On Sunday we went to Seward, Alaska. It was almost a 2 and half hour drive through the mountains. It was a gorgeous drive but also a long one. This town is on the Gulf of Alaska. Once we got there we made our way (slow and carefully across the solid ice lot) to the sea life aquarium. This aquarium was amazing. It had a lot of great info on the different species that live in Seward. There were sea lions, seals, birds, sea urchins that we were able to touch, and other fish. When looking out at the Gulf on the balcony, we saw a group of sea lions! They are quite common in this area. After that we went for a little hike along the beach. Out aways was a whale! It was so cool to see a whale but it was very brief; not enough time for a picture sadly. On our way back we saw some mountain goats as well. That was really cool to see them.
Monday morning, bright and early, 6 of us including one of our instructors, went to the airport to travel to Bethel, AK. It was a quite hour flight. From there, 4 of us went to our bed and breakfast while the other 2 went on to another flight to Goodnews Bay. Once settled we went to the hospital to get everything in order for the next morning to start clinicals. Lots of paper work and required things to do. And at the end there were some communication issues that would hopefully be resolved the following day before clincials. After all that, the HR guy was kind enough to drive us bad to the b and b. He gave us a quick tour of the town. The first thing I noticed was that a lot of the houses were very run down. Rent can start at $1100 a month for these places. Another thing is that some don't have running water or some have to have water brought to their house. There is also the Kuskokwim River that runs through the town. This serves as a route for many, even from other villages, as it is completely frozen during the winter. Cars are able to drive on it. However, those that have cars are very lucky. Gas right now costs about $5 a gallon. Otherwise, people walk everywhere or take taxis. There are about 3 different taxi services that I have seen. Over in the lower 48, what the Alaskans call it, we have tgungs a bit easier with cheaper gas and having a car. Most days are very cold which makes walking potentially dangerous. This town has quite a bit of things that are different about it from what we are use to.
Monday morning, bright and early, 6 of us including one of our instructors, went to the airport to travel to Bethel, AK. It was a quite hour flight. From there, 4 of us went to our bed and breakfast while the other 2 went on to another flight to Goodnews Bay. Once settled we went to the hospital to get everything in order for the next morning to start clinicals. Lots of paper work and required things to do. And at the end there were some communication issues that would hopefully be resolved the following day before clincials. After all that, the HR guy was kind enough to drive us bad to the b and b. He gave us a quick tour of the town. The first thing I noticed was that a lot of the houses were very run down. Rent can start at $1100 a month for these places. Another thing is that some don't have running water or some have to have water brought to their house. There is also the Kuskokwim River that runs through the town. This serves as a route for many, even from other villages, as it is completely frozen during the winter. Cars are able to drive on it. However, those that have cars are very lucky. Gas right now costs about $5 a gallon. Otherwise, people walk everywhere or take taxis. There are about 3 different taxi services that I have seen. Over in the lower 48, what the Alaskans call it, we have tgungs a bit easier with cheaper gas and having a car. Most days are very cold which makes walking potentially dangerous. This town has quite a bit of things that are different about it from what we are use to.