Alaska - the land of beauty. The land of danger. The land of unmet expectations.

I want to dispel a few myths before we continue. Firstly, in a 'near death experience your life does not flash before your eyes, nor does everything go in slow-motion. Secondly, it's always a good idea to have insurance.


Well, I don't know if what I experienced was a quote 'near death experience'. Possibly more like a 'potentially dangerous situation'.

I guess what I'm trying to say, is that I got into a car accident. OK, that probably wasn't the best set up in history (probably the worst) I admit. But we managed to get to the point, didn't we?

We decided to hire a car in Anchorage and drive up to Fairbanks (about 350 miles/ 500 and something km away) because Anchorage was pretty boring. We also wanted to go up and see if we could see the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) (more on that later) (parenthesis!) and hopefully some wildlife on the way (more on that later too). Anyways, we hit an icy patch on the road just outside Cantwell (just over halfway between Anchorage and Fairbanks), did a 360 and hit a snow bank. Luckily there weren't any other cars around at the time but if we had spun out less than a minute later than we did, we probably would have hit a truck coming the opposite way. See what I mean about potentially dangerous!? This was what I was trying to get at from the start!
So anyways, the car was working fine still and thanks to a helpful Alaskan (I assume) couple we were able to secure what was left of the front bumper so that it didn't drag. We made it to Cantwell with me feeling a little happy, to be honest. I wasn't too worried about the cost. "Can't be more than $600, right?" I laugh at myself in retrospect. It actually ended up costing 10x that amount. USD. Apparently parts are hard to come across in Alaska and have to be shipped in which is such shit.

Long story short. I'm now officially broke. Good thing I'm going home really soon huh?


We made it to Cantwell hoping that there was a mechanic there but apparently the only one in the area was old and probably wouldn't be able to make it out to have a look at the car. In any case he would probably tell us to go to Fairbanks. The truck driver that was behind us was at the petrol station too and he said that if that snow bank were any lower we would have most likely flipped. POTENTIAL DANGER! Oh, neither of us are hurt by the way. Just my wallet.

The rest of this story isn't that interesting. We made it to Fairbanks without the use of a car, we spent the rest of our time there trying to sort out this car thing and then we flew to Anchorage and then on to Seattle.

Seeing as we're out of Alaska now, I feel safe to do a little summary thing of the entire trip. Overall it was pretty disappointing. I had so many expectations which weren't met. I guess that was the problem. No research + high expectations = disappointment. I didn't do any of the things that were on my list. I didn't see any wildlife besides two Bald Eagles and a squirelly thing (possibly a squirrel). I didn't go snowshoeing, or snowmobiling OR dog sledding. I didn't see the Norther Lights. Alaska IS a beautiful place though, one of the few places in North America that warrants a second visit. During Summer of course. That's pretty much all I have to say about it, to be honest.

November/ Our time is running out

It's November and to quote one of my favourite songs, yes, 'our time is definitely running out'. Not sure if you realise but this means that I only have about a month of uni left before the end of the year (not including exams). I really don't want this to end. I don't want to say goodbye to anyone here. It's weird but I can't imagine life without them now...

It's November which also means I've been here more than 2 months now. It seems an age since I left New Zealand and so much has happened. I was talking to one of my friends the other day and I told her that this was most definitely the best decision I've ever made in my entire life. God, just listen to me, I'm talking as it today were my last day! But seriously though, there's still so much I haven't done - I haven't been to that medieval restaurant (but I'm gonna try and convince one of the guys to have his birthday there ;) ) and I haven't even been up the CN Tower! I haven't seen a baseball game but I totally missed my chance for that I think and I also haven't been to a hockey match, or a basketball game! (None of which I really give a shit about but y'know, you wanna go just to see what it's like right?) ( Like, when am I ever going to come back?) (Soon I hope).

Anyway, that's about enough of that. In other news, I'm going to see Cute with Chris: Live tonight which is very exciting. If you don't know what it is then I suggest you have a look at it (theres a link over there ----> somewhere on the right). It's something you either like or don't though so...

Novemeber comes right after the end of October which, if you didn't know is Halloween time. For those of you who don't know, this was my first, like, proper Halloween so I was totally kinda amped for it. I dressed up as an Eskimo which, to be honest, was kind of a cop out - I just bought a big jacket (which I needed anyway - it's getting fucking cold out. Though today I was outside in t-shirt and jeans but that's neither here nor there.) a fishing rod and a soft toy fish.

Anyway, yeah, so there were pre drinks in my room which was pretty ridiculous. There must have been about 25 people in there and if you've ever been in my room (which I'm sure none of you have) you'll know that it's not really built for that many people. Possibly about 10-12 comfortably. And any more than 4 is considered a 'fire' risk. I'm surprised actually, that the security guys didn't come up and that I didn't get a fine for the noise. But yeah, there was a parade thing on Church st (which is in the so called 'gay district') which was amazing. So many people! Just imagine my room during pre drinks but instead it was a whole street (does this make sense? I would imagine it might not). After that finished though, the whole night kinda lost momentum. There were a few house parties going on apparently but with us being such a big group it was hard to co-ordinate them (like being back in Montreal!) So after a while I just decided to go back to my room and begin the clean up which actually, didn't take that long but I have like, brown marks on my duvet where one of the girls must have rubbed up against it (she painted hereself brown and went as a Rastafarian).

Saturday night was more of the same really, we headed down to Neil Wycik which is the other student residence just down the street for a kegger. And I'll tell you what, that place was WAY too small for something like that. So I decided to leave that early as well. So, overall, an interesting, yet uneventful Halloween. except for when my camera kinda broke. Now I have to go through all this insurance shit. I just want someone to fix my camera guys. Is that too much to ask?

Also, what the hell am I gonna do with this fishing rod and my now?

Oh, it was also daylight savings today which I wouldn't have know if my laptop hadn't changed automatically.

Oh, yeah, and it was also totally snowing the other day. It was absolutely amazing. I can't wait for winter!

I think that's all.

I can't feel my face

So, yesterday it started to snow a bit. It wasn't really real snow, it pretty much turned into water once it hit the ground but before that, as it made it's descent toward the ground it was totally snow. Luckily I hardly left my room, let alone the hotel. This is kinda scary. Mainly cos apparently it's not supposed to do this for another month or two and I am totally not prepared for it yet. Apparently it was 2 degress but with the wind it was supposed to be like, -4. Crazy. Today was kind of ok though, I was just wearing a t -shirt, jeans and my big ass jacket. The only thing frozen was my face.

"Oh god! I can't feel my ears!"

Alive and kicking (and also cold and have broken shoes.)

Hey guys,

Just thought that I'd post something to prove to you that I'm still alive. The lack of posts hasn't been because I've been too busy like one might logically assume. It's pretty much because nothing has really happened since Montreal. A little bit of this, a little bit of that. Y'know.

Probably one of the only two things worth mentioning is Nuit Blanche which was a 12 hour art show all around Toronto. It went from like, 6pm to 6am but seriously, you couldn't see everything in that time even if you tried. There was a lot of shit going down EVERYWHERE. Zombies, rubber ducks in a pond, light shows and a lot of other stuff. I didn't really get to see much though, mostly cos we didn't leave the hotel till like, midnight and we went back at about 2ish cos all the bars were closing (which is kinda stupid if you think about it. C'mon, there were massive crowds of people everywhere! If you were a bar and had the sense to stay open after 2am you would have made a killing. I suppose it would have something to do with liquor licensing laws or whatever but still).

Next would be Thanksgiving. Canadian Thanksgiving is about a month before the American one. Take THAT America! I think Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving for the same reason as the Americans do which is weird cos like, I'm pretty sure none of that pilgrim stuff happened in Canada eh? I think it's just an excuse to eat turkey. Anyways, because a lot of people in the Primrose (as well as from other residences) had gone back home for the weekend all the international students who couldn't go home decided to have our own Thanksgiving dinner. We decided to each make a dish and bring it down to the basement level and we would proceed to feast on the carcass of a dead bird among other things. I made the cookies (someone threw out the ones I was saving for my sister which was disappointing. Mostly for her but y'know). It turned out a lot better than I thought it would to be honest, there was a good range of food there. The Danish guys made Danish stuff, the Spanish girls made Spanish stuff and everyone had a good time. I even pitched in for a crate of beer. Needless to say that was drunk pretty quickly. The really funny thing though happened the next day when I realised there was a security camera in the room we were in which caught pretty much everything. We weren't in trouble though which was good. Ming just asked why he wasn't invited.

I think that's pretty much all. Oh, wait, yeah, uni work is kinda starting to pile on right now. It kinda sucks. I didn't come here to study!

It's also steadily getting colder. I also have a feeling my shoes will break in a few days.