WEEK 14!!!!

My final week in Alaska is finally here! Coming up is going to be a very boring week of exam-taking and paper-writing. Fortunately for me, I've accomplished a good amount this week to wrap up my time here.

I finally made my way up to Fairbanks! Me and a few friends took turns driving for a few hours. We even passed by some moose on the side of the road. Unfortunately for me, I volunteered right when the sun was starting to set and it started to snow. The road conditions were surprisingly okay, but it was very difficult to see since it was pitch black at 5:00. There also weren't many places to stop and switch drivers on the single road to Fairbanks. At least not any that I could see. When I tell you I could only see 20 feet in front of me, I'm not exaggerating. But we got there alive and in one piece. 

We went out to get thai food before the activity since we didn't stop for food on the way up, and by the time we got back to the hotel, we had to change into our cold weather gear before getting picked up at 9. Once we got to the yurt, we prepared to go dog sledding! They let us pet some of the sled dogs while they were harnessing them up and then the guide took us dog sledding for about half an hour. Due to the -17 degree weather, that was about all we could handle before we froze. 

When we got back, they fed us a nice three-course dinner. All the food was amazing, but I got a little too excited and only remembered to take a picture of the main salmon dinner. After that, all there was left to do was enjoy hot chocolate and wait for the Northern Lights. At some point around 1 am, they made a fire that we could sit by, but unfortunatly it was too cloudy to see the lights. We left at 2 am and then passed out as soon as we got back to the hotel room. 

The next day, we checked out and went to Denny's for breakfast before we hit the road (which turned out to be quite the experience). Firstly, about 2 hours in, we hit some ice and spun off the road. It was the most bizarre thing because it ended up being the best possible outcome for a crash. There was some room on the side of the road for people to pull off, and we just spun right into that area. There were also some trees that stopped us from falling into a ditch. And even though there were already cars pulled off of the road, we didn't hit any of them. We had a tow rope in the car, so the other people there (very nice by the way) pulled us out. The car had very minimal damage, just a scratch and the plastic of the back light broken. And of course everyone in the car was ok. We were back on the road in the span of 10 minutes. It was very weird because it happened so fast and everyone in the car was oddly calm while we were spinning.

All was fine again until about halfway through the drive when it started snowing. After a while, the road was covered, so all we could do was follow the tire tracks in the snow from the car in front of us. It was fine at first, but once it started getting darker, I got a little nervous. Especially since we didn't have any service and as I said before, there were no exits to pull off the road and wait it out or get a hotel if we needed to. Once we finally reached a place with service, I checked the weather and there was a winter storm warning for the area we were driving through. Fortunately for us, it was supposed to be the worst right where we were at the time, so it could only get better as we drove. We went on for a few more hours like that until it started to clear up and we made it back to Anchorage safe and sound. 

And again, I ate and feel asleep as soon as I got back. I saved the blog post for today, which I think is fair after the weekend I had. Of course I had to include some pictures. The dog sled picture is a bit blurry, but I promise I'm in it. I also included a funny picture of me with the frost all over my face and eyelashes from the sled. Overall I think it as a successful last trip of my semester here. Now I get to look forward to finishing school and going home!