As many of you know, I recently accepted a job in Kodiak Alaska as Kodiak High Schools Earth Science teacher. I will be teaching freshman Earth Science as well as one class of photography. I am somewhat unprepared to teach photography, but am excited about the challenge! As for Kodiak, below is a map of Alaska with Kodiak featured:
and here is a beautiful picture of what the city of Kodiak looks like:
It's going to be pretty sweet. I move down there around the second week of August. I have yet to find a place, but I do know it is going to be very expeinsive.
Onto the trip up here
I left on Monday May 5th and arrived in Anchorage on Saturday May 10th. It was 3,800 miles in total and for the most part....it sucked. Driving long distances can be a really fun thing - if you have time to see sights, and lots of money. I however had none of these. The trip for the most part was actually not very scenic. During across the Midwest from Michigan, to North Dakota by way of Minnesota. The next day I made it right to the border of Montana and Canada, where I was forced to stay the nigh....
You see, I had this little rash that I had developed the week previous (I'll spare you pictures) when I was graduating, hosting my family, moving, and generally preparing to "move on" with my life (I guess this is kind of stressful). Well my mom (who is a nurse, and had a very similar rash very recently) thought nothing of this rash and decided that if I we just give it time it would go away....well it didn't and exploded to quite a large rash that was quite itchy and painful. I decided it'd be best to have this looked at by a doctor in the US rather then deal with the Canadian Health System. Turns out I had SHINGLES. Yes something that only old people get. At least it was diagnosed and I was able to get some drugs to bring my shingles back under control. I continued my journey.
The rest of the journey was uneventful and long. For the most part Alberta Canada looks like Texas with its many oil rigs. Things started to get much prettier when I entered British Columbia. I stayed at a nice hot springs which was a fantastic respite from the long days of driving. Here are a few pictures from the trip including pictures of my car with all its contents.
My car in North Dakota
BC
Caribou
BISON
The car on its last day of the journy in Wrangall-St. Elias
Other then that its been pretty much work non stop. I have not had a day off since I have been here. Some days are very long, and some days are your standard work days. At least with my job I get to see a lot of sights and am constantly in different areas, doing different things.
Here are a few shots chronicling what I have been upto
Kenai River flats:
I just pulled out of helping set up the camp at Judd Lake. We arrived on June 4thish to about 4 feet of snow. Pain in the ass, and I was completely unprepared for such rubbish conditions.
Shoveling the weather port platform
Lastly I'll leave you with a picture of the crew of seasonal workers. Kind of reminds me of a JC penny advertisement ;)
Have a great summer everyone!
