Today, long term resident Jerry who has been here in Fairbanks on and off for the last 20 years, was leaving Alaska to head south, to warmer climes, (you see, a sensible man!) I didn't know him as much as I would have liked to. All I do know from my occasional conversations is that he used to work in the oil plants in the North, he used to be a chef, and knows pretty much Fairbanks inside out (including, it seems, the bus timetables as if he wrote them, but then knowing his affiliation with the city, I wouldn't be surprised if he had!) Nonetheless, I was very lucky to be invited to his last Alaskan breakfast, with fellow hosteller Miranda. It was to be held at Sam's Sourdough Cafe. Ah, I haven't been there in at least a month, perhaps longer, so enjoying three pancakes without the hassle of making them and washing up was a great change. There was only one snitch possibly; Jerry thought 8:00am was a good time to head out. I had reservations about this as it meant a 7:00am start; was breakfast worth this effort?
Well, it turned out to be very much worth the effort! It was a fantastic morning, full of laughs and lively conversation. I was treated to two lovely hot chocolates and the pancakes were very satisfying. Maybe that will be my last trip to Sam's Sourdough Cafe; for this trip anyway. I remember the daily ritual which involved me religiously ordering the full stack every morning. It seems ages ago now.
With temperatures looking around the -25 degrees C mark all day, I decided to head to the visitors center, on the off chance there might be an interesting film on. There was, as a matter of fact, and I stayed for at least an hour. It was a DVD documenting the life of Dick Proenneke, an American who decided to spend a year out alone in Alaska's wilderness. This was back in the 60s; he built a log cabin, he hunted his own food, he even made his own tools! His story can be found in his book One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey. Well, I've got to say, what a guy?! I left the visitors center, with the feeling that I shouldn't moan about the weather when there are people like Dick who can survive a year on their own, in a wilderness, so far from civilisation. Hope is pretty much all you have out there; hope, courage and your own company. I don't know about hope and courage, but I can tell you, as I've told you before, meeting people and sharing other people's company has been such a substantial part of this scholarship.
My afternoon slowly but surely met evening, and suddenly I was asking where exactly had the sun been all day? Rather then spending the evening hostel-bound, I decided that I would join a group to the cinema; it would actually be my very first American Cinema experience. I'm not sure why I capitalise that; perhaps, I was expecting the whole experience to be rather more grand than those cinematic experiences back in England. From outside, you could somewhat see what I mean. It's a giant building, and the car park is larger still.
I don't know what I was expecting from an American cinema. Flashing lazer lights, red carpets, flying through the air cafeterias? Well, everything up to the 'buying snacks' part was completly normal, although for a US cinema, I was expecting a little more security, especially after the Colorado incident earlier in the year. When I approached the snack bar, I ordered a large popcorn- big mistake. I forgot that the word "large" here actually means large! The bucket of popcorn was enough to feed the whole cinema; I couldn't believe it.
I haven't yet told you what film we were going to see. By any means, Cloud Atlas isn't a massive blockbuster; it's got your Halle Berrys and your Hugh Grants, but that's about it, as far as fame goes. It's a very anachronic narrative too, with lots of leaps in time and then almost similar frantic leaps back again. I enjoyed it, nonetheless, and can now say I have experienced yet another segment of American culture. After all, where would America be without the 'big screen'?
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