I do not think I have ever been so depressed in my life. We did not even leave Anchorage and I already missed the place. The entire trip was beyond wonderful and I want to go back right this second. The weather is so wonderful! I know that beautiful weather is just temporary, that eventually it will get miserable and snow all over the place, but just the sheer fact of not sweating from standing is amazing. Well, I promised an update when I returned, so here it goes.
--As far as pictures go, I uploaded a few. If you would like to see more, visit my Flickr album.
www.flickr.com/photos/alaska-and-less-important-things
Wednesday, Day 1:
Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:38am. This meant that we would have to leave my Aunt and Uncle’s house at 3:40am. We woke up Tuesday at 1pm, got to Orlando at about 4, and decided we were going to stay awake for the night and sleep on the plane. We did manage to stay awake for the night but we failed to sleep on the plane. Maybe the excitement had something to do with it. Anyways, the night before our flight we went in the hot tub after a wonderful universe ceremony. Following the hot tub, we made S’mores. :) I also watched Black Swan that night. Great movie, by the way.
After what seemed like forever, the time finally arrived for us to get ready to leave. Will and I ate a little bit of the cranberry orange bread to hold us over until we reached Houston. The flight from Orlando to Houston was not supposed to be that long, so we figured we could get by with a little bit to eat. We arrived at the airport around 4:30am so we could check in our bags. We were hoping to just check our bags at the curb since we pre-paid our baggage fees. Yeah, that did not quite happen. We had to go inside, where there was a wonderful line forming for Continental flights. In addition, representatives to check in bags were absent. Those representatives did not show up until 5am. Will and I were kind of freaking out because our flight was scheduled to board at 5:55am. The line was moving super slow and the computers were glitching. Anyways, we eventually made it up to check in our bags. I clicked a few buttons, weighed our luggage, and our tags printed out. Simple for us, at least.
Baggage check was not a complete disaster, but it had taken a lot longer than we expected. Next we had to go through security! I remembered to take off my shoes (flip flops, but I had to remove them anyways) and I opened the laptop bag the way the diagram on the website instructed. I walked under the metal detector archway and….*beep beep beep* Oh yay. I thought maybe my earrings had set of the alarm, but the attendant informed me that jewelry should not set the machine off. He asked if I had anything in my pockets. I said no. I was sent back through and beeped again. I was stared at and told to go through again. Guess what? I beeped again. The attendant stared me down in the classic “hand-scratching-chin” method. He then told me to give him my glasses and sent me back through the archway. I did not beep that time! Who knew my glasses would set off the alarm? There is more metal in my ears than in my glasses. So, we made it through security with (almost) no problems.
The flight from Orlando to Houston was no big deal. It was a little more than a two hour flight. We arrive in Houston on time and decided to eat something. We went to Subway. How fascinating. I also looked inside a little store that had really nice cowboy hats. I kind of wanted one. :P The flight from Houston to Seattle was long. At first they told us that it was a four hour flight but then extended the flight by another hour right when Will and I got excited that we would be landing in 15 minutes. Oh well, a four hour flight seemed too good to be true. We arrived in Seattle and had a quick stop at a Starbucks (I had a chocolate muffin). Now, onto Anchorage!
I was able to sleep a little bit on the flight to Anchorage. I woke up right as we started our descent. We could see mountains, but only barely. When we stepped off the plane we could feel the cold air. It felt awesome! I stopped at a window to take pictures since the view was incredible. I’d never seen mountains like the ones in Alaska. The mountains in Anchorage make the mountains in North Carolina look like hills – seriously. After taking a few pictures, we headed down to baggage claim. Our bags were the third and fourth bags to come from the mysterious beyond. Of course, mine was super easy to spot. The other bag had a ribbon braided around the handle, so we had to pay closer attention for that one. Once we had our bags, we headed out to grab a taxi to our hotel.
The taxi ride was quite uneventful. We looked out the window the entire ride to take in the new city. Once we arrived at our hotel, we checked in, asked the concierge if he had any information about the job fair (he didn’t), and went up to our room on the 8th floor. The view from our window was of the city with a mountainous backdrop. Initially, we planned to nap after our flight but I think we were too excited to nap. We decided to walk around downtown for a while before deciding where to go to dinner. We went into one gift shop just to get an idea of what sort of souvenirs were offered. After walking around for a bit, we decided to go to Fletcher’s, an English style pub that serves Italian. We were given water (something that is common in AK; restaurants automatically bring you water) and I ordered an Alaskan Rustic Salmon Melt.
For Foodies: Alaskan Rustic Salmon Melt = A mixture of Salmon, the Fresh Fish of the Day (I think it may have been halibut), shrimp, artichoke hearts, and capers, topped with melted provolone cheese, served open faced on foccacia bread. Served with fries.
Another thing I learned about Alaska? They know how to make fries. Holy mackerel.
William tried a bite of my sandwich (note: he does not eat seafood). He liked it.
After dinner, we went back to our room, took in the fact we weren’t in Florida anymore, and got our room into order. I set up the computer and saw that I had an email from a follower of the same Alaska Teacher Placement Forum that I followed. She was at the job fair too (her name is Jen)! We met up downstairs, talked for quite a while, exchanged phone numbers, and I went to bed.
Thursday, Day 2:
We woke up kind of early on Thursday, but nothing too ridiculous. I think it was about 9 or 9:30. We decided to go to the Snow City Café for breakfast, since a recent acquaintance of mine told us that it was good. I already knew what I was going to eat, so that helped. Will had coffee but I just stuck with water. I ordered French toast. Now mind you, this was no ordinary French toast.
For Foodies: Sliced baguettes made into French toast, stuffed with a mandarin orange cream cheese, covered in powdered sugar and walnuts, served with a raspberry butter. Three pieces (technically 6 pieces since each toast had two parts to it).
After breakfast, we went to see if anywhere was renting bicycles. The first place we checked was completely closed. The second place was a convenience store/bicycle rental, but they did not have any bikes to rent at the time. There was a third place we could have checked but it was quite a walk so I decided to call before walking down to the shop. The guy answered his phone and I asked if he was renting bikes at the moment (apparently, April is considered a muddy season, so bike rentals do not start until late April/early May). He said he was not at the shop but he could be if we wanted to rent a bike. I said sure and we walked down to the bike shop.
Peter, the owner, was super nice and helpful. The first bike he picked worked perfectly, shifted nicely, and had good tires for riding in the snow. The bike Will used had tires with metal studs in them for an awesome grip. No wonder why he didn’t have trouble riding on the ice. We were given a map (both for the trails and a bus route map) and wished good luck.
We started the trail where I think we were supposed to start. There was a little park and a sign that said “Tony Knowles Coastal Trail.” We started riding and soon stopped for photo ops! Will also called his parents and I called mine as well. Some parts of the trail were still snow covered but we managed. We probably walked as much as we rode, but the entire trip was awesome. We saw two moose!! The entire bike ride amounted to around 14 miles. We decided we were incapable of riding back so we caught the next bus. Neither of us had been on public transportation so watching us try to put the bikes on the bus rack was quite hilarious, but probably frustrating for the driver. Later he mentioned that we would be pros at operating the bike racks, so he lightened up a bit. The bus ride was not too bad and we returned the bikes at a pretty decent time. Fortunately the owner was still at the store, so we didn’t have to chain the bikes up outside of the shop. Bike theft is a problem in Anchorage. After our bike ride, we headed back to the hotel, changed and went out to dinner.
For dinner, we went to the Snow Goose Brewery. Located right on the Cook Inlet, the view was definitely amazing. The sun was also setting around that time. I started off the order with a bowl of Hickory Smoked Salmon Corn Chowder. Best. Food. Ever. As my meal, I chose to have a Caribou Burger. In all honesty, it was a basic burger (lettuce, onions, mayo) but with Caribou instead of beef. Super tasty! William had Chicken Tacos. :D
Friday, Day 3:
Job fair day!! Got up at 7am, dressed in nice professional clothes, and headed downstairs to register. I received a name tag and a little goodie back with a notepad and a luggage tag…weird. There were definitely a lot of stations for at the job fair. I walked around and made note of what school districts attended and then sat at a table and prepared my folders with the corresponding letters of introduction.
Many of the school districts that I was very interested in were present at the fair. The only one that was not was Cordova. I was a bit disheartened, but continued to walk around and hand out my folders. Lake and Peninsula was there and I had the chance to speak with the Superintendent. I told him that his district was at the very top of districts I’d like to work for and to hopefully keep my information in mind just in case a position became available.
I know that Social Studies is not particularly a sought-after position, but I was hoping that there would be more than FIVE openings. That definitely lowered my hopes a little bit, but not enough to ruin the trip. I made sure I explained that I am a very open-minded person with many talents so receiving more certifications was hindered more by finances than intelligence. Man, I wished I would have worded things more eloquently when I was actually at the fair! :P
Hunger kicked in about 1/3 of the way through the fair, so I texted William to meet me at The Pantry, one of the four inside eateries at the Hotel. I had some basic eggs and stuff, but I also had reindeer sausage! After brunch, I headed back to the fair.
I ended up with one interview on Friday, but with a second interview scheduled for Saturday. The first interview was with the North Slope Borough School District for a position in Point Hope. It was kind of amusing because on my interview card it stated that I would be interviewing with “Bev and Greg.” I laughed because there is a couple in my family named Bev and Greg.
The interview was definitely nerve-racking, but I knew this is what I wanted so I went with the flow. I answered the questions to the best of my ability, made light of the situation, kept my humor intact, and went away feeling super good about the interview. Will and I were actually invited to a reception later that night by the woman who conducted the interview (the other interviewer had to do something, so he was not able to make it)!
After the fair ended, I returned back to the room and told Will about being invited to the reception. Other than my business clothes, I did not bring dressy attire, so I just went to the reception in dress pants and a nice blazer. Will, on the other hand, did not bring ANY dressy attire (I told him he would not need it…and would you look at that!). I figured if Will left the nice clothes home, we would not be tempted to go out to a super nice, classy, yet, expensive restaurant. Yeah, that did not work. Haha.
Since there was some time between the end of the job fair and the beginning of the reception, Will and I took a walk to the 5th Avenue Mall. The mall is THREE STORIES (plus a basement that was actually just a very large shoe store)! We first stopped at the JC Penney for a collared shirt and a tie. Then we just walked around the mall for a bit. There is a GameStop in there, so I took a picture of the sign and texted it to a co-worker with the subtitle of “Anchorage GameStop!” Pretty lame, but also geeky. After our little shopping spree, we headed back to the room to get ready for the reception.
At the time I was invited, the interviewer told me that a bunch of people from the school district would be there, so I’d have the opportunity to ask questions. I imagined a large room, with a lot of tables. This reception took place in a room about the size of my kitchen and maybe 15 people were there. I felt a bit awkward but I tried to mingle the best that I could. The woman who conducted my interview talked to me for a bit. I tried showing some personality and avoiding topics such as school or work, but threw in some tidbits about my life that would indicate admirable qualities in a classroom.
Some finger foods were served, such as coconut shrimp, a veggie platter, and some sort of meatballs that were incredibly tasty. Will and I hadn’t eaten dinner yet, so we were super hungry, but we did not want to pig out. After the reception, we went to the Glacier Brewhouse for dinner. Jen, the woman I met earlier that week, recommended this restaurant (along with Snow City Café). She also recommended getting reservations. Since it was late, making reservations would be difficult, so we just went to the restaurant. We waited about an hour to be seated.
Although the wait was long, it was definitely worth it. I wound up eating some sort of Bourbon BBQ glazed salmon. Very, very good. William had prime rib quesadillas. He said they were really good, too. I used this trip to experiment with a bunch of different foods. William stayed in his comfort zone in terms of his meals, but he actually had no problem trying the foods that I ordered.
Following dinner, we headed back to the room and passed out. I was up at 7 that morning and we stayed out until 11. The second part of the job fair was the next day and ran from 8 to 12. I had more application peddling to do.
Saturday, Day 4:
Although I could have gotten away with waking up at 7:45 to be downstairs by 8, I still woke up super early. It could have been the nerves, since I did have an interview later that day. I went downstairs and asked some of the districts if they had the chance to contact any of my references, just to make sure that my references were contactable. I heard a lot of “no’s.” Since I already handed out a majority of my applications, I kind of just sat at a table and talked to a few people. My phone rang and it was the school district that I was supposed to interview with later. She wanted to know if I could possibly interview earlier. Of course I could! So now, instead of waiting three hours for my interview, I waited 20 minutes. Everything worked out really nicely that day. I interviewed with two people, both from the Kuspuk School District, and both looking for a high school generalist teacher. If I got the position, I would have taught every subject for 9-12. The interview went really well, even the interviewers said I offered a great interview.
After the fair was over, Will and I had brunch again at the Pantry. We really did not do anything except walk around for the rest of the day, looking for souvenirs to bring back home. We found a few things to pick up, but decided to wait until Monday to do the official purchasing of souvenirs. I think the only thing we picked up on Saturday were postcards for the students I tutor.
For dinner, we went back to Fletcher’s. I had Grilled Prawn Risotto and that was super delicious - Spicy shrimp, wild mushrooms and shaved Parmesan. Yum! William had the generic fettuccini alfredo. Again, it was a long day, so we just went back to the room and crashed.
Sunday, Day 5:
This was the day that William and I were looking forward to the most. SNOWBOARDING! We had to take a taxi to a grocery store to be picked up by the bus by 9am. Because I am psychotic, I made sure we were up and ready with plenty of time to spare. We went to the Pantry (again) for some breakfast, got a cab and went to the grocery store ($10 cab ride). We showed up at 7:45am. Told you I am psychotic.
At first we were worried we were not at the right place, but another guy was waiting outside and he asked if we were waiting for the bus as well. After that, we were at ease with the situation. While Will and I were wearing snow pants, (and I had pants underneath the pants), and shirts, sweaters, and jackets, the guy we spoke to had on jeans and a jacket.
The bus showed up a little later than expected but everything went super well the rest of the day. We bought the tickets for snowboarding a few months in advance on the resort website. Unfortunately, the window did not load for the tickets, so I had to e-mail someone. Within 5 hours, the e-mail was read, responded to, and the issue resolved. She said that she spoke with the bus driver, explained the situation, and the bus driver marked us down in her planner. As we got on the bus, we showed our receipt for the tickets, and she said, “Oh yeah, I remember marking you two down in my planner. Something happened to where your tickets didn’t print.” Talk about customer service!
The trip took about an hour but the view was gorgeous for the whole bus ride! Upon arrival, we went to the booth, showed our receipt, and received our day lift passes. After that, we went to pick up our rental board and boots. We were asked if we were taking lessons, but said we were going to “wing it.” After thinking for about…5 minutes, we decided to take up the offer on the lessons. The lessons lasted two hours, and technically could have been considered private lessons. Our group consisted of Will, me, and the instructor. We started on a very simple bunny hill and realized that taking lessons was the best decision we have made all week. I wound up falling on my tailbone right on a sheet of ice, so that hurt – a lot. Part of me still thinks I may have fractured the bone, but there is no documentation to back up that claim. My tailbone hurt for a good month following the fall.
After getting the basics down, we graduated to the intermediate bunny hill!! This hill also had a magic carpet (a conveyor belt to bring riders back up the hill) but the slope was a bit steeper. Here we learned how to do toe and heel turns, along with the falling leaf technique. The two hours went by pretty quickly, but after they were over, we both could successfully ride down a hill without eating snow. Plus, later in the day, when the sun hit the mountainside, the snow softened up, making the ride a lot easier, and the falls more forgiving.
We ate lunch right inside of the rental building and then went back to the hill. The worst part of the day was anything that involved sitting. For a while, I was not enjoying the snowboarding because once I reached the bottom of the hill I had to unstrap one boot, ride over to the magic carpet, and then sit down to restrap my boot in. It was so painful! I was so close to calling it a day when Will said, “I figured out how to strap my boot in without sitting down!!” He dug his board into the snow to make a ledge, put his boot into the bindings, and simply bent down to strap in the boot. No more sitting until we got onto the bus!!
We never actually used the lifts at the park, since we were very comfortable on the bunny hill, and still having a lot of fun. Plus, we did not want to tackle the challenge of getting on and off the lift. We figured we’d save that challenge for another day. :/
We got back on the bus around 5:30 and got back to the drop-off point and the grocery station by 7. We planned to go to the Moose’s Tooth for dinner, since it was very close to the drop-off point. A friend of ours who was born in Alaska and has been to Anchorage a few times recommended the Moose’s Tooth as the best pizza in Alaska. It was very good! I had a Chicken Picante pizza (chicken, jalapenos, cream cheese) and Will had a pepperoni and onion. We also shared a basket of Diablo breadsticks. We are definitely going back there next time we are in Anchorage! After dinner, we caught a cab back to the hotel, I tried to take a hot bath (did not really help), and we went to bed.
Monday, Day 6:
Will and I deemed Monday as “Recovery Day.” I was so incredibly sore I had to roll out of bed. Everything hurt. There were muscles that I did not know I had, and they hurt. Standing up was an accomplishment. Sitting down was next to impossible (tailbone!). Because everything just…hurt, we dedicated Monday for SHOPPING!
Earlier in the week, we looked around to find some nice shops that were not the typical “touristy” shops. Of course, some of the things we did pick up were from those shops, but some special gifts were picked up at places that were “on the beaten path.”
The students that I tutored the past year were on my list of “people to get gifts for.” I told them before I left that I was going to pick something up for them. One student wanted me to bring back a whale, or a husky. Another wanted a wolf hat. Unfortunately, I was not able to smuggle animals out of Alaska. Fortunately, I was able to remember the animals the students had mentioned, so I picked up a bunch of postcards. At least that way I could bring home a lot of postcards without it costing an arm and a leg.
After scouring the downtown area for a good hour and a half, we finally decided on what to get each of our recipients. Will got his mom an abalone hummingbird pin and his dad a box of taffy. He picked up a notepad for his sisters entitled “The Colbear Report,” properly illustrated as a bear in a suit and tie.
I had a bit more shopping to do, as I got something for my mom, dad, brother, sister, aunt, and uncle. My parents live 500 miles away so they got something nice and my aunt and uncle have kind of been my Florida parents for the last 5 years (although I live with my grandmother). My aunt and uncle also took us to and from the airport.
For my mom, I picked up a ¾ sleeve shirt that is purple and sparkly and has an image of a polar bear.
I got my dad a t-shirt that says “Neighborhood Watch” with the image of Alaskan wildlife heavily armed.
For my brother and sister, I picked up a carabineer with a compass and thermometer and a compact mirror, respectively. The thermometer on my brother’s gift broke, so that was kind of a downer.
For my aunt, I got a set of tea towels with moose on them (if I remember correctly) and an aqua organic cotton t-shirt with blue whales printed on the front. My uncle was significantly harder to shop for, but I got him an artsy poster that looked like watercolor with a wolf staring into a pond, reflecting the totem image of a wolf. I also got him chocolates from the Alaska Cake Studio. I also picked up a few pieces for myself. The shop has very unique chocolates. I couldn’t resist. :P
As far as food goes, we revisted the Snow Goose Brewery and had the basic fish and chips. I also indulged in another bowl of the hickory smoked salmon corn chowder. Yum. For dinner, we splurged and went to a place called Simon and Seafort’s.
Definite seafood place and I took advantage of the situation and ordered macadamia stuffed halibut with Alaskan King Crab legs.
We went and watched the sunset at Resolution Park after dinner. It was fairly romantic. It was a nice way to end our trip. <3
Tuesday, Day 7:
This marked the last day in Anchorage. We slept in every so slightly, but we had been waking up so early we could not help but wake up in the morning. This benefitted us because we had the chance to visit the Snow City Café one more time. I saw a t-shirt that I really wanted because it said “Rock, Paper, Scissors” on it. Little did I know that the café was celebrating its 13th anniversary. Due to this factor, when the waiter/waitress delivers the check, a game of “Rock, Paper, Scissors” is played. If the server looses, 13% is taken off the check. Since I am a RPS champ, naturally, I won (I’m really not a champ, but I have significantly more wins than losses). After breakfast, we walked around more and then caught a cab to the airport.
The cab driver we had on the way to the airport was the nicest we had for the whole trip. He made decent conversation and asked how our trip went.
The plane ride home was…boring. I picked up one of those neck pillows so hopefully I could catch some sleep on the plane. Our flight was an overnight flight, so we tried to sleep as much as we could. Really did not work out well.
We got to Seattle around 9 or so, grabbed dinner at a sports bar, and then made our way onto the next plane. I slept most of the way to Houston, but failed to sleep on the way to Orlando. The plane was about an hour late leaving Houston, but at least we didn’t have a connecting flight to miss. :/
My aunt picked us up around 11am and we went back to her house. We told my aunt and uncle all about the trip, gave them our gifts, and showed a lot of pictures.
I definitely can’t wait to go back. :)
---Four months later…
I never heard back from any of my interviews and I did not get a teaching job…anywhere. I blame this on my lack of experience. This year, I am going to try and substitute teach as much as I can so I can get some classroom experience. I also plan to take one of the courses I need to upgrade to a Professional Alaska Certificate.
I am not giving up.
