Day 2: Fairbanks

I slept very well in the room last night, although the walls are thin and the temps got pretty low outside, so it was chilly. My room is all set up and it feels “like home.” We slept in this morning and then took a cab to Fred Meyer, the big chain of stores out here—it’s like an upscale Walmart.  On the way there I tried to do a mini windshield survey. There seem to be plenty of places for people to go in the city. There are lots of banks and credit unions, places to do laundry, a Safeway, the Fred Meyer store, a Coldstone, Subway, Quizno’s, NO MCDONALD’S (SURPRISE!!!!!!), gas stations like Mobile and Holiday (gas ranges from $4.06 or higher here), etc. Then further toward the north end of town, the mountains rise up and if it’s clear, you can see Mt. Denali. The neighborhoods are very plain. Some are run down, some are trailers, and I noticed the yards are not well taken care of. I am so used to being surrounded by the suburban areas—and Fairbanks is, I guess, more suburban than other cities in Alaska, but definitely not the same. It was hard to get a feel for what the city would be like if it was sunny! The overcast skies and perpetual rain give the city sort of a gloomy feel. We gave ourselves a few hours to get food and supplies for the next two weeks. I managed to get fresh produce, Greek yogurt, lactose-free milk, and lots of fruit and vegetables! Hooray! I was very glad. I also found brown rice, whole wheat pasta with reduced sodium tomato sauce, rice cakes, whole wheat bread with only 45 calories and 7g of carbs per slice, orange juice, and Raisin Bran. I think I’ll be just fine! The people here are very nice, including the cab drivers. We discovered it’s much cheaper to call the Arctic Cab taxi service, since the airport cab we took us yesterday charged us $32.00 to go from the airport to our apartment, while this service only charged us about $10.00 to go to Fred Meyer. I’ve noticed that most of the families and people are younger than I expected. There were some elderly people at the store but I remember seeing that there is a predominantly young population in this area. At the store they were really willing to answer questions since this was like walking into a new world. I've spent some time prepping for my first day in the Chief Andrew Isaac Medical Center tomorrow, where I will be shadowing a midwife for a twelve-hour shift (first one!). I’m hoping to learn a lot more about what a midwife does and how the women here decide to choose a midwife for their birthing experiences. I hope to learn, also, about the role culture plays in pregnancy and birth. Since the CAI only treats Natives, I think this will be a great opportunity to actually see culture embedded in the way medicine is practiced. Back in Minnesota I didn’t ever see too many outstanding cultural implications in the hospital setting.
P.S. THE SUN IS FINALLY OUT AND I AM JUMPING FOR JOY!