More and more light!

Things are still going well up here in Fairbanks! I haven't been up to too much so far this semester, but we have gone on a few small adventures...

We went to see the start of the Yukon dogsled race. It's over 1,000 miles long and takes them about two weeks to finish!

Me overlooking the start of the race! It started on the Chena river right downtown.

I got to touch the pipeline!!

Justin and I

I found some amazing x-c skiing at a place called Birch Hill. It's well groomed, free and has lots of hills!! :)

The temperatures are slowly getting warmer and the days are much longer. The sun comes up around 8am and sets around 6 pm! Most of the time I don't need my big jacket anymore which is exciting! We had a few days last week where the temps actually got up to 35 and the snow started melting everywhere! It's back below freezing now but it's nice that the sun is strong enough to do that now!

I'm really looking forward to Emily coming April 10th! My family is coming out in June and I can't wait for that either!! I miss everyone lots!!!

Back in Fairbanks!

It has been a while since my last post! I have been busy with break and getting back into things at school but everything has gone well!!

Break was wonderful! I made it home in time for Christmas and it was great to see most of my family! I was able to visit with almost all of my friends, go skiing for a few days, go to a few contra dances, visit UMaine, play large amounts of Super Scrabble with the family and just plain relax!

I flew back up to Fairbanks on Jan 19th and Justin spent the first week up here with me! It was good to have someone here to help settle me back in! About half of my friends aren't returning this semester, but I am enjoying the alone time! I still have a few and they are keeping me going! :)

I haven't been able to do too much exciting stuff since I have been back. I am only taking two classes: Statistics and a GIS course. Between classes and research stuff I have more than enough to keep busy!

The temperatures are finally going up a little bit and the amount of daylight has increased tremendously since I left back in December! The high temperatures for this upcoming week are all between zero and positive ten! The sun is coming up around 9:30 am and setting around 4:30 pm which isn't nearly as bad! It is still hard to get up before the sun, but at least it keeps getting earlier!

I took a bunch of pictures over break and since I've been back, but here are just a few! If you want to see more, they are all posted on Facebook!

4 Shmos with Memere and Pepere on Christmas!

Joel and I while x-c skiing with the family at Duck Brook in Acadia

Out snowshoeing with Mom and Dad!

Skiing at the Camden Snowbowl with Jess and Andy!

Annabelle's first birthday party!

Skiing at Saddleback! (Em, Me, Don, Gerard & Joel)

Back in Fairbanks....

The Chena River...Ben, Justin and I took a walk down it one afternoon

Pretty trees on campus!

Since I've come back, many ice sculptures have been put up. This one is outside the engineering building!

Walking on a warm day!

That is about all I have for now! I will try to keep posting more regularly again! I'm really looking forward to when Em comes on April 10th!!

Family Photo

I have to take the time to post the following picture. My three closest friends up here and I decided to have a family portrait taken with the mascot, the Nanook bear. It was taken back in October but we finally got our hands on it! Leah is in the hat, Ben in the red and Marilyn is on the bottom left!

I would also like to take a minute and make a shout-out to my UNCLE BEN and say thanks for the advice to bundle up when I go outside up here! What would I do without you?!

End of the first semester!

This semester has gone by so fast!!! Monday is our last day of classes and then I have two finals and I'm done!! Everything is still going pretty well. The sun comes up around 10:40 (right nowish) and sets at 2:45! It is pretty cool to experience, but I'm ready for dinner at 3 and bed at 5 which isn't quite right! It is interesting getting out of class at 10:15 and the sun hasn't come up yet! The high sofar for today is -7 but it didn't feel too cold walking to class this morning. It is very dry here and I think the cold in Maine feels a lot colder than it does here. Everything is full of static electricity!!

Here I am yesterday at 2:15 pm watching the sun set!

Sunset again

We took a drive to North Pole to visit Santa!!!!

North Pole, Alaska! It's about 15 miles away from Fairbanks!

Thanksgiving!!

I had as great a Thanksgiving as I could have away from the family!! My boyfriend, Justin, came up from Haines, Alaska to visit for the weekend and we had a great time!! My friend Leah came over in the morning and the three of us cooked dinner! We had a 14 pound turkey, stuffing, potatoes, green bean casserole, squash, rolls and cranberry sauce! We had pumpkin pie and chocolate pudding pie too!! It all came out super well which shocked all of us! Marilyn joined us after she got out of work and then we ate!!

The rest of the weekend went really well!! I taught Justin how to cross country ski and ice skate!! We had a great time and he is just as crazy and nuts as I am so we got along really well!!! :)

Marilyn, Leah and I with all the food

It's Justin!

Doing my cool tricks

Justin and I

In the Museum of the North on the UAF campus

22 days until I fly home!! Everyone start praying that the weather all over the country is good enough to fly!!

Even COLDER!!!

It's been pretty chilly here recently.....

This was taken around 6 pm!

There has not been too much to report on recently! School is going well and has been busy for the past few weeks! I bought a car last week which is pretty exciting!! It is a 2007 Ford Focus manual transmission. I have not been able to use it all week since it is not winterized and won't start unless it is especially at these low temperatures! It is sitting at the garage so I don't have to deal with starting it again!

Today is the coldest day sofar!! This morning around 11 it was -33F and when I walked past the time and temperature sign it read -25F!! I heard it was 50 in Maine today so that's like...80 degrees difference!! Crazy!! I guess they weren't kidding about it being an ARCTIC university!! :p Next week around thanksgiving it should be up in the positive numbers again but they don't seem to predict temperatures right up here!

My Car!!!!! :)

This was the view on the way to class. The mountains in the background are 12-13,000 feet tall! It was taken around 9am!

I went skiing one day and this was on a lake!

Hannah and I at a contra dance!!

Not much else is new!! 33 days until I go home for Christmas and I can't wait!!!!! :)

Getting COLD!

Temperatures have been dropping in Fairbanks with the decreasing day length!! The highs this week will be in the upper teens and currently it is -4 degrees F at about 9:30 PM! It's time for bundling up to go outside! This past week, we got about 5 inches of snow which is enough for people to get their skis out! It's nice because things don't look as dead looking!! There is very little wind in Fairbanks so the trees keep the snow in them much longer than in Maine so it always looks like it snowed recently!

This was taken the day it snowed!

This past weekend was halloween so my friends and I dressed up and went to the Pub which is the bar on campus!! I dressed up as an old lady with my friend Marilyn. I posted a picture of us below!!

We found some great dresses at the Goodwill type store here!!

Besides that there is not too much new to report on! Classes are still going well and so is the research! :)