After 15 days....

I have now been in Alaska for 15 days working and haven't had a day off! That's how it works up here as driver guides. You work based off of your hours that you have available and because Alaska has so much daylight, we are legally allowed to work up to 80 hours in 8 days. This is not true in the lower 48, where the legal limit is 70 hours in the same amount of days as commercial drivers. So, I've been in Alaska and working the entire time I've been here and absolutley loving it! The picture of the car going through the tunnel is an interesting fact about Ketchikan. It is the only tunnel in the world that you can drive through, around, over and UNDER! The other photo is a picture of the town from our drivers house. The building with the green roof is the Southeast Discovery Center which cost $7.8 million to build. The entire state of Alaska was bought for $7.2 million way back in 1867!

I don't even know where to begin. I think I've mentioned before that I lived in a house with 19 other drivers and we are all getting along pretty well. I have developed some close friendships with a few individuals and we have made it a goal that we will go for walks everyday after work, especially in nice weather and enjoy the town once the tourists are gone. Although the city isn't all that big, there are many different kinds of walks all throughout the area that we have explored so far. It's also a great time to see wildlife. Today I saw my first black bear and yesterday I saw two separate pods of orca whales that were traveling through the Tongass Narrows, the waterway that separates our island from the neighboring islands.

I have also had a chance to take advantage of the free tours that us guides have available. Although I haven't had a day off yet, one day I got off early and was able to go zip-lining through the rainforest canopy. For free. The tourists pay about 180 dollars to go on the same tour. So I am very blessed and lucky to have the job that I do.

Thanks for following this blog and please feel free to make comments!

First day of transfers!

So I have just finished day two of my transfers. When you come up to work for Holland America as a bus driver, you first go on a bit of refresher course training, and then once they are comfortable putting you on the road by yourself- you are then allowed to do transfers. Transfers are just transporting people from the dock to whatever tour they have purchased. Although the driver is not actually the tour guide for the guests, we are still expected to give a bit of a tour of Ketchikan and point out interesting facts along the way, tell stories or jokes and keep them entertained until we arrive at the destination and they are dropped off. I'd done a few ride alongs with some other drivers previously and had a pretty good idea of what to say and how to conduct a "tour" however on my first actual day I was really nervous. I thought it was going to be a lot easier than it was- but once I started talking, I got a bit tongue-tied and stumbled over my words a bit. I was a little embarrassed, especially since the tourists didn't know that it was my first time driving with people on board- EVER. But as time went on things got a little better. I did two more transfers that day and three more today. I am much more comfortable and am excited to give an actual tour soon!!! That means that I need to be audited by a supervisor and learn a lot more about the totem pole stories and vegetation of the island so that I can answer any questions that come up. If all goes well I should be giving tours in about a week. And the one good thing about tours is that the tips are a lot better! :)

Oh and by the way. I am absolutley head over heels in love with Ketchikan!! It is a wonderful city with lots to do and I have a lot of really amazing co-workers that I've instantly become friends with! Life is really really good right now!

Random facts about Ketchikan

1. Ketchikan is a native Tlingit word meaning, " Thundering wings of an eagle" because the island looks like an eagles' shape
2. There are more black bears living on the island where Ketchikan is located than residents.
3. Ketchikan is home to the world's only tunnel that you can travel through, over, around and under!
4. Ketchikan's ball fields are very versatile and the fences can be moved to accomodate baseball, football and soccer. Due to the island's heavy rainfall, there is no grass on the fields- so yes, the boys do play football on gravel!
5. If you have eaten McDonald's ice cream prior to 1997, you have eaten part of the Tongass National Forest, which surrounds Ketchikan and is almost 17 million acres. Yes, they used to put high-grade wooden pulp in the ice cream to keep it smooth!

Jokes- Creek Street is the former red-light district in Ketchikan- What do you call a child born on Creek Street? A brothel sprout

What do you call it when an eagle perches on the top of the cross at a church? A bird of pray

Interesting Facts:
When the first stoplight was installed in the town, the first ever recorded accident was between two police officers.

During the time of prohibition, there were trap doors under many of the houses where bootleggers could canoe in to deliver the liquor and then canoe out again. This problem became so bad that there are now secret canals underneath the streets that the police could patrol.

The "bridge to nowhere" was supposed to be built from Revilla island (Ketchikan) to the neighboring Greneva island (where the airport is located) but never came to be.

The reason that Ketchikan's airport is considered international is because one day a Canadian plane needed to make an emergency landing there!

Ketchikan is home to stair streets- meaning they are simply steps that are legal streets. The city must maintain these during the winter and the longest is over 250 steps! Imagine carrying groceries up that!

Training's over!!!!

It is now my 4th full day in Ketchikan and I am completely blindsided by how much I have learned in those few days. I flew up here with absolutley no knowledge of the city and surrounding vicinities and very little about Alaska, and now I feel pretty confident in saying I know a lot about Ketchikan and can lead a pretty decent tour. That's not to say I still don't have a lot to learn, because I definitely do and being one of the newest drivers is a little intimidating since everyone else is completely immersed in the driving schedule/culture and I am still learning, But I am having SO much fun! I have finally finished training and tomorrow I will lead my first group of tourists around the island. The one frustrating thing about the job is that we are not dispatched with what we are going to do until about 8pm the previous evening. So until that evening, I have no idea if I have a 4:30am wakeup call, or a 7am wakeup call. The days vary drastically, however it is almost guaranteed that I will be waking up early for work. And I'm NOT a morning person. But I suppose after this summer I will be! :)

Every day after work, permitted that it is not raining, I try and go for a walk around town. I think I've mentioned before how beautiful I think it is and how peaceful it is when all the tourists have left for the evening. It also gets me acquainted with the town and you get a different perspective of the city on foot rather than by bus. So, please pray for a safe "first" day of working with the public and I will post more information shortly!

Yes it does rain here...

Being from Seattle I figured that I was used to rain and that even though it rains a lot in Ketchikan, it wouldn't be a problem. My first full day of work I awoke to a typical day in Ketchikan. Drizzle. Ketchikan gets 4 times as much rain as Seattle does, between 12-13 feet of rain a year. Yes, that's not a typo, FEET not inches.
My first day was spent with my roommate and trainer, Jay, and I was just riding along with her on her tours to get acclimated with being a tour guide. I quickly realized, I had a LOT of studying to do. We went on three tours, which were each about an hour and a half long and she talked the entire time about the history and story of the island, the native peoples, the weather, the wildlife, the totem poles, everything. She is an amazing tour guide and a great role model that I definitely look up to. I want my tourists to have an amazing time on my tours, telling jokes stories, being really personable, NOT just a bus driver. So I have a lot of work to do in order to make the best tours possible during my 3 months here. The rest of the day was spent dual-driving where myself, Jay and one of the other new drivers Michael went driving around the island, getting experience in a VERY old bus. The bus had no power steering and a cute vintage look, but it took all of my strength to turn the wheel into tight turns. Yikes! But it was a wonderful feeling to get behind the wheel of a bus again and I was happy. The weather continued to rain all day and we finally ended after an eleven hour shift. This is very typical of driver's schedules and I have a 6:30am bus call tomorrow morning. So I'd better get to bed!!!

I'm so grownup- my first business trip!

I am now here in beautful Ketchikan, AK and have been for about 30 hours now. So far it's been a complete whirlwind, but in a good way. I arrived at the airport and had no idea who was picking me up... or if I was supposed to take a ferry to Ketchikan or not- because the island that the airport is on is different from the island that the city is on! I eventually found my ride, a sweet older lady named Jenny from South Carolina. She was very hospitable and immediately started telling me all about the other drivers and the town and what to expect. We then drove to the driver's house where I settled in and met a bunch of the other driver-guides. There are 20 employees in the house total and I share a small room with one of the driver trainer's named Jay. The first few hours was spent going to Wal-Mart to buy blankets and silverware and food and then back to the house where everyone made a big meal together. I really like that concept. And apparently group meals happen quite often in the house, which is very nice. After dinner one of the other employees took my on a walking tour of Ketchikan. It was spectacular. The weather was gorgeous and the town was completely dead. But I found that I really enjoyed it. Ketchikan is a one-day stop for the cruise ships, so once the tourists spend the day here, they get back on the boat and leave. That means there's only a few hotels and once the tourists leave between 6-8pm, the shops close down and everyone goes home. Walking around the town was really peaceful and beautiful and I've decided that almost every day after work, if I'm not too tired, I will take a walk around the town. It's an adorable little town with so much character!!! I thank God for this amazing opportunity after the less than stellar year I have had in Ellensburg. It's wonderful to get away from the stress, the same old town and just immerse myself into a new climate with new people and new opportunites. I can't wait!!!

Only a few hours left in Washington!

I've just finished my last final, turned in my last paper and am now settled in Shoreline... for about 42 hours. Then I'm flying from Seattle to Ketchikan, AK where the next adventure in my life starts. Meaning, I'm moving into a 10 bedroom complex, sharing a room with someone I don't know and starting my follow-up training as a bus driver. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't absolutely terrified but at the same time, I'm SO excited! The training in Ellensburg was a tedious process. It started out when a Holland-America representative came into my Rec and Tourism introduction class and talked about the company and the job opportunities that they had for students up in Alaska for the summer. I immediately was excited and jumped at the chance for an interview. Then the training started in January. I almost quit after the first session. I freaked out a bit about the concept of ME, driving a 40 foot bus and the fact that I was jumping WAY out of my comfort zone for an entire summer where I didn't know anyone. Then my good friends Stephanie and Francis talked me back into it, encourgaging me to go for it and emphasizing all of the amazing benefits of the job and the training. So training continued on. For eleven weeks! And those eleven weeks were a crazy whirlwind. The first couple weeks were very intimidating and I found that I was not very good at manuevering the bus between cones at the Blue Grouse Restaurant parking lot. But once we left the parking lot things started to look up a bit. Over time I was driving on the freeway, merging in traffic and crossing railroad tracks. All in a very old 40 foot motorcoach I nicknamed Burt!
And now school's over. And I fly to Ketchikan in less than two days. I hope this blog will provide all of you with necessary updates about my summer, the good, the bad, the ugly, whatever. (Hopefully more good than anything else!) My goals- to be more outgoing, to make money, to experience as much of Alaska as I possibly can and to make new friends. Please feel free to comment!