update!

Hey everyone,

I really should be blogging more. I don't have any good excuses...

Winter is here! It's below freezing all day and we've been getting a
dusting of snow almost every night (and it stays). There's ice over
Noyes Slough (small river) and the lakes are freezing up. I told the
parents it's like the whole area is just a few degrees above freezing
all summer. It's amazing how fast things are freezing. Even the
Chena river has "frazil ice" which looks like slush flowing down the
river (learned that in my class last night!).

It's getting darker, too. After the autumnal equinox we lose a lot
more light per day than yous guys down south. The sun comes up
sometime after 8 now so I've lit up my bike. I've got blinky lights
on the front and back and a red light in my spokes (it's awesome) and
I've got my headlamp mounted to my helmet. I also bought some studded
tires. They're really awesome and I'm planning on doing a lot of
riding before it gets too cold (not planning on riding too much when
it's -40!).

This semester I'm taking a class-- Arctic Engineering. It's required
to get my Professional Engineer's license in Alaska. (sidenote: I sit
for the big exam in a year and a half!) Anyway, the class is really
cool. I've encountered a lot of differences between engineering up
here and engineering in MI and I'm learning a ton in the class.

I'm taking a class for work this week too. Yesterday was not so fun--
11 hours of classes! Never had that many hours of class in college!
Glad I don't have to do that again. So tonight I'm relaxing.

I had a great weekend in Kodiak visiting Brian. What a cool place. I
really liked it but I'd never live there-- it's so isolated! It's an
8 hour ferry to the mainland. The picture is of a beach we found. We
felt like we discovered it ourselves. So cool. Brian gets back to
Anchorage in a few weeks and we'll be able to resume our regularly
scheduled visits. ;-)

Well, that's the news from the north. I love reading all your blogs!

Aimee