Equinox

It was 34 degrees outside this morning. Winter comes QUICK up here.

Yesterday was the autumnal equinox. In Homer they celebrated with this event called Burning Basket. Artists were constructing this giant basket all week, and yesterday, the community was invited to interact with it - write notes, remember someone, let a burden go. At dusk the whole thing was set aflame.

Homer is such a weird hippie place. But I kind of love it. I just wish I felt more a part of the community and less like an observer who lacks the key to the door and can merely push her face up against the window.

It hasn't rained for 3 days in a row! I think we're going into the field today, so at least there's that.

Back to the frontier

Man, flying to Alaska takes FOREVER. I spent Sunday night in Anchorage because my plane landed there too late for any flights out to Homer, so I finally got home (if that's what this is now) yesterday.

The flight down to Homer was absolutely gorgeous. In the week I was gone, it became autumn here and the landscape is so colorful! I was really wishing my camera was in an accessible location on the flight down, because from above...The rivers were gray-silver, reflecting the clouds we were flying through, and they were winding through bright green valleys washed with gold, from cottonwoods, and orange from some shrub covering much of the ground. Dark green spruce trees rise over everything else, but there are also lots of dead spruce (there was a bark beetle attack a few years ago that killed many of the trees), and they stuck out like gray toothpicks. It was awesome. I mean, not the dead trees. The landscape in general. Today however, its been POURING. All day. And apparently rain was all I missed in the week I was gone. Its kind of weird, it almost doesn't bother me anymore. Most of my time at home, the weather was really nice, but I'm definitely over humidity, and the day I left, I swear it was like 90 degrees and 90% humidity. Ugh.

While I was home, I fielded a litany of questions about Palin. Mostly conversational (i.e: "wtf is UP with her??" my answer: "i have NO clue") but I got pretty tired of talking about her. NOT a favorite topic of conversation (hah, you wouldn't guess that from the direction this blog is taking..) But, in response, I'm posting this link. Apparently, while back east I missed an anti-Palin rally in Anchorage. Don't bother reading the stuff at the top, just scroll down - its pretty well documented just in pictures. Some people made some clever signs. I approve. Also, of note is the fact that more people attended this rally than actually came to see Palin herself. So, dear readers in the lower-48, although Alaska is a red state, not EVERYONE here is a fan.

Jiggity jig

Well I didn't get home until Monday afternoon. I missed my flight out of Anchorage on Friday because my flight from Homer to Anchorage was canceled due to fog. There's actually a term for this in Alaska: getting "weathered in." It was pretty lame, because I wasn't able to get another flight back to DC until Sunday night, so I lost 2.5 days in what was already a whirlwind trip home. Not surprisingly, its been a busy busy past few days. Jamming in social events with as many old friends as possible (thank goodness for internet and cell phones, or this would have been a far more depressing trip given that I'm not sure when I'll next be out on the east coast) and making snap decisions for every item I own, whether I want to get rid of it, put it in storage, send it to my grandparent's house in California (which is going to become my USA home base once my parents move), or send it to the Philippines. I'm sorry, but 4 options is far too many. And if you know me at all, you should realize I'm TERRIBLE at making decisions. Maybe this is good practice.

Speaking of the Philippines, my dad is there now, and I believe has made an offer on a house. Unfortunately, he DIDN'T choose the huge stone house with wooden doors and a sweet pool/jacuzzi...so much for my grand visions of classy poolside parties complete with huge Hollywood sunglasses and fruity drinks decorated with paper umbrellas. Of course there's the question of WHO I'd actually invite to these so-called parties, plus I'm really not a glamorous person, so maybe its for the best.

I'm feeling surprisingly ambivalent about being home. Its nice, but I have so much to do so it doesn't really feel like a vacation. I kind of miss Alaska, but not really in the sense that I'd rather be there than here, but more because life there is much less stressful compared to my time at home. But that only applies to specifically now - packing up 19 years of your life really can't be a barrel of monkeys all the time. The weather has been perfect - definitely humid but comfortably so - only mid 70s - and oh how I've missed wearing flipflops, but its not like I have much time to doddle outside. I do miss not having to worry about locking doors. In Homer, nobody locks their doors - house doors, car doors...its kind of nice.

Now that I know I'm not staying there past Thanksgiving, my mind has started wandering on where my next adventure should occur. The rest of 08 is pretty much set - California for Thanksgiving with the grandparents, Seattle for a week or so in December to visit friends and then Christmas in the Philippines. But from there....the future is a blank page until September (I'll be back in school somewhere at that point). I want to visit LA, because all of a sudden I know quite a few people there and maybe it would be fun. After Christmas, there are lots of places I could visit on that side of the Pacific from the Philippines - maybe Australia and/or New Zealand. Maybe I'll hang out in Berkeley since I have a place to stay there, maybe I'll go up to Seattle. I kind of want to go back to Homer next summer, but I don't know what I'd do there. My job won't be waiting for me. And of course, all of this is contingent upon the state of my bank balance. I think I'm just getting itchy feet because I'm feeling a bit lost. Its always hard for me to go new places when I'm there long enough to realize I don't have a solid social network, and I think my automatic reaction is to want to run off somewhere new. Which clearly doesn't solve the problem and results in the same problem all over again, but I think perhaps its just standard 20-something searchings for meaning.

Excuses for being late

I've developed some bad habits about arriving to work on time. They're really lenient about it (we have flex time, so if I'm late I just have to stay a bit later in the evening) so its not really a big deal, but today I actually had a legitimate excuse! I was about to head out the door when we spotted a bear sauntering up the driveway. It's kind of funny because just the other night I was talking about wanting to sleep in and not go to work, and my friend was like "just call in. its Alaska, say you're stuck somewhere." Which really is legit up here - I have another friend who lives about 30 minutes out of town, and some days she can't drive in because of the mud. Not even snow or ice, but MUD.


(commentary compliments of my housemate Kyra)

On Friday I'm heading back east for a little over a week - my family is moving to the Philippines (um CRAZY) and they'll be renting out the house. So I'm going to attempt to get rid of/pack/store/ship 19 years of my life. That will be an adventure through my childhood. However, I'm very much looking forward to wearing flipflops and skirts. Although it's entirely possible I might just melt in DC humidity, I've (finally) adjusted to the climate here where I am comfortable in just a sweater in 50 degree weather. A far cry from last summer - I had just returned from living in Belize for a year and was wearing long sleeve shirts in June...

From Time Magazine

Palin on the Environment: Far Right

Monday, Sep. 01, 2008

By BRYAN WALSH

Sen. John McCain's reputation as a maverick has taken a beating this campaign season, but on environmental issues he's still zigging when much of the Republican Party zags. While some GOP leaders remain unconvinced that man-made global warming is real, and more doubt that federal cap and trade legislation is necessary to combat it, McCain talks about climate change at every campaign stop and says he supports carbon caps. Though McCain has flip-flopped on offshore drilling for petroleum-he's now a vigorous supporter-he's still against opening up the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for energy exploration, even though many in the GOP, including President George W. Bush, are for it. Those in favor of drilling in ANWR can now add another prominent supporter to their list: Alaska governor and vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

Though warming is happening faster in Alaska than anywhere else in the U.S.-average temperatures in the country's biggest state have risen 3.6 F over the past 50 years-Palin is on record doubting that human action is the main driver behind climate change. In a recent interview with Newsmax.com Palin noted that warming would affect Alaska "more than any other state, because of our location." But she added, "I'm not one though who would attribute it to being man-made." If Palin is still that ambivalent on climate change, it would put her to the right even of President Bush, who after years of claiming that more research was needed on the issue, now acknowledges the U.S. should reduce man-made carbon emissions to avert dangerous global warming.

More pertinent might be Palin's positions on oil drilling in Alaska, where rich petroleum reserves paid each citizen over $1,600 in dividends in 2007. Though the McCain campaign has made much of Palin's willingness to stand up to the powerful energy industry in Alaska-last year she adjusted the state Petroleum Profits Tax to close loopholes exploited by oil and gas companies-on the whole she's been a staunch supporter of fossil fuels. She opposes strengthening protections for beluga whales in Alaska's Cook Inlet, where oil and gas development has been proposed, and she spent $500 million in state money to encourage the development of a 1,700-mile pipeline that would transport natural gas from Alaska's rich North Shore. When the Department of the Interior in May listed the polar bear as a threatened species due to warming-an action that could interfere with drilling in Alaska's coastal waters, where the polar bears live-Palin sued the federal government in response. "Our main concern with Sarah Palin's positions are that they are based on doing what is best for the oil industry, and not what is best for Americans," says David Willett, the national press secretary for the Sierra Club.

Palin's support for drilling in ANWR-opening up the refuge was one of her 2006 campaign positions-is particularly galling for environmentalists. The nearly 19 million acre slice of untouched northeastern Alaska has been a symbol of the struggle between energy exploration and the environment since its creation in 1960. ANWR is home to bears, gray wolves, sandhill cranes and a herd of caribou. According to the U.S. Geologic Service, it also may hold 10.3 billion barrels of "technically recoverable undiscovered oil," which amounts to the largest onshore, unexplored oil deposits in the U.S. If you're going to "drill, drill, drill," as McCain has been saying, ANWR is where you would start.
But environmentalists say that Palin's push to open up ANWR to oil exploration would effectively destroy the refuge. Though only a 1.5 million acre coastal plain within ANWR is thought to contain petroleum, drilling would likely wreak havoc with wildlife well beyond that narrow strip of land. "The impact would be cumulative," says Margaret Williams, Alaska-based director of the World Wildlife Federation's Bering Sea Program. "You'd have road traffic, and flights overhead bringing in equipment. Development of the tundra would come with a very, very large footprint."

Drilling would also have minimal long-term impact on gas prices: a 2004 study by the Energy Information Agency found that the oil in ANWR might cut the cost of a gallon of gas by all of 3.5 cents by 2027. Even if the drilling were flawless, exploration would destroy much of what makes ANWR special. As Peter Matthiessen wrote of the reserve, it is "one of the last places on earth when a human being can kneel down and drink from a wild stream without being measurably more poisoned or polluted than before."

In reality, even a McCain victory is unlikely to make ANWR open for drilling any time soon. A change in federal policy would require an act of Congress, and Democrats have remained united in their opposition to drilling ANWR. A Vice President Sarah Palin wouldn't change that. If gas prices rise again, though, that political calculus could change - in spite of the views of the party's presidential candidate. "When America set aside the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge," McCain has said, "we called it a refuge' for a reason."

Alaska in the limelight

Well I didn't intend this to become a political blog, but being in Alaska at this time in the political arena is SO INTERESTING. By now you all should know that McCain chose Alaska's governor, Sara Palin, as his VP running mate. All of a sudden, the town of Wasilla (pop ~7,000) is on the map. This weekend, the Alaska Campaign for Change organization - Alaska's Obama supporters - opened its office here in Homer. I got to meet the one employee - the volunteer field organizer, this guy from Chicago who graduated two years ago from GWU (so we bonded over our DC background). I met him I think the day before Palin was announced, and I had to laugh a bit in my head, because being a democratic field organizer in Alaska is a hard enough job without the added surprise of having to campaign against one of Alaska's own. Poor guy. He always seems very serious too.

At any rate, Palin's candidacy is definitely topic of conversation up here. And today's latest news! That her 17 year old daughter is pregnant, hah, I bet that threw a screw in the gears of McCain's campaign. Personally, the idea that someone with essentially NO foreign policy experience whatsoever, who has been dealing with a state that has a lower population than the COUNTY I'm from in Virginia, could potentially rise to run our county (since her running mate is so freaking old), pretty much terrifies me. Although cutting to the chase, the idea of any Republican sitting in the presidency for another 4 years terrifies me. But if social issues become the factors that determine the votes this year, which happened the last time, she was probably a good choice for McCain. I for one think that social issues shouldn't be a part of governmental legislation in the first place, and thats all I'll say about that.

In other news, I've had an extremely awesome past couple of days. One of the highlights was that on Thursday I got to take a little Cessna across the bay to Nanwalek, a tiny village where we have a stream site. I've never been in a plane that small, and it was so fun! And then I got picked up by a native Alaskan, who took me to the site on his four-wheeler. And then he let me DRIVE the 4-wheeler on a lake beach! Oh my god, it was SO FUN! The stream site was right in a pink salmon spawning ground and there were fish EVERYWHERE.

Then on Saturday I saw a traditional kayak welcoming ceremony and I got to go across the bay again - one of my intern friends from Anchorage came down to visit and we knew another intern whose family is from Alaska and has a cabin over there. She took us hiking, and it couldn't have been a more beautiful day. The scenery across the bay is really beautiful - its a different ecosystem than in Homer, a temperate rain forest. Its very pine-y and mossy and so undeveloped. Its really gorgeous.