What i have been up to over these last few months in Alaska.

Hi, all! As i start thinking about the season coming to an end, i thought i'd share with you how the summer has been going as well as what i have been up to. It has been a rocky summer to say the least. Dealing with a plethora of deep and unsettling personal problems has definitely taken its tole, as well as financial issues, new work and basically 2 months of rain.

The issues started almost immediately. When we started our jobs at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge, A Princess Cruises hotel, we had to sit through 5 days of "orientation" or as i like to call it, brain washing. We were told that our haircuts, facial hair and styles had to be uniform with everyone else. No tattoos, no piercings, they even told us what colored shirts to wear off work! Feeling uncomfortable with working for this corporation, we were told Madison couldn't work there with dread locks. Madison, unwilling to shave her head for a seasonal job promptly decided to take a different route and started applying for jobs in the area that same day. I went in to work and was told to leave because my long hair, which helped me get my foot out the door. A few minutes after we found out we both had to cut our hair we rushed back to housing, gathered our things and left. We were homeless, jobless and in the middle of Alaska. Even with that being said, we were more excited than ever. We were excited to not be working for a morally ambiguous corporation and even more so, we were excited to be in Alaska. That night we camped in a giant gravel pit down stampede road. The next day we were pleased to find that the interviews we had the previous day were successful and now we had a job.

We moved in to our new home for the summer around May 12th. We were now living at Denali Air, a flightseeing company with a mile long airstrip and a bunch of Piper Navajo airplanes. Here we had our own cozy cabin that was just ours. The cabin is the most roomy place we've lived in, equipped with a bed loft, couch, shelves and a propane heater. We began work at Black Bear Coffee House right across the street from the lodge. The Black Bear is a hip, organic, friendly and fun place where most locals hang out. Needless to say we were jazzed to be working for a mom and pop where we knew the people would be awesome. As the days progressed and we got more and more comfortable with The Black Bear and Denali Air, our coworkers and neighbors became friends and have now turned into some of the best friends i have ever made. Everyone in Denali seemed to have the same mindset. We are all idealists who came to Alaska more or less on a whim. We all craved adventure, a journey into the unknown. Everyone travels across the globe in the winter and finds their way back to Denali in the summer. Year after Year.

We then got into our work groove, just working and hanging out. During June we didn't do much besides a camping trip into the park, which got more rain in decades the night we were there. Which makes for an interesting story nonetheless. But besides that not much happened.

Things got more interesting in July when money became a huge issue and a change had to be immediate. Because of the high price of room and board we were paying (Alaska has some of the highest cost of living on the continent because of its remote location) we couldn't afford our bills and Madison couldn't afford her car payments. Madison was initially going to leave, almost booking the plane ticket and everything but then she decided last minute she would move out of Denali Air and live in her car, a move that has definitely payed off.

The summer has had its ups and downs but i wouldn't trade the experiences iv'e had and friends i have made for anything in the world. A few days ago we were blessed with awesome weather and i feel change is in the air. From here on out it seems everything is going to be better. With only 6 weeks left in the season i'm ready to see as much Alaska as i can before i leave and i am very hopeful for the future.