It's been a few days since I've written and quite a bit has happened since I last wrote!
Three days ago Luke asked me if I wanted to go to Kodiak with him the next day. Uhhh, getting to go back to civilization and buy a large amount of snacks? There was no question that I wanted to go! Corseina, my roommate, didn't want to go, which I was bummed about. But next time I'm going to try really hard to convince her to come! :)
The next day, around 11:00 A.M we headed off to Kodiak. It was a two hour boat ride, but it felt much shorter. The large waves that we got to crash into and the boat going up and down felt like a roller coaster and made the trip very enjoyable! I'd even go as far to say it was an adrenaline rush! I usually get car sick on windy car trips, so I made sure to take motion sickness medicine before I left. Either the medicine or the fact that some people's bodies get tired instead of sick when they feel sea sick, made me incredibly tired and I fell asleep right in my chair, towards the end of the trip. I sat up at the front of the boat with Luke the entire time. I drove the boat for a little bit to make me feel less tired, but gave the reigns back to Luke when we were getting closer to Kodiak. I only saw one whale on the way there and I barely saw it, but it was still cool!
When we got to Kodiak we parked the boat in this giant boat type parking lot and went into Henry's Diner. It was weird parking a boat instead of a car...The lifestyle in Kodiak is just so different! Luke ran into some old friends down in the boat parking lot. I'm sure there's a better name for the parking lot than "boat parking lot," haha. Maybe it was called a harbor.
(Side note, written a few days later: I told Luke that it was really cool that all the boats parked in the "boat parking lot" and he corrected me and said it's called a harbor...Okay cool, learning new things every day, ha :)
We ended up eating at Henry's with his two friends. They were nice, but man they talked really fast about all this boat and fishing stuff and I didn't feel like I had much to say about that stuff. At times, I added to the conversation, though. The food was delicious and it was nice to get restaurant food. I know I've only been in isolation for a week, but I was still way grateful to get to go shopping and go to a restaurant. We really take those things for granted back in civilization, haha!
After going to Henry's Diner, we parked the boat at the boat fuel place and loaded up on fuel. After that, we parked the boat at Andrew Airways. We loaded plywood onto the boat, which took a little while. It was nice seeing the workers that I had gotten to know before. One of them remembered my name and was like, "Coral!!!" I forgot his name, though. Oops, haha.
We kept the boat parked at Andrew Airways and Connie let us take her old beat up truck to Safeway and Walmart. Seriously, the lifestyle is so different in Kodiak. People are so nice and trusting. I was amazed that Connie just let us take her car and trusted us to park it back at Andrew Airways, even though she wasn't going to be there when we got back. She had her other car at work too, so it wasn't a problem for her for us to take her truck.
We went to Walmart first and I stocked up on junk food. I got ramen, Mother's cookies, the Twizzlers that are red and yellow and are filled with sour stuff, Snickers, and Cup of Noodles. At Safeway, I got a Chicken Flauta, which reminded me of home, since I went on a grocery store Chicken Flauta craze right before I came out here.
I'd say that about 40% of the people in Safeway and Walmart were wearing these identical rain boots, that are brown with yellow trimming. It was like the style there...I mean I know they don't wear them for style, but it was odd to me that SO many people were wearing the exact same kind of rain boot! It was like everyone wearing Vans a couple years ago. I was wearing my bright pink rain boots and I sorta felt out of the loop, haha! Oh, and I should mention that it wasn't even raining. It was a bright sunny day. People just wear rain boats in Kodiak, for fishing or every day wear or something.
We also went to The Old Something House (I'm just saying "Something" because I forgot what the word was, maybe "Fuel House" or "Boat House"), which is an Asian restaurant. We ordered a lot of Sushi, which is something I never plan on eating, but luckily I had my whole bag of junk food to eat. Then we went back to Andrew Airways, put everything in the boat, and headed back to Afognak Island. The water was a lot calmer on the way back, but still made the water go up and down a bit, which was fun!
On the way back, Luke and I talked about all sorts of things, listened to music, and had a good time, so the trip went by fast. I didn't fall asleep that time. I looked out the window on the way there and back and just thought of how amazing it was that I was actually in Alaska, riding a boat on the ocean back to my home from town. It was so beautiful and I felt so happy to be right where I was!
When Luke and I got back, Corseina, Luke, Jordan, and I watched Blended, with Adam Sandler in it. I love watching movies with them! We've watched quite a few since I've been here. I'm always exhausted by night time, so it's nice to just relax for a bit. I fell right asleep at around 12:00 A.M that night because I was SO SO SO SO worn out.
Yesterday, Corseina and I slept in a little late. Actually, way late. Luke woke us up around 11:30 A.M! I guess we needed to catch up on sleep, but I do wish that I'd set an alarm for earlier. We hurried and got ready and then helped Luke and Jordan get the plywood from the boat and bring it to the new main lodge that's being built. After helping out with the plywood, I got started on raking pine cones.
We'll be doing A LOT of raking of the pine cones the next few weeks :( It's not the most awesome chore! It's pretty boring but luckily Corseina and I always like the part of each job that the other doesn't like. So she raked the pine cones (well it's pine cones and sticks and moss too) and then I put her piles into large garbage cans and took them on the four wheeler to the burn pile. I love driving that four wheeler any chance I get!
We raked pine cones for awhile, then went in for lunch. I just ate zucchini bread and a Cup of Noodles. I took a shower too, because I hadn't showered in days. I don't feel as motivated to shower here, which is actually good for my hair, so that's good! We did some more of that chore and then Corseina went back inside and Jordan and I went into the new lodge and he put firewood into the thing....Yeah, don't know what that thing is called but it burns firewood. A stove, maybe? I feel like I don't know a lot of basic words that are just normal words for these people. Like the CAT tractor and all sorts of things that sound foreign to me, haha. Jordan told me what each part of the new lodge was going to be. There's going to be a GIANT kitchen, which is a relief because the kitchen we're dealing with now is tiny and so inconvenient. I'm also happy to know that there'll be a huge sink with a power sprayer. I loved that huge sink and power sprayer at Golden Spoon because you could get so many dishes done so fast!
Jordan had told me that he wanted to take me around on the trails on the four wheeler, earlier, so we did that after he showed me the new lodge. He drives really fast and it scares me! It's an adrenaline rush though, which I like! And I trust that he's driven enough to know what he's doing. We went all over and he showed me stuff around the area. Then I went back to the main lodge and started helping Corseina make dinner. We had the most delicious steak EVER for dinner! Luke made it and it was so tender. It wasn't hard to chew at all! And of course I had more zucchini bread. My body is probably like 50% made of zucchini bread at this point. We cleaned up after dinner and then Jordan and I started watching a movie and then Luke joined us! Corseina was upstairs talking to her boyfriend. I somehow always get a roommate that's in a serious relationship or engaged and is always with their boyfriend or talking to their boyfriend, haha. Corseina and I do hang out quite a bit though! And it's fun just hanging out with the guys.
Oh yeah, I also went kayaking the other day. Corseina came with me but she's completely terrified of deep dark waters, so she went back inside before me. I have a feeling I'll be kayaking alone quite a bit. (Since my family members that worry easily might be reading this, I keep a radio with me on the kayak and wear a life jacket and don't go far haha! :) Hopefully Brittany will go with me when she gets back or one of the boys will come with me sometimes. I loved kayaking! It was a little scary because I was worried that a ginormous whale would come up beside me or underneath me and shoot me out of the water, and also, I'm a little scared of deep dark waters too, but it was so worth it! I'd put the picture I took kayaking on here, but our internet is so slow that it would take about an hour to upload it...:( Maybe I'll add it later, if the internet starts working better.
Right now, it's just Shannon, Corseina, Luke, Jordan, and I here because Brittany and Josh are in Homer. Brian Bueller, a college kid from Utah, comes in today on the float plane. He'll be an assistant handy man. He worked for National Geographic last year and came to the lodge with them when they were filming here. It's nice having just us here because the meals are a lot less formal and we can sleep in! But soon, we'll be waking up at 6:30 A.M every morning and working all day and going to bed late. So I'm enjoying this time while it lasts!
That's about all that I can think of that's happened in the past few days! I'll write again soon! :)
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