It Blows Here In Barrow
…but more about that later.
My home for the next month is an apartment on the corner of Ogrook and Kongasak and the Arctic Ocean is just 3 blocks away. The school district recently acquired this 3 unit building to provide temporary housing for itinerant and long-term substitute teachers like me and right now, I am the only tenant. It’s funky, of course, and seems as if it was designed as it was being built as there’s a support post outside my bedroom door, there are 2 utility rooms, and there’s no place for a dining table. I do have a big refrigerator, but it wouldn’t fit in the kitchen, so they put it in the entry room some 20 feet from the stove and counter top. The apartment wasn’t quite clean when I moved in, but Cassie, the district’s Special Services Director, took me to the store and we loaded up on implements of muck destruction, which then gave me a purpose for the next day and a half until I had to report to school. In the purifying process, I discovered a woman’s extra-extra large bikini panty in the washing machine and paused for a minute wondering if I should decorate the wall with it or to use it for some future practical joke. My friend Dan may come up to do some sub-teaching and it would be great fun to sneak it in his luggage when he goes back home. Hey Buddy, explain that to Donna! The indecision decision had it tossed in the trash, however.
Barrow is an inside sort of place. Aside from a few kids on rusty bikes, you don’t see many folks outside. I’ve taken 3 walks so far, mostly to orientate myself to the town, but it is always good to stretch the legs. Saturday night was clear and still light at 9, so I walked the 3 blocks to the ocean’s Chukchi Sea. The sun was still almost 2 hours away from setting even this late in August. But the daylight is rapidly diminishing and by the end of November, the sun will set and not appear again for some 80 days. The Arctic beach here is mostly muddy and pitted with tracks from ATVs and off-road motorbikes.
The new football team here has been making the press and I flew into town just as the 2nd game on the $500,000 blue astro-turf ended. The turf was donated by some rich socialite in Florida who wanted the kids here to have the same opportunities as hers down south. No word on the rumors that the district’s reading program was cut to afford the costs for the considerable expense of equipment and the air fares that are required for the team to travel – or to have other teams come here. ESPN has a good write up: Part One and Part two
It’s flat tundra to the south, and Arctic Ocean to the north – nothing to block the wind. It whips constantly, but luckily seems to be the calmest in the early mornings for my 25 minute walk to school.
Tags: alaska, arctic ocean, Barrow, Travel
jpb