountains were very offset from the city, the muddy water, who knows...Sometimes, you just get an instant feeling about a city and my instant feeling about Anchorage was not the best. It didn't help that the next night I went for a 5 minute stroll and got hit on by a young guy slurring his words, asking if I wanted to have fun with him that night in his hotel room. Yes...I think I'm sticking with Juneau. I much prefer the drunk people of downtown Juneau that seem scary but will leave you alone if you tell them to.

Needless to say, the conference was nice as I met some awesome people, had some great conversation with other EPSCoR affiliates, shared a beer with some UAF Graduate students and debated evolution and phenotypic plasticity with a political science teacher, presented my first scientific poster, got to eat some very nice food that a typical college kid on a budget doesn't get to enjoy, and even walked away with a first place poster award in my undergraduate category. However, I was glad to come home...glad to return to my mountains and trees, glad to see the Gastineau Channel as we were landing, ecstatic to see my roommie that I've become quite attached to, and even a little happy to return to my helicopter groundscrew job. Overall, successful trip but I prefer Juneau and I am very happy to be home! 😊

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Photos

I got to ride the Disney plane...yay!
See Tinkerbell on the cargo compartments?

My badge at the meeting
That was all I could snap without feeling kind of out of place. Oh well...