Barrow: Day 1
Mark lives upstairs of the Polar Bear Theater. He’s the engineer for KBRW, Barrow’s public radio station, which runs an AM channel and an FM. Mark also runs a pirate station.
Doreen and him are good friends and she had told me about him and apparently had told him about me. So when I knocked on his door last night in somewhat of a panic, he may have answered wearing nothing but a parka (he must have been wearing underwear or boxers; all I could tell was that he had on no shirt and no pants, so I didn’t look further. Perhaps he was getting ready to shower?), but at least he knew who I was. He ended up (after getting dressed first) coming down to the bunkhouse and calmed me down. He said the bunkhouse has heat, laundry machines, hot water, and internet. He said I wouldn’t find much else that was better in Barrow. We’ll see about that.
Mark describes himself as semi retired. He’s only here for part of the year. He has big grey hair and a big beard which he has a tendency to grab and stroke a lot.
Today, he took me out to brunch at the Ilisagvik College dining room, which was very nice of him as it cost $13 for a dining hall type of buffet. I filled up on eggs, corned beef hash and salad and heard about Mark’s three sons, one of whom is a tattoo artist in Humboldt County.
After brunch he took me for a drive out to Point Barrow, which runs along the Arctic Ocean. Some of the waves were five feet tall.
Barrow is flat, as flat as can be. Right now it’s covered in probably six or seven inches of snow that Mark says will just blow back and forth all winter, as it’ll never melt. The houses here are made of wood and ugly. They don’t look fit to live in, especially in this climate, but they are inhabited. Mark says everything looks better under snow; otherwise it looks like a junkyard.
On the drive we passed a spot where a whale had been drug in. You could see blood smeared on the ground. It’s currently whaling season, but I think it’s been suspended due to a recent death of an elder. In the Native community, when someone dies, many things take a rest. Elsewhere on the drive we even saw a piece of a whale that had been left behind. There were tons of seagulls.
On our way back to town, I thought I spotted a polar bear. I got really excited until I realized it was just a big white dog.
High today was 23 degrees. Tomorrow it’s supposed to be clear and 21. Nothing seems real right now.
Doreen and him are good friends and she had told me about him and apparently had told him about me. So when I knocked on his door last night in somewhat of a panic, he may have answered wearing nothing but a parka (he must have been wearing underwear or boxers; all I could tell was that he had on no shirt and no pants, so I didn’t look further. Perhaps he was getting ready to shower?), but at least he knew who I was. He ended up (after getting dressed first) coming down to the bunkhouse and calmed me down. He said the bunkhouse has heat, laundry machines, hot water, and internet. He said I wouldn’t find much else that was better in Barrow. We’ll see about that.
Mark describes himself as semi retired. He’s only here for part of the year. He has big grey hair and a big beard which he has a tendency to grab and stroke a lot.
Today, he took me out to brunch at the Ilisagvik College dining room, which was very nice of him as it cost $13 for a dining hall type of buffet. I filled up on eggs, corned beef hash and salad and heard about Mark’s three sons, one of whom is a tattoo artist in Humboldt County.
After brunch he took me for a drive out to Point Barrow, which runs along the Arctic Ocean. Some of the waves were five feet tall.
Barrow is flat, as flat as can be. Right now it’s covered in probably six or seven inches of snow that Mark says will just blow back and forth all winter, as it’ll never melt. The houses here are made of wood and ugly. They don’t look fit to live in, especially in this climate, but they are inhabited. Mark says everything looks better under snow; otherwise it looks like a junkyard.
On the drive we passed a spot where a whale had been drug in. You could see blood smeared on the ground. It’s currently whaling season, but I think it’s been suspended due to a recent death of an elder. In the Native community, when someone dies, many things take a rest. Elsewhere on the drive we even saw a piece of a whale that had been left behind. There were tons of seagulls.
On our way back to town, I thought I spotted a polar bear. I got really excited until I realized it was just a big white dog.
High today was 23 degrees. Tomorrow it’s supposed to be clear and 21. Nothing seems real right now.
posted by Siapiau | 8:22 PM
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