remember learning in school about navigating using the sun? "before noon, your shadow falls in the west, and after noon it falls in the east". well, they don't teach that here. you know why? because it doesn't work!

i learned it the hard way. i was navagating through town until i noticed something doesn't make sense. in the picture above (taken after noon), i was actually heading north. damn polar sun.

anchorage is like any other american city. it isn't very alaska-typical (so they say). that's why i'm planning to spend here only another couple of days before heading north - to fairbanks. despite not being a typical alaska experience, it's beautiful up here. i'm glad i came here.

the weather today was gorgeous. i rented a bike and road 20 miles (36 km) by the ocean and across the city. i even saw a moose by the bike track (but i didn't pull out the camera quick enough). so i biked for 4 hours, and then had my chicken salad by a beautifully quiet pond.


their bus system has an orignal name - people mover. heheh - and who said american's aren't sophisticated? plus, they have special rules of their own:

i'm staying at this warm and cozy hostel. it has a home feeling to it. all of the facilities are available, including kitchen (with some free food), washing machine, internet, etc. good poeple also. many people come up here for research. one japanese girl is doing a research on one of the eskimo languages, another guy is researching fish anatomy, a third is doing archioliegy. interesting people.

meet pablo. he's a great guy. he rents bikes during summer time, and lives in california during winter. he's a very warm guy, on contrary to the general culture here. he helped me out get information and ideas for stuff to do around anchorage.

i checked out the local museum. i tell you, these eskimos were pretty crazy. killing whales and stuff.

apparantly countries aren't too expensive. if you had a bit over 7 million dollars a couple of centuries ago, you could have bought alaska yourself.

that's it for now! i'm going to travel up north tomorrow with a guy i met in the hostel. we're probably going to hitch hike up.

by the way, regarding the mailing list. don't worry; you will not get spam. it's just me. and another thing, you do not need a yahoo ID in order to sign up. simply reply to the confirmation email and send. that'll do.

love you all!