I'm Making This Place My Home

I've been in Alaska for about a month now. I've settled into my apartment with my perfect roommate. I got an amazing non-retail, flexible schedule, relevant-to-my-life job at the university press. I've been to exactly one class...and spent all weekend doing homework for that one class. Grad school is going to be tough but also incredible. Everything is coming together, and I have to say...I'm really happy, and I love it here. So, my first impressions? Okay, here we go...

1. I had to use lotion on my hands for the very first time in my entire life!! Maybe this isn't an exciting fact for you, but 12-year-old Natalie with the sweaty-hand - people wipe their fingers on their pants after touching me - anxiety complex would be thrilled. My life would be so different now if I had grown up here using lotion instead of leaving slimy trails across piano keyboards and erasing the blue lines on notebook paper.

2. I had my first class on Thursday night, and we were talking about our expectations for the class. There are 16 of us in the class, and we all agreed that we hate when people don't come to class prepared. i.e. they haven't done the reading. At first, I was laughing at how nerdy we were, and then I got really excited about how nerdy we were. It suddenly clicked...everybody in my class wants to be here; they want to learn, and they want everybody else to want to learn too. The community depends on this. It's incredible.

3. I'm getting the beer process under way. First challenge: pumpkin beer! I went to the farmer's market today to get me a pumpkin, and I was a little disappointed when I found that squash were being sold for $2.50/pound...and we couldn't find any pumpkins. But my roommate and I struck up a conversation with a farmer about his different squash, and when I said I was making pumpkin beer, he suggested I use a Boston Marrow squash instead. I asked him how much he wanted for it, and he said, "Nothing. Just bring me some beer when you're finished and let me know how it turns out." What?

4. I have a knack for choosing the same town to live in...just dislocated. They're all variations on the same theme. Small town. Close-knit community. Generous and friendly people. Everybody knows everybody. A black hole in one way or another. And a little on the po-dunk side. All five towns I can claim as "home" fit most of these descriptions. They may have different scenery: snow-capped mountains instead of mosquito-ridden bayous. They have different characters...but they're all pretty much the same. Fairbanks is the latest stop in my tour of small towns, and maybe it's too soon to tell...but I think it might end up being my favorite.