Alaska!

I am sitting in my apartment in Seward, AK. The apartment is provided (for a small cost) by KFT (Kenai Fjords Tours) the company that I am working for. I have been here for about a week now and I am enjoying it.

A day in the life:
I wake up, stretch and massage myself for about an hour, and eat oats which Bob makes every morning. Then I read until time to leave for work. It's about 5 minutes from door to door by bike. Once I get to work I look at the "ouija board", the ever changing chart of destiny. Then someone tells me that I am late and tries to explain how I should have known to be there at X time and I tell them what I was told the day before and they tell me not to worry about it that everything is in a state of chaos and turmoil right now. I've gathered from the regulars that it only gets more chaotic as the summer goes on. I don't mind. I get to the boat and after a walking talk around the boat I usually start cleaning something. Then I start making chicken wraps. Then I greet people onto the boat. "Welcome aboard, watch your step." Of course I have fun with this part. There is something 1/3 annoying, 1/3 fun, and 1/3 strange about having basically the same interaction with 100+ people in 5 minutes. Every one out of 10 people or so is remarkable in some way and I am sure to make a remark to those people, relationships begin. After I do the life vest demo... Oh wait, it's not a life vest, in no way should the name of the vest suggest that it will save your life. It is a personal flotation device, it insures that you will float. After the PFD demo we pass out lunch. Then we stop to look at something, usually doll porpoise. I like to hang out on the upper back deck usually. I watch people watch the critters, I also watch the critters. I am not to excited about the porpoise and whales though. What I love is the landscape. It's amazing, and framed by the water and sky... We ask people to be seated and take off again. Then people start getting sick, one or two, they will be sick for the rest of the trip. Then we stop again, maybe a whale? More sick people and the first ones have puked by now. If I am lucky no one pukes on the carpet, an average day they will only get it on the outer deck. Cleaning the outer deck is not so hard, but time consuming and silly. We use a gallon of water and we pour it onto the deck bucket after bucket until we wash it all away. There has to be a better way. After I walk around and pick up trash from lunch, my job is pretty much just puke detail for the next two hours. Unless we go to a glacier the day continues like this until it's cookie time. If we go to the glacier and I have time I may walk around with some glacier ice and chat with people, take their pictures with the ice and what ever. If it is busy we just set it down for them to look at if they want. Cookie time is great, for about 30 minutes the entire boat smells like cookies, even outside when we are cruising at top speed. After cookies we dock, "don't lose a finger", and clean the boat.

That's pretty much it. It's usually rainy and cold, which I am well prepared for. Most of our guests are pretty cool, some times we have some pretty grumpy ones though. I don't mind. One of the guys say's that he like the grumpy ones because he thinks there funny. They are funny sometimes but mostly they hardly even register on my affective scale. One, or even a few people, who I will only know for a few hours aren't worth much energy unless it's positive energy. I am just happy that I don't have to go home and be them. I guess I am perfect for customer service in this way. If anything I feel sorry for those miserable people. We had one woman who wanted her money back before we even left the dock! If there is one supper grumpy on every other tour there are 3 or 4 super fun people on each tour. Yesterday there was a little old woman who after getting sick and puking straight away felt great the rest of the trip. She was so positive in a kind of unassuming farm girl kind of way. I let her use my mitts so that she could stay outside more, she spent almost the whole trip outside in the cold wind. From now on I am bringing a bag with extra gloves, a scarf, and a rain jacket. I will get a hat for it too.

The company is pretty cool. The housing is awesome for the price, they gave some of us free bikes, they are pretty chill in the office, most everybody is jovial, our uniform is of a high quality and though some people don't like the style I think I look pretty sharp in it. We get discounts all over town. It's a small town. We have a grocery, a hardware store, a discount store, two coffee shops, few restaurants, and a ton of inns. From any point in town you can look to the mountains and be in awe at the beauty. The nearest big town is Anchorage, the largest city in Alaska. It is about the size of Naples FL. It's a cool town though it seems. It has a strong Go club, exctatic dance, swing dance, and who knows what else... I only know about these things through the internet. We only got to spend a day in Anchorage. We went to a few thrift stores a nice cafe. Met some nice people through couch surfing who invited us to a sauna. It was divine. If now was a week ago I would write about the nice people, the beautiful sauna house that they made and sell and maybe some thing I learned about the native or swiss traditions and... whatever... I am tired now and I need to wake up early to practice before work at 8am. :)

Good night. :D

Here are some pictures :D
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=420502&id=695860537&l=58066473db Canada.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=420521&id=695860537&l=4171216255 Alaska.