Alaska with Ian and Snowy Daegu

After jetting through countless time zones, enduring 3 flights, 4 bus rides, 2 train rides, 2 taxis, 4 subway transfers and a 3-mile walk in 0 degree weather I can label another trip to Alaska as a success.

From December 16th through December 30th, I stayed with Ian on post at the Northern Lights Inn (military housing hotel) at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, AK. It's the second time I have been, and it was even colder than my last visit, dipping down to -30 at "night" (it is almost 24 hours of darkness in Alaska in the winter time). Despite the extreme conditions though, Alaska is like a different world. There is no wind and everything is blanketed in snow and ice. Fort Wainwright is also about 20 minutes away from the North Pole, so Fairbanks had a Christmas-y feel to it with all the trees decorated with lights and frozen Santa statues in the yards.

Living in a hotel room for two weeks can be frustrating, but that didn't stop Ian and I from having a pretty stellar trip. I was able to watch his graduation ceremony from WLC (he graduated top of the class and is a Sergeant now!!) and met several of his buddies that deployed with him to Iraq.

I made a massive batch of buckeye cookies that were mostly eaten every day by Ian and I, and I gorged on all the American foods that I have been missing so much like feta cheese and garbanzo beans. Ian was even sweet enough to brave the subzero temperatures in the dead of night to cut down a scraggly Christmas tree for me. We had to sneak it into the room, and the only decorations we had were mini candy canes from a candy dish in the hotel lobby, popcorn garland that I made using a little army sewing kit Ian had and cutting a star out of a disposable pie pan. A true Charlie Brown Christmas tree.



We visited Chena Hot Springs again and scored a real deal since rooms were half price for the Christmas season. All in all though, it was a low-key visit with lots of trips to the gym and date nights consisting of going to Pizza Hut for stuffed-crust goodness and hanging around the fireplace in Barnes and Noble until closing time, reading cookbooks and thumbing through magazines. I loved every moment of it.

Here are some pics of Alaska and Ian :)
I asked Ian to get a handful of potatoes for dinner and he came back with this monstrosity. I ended up leaving him with two sizable vats of mashed potatoes just because I didn't want them to all go to waste.
Chena Hot Springs


Hot steam was blowing on this patch of ground and the ducks would not leave this spot!
Blurry shot out the car window. This was on the way to the North Pole on Christmas eve at about 3p.m.

Ian's attempt at making a nice, round buckeye.

Charlie Brown Christmas tree. The poor maid who had to dig the pine needles out of the heater...
I got to wear Ian's old uniform one day when we went out in pursuit of sledding. The sledding never happened, but I got to experience the uniform at least. Very comfy... of course it could have been because it was about 5X my size.

Ian's graduation ceremony form WLC. Second on the right!

A view of Fort Wainwright from our hotel window
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As for life back in Daegu, it's a bit lonely since many of my friends have already left to make it back before the semester begins. I am teaching from 9-5 to make up for days I missed for vacation, so my students are complaining about the long hours of class. To make matters worse, it's been snowing in Daegu!

As SJ tells me, this is a rarity. The sidewalks are encrusted with craggy shells of ice and piles of snow are mounded up around buildings and car rooftops. The kids LOVE the snow, and they are positively antsy in class, glancing out the window and sometimes sneaking it open to try and grab snowflakes. The fact that Teacher Katy is accustomed to tropical temperatures and Maegok is painfully cheap and won't turn on the room's heat make for a very crabby teacher. I ended up having to channel my American rage and indignation at being forced to teach in a room where I could see my breath at the women in the administration office who control the heater. Today I was able to to teach nix the trench coat and gloves and was downright toasty by 3p.m. But just to make sure I have heat for the remainder of my time in Korea, I gave the same women the stink eye when I was walking up the stairs.