SCHOLARSHIP DAY 26: World Permafrost Expert meeting, Downtown Pipe Tour, and Segwaying!

Yesterday, I commented on the inevitable arrival of winter soon, and today I think I can announce it's arrived in Fairbanks. I walked out the hostel to confront the 40 degree F temperatures; that's about 4 degrees C and by far the coldest since I arrived in Alaska. The drop in temperature has been almost instant, and took me by surprise; so much so that I had to return to put another layer on. It's remained around freezing point all day, although most of us here in the hostel agree that the bright blue skies and the sunshine made it bearable.

For a day that I didn't expect to be extremely busy, it actually has been one of the most interesting. My first item on the itinerary was to have a meeting with Dr Vladimir Romanovsky; a world expert on all things permafrost. If you want to study cold environments, he is your man, by far, though he's very modest. The Doctor and Professor of Geophysics has been studying permafrost for at least 30 years, so this for me was always going to be a fascinating meeting. He didn't let me down; like I expected, he was extremely knowledgeable about his field, and we discussed a great deal. I will upload a full transcript of the conversation tomorrow, for those interested in exactly what we talked about. I will just say that he has offered me a chance to do some field work later on in the week, specifically measuring surface temperature at many different sites around the area.

His office is just one of the many offices in the Geophysical Institute at the university. Finding him on the fourth floor meant I had a good chance to look around at the previous three floors, and what a place! It's a geographer's heaven with labs on every branch of the subject that you could imagine.

I walked back to the hostel, very much in need of a hot drink! It seems I've become accustomed to Lipton Tea and Ovaltine; two drinks I never used to have in England. My arrival back at Billie's was in time to see a few of the hostelers varnishing the fence. Kirk asked me to take photo evidence of him hard at work; the job, to me, didn't look that taxing but in the current temperatures, I wouldn't like to have been him!

The rest of the day was devoted to going downtown, to what would be the final downtown market. Unlike last Monday, it was heaving with certainly more stalls and consequently more of the public. I went around several of them, firstly- and not surprisingly- the free food stall, where small samples were being prepared. I spoke to 'Chef Tim', a title he was proud to be wearing on his hat, and he works nearby at the Westgate Hotel. I tried his tarte; greek yogurt and honey and although crumby, very nice! Adjacent to his stall was Tundra Walker Studios; a stall just stacked with different types of honey. I particularly liked some of the containers!

As it happens, I got speaking to a gentleman at another honey stall, and asked him whether he preferred honey or maple syrup on his pancakes. To my surprise, he said maple syrup; ironic, as he wasn't selling any maple syrup on his stall. Having said that, he would certainly go for Buckwheat honey on anything; it has a deep brown colour and a strong taste. Over on the other side of the market place, in the Golden Plaza, was a photo opportunity. The moose is a mascot for Fairbanks First; a non profit organisation that aims at strengthening the local community. Non profit maybe, but their T-Shirts were slightly high on the price side!

I didn't just go downtown to see the market, but to go on the free 'Paint the Pipes' Tour. As I've been commenting most of the last two weeks, Fairbanks city is heated using an underground pipe system, that releases the heat through about 20 pipes. Most of these pipes are about twice my height, and it's extremely hard to walk through downtown without seeing one. That is especially the case now as the 'Downtown Fairbanks Association' created a project called Mission Fairbanks (I know, original isn't it) and it was a project that would allow a team of about 13 local artists to paint a pipe each. Like my scholarship, being selected to paint pipe, was a very prestigious opportunity. Today, all 13 pipes were unveiled in a special tour.

Each pipe's design is so very different and it was great to see some of the artists there, beside their creation, talking about their inspirations. To choose a favourite is tricky, but I particularly liked Dan Kennedy's pipe design, (pictured), no not because of his name, but because his pipe was very geographically themed. From a distance, the pipe looks abstract; it's only when you get closer, that you can start to pick out the smallest of details. A Dipper perches on a boulder, next to a torrent of water; eagles fly overhead and a moose observes a brown bear attempting to catch salmon. If Alaska had to be depicted on a pipe, I reckon this would be it!

The tour finished upon the beginning of an amazing sunset, and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time (for once!) Big Ben came to mind...

Talking of being in the right place, at the right time, I noticed that Segway City Tours were being offered for FREE as part of the Paint the Pipes exhibition. Normally these would cost quite a bit, so I had really been quite lucky. I can't describe Segwaying that well, but do google it if you're not sure. I haven't 'segwayed' since I was with friends in Thetford Forest, but I obviously hadn't forgotten the techniques, and I was away in no time. I must say segwaying in the forest is different to segwaying in the city; you certainly go a lot faster on pavements and you do have the added hazard of walkers, cyclists and automobiles to think about! My group did have a couple of stops when people fell off, but I'm happy to say I stayed upright all way round! It was a fantastic end to what had actually been a great day!