The place we call home

I was talking to my mom today and she gave me an idea for a blog topic today. I want to give you a little tour of where we live here in Barrow, Alaska. Fist off, I don't think that the location of the college can even be considered Barrow. There are two parts of town up here and I think we both go to school and live in Browerville.  Here's a map:

The red circle the furthest south would be considered Barrow. The green circle is considered Browerville and the orange star is where the Middle School is. The purple circle further north is Ilisagvik College, home sweet home.

Now that you know where we are, I'll tell you a little bit more about the school.
The building itself is shaped like an H. On one of the long sides, the girls sleep on one side and the boys on the other with a lounge in the middle where we can all hang out and watch tv. We like to sit out there and talk to "mom" when she is working and every once and a while play a dance game on the Kinect. The students work on homework and play card games there constantly.  Our dorm rooms are very simple with just two plain twin beds, a dresser, two closets, and two nightstands. We do have huge windows (with very heavy curtains) in our room and, I can't speak for Peter, our view is fantastic.

Panoramic Picture of the lounge. The door on the right leads to the boys dorms, and my dorm is off to the left.

On the other side of the building (if you cross the short part of the H), is the dining room where we find our good friend Steve, always there to serve us our food for the day. The food here is good and people from town come to the college and eat often. Every few days we see some of our students eating dinner here with their families. We have a ton of options everyday. For breakfast there is always fresh fruit, cereal, bagels, toast, biscuits and gravy, french toast or pancakes, breakfast potatoes, eggs, yogurt, sausage, and bacon. Dinner is different every night, but there is always a great salad bar, rice, some kind of meat option, veggies, and desert options. I have to admit, I do like that I don't have to cook my own meals everyday!

Down the other long part of the H is where some of the scientists have their offices here. We haven't spent a lot of time exploring, but one of them skis and Peter is hoping to go out skiing with him very soon.

On the short part of the H (which if you have been following, connects the cafeteria and the lounge), is full of offices of employees of the college, a conference room, a place to use computers, the bookstore, and more offices. This hallway is filled with pictures of the native people, information about what is going on at the college and some maps of the area. Near the computers there is even a seal skeleton on display.

Outside, but within walking distance, we have the rec center. We try (okay so the other two try, and I just tag along) to go here everyday and work out. They have a half court for basketball (which I mainly use to dance if no one else is around), and a lot of workout equipment. I've even been starting to run here!

As much as I try to give you a picture of how life is here, it's hard without actually being able to see it. There is a really good map here with tours of the facilites. They don't look quite the same, but they are pretty close. The dorm room is just about spot on though, except that Katie and I have an amazing view of Browerville from our window which I will show you one day when it's not so cloudy!

If any of you people out there reading our blog have something that you want to know more about, just leave us a comment and we'll do our best to relay you the information!