Goodbye Alaska. Hello Boston.

The past few weeks have flown by!

I wrapped up the Upward Bound Program in Fairbanks, Alaska. Those six weeks in Alaska were amazing. I met some great friends while I was up there and learned so much from my experience working with Native Alaskan youth.

Looking back and thinking about memories of Alaska
Note: I took this picture, thus I am not in this picture.

I left Alaska last Sunday.

After three plane rides, two layovers, almost 4500 miles, and 16 hours, I arrived in Boston.

So far, I've been here a week and it has been amazing.

Here are a few things I've done since I've gotten here (don't worry, pictures are coming soon, I just haven't uploaded them yet):

• Family Home Evening at Harvard (the chapel is located there)
• Hanging out with Rhiannon Johnson (a good friend from home who happens to be interning at Mass General too! It's great that I actually know someone here. Rhiannon has been a part of many of these activities) 
• Eating veal at an excellent Italian restaurant on the North End
• Eating a famous Mike's Pastry cannoli
• Going to a Red Sox game versus the Seattle Mariners (Boston won 3-1) 
• Sailing on the Charles River (Thank you again Greg! It was a blast!) This was my first time sailing and I think I was probably more of a hinderance than a help. Fortunately, I didn't go overboard.
• Walking around the Harvard and MIT campuses.
• Learning the Massachusetts Public Transportation system
• Getting lost in the industrial district while trying to find a delicious hotdog stand (then we found it and it was closed. Curse you Speed Dogs!) 

And perhaps my personal favorite: 

Riding on the back of Ben's scooter on the first day of work!

Yes, we got some hilarious looks from the other motorists. 

Yes, it was worth it. 

More pictures are coming soon...

Happy Birthday America

Here's to you, Freedom.

This 4th of July was a pretty epic experience for me. No, I didn't see any parades. No, I didn't see any fireworks (I'm in Fairbanks Alaska, they don't set off fireworks on the 4th of July because it never gets dark). I did however exercise one of my God-given rights: the right to white-water raft the tallest mountain in North America.

That's right.

I got to white-water raft the Nenana River in Denali National Park, home of the tallest mountain in North America - Mt. McKinnley.

It was amazing. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of what took place during the ride. But it was fantastic. It was one of those moments I've had this summer where I said to myself, "I can't believe I'm getting paid for this."

Today (my day off) my co-worker, Victoria, and I decided to rent kayaks and float down the Chena River that runs through Fairbanks. Though definitely not as awesome as rafting Denali, it was still fun and relaxing.

 My view.

I should probably go buy a kayak. And my own river.

I am too good of a diver

On Saturday, we took all the kids to the community swimming pool for an afternoon swim.

I love going swimming and I love diving off the diving boards.

I decided that if I wanted to solidify my status of "coolest resident mentor of all time anywhere in the universe" I need to do a monster squirrel dive off the high diving board.

I got a running start on the diving board and arced through the air in a perfect squirrel dive.

I imagine my dive looked something like this.

It turns out that my dive was a little too good.

When I hit the water, I immediately shot to the bottom and slammed my face/forehead on the floor of the pool.

It hurt. A lot.

This picture is a fairly accurate representation of

what happened.

(Note: I was NOT diving in the shallow end of the pool. I dove in the designated diving area where the water is 12 feet deep.)

I got to the edge of the pool and noticed I was bleeding from my head. I got out and was escorted into the first aid room. While cleaning up my head I found that I had a 1.5 inch long vertical cut above my forehead.

I initially decided not to go to the E.R. because I felt ok, I just had this cut on my head. But when the cut wouldn't stop bleeding after a couple of hours, I decided to go to the doctor.

Fortunately, I didn't get a concussion or break my neck. All I needed was two staples to hold the incision together while it healed.

Can you see the staples?

Given my history of head injuries, I'm incredibly grateful I didn't break anything or get a concussion.

I've also decided I need to wear a helmet everywhere I go.

Swimming at the North Pole

Last Saturday we took all the participants to Chena Lake in North Pole, Alaska.

Swimming in a lake in North Pole, Alaska?

You better believe it.

Really it was an awesome day. I got to chill on the beach, swim, kayak, and have a BBQ at a nice lake in Alaska. And I was getting paid to do it. It doesn't get much better than that.

Chena Lake

Plus it was sunny and warm outside. A definite plus. Who knew that I just had to come to Alaska to work on my tan?

My father is fantastic

There are few (if any) men that I admire, love, and respect as much as my father.

Happy Father's Day, Dad.

I love you.

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.

Upward Bound

I've been in Fairbanks almost two weeks. Crazy! Time is flying by.

I'm to the point now where the kids are feeling more comfortable around me and I am really getting to know them. For those of you who are just tuning in, I'm working at a summer camp (the Upward Bound Program in conjunction with the University of Alaska Fairbanks) that helps teenagers from rural Alaska and/or lower income families. The goal of this program is to motivate these kids to go to college, better themselves, and better the villages they're from.

UAF: the university where Upward Bound is held.

These kids are amazing. And I don't feel like I should call them kids for many of them have more life experience than I do. Some of the struggles these young adults face are incredibly difficult. We have a few students here from a small village of about 1,000 people. There was a murder/suicide a few months ago in this village that devastated the community and directly affected some of the students in our program.

Substance addiction is another problem these youth face. Some of our students face tobacco addictions. We went out on one of the first days of the program to get nicotine gum for a student who is trying to quit.

I've never seen such crippling homesickness as that experienced by some of these students. A few of these students have never left their village and coming to a huge city like Fairbanks is a difficult experience(who would have ever thought Fairbanks would be considered a big city??) A few nights ago I found a male student in the stairwell sobbing because he missed his family. He was incredibly depressed and decided to fly home this morning. Other students are similarly homesick and are intimidated by the world outside their village.

Despite these challenging circumstances, the vast majority of the students are here to succeed. And it is so incredible to be a part (albeit a small part) of their success. Many are trying to do well in their classes and when I ask what they want to do after high school, the most common response is that they are going to go to college. Some even know what topics they want to study in college.

We are also having a ton of fun. Seriously, I can't believe I get paid for some of the stuff I get to do with the kids. For instance, last night we went to movies (I went with the group to see the new X-men; it wasn't that great.) and then went to a park just to run around. It was great! They all enjoy trying to teach me how to say native words because I can't say any of them (they keep telling me that you need to use the very back of your throat and your nose when speak; I don't understand what that means). I get to play basketball and go to the gym almost everyday. Hopefully I can get in shape!

Anyway, things are great up here. It's challenging but incredibly rewarding.

I'll try to take some good pictures and upload them so you can see some of the great people I'm working with.