On Monday, I met with the landlady to sign the lease. She showed me a different apartment than the one I had first seen on Sunday. The bedroom is much bigger and even has its own bathroom. The floor plan of the rest of the apartment is open and is also larger than the first apartment I saw. It was even the same rent. Score! I signed the lease and could begin moving in ASAP. Liz walked with me to the Post Office where I received my own PO Box. They do not deliver mail to your door here in rural Alaska, so everyone goes to the Post Office to pick it up. If you would like to send me any mail, shoot me an email (jean [dot] emily [at] gmail [dot] com) and I'll give you my address.
I also switched utilities to my name, turned in my paperwork, and shopped some for the apartment. During their lunch breaks, Adam and Liz helped me move my stuff to my apartment. I set up what stuff I had and gave Sarah, another new clinician, a call. We met up in the grocery store later, I helped "fix" her toilet and then we went to my place for a little bit. Adam came later and we went to work out at the gym. The gym is part of the local high school. It actually has some pretty nice equipment, albeit limited in number of machines and space. I made my dinner that night (spring rolls) and continued setting up house.
I slept poorly during the night, not only take 2+ hours to fall asleep but also waking up at 4 and having a hard time falling back asleep. My cold had also taken a turn for the worse and didn't help matters. However strange that was, I felt rested when I got up. Sarah and I met up to run errands together. There are probably very few people who go in at the same time in the same room to get separate bank accounts, but we did it. We were able to setup our internet/cable as well. Every other Tuesday, a man named Dan parks his van in a parking lot and sells organic produce. We met Liz and went over there together. I bought some ginger, arugula, spinach, yukon gold potatoes, and japanese sweet potato. I'm already looking forward to two weeks from now when he comes again. At the end of the day, I worked out again. When we left the gym, the sky was so clear...I wish I had my camera. You could see all of the islands around as well as further mountains in the distance. It looked so gorgeous.
Wednesday was spent around the apartment again and I walked to town a few times for more items I had forgotten as well as to pick up my second box from home. Liz came over for dinner: broccoli, garlic and arugula pizza with Japanese sweet potato fries and chocolate cupcake brownies for dessert. We discovered that microfiber dishcloths do not work well as hot pads. They burn designs into the fabric (see below). Lesson learned...use the terry cloth towel until I own oven mitts!
My apartment is really starting to feel like home...more of my items from home are arriving, I have my bills setup, utilities on and people are coming over for meals. When I talked to my parents last night, I remarked that I felt like an adult. Mom said, "You could have felt like an adult in MI, too, you know!" Well, yeah, she's right. But there's just something about setting up a home across the country on a remote island that has a bit more twinge of adventure to it.
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