Sunday 4 November 2012

SCHOLARSHIP DAY 66: A 'bizarre' morning (literally) and Alaskan Ice Hockey

Snow is a wonderful thing. Last night, Fairbanks experienced another snowfall event, which has covered what were dangerously icy roads, and made walking so much easier. Besides this, nimbus snow clouds have been hovering over the city all day, and it hasn't been that cold. So, eventhough it gets everywhere, and can numb your hands faster than most things, snow can work in your favour.

It doesn't feel like a week since my last visit to the Brook's Range; this time last week, I was surrounded by the majesticness of an outstanding landscape, and now after what feels only hours afterwards, here I am in a totally different environment. This weekend, for Fairbanks, is a particularly special couple of days, as far as local independant businesses are involved. Hosted by the University, today marked the first in two days of the Annual Bazarre; a great event for independant chefs, knitters, musicians and the like to present their individual work.


How does one go about describing how popular this event was. Granted it comes round only once a year, but it's the only event so far in the period of time I've been here in Fairbanks that have put on a special city bus shuttle service just so the local community can access it easily. This transport option proved to me very effective in drawing the crowds, and so getting through the aisles in between two rows of stalls with a backpack on was, for me, slightly trying.

Winter wear, including hand knitted gloves, hats and scarves, were popular stall themes, but it was interesting to see the different takes that had been made towards each one. Likewise, there was a stall called 'Birch Fibre Crafts'. It was plausible for the innocent tourist to assume the rugs and cloths on display were made out of Birch fibre, but I was assured that no aspect of tree had gone into the making of these products. I continued on my mingling; something I think I've perfected throughout the course of this scholarship. It was not long before I heard the words "Hello again" and I turned around to the lady who uttered this opening line, and as I feared, I couldn't for the life of me think where I had seen her before. "It's you, the British guy with the red coat, from the Bear Gallery" she continued. It took me some time, but I eventually realised it was Stephanie who I had a brief chat to a few weeks ago in the Bear Gallery. Once we had cleared this little brief lapse of association, we had a pretty good conversation.


I made my way to the first floor, eventually, and was greeted with yet more stalls. One room was similarily enterprising. On my way through, I got chatting to Douglas and Maurine Campbell. Douglas is a chef, Maurine is a photographer. She goes out taking wonderful photos of the landscape, flora and fauna, and Douglas writes recipes on the back of the photos. A nice collaboration. Despite their efforts in trying to get me to buy one, I managed to resist the temptation.

Suddenly, I was hearing Christmas music; a live band singing Christmas tunes, downstairs. They were actually very warming and seemed to, through their very agreeable harmonies, create a very pleasing warmth around the whole building. Some people tapped their feet, some hummed a few notes, and others probably had "Have yourself a merry little Christmas" stuck in their head the rest of the day.


The latter portion of my day was spent at the Fairbanks Carlson Center. It's been about a month since I last saw an ice hockey game and I decided it was certainly time for another dose. This time the Alaskan Nanooks were playing Lake Superior. It was a shame that Lake Superior turned out to live up to their name, where ice hockey is concerned anyway, winning 4-2. Still, a stimulating fast paced game and the whole stadium literally rose when the Nanooks scored. Once again, the stadium was almost packed full to the brim, bar a few seats, but it was in itself an extremely large stadium.

 
 
The hostel has got even busier tonight, with the arrival of a young guy from Coldfoot staying a night and a lady from the Netherlands staying here a few days. As I'm sure I've said before, engaging in conversations with these people is extremely enriching.

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