Lately the sun has been rising a little before 6 a.m. and setting around midnight. I was always so intrigued from hearing stories of the midnight sun in Norway. Now I can say in December I've experienced walking to lunch in the dark only to walk home from work in the dark. So quickly the season changed from many hours of darkness to a superfluous amount of light.
Although at night it seems hard to shut your body down, I welcome the warm rays and the birds in song. With just a few days to go, I feel as if I'm at the end of a vacation-- soaking in my experience here in Alakanuk. I went for a walk the other night, after midnight. And giddy with my camera, I decided not to hurry. I simply enjoyed.
It is common to hear snowmachines "brapping" through the water- their owners hoping to make it to where they are going without going in too deep of water. On this walk, as I was videoing a snowmachine about ready to fly down the slough quickly while hitting deep pockets of water and spraying the air with droplets, the snowmachine died. I squinted in the distance and could see a person trudging through water, slush, and ice to get to the shore. A couple minutes later, a man walked across the slough in a different spot, hopped on his snowmachine, and went to rescue the first guy. I was nervous that they might both get stuck, but a few minutes later both were sitting one machine while the other was pulled with a tow rope flying down the slough quickly, spraying the air behind them with droplets.
Pictures from last week
This was taken out my classroom window at 12:30a.m. after Prom
The sun shining intensely into my classroom at about 10:30 p.m.