Arrival
I arrived in Juneau, Alaska nestled above Auke Bay this morning at 12:30 a.m. (4:30 EST) and immediately caught a taxi to my lodgings where I promptly went to bed, having been awake for about 22 hours. Despite my overbearing fatigue, I had trouble falling asleep due to the dusky early morning sky.
This morning, I awoke refreshed, though, and began to settle in and get my bearings around the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) campus. I've uploaded to my photo-journal blog a few photos I shot while walking the Spanish-moss-tinseled evergreen-lined path from my lodgings to the main campus. While last summer in Bread Loaf, Vermont, waist-high ferns amazed me, their cousins here in Alaska no longer seem unusual. The foliage that has caught my imagination already this summer gives the impression of a seemingly prehistoric weed. Easily four-feet tall, the more illustrious specimens seem to be just the right size for a dinosaur's chomper.
The day began overcast and misty and about 5o F, but vacillated from wet to cloudy to clear all day and reached 70 F (very warm for Juneau, according to the locals, who wore T-shirts and shorts while I remained comfortable in my jeans, long-sleeve shirt, and fleece vest). At 8:40 in the evening now, the light outside would suggest 6:00 pm back home in North Carolina. I'm looking forward to seeing my first Alaskan sunset on the longest day of the year.
As for sunlight, the absence of sunglasses has struck me today. I have only seen one pair of sunglasses the entire day -- they were mine. I presume that locals see so little of the sun during the winter that they welcome the intense ambient light of the extended daytime during summer months.
This morning, I awoke refreshed, though, and began to settle in and get my bearings around the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) campus. I've uploaded to my photo-journal blog a few photos I shot while walking the Spanish-moss-tinseled evergreen-lined path from my lodgings to the main campus. While last summer in Bread Loaf, Vermont, waist-high ferns amazed me, their cousins here in Alaska no longer seem unusual. The foliage that has caught my imagination already this summer gives the impression of a seemingly prehistoric weed. Easily four-feet tall, the more illustrious specimens seem to be just the right size for a dinosaur's chomper.
The day began overcast and misty and about 5o F, but vacillated from wet to cloudy to clear all day and reached 70 F (very warm for Juneau, according to the locals, who wore T-shirts and shorts while I remained comfortable in my jeans, long-sleeve shirt, and fleece vest). At 8:40 in the evening now, the light outside would suggest 6:00 pm back home in North Carolina. I'm looking forward to seeing my first Alaskan sunset on the longest day of the year.
As for sunlight, the absence of sunglasses has struck me today. I have only seen one pair of sunglasses the entire day -- they were mine. I presume that locals see so little of the sun during the winter that they welcome the intense ambient light of the extended daytime during summer months.
posted by Palmer Seeley | 4:15 PM
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