Kortnie - Day 2

So it's our second day in Barrow, and we feel a little defeated about the whole process. Most of the people we talk to are really friendly and helpful, but unless their position has something directly to do with climate change, they're not very willing to talk to us.

Our flight yesterday left Fairbanks at 10:30. We got there early and thankfully it was a direct flight so once we got on the plane, I could crank up the iPod and get some sleep. Both of us were up until 3:00 a.m. putting the Sun Star together and Lacie got up at 6 a.m. and I got up at 7, so the sleep was definitely welcome.

I was surprised how much light there actually is here. I was expecting the just-before-darkness look, but there's a few hours in the afternoon when it's bright enough to take pictures without a flash or tripod!

Once we got here, we dropped off our stuff and made a few calls. Gary, the guy we're staying with, took us to NARL (Naval Arctic Research Laboratory, I think) and we talked to a scientist (that Mary and Ryan already talked to, but I think we talked about some different stuff), and to the Borough Wildlife Management director, who is also a whaler. By then it was about 3:30 and we made some more calls, but didn't get through to many people.

After we got back here, we went to dinner with one of Lacie's friends from high school who is teaching here. Ironically, he went to college with a LOT of my friends from high school. He saw my "Houston Hockey" hat and immediately asked "are you from Wasilla?" being as he's from Montana, I figured Lacie had told him where I was from and then he asked if I knew Colton and Taylor and a whole bunch of people. But he seriously just connected the hat to all the Houston stuff Colton wears down there I guess. That was kindof neat.

My hat is actually a conversation starter. Today as we returned to the house, we stopped in the "Trading post" and the guy at the register asked me about the hockey team and as it turns out, I sortof know his daughter. We tried out for teams together and she played with some of the girls I played with before I started playing girls' hockey. I decided that Alaska isn't a small state, it's really just a small town in and of itself.

We started out this morning by going to the Inuit Heritage center. They had some neat stuff there. We left there at about 10 and even though it was mid-morning, I felt like we were walking around in the wee hours of the morning and the school bus was honking really loudly at the houses and I thought that it was weird, wouldn't it wake people up? and I realized that it's really 10 in the morning. Not that early.

Before we even went to the heritage center we called to set up an appointment with the borough mayor. The lady said that he was really busy because of the Borough's Thanksgiving feast (great, almost everyone we were told to talk to works for the Borough) and that she'd call me either way. So we went on our merry way and walked across to the Barrow side, which wasn't really that bad, or that far.

We (meaning Lacie) talked to some artisans in the entry way to the AC store where we grabed coffee. I took pictures and bought a little something for my mom. We ended up in the Wells Fargo building looking for the Inuit Eskimo Whaling Commission people. The only person in that office said that they were too busy. But we did find some people at the Adult Basic Education/GED office that talked to us. A man who worked there called one of his students who is on a whaling crew and we made an appointment to come back at 3:00 and talk to him.

From there we were sent to another office where the ladies were very nice, but didn't really want to talk. One of them called a bunch of people, but being the day of the feast, no one was really around. We actually saw her later when we were walking around town. She offered us a ride, but we were right by where we were going.

We got some postcards at the "Top of the World" hotel and the desk person gave us a bunch of names and we came back to this side of town to the Search and Rescue base looking for someone. The two people were there simply said "He'll be back soon," and promptly ignored us, so it was awkward and after waiting for about 10 minutes and deciding that "soon" was very indefinite, we left, intending to come back later.

We stopped by the feast a little before it started. The mayor's office was upstairs, and since we hadn't heard anything, decided to try to make an appointment. We succeeded, 1:30 tomorrow (our flight leaves at 3:00) but when the assistant went back to ask him he came out and said he was full up tomorrow but she'd try to squeeze us in, and oh, by the way, you need to call two weeks in advance. It was another interesting reception, but we have an appointment for tomorrow.

We stopped for lunch at Pepe's and got our "Arctic Circle Club" certificates and guarantees of Christmas cards (by July), and returned to the Adult Basic Education center for our 3:00. The guy didn't show up, and the instructor who set it up called him and he said he was cleaning a cut on his hand but he could be there in 20 minutes. It became pretty clear that that wasn't going to happen, so we left.

We took a cab to the post office hoping to find a bunch of people, but there really wasn't. Now here we are. I just busted out a paper about a visit to court for my justice class that I spaced until about 2:oo this afternoon (it was due in class about 11:30 but partial credit is still credit, right?). So I guess that's all I have for now.

Tomorrow we're going to try all those office people who were too busy today and maybe some more. All before 1:30 too.