Anchorage

        Today was kind of a slower day due to the weather. We were supposed to go sight seeing and unfortunately it rained all day. The mountains were covered with low clouds, there was fog, and the rain. We did get to go out to eat which was very nice. Chris who has been taking care of us for the past week has been able to come take us to lunch and dinner each day. So far we have eaten at: Olive Garden, Red Robbin, Lonestar Steakhouse, and a Seafood House where I had Delicious Salmon. Anchorage has so much to offer as far as restaurants are concerned. It has been a weight lifted off of me with not having to figure out where my next meal is coming from. Tomorrow morning we are going to Gwennie's Old Alaskan Restaurant which has huge portions of breakfast foods. However, I feel as though this is just a tease because i will be living off of rice, chicken, a bit of pasta, and dried fruit. I am excited to see how much I can stretch my food. Time to eat oatmeal even though I do not really like it.
       As for packing all of my food and clothing it has been extremely stressful. I had to pack and repack everything a few times. I found out that when going on a Bush plane I can only carry 70 pounds. Included in this 70 pounds was frozen food, my backpack, and clothes for 6 weeks. In order for me to meet this requirement of 70 pounds, I am leaving a suit case full of clothes and two pairs of shoes behind. I am allowed to bring 18 gallon totes for food or whatever I would like to put in them in order to ship them to myself. This should cost me about $25 for each tote. Once I mail these totes to myself in Port Aslworth, I will be awaiting their arrival in 1-2 weeks. In my totes I have dried foods along with clothes combined to weigh about 30-40 pounds. I also had to think of how much my clothes would weigh total when coming back. In order to figure all this out, I weighed my clothes in one of my bags to see if it would weigh 70 pounds alone. Once I did that I evenly distributed my clothes in the two totes, and bigger bag. In my bigger bag will be clothes, frozen food weighing about 35 pounds alone, and whatever I would need for two weeks. Levi, who is the other student teacher had to do the exact same thing, but he was done last night. I found it funny that he only had one suitcase, one tote for food, and his backpack. He will be heading to Newhalen with Chris. Newhalen is about a 10 minute flight from where I am located in Port Alsworth.
      We will be flying out tomorrow for each of our sites. I know I am very excited to see the students and meet the teachers working there. I do not know what to expect but I am very eager to find out what awaits me. As for a little bit about the area I am staying in and visiting right now, I did not think that Anchorage would be such a melting pot. The area we are staying right now is made up of rental housing and apartments. The area is being renovated with newer housing, which shows a complete contrast between a few years ago and now. Some of the housing is run down and around the corning are new condos. It has been great to see the mountains each morning!