Have you been to Tara's blog yet? It's called Tara's Paper Crafts. She tagged me over the weekend and so I thought I'd share seven things about me where I live.
1) I live in a village called Barrow. In Inupiat it is called Ukpiagvik (A Place to Hunt Snowy Owls).
2) I am half Inupiat and Caucasian. The Inupiat are the native Alaskans that live on the North Slope of Alaska. Inupiats along with the Eskimos of the northern nations (like Canada & Greenland) are collectively called Inuit. At least that is the way I understand it. Technically, I would say that I am Inupiat.
3) I am a Californian raised Eskimo. This means that I grew-up not here in the village but in California. I love my childhood in California and as an adult I am very happy to be settled here in Barrow.
4) When traveling from the Lower 48 to Barrow it takes an average of four to five stops and at least three air plane changes before you arrive to my town. Air fare is outrageously expensive and the travel is long.
5) Our roads are pavement-less and boy does it get dust during the summer. We have a water truck that sprinkles the main roads to help keep the dust down. Speaking of roads... we don't have any road systems that connect us to the rest of Alaska. Sometimes there is an ice road but by the time I would want to travel it it is long gone and melted away.
6) We don't have door to door mail services. The only way to receive your mail here is through the Post Office. When I first arrived in Barrow there weren't any PO Boxes left. I received all my mail as "General Delivery". This meant that I had to wait in line to get my mail every single time I went to the PO. This was a big social event. You could visit with so many different people while waiting for your mail. At least a quarter of town used to flow through the PO after work. It's so different compared to the PO's in the Lower 48 ...no one talks to each other and everyone are strangers. Not up here. I know at least 95% of the people I see at the post office.
7) Just for fun I am including this tid-bit. I don't live in an igloo and I've never seen couples rubbing noses. I've seen babies rubbing their faces into their mommy's neck but I don't think that counts as rubbing noses.
To sum it up, the thing I've learned most about living in the arctic is that I can learn to live with far less and make do with what I have but it sure is nice to have the internet! If you can find a vendor that ships to Alaska via the Postal system without additional charges YOU"VE GOT IT MADE!
7 comments:
Thank you for sharing, it is so nice to get to know each other a little better.
Love all the tidbits of info. You know I LOVE hearing about your like in Alaska.
thanks for sharing...cool to know someone who is living in Alaska. btw, i'm goin link you in my blog...love reading your blog..keep on blogging ;)
ohhhh!!! Thanks for sharing this... It was so nice to read up more about you. thanks for always opening your doors and filling my wonders.
hugs n' aloha,
Jen
Love reading this, Nancy!
I loved #7! being from canada, most non-Canadians think we have winter all year round, that we don't have sunshine, that we all ride ski-doos...well, you get the stereotypes! LOL! The one Canadian stereotype I LOVE is that we are polite! most of us are!
I live in a small community also, and i LOVE going to the post office to get my mail. I'd say I know maybe 50% of the people in my village.
Nancy,
Thank you so much for sharing more of your little world up there. I love to hear about everything! Can I ask? What is that in the bottom photo...it is very pretty whatever it is! :0)
Nancy,
You are right some of my favorite time is in line at the PO....it is also fun to see what people are getting in the mail. You know when you order something for your hubby or kiddo and you are really excited when it gets here. It seem like everyone in line can get excited for you as well! (LOL) The simple things are what I will miss the most!
Post a Comment