So, I have been here for less than two weeks, but I already feel at home. Everybody is super nice and friendly and it probably helps that the weather and the environment are almost exactly the same as the Puget Sound area (except, of course, for the porcupines). I do really, really miss the desert sun and warmth, but as we all know, the sun is currently out to get me with a vengeance, so it is just as well that I am up here hiding in the Arctic. On Monday I was officially initiated into Americorps. All of the Americorps members and everyone at SAGA and various community leaders went out to the Eagle Valley Center lodge and we held a ceremony and did a bunch of ropes courses. It was pretty fun!! It was cool to meet all of the other Americorps kids too. My job, so far, is pretty awesome. I have spent a lot of time out at the glacier networking with the US Forest Service, which is AWESOME because I always see cool animals out there and the glacier is just beautiful, especially since it has been snowing in the mountains for the past couple of days. We have this program called EELS, which stands for Energy Efficient Lifestyle Solutions, in which we visit the elderly and not fully able-bodied people and install curly light bulbs and aerators and weather strips and shower heads and whatnot in order to help them and the planet save on energy. That is pretty cool. Yesterday I went to represent SAGA at a Juneau Youth Coalition meeting put on by United Way and now I am on the board. It was originally founded by the mayor about ten years ago to prevent teen suicide, but it has transformed into a group to help youth in all sorts of different ways. I am pretty excited about this as I will get to work directly with the local youth as a mentor and community leader. I am working on about 6 projects at the same time right now, but my favorite is a calendar of events that I am developing for all the Juneau Americorps members. I am going to coordinate two days a month where we can all get together and do some community service, an activity, or a training of some kind so that we can all stay connected. I think it will end up being a lot of fun. This month we are going to clean up bus stops in order for us to all get free bus passes and at the end of the month we are going to smoke some salmon. I told everyone to dress up like their favorite salmon since it will be Halloween, we will see if anyone actually does it. I think I will dress up as a sockeye. Anywho, back to my various projects. Love and miss you all!
So, I have officially decided that I love Alaska. Things just seem to be getting awesomer and awesomer! (Knock on wood please.) For example, last week I got to go on a retreat with NCADD, the National Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence. I went as a facilitator, aka camp counselor, and boy it really brought me back to the good ole' days on Whidbey Island. Except instead of making things out of macaroni and singing songs about bears, we held workshops on healthy relationships for at-risk youth. It actually turned out to be a lot of fun though, my group got the most points and earned a pizza party, so that was awesome!! There was only one event that nearly gave me a heart attack. I invited a lonesome kid to bunk next to me in the cabin, explaining to her that I was super cool and her exact reply was, "Why do
adults always think they are so cool?" Whoa, I think I stopped breathing there for a second. Seriously? An adult? I am getting shivers just reliving that. Ok, moving on before I have another episode. On Friday, we all went to the Rocky Horror Picture Show, which was so incredibly fun!! It started out as a discotec, which we all know are right up my alley, and people dressed up all crazy (there was even a Yetti) and threw rice and squirted beer out of squirt guns and whatnot. It snowed that night, which was beautiful, but ended up being an unfortunate walking situation, especially since Juneau is hilly, I was wearing ridiculous shoes, and I am a natural born clumsy. Anyways, this week we are holding AmeriCorps events to get everyone together for a little member development. We have been
smoking salmon that were given to us by the fish hatchery. We started out yesterday (I was wearing my king salmon costume in honor of the event as well as Halloween week) and I have come to the conclusion that fileting salmon is actually a bit trickier than just saying "one fish two fish red fish blue fish." For some reason, I had the notion that I was supposed to cut off the fish's head (which is actually completely unecessary) and of course that almost made me pass out due to the breaking of bones that were involved in the process..... My first salmon ended up looking a tiny bit like a salmon hamburger. Let's just call it a Krabby Patty, which I am led to believe are absolutely scrumptious. I think that this salmon was a little far gone as she had already spawned before she met her demise and was basically a fish zombie. Anyways, after much slimy, stinky, and messy fish-crafting, we mad
e a brine involving about 876 gallons of soy sauce...... I have never in my life seen so much soy sauce. I was at a loss for words. And it made me want sushi. And fried ice-cream. (They have really, really good fried ice-cream at the sushi restaurant in Tempe.) So anyways, today we proceeded to hang the filets/patties out to dry and now they are smoking away. I smell like a fishy campfire, but I think they will end up being rather tasty!! They should be done by tomorrow, so we will see how this debauchle concludes. On another note, everyone here in Juneau is so awesome and I am loving it!! Halloween will be so fun, I can hardly wait to wear my rain boots that I glittered glued with green puffy paint. I love glitter glue!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Peace :)
