The sky is bigger in Alaska

Really, I think it is.

Today is my day off and I don't know what to do with myself. It's weird actually having some free time. I already went to the farmer's market here in town (it was pretty small and I didn't get anything) and went to eat at a great local diner. My plan for the rest of the day is to do laundry, run 2 miles, write this blog, and read 3 chapters in "Brave New World".

I have a new co-clan leader. His name is Victor and he's the man. He just graduated with a degree in social work from the university of Hawaii. He's only here for about 3 weeks but he's great. I think I'll learn a lot from him and the experience he has.

Every night our clan (named after the state bird, "the Ptarmigans") has a meeting where we do a thermometer activity. The thermometer is an activity where participants reflect on their day and decide how they can improve the next day. So you draw a thermometer on a big piece of paper and have students rate their day on the thermometer (100 being the best day of your life, and 0 being the worst). Then students say why their day is where it is, and what they are going to do tomorrow to make it better.

To be honest, the students haven't been too thrilled about this activity, but we're going to do it every night and hopefully they will learn that if they want to change their life, they have to change their behavior.

Fortunately, this activity has been beneficial for me as well. Every night I set a goal in our clan meeting and then I report back the next day how the goal went. So I've been setting goals for reading and exercising. It's been great.

In other news, a girl in the program told me how she went out and killed a seal a few months ago. It was amazing.

Here is a picture of me riding a wooden fish here in Fairbanks. There is a similar fish down in Sterling which I have also ridden. Perhaps I should make it my goal to ride all the wooden fish in Alaska.