Summer 2011: Alaska

I will be in Alaska this summer. Not yet sure in exactly what capacity, as I am waiting for another job offer which may be preferred to the one I just got. The point is, I've got a job if I'm going, so I'm able to go.

I was offered a job as Operations Assistant at Toolik Field Station, a climate change research facility of UA's Institute of Arctic Biology (http://toolik.alaska.edu/). The little contact I've had with the people at Toolik has been pleasant and professional, and I like the idea of working in the Arctic Circle. It would be remote work, obviously, but with a community of staff and researchers. The tasks would be varied; cooking, cleaning, stocking, loading, fueling, packing, and whatever-needs-to-be-done around the place . . . obviously the people who are there take care of pretty much everything. I've heard that power-outages and plumbing problems can be frequent. I think I could learn some pretty cool things, being put in an environment like that. Room and board is provided while at the station, and some people establish a tent city beside the lake, so I know the kind of people I enjoy being around will be around. Or not, who knows?

The other job I'm waiting to hear about? It doesn't have a title that I know about, besides "fish-buyer," aka "cute girl working at the fish-buying station, icing down fish and printing fish tickets." It doesn't sound like it would be intellectually stimulating or too complicated, just long days being available on fishing days to receive the loads of salmon from the commercial fishermen on Cook's Inlet. My connection here is through Jeff, as I'm trying to visit his most intriguing Alaska commercial fishing world.

Whereas the TFS people had a list of interview questions and polite discussion about when HR would give permission to hire, etc, Bruce, when I called him, said "Tell me about yourself" and when I talked myself up as an organic farmer who stacks full totes of produce to the ceiling on a regular basis "with my brute strength," said, "I love you already. You're from Wyoming, eh? And Jeff says you've been to Africa . . . Uganda? Rwanda and Kenya? . . . Wow, you've been some dangerous places." So, there is a possibility of working for Bruce. Me getting this job is dependent on who I know, what they say about me, and how hot I sound on the phone, and whether or not a gal named Rachel is coming back. Fun, fun.

Since, I have one job offer, I get to go to Alaska. If I'm working for TFS, I'll be rotating 3 weeks on and one week off in Fairbanks through the month of September. If I'm working for Bruce, I'll be scooping ice, reading lots of books, and gabbing away with the fishermen until mid August. If I have to make a choice, I really can't make a bad one. Wish me luck.