Welcome to Kodiak!

Well I have never been a blogger before but I decided to become one during my internship this summer in Kodiak, Alaska. I thought it would be a good way for my friends & family to stay connected with what I'm doing. Plus I've had about 5,000 people ask me to send lots of pics so this will be a way to share pics with everyone.

So first off a little bit of background on my internship.... I was hired by the SCA (Student Conservation Assocation). The SCA is a great organization that helps students find internships all over the United States that are usually for the government in parks, research, refuges, etc. They pay for housing, travel expenses, and give you a stipend. It's a pretty good deal. Therefore naturally I applied for some internships through the SCA that were all over the nation... I got selected as a candidate for the Kodiak internship... had an interview.. got the gig. So my internship is for the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge and I will be helping put on camp for environmental education. I arrived here May 8th and will head back to OK on August 28th. So to clarify... I am on Kodiak Island, living in the town Kodiak, and working for the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge.

A few things about the island: 1.) there is roughly 13,000 people on it (12,000 live in the town Kodiak), 2.) the Refuge takes up a good chunk of the island, it is 1.9 million acres, 3.) it home of the famous Kodiak bear, 4.) it is also home to the nation's largest Coast Guard base, 5.) it has the nation's third largest fishing port, and 6.) I'm living on it.

I arrived Sunday, May 8th at 10:30 pm and this was my view:

Yes, this is at 10:30 pm. But for those of you that have some preconceived thoughts about Alaska's sun time, this is was I can inform you of Kodiak: no the sun does not shine 24 hrs a day... this summer will get to about 6hrs of darkness... and yes it does get dark.

May 9th was my first day and it consisted of orientation & training... there are other summer interns just like me but I'll share more on them later. The first day went great! It was just mainly getting to know the staff, the Refuge, and everyone's favorite: the rules! Ha! But for lunch they showed us interns Buskin beach and it was so amazing. It was so neat to just chill and take everything in. I'm excited to learn about this new ecosystem and environment. Here is some pics I took from the beach:

I'm still really off from the 3 hour time charnge and am extremely tired. Everything seems so surreal though and it's hard to believe I'm going to be living here for the whole summer. Thanks to everyone for praying for me & checking on me. More to come soon :)