Fairbanks Friday Round-Up

This week has us being part of a herd. Literally. We’re on a study tour of Alaska with ten other people and two guides. For a person who would rather be alone than be with anyone, this has been oddly nice. Lectures, museums, discussions, and walks. We started in Fairbanks. Next we go to Denali, then to Nome and Teller, and, finally, to Anchorage and then home.

Here’s my week:

• We started the week by arriving at our hotel in the middle of the night when no room was ready so we stretched out on the sofa in the lobby and went to sleep. It was oddly comforting to lie there, the two of us, in full view of people going in and out of the lobby, and suspect they might be envying our ability to go with the flow. I saw them looking at our Dove Bar wrappers and wishing they could be us.
• The phone rang in our hotel room this morning at 4:00 a.m. It was the group leader asking if we wanted to go with her out of town to see the Aurora (Northern Lights). My husband woke me up and at first I thought there was a fire since there was a fire alarm once when we were traveling which I didn’t hear because, obviously, I am so hearing impaired. He tried to create a new sign for Aurora but it looked like fire to me.
• A very small and old professor lectured us later about the Aurora. He is so famous that the building where he teaches is named after him. He had a PowerPoint explaining the science of Auroras. It was very complex. Afterward, when he asked if there were questions, I wanted to ask him how he decided to come to Alaska from Japan and if he was happy living here. Was the Aurora enough to make up for all the things he might miss? I wanted to ask him, too, to tell us more about what he said in an article printed about him, “I remember my mother singing a song containing the word “aurora” like a lullaby when I was very young.”
• The 70-something woman who is our guide is an archaeologist who worked on the Alaska Pipeline. She wears sensible pants and big shirts that zip down the front like nurses wear. Her gray hair is parted in the middle in the exact same way I bet her hair was parted when she came to Alaska on a whim from New York City to go to college many years ago. She is a bit hunched over, thick around the middle, and wears sneakers that might have never been new. She drives the bus and tells stories. Her punchlines are funny and true and make us feel like insiders.
• A man commenting on my blog the other night cautioned that falling in love with Alaska was a real possibility. He said, “If you give Alaska enough ‘time’ it will seep into your soul and never let go.” I hear his warning or his assurance, both. But I’m guarded, ready to protect myself against losing my mind yet again about something big and dangerous. Still, I like thinking it’s possible.

That’s it. That’s my week ending September 8, 2017.

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Photo by Stijn te Strake on Unsplash