Amigoz

Oh and here is a picture of me and some of my friends here. We took this on Friday on our walk to the Marlin, a nearby college bar. We were posing with the UAF 'Nanook' aka a polar bear made out of ice. It's kinda poor quality since it was outside at night, but there will be more! The crew (from top left): Guy, Charlotte, Antonia, Karolina, Konstantine, Me, Diego, Armando, Christopher.

Us & the Polar Bear

Week Two

Last week was pretty standard, I've been pretty busy with school. I'm only taking 14 credits but three of those classes also have wonderful 3 hour labs which makes for some long days. I've been sacrificing so many plants and inspecting so many taxidermized (??) birds, I'm exhausted.

Went on a walk on some campus trails yesterday. The weather is actually getting more pleasant here, its been in the teens for a while, hopefully the temperature doesn't dip back down to the -30's!!! That sucked. I never thought 15 degrees F could feel so warm...it's all relative huh.

I'm also trying to convert my brain to Celsius since I'm a 'science major' person. People in science in America really get screwed, why do we learn Fahrenheit and our own numeric system when literally every other country uses Metric/Celsius?!??!!! Also pounds and kilograms...and more. Ridiculous. So anyways, don't get confused when I say its 20 degrees in April, don't be confused, I am speaking in Celsius.

I have yet to see the northern lights!! Sadly. A group of people went out and saw them on Thursday night, but I had 9 am class Friday so I didn't go. I guess some people are going on Tuesday night so maybe I'll check them out then. I think to take pictures of them you have to set your camera on a long exposure time (like 15 seconds or more) so I don't know if my little point-and-shoot will be able to capture the moment...we'll see.

Trekkin

Today I checked out some trails just off campus. It was really fun and super pretty! It was about -20 so we couldn't stay out very long, I hope to go back out more when things warm up around here. There are trails for walking and cross country skiing, so hopefully I'll have a chance to try the latter sometime.

The trail. Pic by Karolina P.

Smith Lake near campus.

Earthquake

Today I experienced a very minor earthquake! I was innocently reading in my bed and everything started shaking a little, at first I thought I was dying but then I realized that's what it was. So cool. I LOVE PLATE TECTONICS!

Anyway, last night went out to this bar called the Marlin with a bunch of my exchange homies, it was fun. It was a very laid back place, kinda reminded me of the Lift or Welch Ave. I like how people here don't dress up to go out, I only saw one girl wearing a skirt. People at ISU are sew fashionable. There was some drunk band playing blue grass and demanding that the bargoers buy them shots, haha.

Also, yesterday while I was trying to enjoy a sandwich the fire alarm went off at the building I was in. I have a new found hatred for people who pull those things, waiting outside in -30 degree weather =brutal.

Back 2 Skoo

First day of classes!! Only had one today though- GIS analysis. Seems really cool, I'm always weary of computer based classes working with new software...but I gotta learn. Our professor gave us all copies of ArcGIS 10 to install....but it's not compatible with mac!! Ah..so I need to figure that out. It's a pretty small class, about 25 students, so my prof was taking attendance and he's like "oh Angela Richman is an exchange student, where from?" Everyone laughed when I said Iowa...apparently it's not far enough away. Feels like a different country to me almost.

It was almost -40 this morning. Still dark when I took the bus to class around 9:30 which is kind of sad. But whatevs. Hopefully I'll do something cool this weekend, it's supposed to snow and be above zero degrees!! Hoorayyyyyy.

I snapped my first few pics today after class, but it's so cold my fingers hurt after being out of gloves for a few minutes.

View from Yukon Dr. 

Sun it Rises...around 11 am.

(Sorry I know these are on fb too...but my mom doesn't have one k)

PS.

Also my mailing address for this semester is:

Angie Richman
University of Alaska Fairbanks
PO Box 751161
Fairbanks AK 99775-1161

Please send wine and munchies

Day 1

Alright. I'm feeling much better here. Still don't know anyone...but my room mate, Kaisa and I went out today to buy some school supplies, got my student ID card, and had a cup of coffee and chatted. It was nice to see a little bit of campus, and all the people around here seem amiable.

It's currently -34 F (it's only 11 am though) and the high is -19! Haha. The cold isn't really bugging me though. I got my nice warm down jacket (Holla Callie) and some Sorel boots that are keeping my feet super warm. It's just kinda hard to breath in air that's so cold, so I'm walking around with a scarf over my face for now, but I bet I'll get accustomed to it eventually.

My dorm is pretty cute, kinda junky but definitely better than Helser.......weird. It's really close to a cafeteria and some c-store type places, and the bookstore, so that's convenient. I think my classes are a couple blocks away, so we'll see how that goes tomorrow.

It's definitely going to be an interesting semester. I'm excited to meet some new people and see new things. Currently a little homesick though...

I'm Here.....

Idk how I feel about this yet.

I've made one friend, too bad she's 80 years old and doesn't go to UAF. I'll try again tomorrow. 

Monday

24 hours.....

yes I'm drawing out this countdown more than necessary.

Ficus (Moraceae)

"Kitty." Joint custody of Amber, Natalie and Angie

This is my pet ficus tree. She got cold this winter when I took her from Natalie's apartment and all the leave fell off :( But don't fret, they are sprouting yet again!! It's hard taking pics of leaves that are like 1 cm long, but I wanted to show you.

I think trees are inspiring. Or deciduous ones at least. Even when it looks dead because of the lack of leaves, its still alive and healthy. They change along with the seasons to be well-suited for that particular time of the year. A ingenious evolutionary mechanism I think, I wonder humans don't change with the seasons? We just change our wardrobes. We R so Dum.

THREE DAYS TIL ALASKA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ames

AHHH I just woke up. Last night was the last night in Ames (just til I come back in 4 mos) so it's not reary the last night. Needless to say I still prob have a BAC above .08. OOpz. Umm I miss my ISU friends already and I'm still here. I know we took a group photo at some point last night, it will be posted in the near future.

HI

6 more days til I leave for Alaska....

I'm actually starting to get nervous every time I think about it.
I am really not worried about the snow and cold, I'm just worried about not knowing a single soul up there. I hope my room mate is cool also...had some issues with that freshman year at ISU! I think I might get a job up there too, just some university position or something, so I can meet more people.

On a less serious note....also worried about fitting all my stuff into 2 suitcases!! Seriously. My snowboots are gonna take up like half the space in one suitcase. Winter clothes are just too bulky, plus I need stuff for the nicer weather in the spring too!!! AH DIHLEMMAS. (SP?)

This is me soon! WEEEEEEEEE

2 Weeks To Go....

 COUNTDOWN TO ALASKA: 13 DAYS      !!!!!! yay

I'm also going to Ames this Sunday to visit my beloved friends and co-workers for a few days, I'm so excited to go back. It's fun here in Dubuque too, but I have been going out much less.....seriously like 3 times over break, WHAT! And I've concluded that drinks are cheaper in Ames.


Last night I had a dream about watching TV, does that mean my subconscious is bored? Just a thought...

Sundaze.

Dearest blog, today I share with you a haiku of my own:

A cold winter day

The green conifer revels

Near shivering oaks

-AJR

Ansel Adams- Winter Yosemite Valley

 (trees inspired by trees)

....jk

1-1-11

I almost forgot...Happy New Year!!!

I'm hungover duh.

Mississippi

I went the the Mississippi River Museum the other day with my mom, it was soo cool. The have a ton of indian (yeah I'm not politically correct boohoo) artifacts and models and parts of old steamboats. My favorite parts were the tanks with real animals in them.

There was a saltwater tank (kinda doesn't make sense since it's supposed to be all about the river, but whatevs) with a hugee octopus, sea stars and cucumbers, anenomes, cute fish and corals.

Sea Squid- excuse the crappy quality, this is a phone picture.

The octopus has been a big attraction for the museum since they're such odd creatures. Sadly, this is the museum's second octopus-the first one died shortly after it was introduced to the tank because of water temperature issues.

I always have mixed feelings about zoos and aquariums, taking animals from their natural habitats and putting them in cages and tanks just for human entertainment doesn't seem right. At least the river museum does actually offer a lot of information to its visitors. I feel like zoos aren't so educational. My mom and I loved looking at the animals, but since we've both lived in Dubuque all our lives and been on the river too many times to count, the fish tanks didn't really show us anything new. It would probably be cooler for people from further away.

Anyways, I hope someday zoos and aquariums will be obsolete. People's time and money could be spent much more wisely on habitat restoration efforts and supporting local wildlife organizations (DNR, US Fish & Wildlife Service) rather than maintaining captive habitats.

On another note, I was a little awestruck upon viewing a tank with the river's most popular game fish: catfish, northern pike, bass, carps (ew) etc. Fish have indeterminate growth, meaning they grow throughout their ENTIRE lives, so crazy. Some turtles and other herptiles also share this quality. So some of these fish are like six or seven feet long! I don't even know how much they would weigh...some were probably near 300 lbs, just guessing.

Me with the gigantic catfish. 

I would recommend anyone visiting Dubuque to go to this museum, it's so informative and interesting. I think everyone in Dubuque should visit too, though I think people here already do have a deep (puns intended) appreciation for the river.

I'll leave you with this, some translations of the Ioway tribe:

Iowa- means beautiful
Chicago- means place of the skunk

LOL