Where's the Sun????

The hardest thing to get used to up here is the lack of sun right now. The past three days the sun has risen about 10:45am and sets about 3 p.m. My body wants to go to sleep around 6. It is so hard to stay awake. Gabe and I try to go out and play in the sun but when it is 0 degrees it's hard to stay outside that long. I now understand why depression is so prevalent around here. I think I could sleep for 12 hours a day. There's no sun to wake you up in the morning and then you have to stay awake for HOURS after the sun sets. I'm trying to get used to the schedule but starting the 22nd of December we gain 7 minutes a day of sunshine. I can't wait!!!

We explored part of Fairbanks yesterday and I drove. It's really not as hard as I thought to drive in the snow and ice. Most of the main roads are ice free and easy to drive. The ones with ice on them are a little tricky. The most important thing I learned was to hit the brakes before I think I need them and to be at least two car lengths behind the person in front of me. Almost everyone obeys this rule which is nice. Down South people ride your butt when you are driving but up here hardly anyone does that. It makes driving easy. One crazy thing is that most of the right turn lanes are full of snow! When the snow plow comes through the right turn lanes gets all the snow and it looks like a bike lane.

The piles of snow in parking lots and on the sides of the roads are insane. Some of the piles are about 14 feet high. We counted 21 piles of snow in one shopping center parking lot. The snow is all dirty and nasty. I have never seen anything like this in my life. It is crazy!

This next week I'm going to explore the town by myself. We'll see how that goes. Have a good week.