Arriving in Alaska

I like reading Chrissi's updates, so I decided to try and start a blog too (and it will give me something to do at work haha.) Who knows if I will really keep up with it, but here goes.

I arrived in Anchorage at 1:00 am and had nothing to do until my shuttle left at 7:30. I tried to sleep on a row of chairs at the airport, but seriously the only people in the airport at that time of morning are old men that like to argue loudly all night long. Not really conducive to a good sleeping environment. So instead I got on Facebook and updated all my information, and then read one of my books until 4:30 when I figured it was late enough in Utah to call mom (at that point I was hiding out in the bathroom to get some peace and quiet.) After talking to mom for about an hour I wandered aimlessly through the airport looking for something to do. I happened to meet Elyssa who was taking the same shuttle as I was, and she told me I was supposed to reserve a spot. She had the phone number still, so I called and reserved the last spot on the shuttle that day. Thank goodness I met her.

The shuttle ride was a pretty uneventful 7 hours. We stopped every couple of hours at grocery stores and gas stations to get out and walk. Elyssa informed me at one of the grocery stores that she needed to find a pregnancy test because she was starting to get worried (first indication of how different it would be up here.) I arrived at Denali Park Hotel at about 3 that afternoon and was greeted by my employers Gregg and Sheri. Gregg has long hair tied back in a ponytail (he informed me that he hasn't cut his hair for longer than I've been alive) and multiple piercings in each ear. Sheri is a little more mellow, but they both can swear like sailors. Gregg gave me a tour of the housing and then put me to work cleaning a bathroom so that I would have one to use.

The employee housing is a haphazard arrangement of thrift store rejects and hand-me-downs that the hotel has outgrown. The windows don't shut properly (or if they do they leak) and the kitchen linoleum is held down by plywood and random bits of carpet. The bedrooms are covered with pieces of different carpet left over from renovations to hotel rooms, that is trying and failing to cover up the stained, painted carpet underneath. (Not a big deal, but it sure makes vacuuming a pain.) There are 4 trailer like things for housing; two have 4 bedrooms each, one has 3 bathrooms and the laundry room, and the last one has the kitchen and a tool room. I was going to make something for dinner, but the water came out pink with antifreeze and it looked like none of the dishes had been washed the last time after people used them the year before. I had a granola bar.

 I was the first employee to arrive so I had the whole place to myself that night. Miles and Nat arrived the next day, Lucy a couple of days later, and the Bulgarian housekeepers Daniel, Kiki, and Snezhana a week after that.