Day 45

More bad news, Sirius radio doesn't get a signal up here. For real. What the heck. We're way the heck out here with no radio and we can't even get SATELLITE radio. Another reaffirmation that I really am at the end of the world, in case somehow I was starting to think I was still connected to the world in any way. What a silly idea. So, I guess radio will just be added to the list of things that I will live without. I am roughing it, I'm telling you. No car, no coffee shops, no book stores, no sidewalks, no tv, no radio, no restaurants, no movie theaters (though I just found out we can rent movies at the store, which is pretty cool!), no alcohol, no TREES, and pretty soon no daylight! But, instead of having all of that, we have lots of tundra, berries, 4-wheelers, dirt roads, ponds, little houses, steam shacks, and stray dogs. Not to mention the huge bay and the awesome river, FULL of salmon. And supposedly moose and bears, though I haven't seen any yet. So whatever, I guess it balances out.

I didn't do much this week besides work. Lots of work. Physics is killing me. There's no books, no curriculum, no materials to do all these "awesome" labs with, nothing. So, you tell me what I'm supposed to do... I've asked some of my colleagues and mentors and stuff, the first thing they always say is, "dude, just wing it" I love it. To which I reply "well, if I knew enough about physics I would, but I don't, so what's the next solution?" Whatever, something will be decided.

My biology class spent the week trying to learn the organelles, so they made these sweet models from clay, they were totally into it. Here's Damien's model.

My family is all having their annual family reunion in Michigan right now. Makes me sad that I can't be there. Why can't it still be in July? Hm? It's a load, that's what I say.

Last night we had homemade pizza and watched the movie 21, great movie. It made me want to go to Vegas.

I ran all the way to the village today. It's like 4 miles. I didn't know I could run that far, but turns out it's not that hard.

Oh, so I got in my first (and hopefully last) 4-wheel "accident" today. Jon Sharp was at the post office when got there and he let me drive his 4-wheeler back because he felt like walking it. Then I ran into the apartment building because his breaks don't work. Yep. I was screaming and Theo was outside with her cat watching me and Dale came running outside asking if everything was ok. I was going pretty slow by the time I hit the building, maybe 5 mph, I don't know, Jon's 4-wheel doesn't have a speedometer. It dented the metal siding. Whoops. The 4-wheeler wasn't hurt and I was fine, didn't even budge. The main result was me feeling like a ding bat for not down shifting when the breaks obviously weren't going to work. Instead I put my foot on the ground trying to slow down like that. Yeah, pretty awesome, I know.

After all that, Andrea and Brenda called me up and asked if I wanted to go to 2nd creek with them, so we drove out there, pretty fun. Did you know that beach grass grows in Alaska?

Then on the way back, instead of going down the beach and back up in the road, we went through the tundra, which was really fun! It was all muddy and we were sinking in everywhere, I think we were pretty lucky not to get stuck. Supposedly there's mud around here that just sucks things in like quick sand. There have been at least a couple 4-wheelers completely eaten by the mud here. But not today! Woo!

Well, I hope you've all enjoyed this installment of "well, I've got a 4-wheeler, what kinds of stupid crap can I do?"