Just to get everyone caught up, I thought I would do a little recap as to what my first 10 weeks in Kodiak have been like. When I first got here, it was in the 50’s and raining. I was freezing and I knew instantly I was going to die. DIE. I was going to freeze to death in the next two weeks. I mean, the first stage of freezing to death sucks because your limbs are so cold. But then the second stage comes and blood stops flowing there and you just feel…peaceful. You stop being cold. Then eventually you just fall asleep and never wake up. I have been told that freezing to death (once you get past the first stage) is a rather pleasant way to go because for whatever reason, your body thinks its funny to make you feel happy. So, I decide even if I’m going to freeze to death, it will be an ok way to go. I resign myself to this fate and continue the check in process at base, although I have no idea why anyone wants to get me “squared away” since I will be dead soon. There are a lot of tears, because I know I didn’t want to be here, far away from my family, my boyfriend, warmth and civilization. I mean, if I’m going to die, I at least want to be able to get something nice to wear when I go, you know? But all I have is a Walmart and all they have is a “Got Crabs” t-shirt. Welcome to fishing HELL.
So, I get checked in, I get told a lot about bears and that it gets icy here (GASP! It does?! I never would have thought Alaska as being cold!). But I didn’t know so much about these bears that will apparently come along and eat my body once I die from hypothermia. Biggest brown bears in the world. There are 16 Kodiak bears per square mile up here. So, even if I don’t die of cold, I am going to be eaten by a bear. I have no idea why people like it here so much.
Once I get to my watch section and start to settle in, learn my way around, and get some food chocolate in my fridge, I start to feel better. The rain let up and for the first time, I could see it was actually kinda pretty here. It was 40 degrees, and I was already adjusting to the cold because it wasn’t so bad after about a week. Maybe I wasn't going to die after all. And there are definitely a lot of good photo taking opportunities. But I still had other problems to tackle – snow gear.
