SCHOLARSHIP DAY 52: Fairbanks International Friendship Day, Halloween in Pioneer Park and the Sikuliaq Ceremony

My hopes of a relaxing lie-in this morning, after yesterday's very early start, were tarnished as I woke up at 7am, with terrible stomach pains. Following several visits to the bathroom, I realised that I had probably suffered a minor case of food poisoning, most probably induced by my very own cooking alas. (The American's call it a 'restroom' but indeed in the case of this morning, the atmosphere was very much the contrary). But this hasn't happened often, I have got to admit. For any traveller, food preparation is something of a risk, and although I've experienced some very questionable gastronomy, I have kept quite healthy on the whole.

Today's big event was certainly the International Friendship Day, held at Pioneer Park's Centennial Center and after checking on emails and writing my journal, I made my way to the bus stop. You would have thought I'd got my head around the bus system by now. Whether it was the after effects of my earlier sickness bug, I don't know, but I realised that it was a Saturday and I was looking at the Monday-Friday timetables. Ultimately too early for the bus, I headed back to the hostel, and waited.

Well, I did eventually arrive at Pioneer Park. Aswell as the International Friendship Day's events, outside the center was another one of Fairbanks' halloween celebrations; this time aimed for kids. I decided that I would check out this later, and headed inside the Centennial Center. The International Friendship Day isn't an event where you frantically make as many friends as possible with people from different countries. It's a celebration of world culture and tradition; a showcase of talent from people across the globe. For me, it was a great chance to let the world come to me for a change.

Each country had their own stall set up, selling and presenting their own nationality through gifts, food and drink. I got talking to many of the stall owners, but conversations were brief because I was conscious people were trying to get past me; the going wasn't easy by any means. At the end of the long aisle of stalls was the Fairbanks Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Group and Tony Gasbarro attempted to get me to sign up. I'm all for volunteering and he seemed confident that I would sign up, there and then. That is, until I told him I didn't fit the requirements; I wasn't a US citizen and I wasn't a student here in Alaska. Still, I wished him luck and moved downstairs.

The event was well attended by members of the public, although I suspect many came to watch the stage performances. After all, there were quite a few scheduled. In fact, every minute of the event featured a live performance to some degree, and once again, it was a great chance for me to witness the differences (and similarities) between American culture and that of various other countries. From the Viennese Waltz to the Chinese Dancers, every act was accompanied by music from that specific country. An American Jazz band also played, and the last act I comitted myself to see was the 'Vocal Solo'. A young gentleman, based at the University of Fairbanks, has learnt Japanese and enjoys the language so much, that he put the extra effort in to learn a Japanese song. His performance was very well worth the watch. I didn't understand every word of it, but then, you don't need to understand to enjoy.

Saturated in international music, dance and display, I decided to see how Pioneer Park's Halloween celebrations were going, and after the success of the International Friendship Event, this was slightly an anticlimax. A long queue of anxious dressed up children and some very patient parents were waiting to go on the Pioneer Park 'Spooky Train'. (I refused the opportuninty). Carved pumpkins were on display alongside moving ghostly figures, but the whole thing just didn't tick the box for me, and I caught the next available bus. I had at least given it a chance.

The last event of the day was back at the university where there was a free event to the public to celebrate the launch of the Sikuliaq Research Vessel. For the University of Fairbanks Alaska, this ship marks something of a new era for research. For the first time ever, the Sikuliaq will use its highly sophisticated on-board equipment to survey some of the world's deepest oceans, and collected data will be made available in realtime for university students. It's been a project that has been in the planning for decades, and a couple of days ago, the ship was finally launched. Today was the celebratory ceremony. There were videos to watch, t-shirts to buy, talks by some of the leading partners in the project including Dr Vera Alexander, and a very special cake. I didn't see the launching of the ship, so this scrummy minature model will have to do.