Hi all! 

 It's been a while since I've written but here we are! Tomorrow marks three months here in Kotzebue so I thought I'd pause and reflect on how things have been and how I've been feeling. 

   Homesickness and loneliness have kind of been the name of the game for the last few weeks. I've done an okay job of meeting people here and getting to know my coworkers and stuff but I still just miss my friends in STL. I'm actually tentatively planning a trip there in the spring. I just really want to see everyone. 

  I've taken a couple of trips to Anchorage over the last month. One of those was very fun and one was not so fun. The first trip was the not so fun one. My flight was cancelled and then once I got there I missed my train so all in all it was kind of a waste of money and a long weekend. I was pretty disappointed about it. The one good thing that came of it is that I finally have a fully functioning phone instead of two half functioning phones. That was and remains pretty exciting. I feel so much more connected to people being able to text throughout the day and send pictures and stuff. 

  My second trip to Anchorage was just last weekend and it was awesome. I decided to go for the Women's March on Oct 2 to protect abortion rights. I was texting with a friend about it and she offered to come up and meet me in Anchorage and spend the weekend together which was very, very thoughtful of her. So that's what we did, and we had a great time! Here are some pictures: 

   

  Anchorage is really, really beautiful. It's an awesome city to visit. My mom and I are planning a trip there for late February which I am super excited about. I've never been on a winter vacation before so it will be different but I am really excited. I mostly have the whole trip planned out and I found some really awesome stuff for us to do, I'll keep you guys posted on that as it gets closer. 

  Things with work continue to go well. All of the sudden I have a lot of kids on my caseload which is a little different for me. I like it though, they usually take really well to the art making and that's my favorite kind of work so no complaints from me. I do have a decent amount of adults so it all balances out nicely. I do miss the intensity of seeing people more than once per week, I'm still adjusting to this outpatient lifestyle. 

  Even though it feels like winter to me fall is definitely here. Temps are in the 30s which is not terrible but sometimes the "feels like" is as low as 14 which IS terrible. I know, I know I'm in for a rude awakening. In the actual winter it gets down to as low as -60. So yea, not looking forward to walking to work in that. Before it got cold I was feeling prepared for winter and now I'm not so sure. 

  Still no bear sightings but I have seen some seals as well as a couple of cute foxes. I am happy about not seeing any bears, it's actually become my biggest fear. The foxes are fun to watch, they are a very curious and playful. I had no idea. 

 Well friends that's about all I have for you. The next big thing I have coming up is going home to Atlanta for the holidays which I am really looking forward to. I miss everyone and everything so much more than I thought I would. I really wish there was time on that trip to stop in STL but I just don't know how realistic that is. 

 My birthday is at the end of this month. I plan to go to the hotel here (the only place you can have a sit down meal) and order a fancy dinner. My work gave me an amazon gift card for my bday so I'm also going to order myself a wood burner and all the associated tools. I've decided to make wood burning one of my winter hobbies. My other winter hobbies are reading, needle felting, book club, and reading tarot cards. :) 

  Hope you all are staying safe and doing well! I miss you! 

Veronica 

   

  

 

Hi everyone! As always I hope this post finds you doing well! 

  It has been a rough couple of weeks around here for me. For whatever reason I've just been really homesick. I don't even know where home is but I know that I miss it. And I know that this new place doesn't feel like home yet. I suppose for it to feel like home at this point is a bit too much to ask since it's only been 7 weeks. It definitely feels longer than that but objectively I know 7 weeks is not a lot of time. 

  Anyway, today I got to do something really fun which was go blue berry picking up on the tundra. Berry picking has been going on for thousands of years around here and the natives are total pros. They're also pros at making things from the berries. 

 Of course I took some pictures so I could show everyone. 

Above is the tundra and this is where all the berries grow. Currently it's blueberry season. It's very expansive and very serene. You do have to look out for bears though so it's hard to get into a meditative head space but it is beautiful. 

    This is another pic of the tundra but it's a little closer view of the ground and vegetation. One of the tricky things about the tundra is that the ground is very soft. It's kind of like walking in wet sand, if you stand in any one place for too long you'll start to sink and each step you take you are definitely sinking into the ground. It's very uneven and easy to roll your ankle or lose your balance. 

    They don't call it "foraging for berries" for nothing. The berries surprisingly blend very well with the surrounding vegetation and you have to get real low to the ground to see them or find them. (I found this stressful as I have a real fear of bears). Anyway, the benefit to being so close to the ground is that you can smell the wonderful tundra smell. I know that sounds nuts but it's honestly the best. It's sweet but also earthy smelling. It's the best. 

   One of my coworkers told me he'd never seen anyone with matching jacket and boots. I told him I was happy to be that person for him :) 

Above & below are some berries before I picked them!

 They are smaller compared to the store bought berries but they taste so much better! 

Another pic of the tundra and the nearby lake! 

I did pretty okay for it being my second time! Here's my yield: 

 Here they are all washed and leaf and twig free ready for me to make muffins!

This is what washing berries does to your hands: 

All in all it was a great experience and I had a great time. It definitely repaired my first experience berry picking which was a low-key disaster. It was super hot out, I was wearing the wrong clothes and shoes, I didn't find any berries (I didn't look that hard to be honest), and I threw up when I got home because I drank too much water too quickly because it was so hot. 

Tonight I am trying to stay up late because supposedly if I do I will see the northern lights!!! Ahhh!!! I'm SO excited! 

Hope everyone has a great weekend! 

Veronica 

 

    Hi, everyone!!! 

   I hope you everyone is doing well! I decided to write a post sharing a little bit more about my work because I haven't really talked about work very much on here. It's one of the bigger reasons I moved here to so I figured it's time to include it! 

   I work as an art therapist for a counseling center affiliated with the local hospital here in town. It's essentially a community mental health setting which is very different than what I was doing before (residential and PHP care for eating disorders). The clinic I work for also does outpatient substance use and IOP substance use care, although I don't work on the substance use team. I have dreams of starting an art therapy group for the substance use IOP once all the groups are back in person though! I think that would be really fun!

   So my job title is "Itinerant Therapist" and I got to do the "itinerant" part of that last week when I traveled out to one of the villages in our service area via bush plane. Our service area is about the size of the state of Illinois and includes 12 villages that are only accessible by bush plane. When a village has a tough week or crisis/tragedy strikes some of the therapists will travel out to the village to provide support and psychological first aid to the community. So that's what I did last week for the first time. I didn't say too much about during that post but it was an awesome experience. After the trip I was having all of these feelings that all of that schooling and hard work I did was totally worth it for moments like talking with the community members. It was an awesome feeling.  It just brought me back to why I wanted to be a therapist to begin with. And, I got to be traveling on my dad's birthday which if you know me you know is something I always try to do to honor his memory and our relationship. 

  On Friday I moved into a new office! There are multiple good things about my new space, one is that I have a closet which is perfect for storing all my art supplies. The second thing, and probably my favorite, drumroll please, is that I have a window with a view of the sea! Yay! 

       On the really clear days (not what we've been having lately) you can see the mountains across the sea. You can kind of see them in the pic above but on the clear days you can really see them, like this: (The quality of this pic isn't great but you get the idea) 

   Anyways, life in Alaska is pretty good. The homesickness has subsided, I'm learning to live with the midnight sun (helped tremendously by black out curtains lol), and now my focus is just on my building a life here and making new friends. Not easy during a pandemic but my coworkers are great. 

Until next time! 

  Veronica 

 

     

  

 hey everyone, 

 So the other day I took my first work trip! I have been looking forward to riding in a bush plane and it was awesome! 

Here's the plane we took, it seats around 7 people. I think it can seat more if needed but they tend to move the seats around to make room for all of the cargo. I'll be honest, I was a little nervous about being in such a small plane but the views were so amazing that I pretty quickly forgot all about it. 

Here's the inside of the plane! The inside has one longer row of seats and a shorter row. Behind the shortest row is where they put boxes of mail and other things that are being delivered to the village. 

The flight was only about half an hour and as I mentioned already it was beautiful! 

The village that we were visiting was very quaint and sweet. It was inland from Kotzebue so a little bit chillier than I was expecting but nothing too cold. The village is located just off of a river and so it's very marshy. I'm guessing that's why the whole town is basically on stilts. There aren't roadways through the town, there's this boardwalk-y type path that goes all over. It looks like this: 

There aren't any cars either, just boats and 4-wheelers! Once we got there we met the clinic staff and put all of your stuff away and then we headed out to meet the villagers! "Eskimo" is considered an offensive term. I call them people in the villages, natives, or native alaskans. 

All in all it was an awesome trip. I traveled with one of my co-workers and I really enjoyed getting to know her. I felt like we made a good team too. She was really great at engaging people and initiating conversation which is something I feel like I'm not so good at. I can't wait for the next one! 

 

Hello, everyone! 

     I'll start by saying that I don't feel like I have that much to say. The last week has been sort of difficult, I've been homesick and work just isn't taking off yet so it's been a little harder of a week. I'm writing anyway because I don't want anyone to be under the illusion that this move is all bunnies and rainbows all the time. (Although one could argue it IS rainbows all the time since the sun never sets). Traveling and moving isn't all glamorous all the time, even though it's sort of vulnerable to admit when it's hard. 

   The last couple of days have been rather eventful around here (relatively, anyway). I got internet at home (yay!) and my groceries that I ordered online got delivered. Getting internet was a bit of a process. I guess some wiring needed to be done so it took several days but on Thursday I got a call that my modem was ready to pick up. When I went to pick it up on Friday the lady (who was very nice) hands me this:

Just like that, not in a box or with a bag or any instructions or anything. Just a piece of equipment with a sticky note with my name on it. Internally I was like "so, this is the internet?" But I didn't say anything, I just thanked her and walked back to work. My expectations were extremely low but I got home and plugged it in and what do you know, it works! I feel a lot better having internet at home because now I can use my phone, watch Netflix, and stay more connected to you lovely people. 

I picked up my groceries from the airport this afternoon! Including all the miscellaneous fees from the store, the groceries themselves, and the charges from the airline it came to about $200. If I had grocery shopped at the AC (local grocery store) it would have been around $325 or so for everything that I got so fees and all I came out ahead. I think ordering this way is going to be part of my system. The only issue is fitting all of that food into my mini-fridge in my apartment. When I have a non-mini fridge and freezer and I can stock up even more and stretch my dollars when it comes to all the fees. 

    I was FaceTiming with a friend earlier and we came to the conclusion today that I need blackout curtains. I have a little lavender scented eye pillow I've been covering my eyes with to sleep but I get hot and then I toss it off or I roll over and it falls off and then the sun wakes me up and then I'm not getting good sleep which makes me grumpy when I wake up. Black out curtains it is! I had no idea how much my body needs for it to be dark outside to go to bed. It's been a challenge for sure! I feel like a toddler trying to go to bed every night, I just keep arguing with myself that it isn't bedtime because it is still light out. It is getting darker between like 2am and 4am so that's a start. 

    

  Here's a mandala I made to reflect on two weeks of being here. My therapist told me to make more art (typical) and I knew I needed to reflect on my time here in order to move through these feelings so there you go. I did it. The stars represent the Alaska state flag. I think the part I am the most curious about is the bubbles in the top left, those are interesting to me. 

  

Even though my little apartment is quite messy that's just how it is so here are some pictures. It won't ever not be this way so I decided to go ahead and share. The only thing not pictures is the closet which to floor-to-ceiling boxes so I'll let you use your imagination on that one lol. 

  

    

    

    The last thing that I have to share is that it's difficult not to have a car. I'm not really a fan of walking everywhere although it is kind of empowering to be that self-sufficient. Mostly it's hard not to have a car because I feel so stuck here on this little almost-island. To the point that I'm feeling kind of claustrophobic-ish? It's just that no matter where I've lived before I could technically get in a car and go home, even most of the places I've traveled. It might take forever, but it's possible. I'm so far away from home here, and the only way out is to fly. I'm surprised by how much this bothers me but it is on my mind quite a lot. To help cope with this, and for other reasons, I'm spending Labor Day weekend in Anchorage. I'm really excited! Just from the airport it looks absolutely stunning so I'm really excited to visit and actually get to spend some time there. Plus I need a new phone so there's that too haha. 

  I hope you all have a lovely rest of your weekend! 

Veronica 

 

Hello from Alaska, everyone!

 

So, where to start?! My journey to Alaska started in Atlanta where I’d been for a few weeks hanging out with friends and family in the area. Friday night I flew to Seattle and then Saturday morning I flew through Anchorage (pictured below) and to Kotzebue. It was a very early morning and I landed in Kotzebue around lunchtime. My flights were fine, long but uneventful. I’ve been here almost a week and it feels like people want an update so here we go!

            Two sweet co-workers met at me at the airport and helped get me settled that afternoon. We grabbed the boxes I had shipped and got them over to my temporary apartment and they took me to the grocery store. Y’all, rural Alaska grocery prices are no joke, more about that later. My apartment is a cute little mini-studio with a washer and dryer. Currently my boxes are occupying the space that’s supposed to be the closet. It’s temporary because I am waiting for a one bedroom to become available!

 

Alright so here are the things that surprised me the most:

#1 No cell reception
That’s right, my phone doesn’t work. It works in Anchorage but not out here. Fortunately one of my co-workers is letting me borrow and old phone of his. I bought a sim card for it so I currently have my Alaska phone and my iPhone, which I can only use when connected to wifi. I thought the wifi was more widely available but it is not! Anyway, I’m not sure that two phones is my permanent solution but it’s working for now.

 

#2 The heat  

When you move to a place above the Arctic Circle you kind of expect to never be hot again. WRONG. When the sun is out it is HOT. And unless it’s cloudy, the sun is out all the time. You’ve heard that Alaska is the land of the midnight sun, right? It’s true. The sun does not set here for a few months. It doesn’t even get that dark. 2am looks like 2pm, it’s pretty trippy. It’s significantly cooler in the shade (which there is very little of because there are not trees) or otherwise outside of the sun but if the sun is out it is quite warm during these summer months. Obviously that will change as the seasons wear on.

 

#3 The mosquitos

They are huge! One of my co-workers who is from Alabama refers to them as “dragons” and I totally get why. The things are huge and hungry. If it’s warm out you can expect to be swarmed. They bite through your clothes and appear unaffected by repellent as far as I can tell. Being from the south I thought I’d seen it all in terms of mosquitos but that was not true at all. (Hopefully I have now, I can’t imagine it getting worse than this).

 

            Other notable things that I did this week are get a PO Box here in Kotz, submit an application to get internet at home, and figure out how to order groceries online. I’ll have to do a grocery haul for you guys but the groceries here are at best double if not triple normal prices. In the lower 48 I exclusively shop for groceries at Aldi so you can imagine my sticker shock at the prices here. For me it’s just not tenable so I needed to figure out an alternative solution. A co-worker told me about doing a bush order from a store called Fred Meyer. Apparently Mr. Meyer will deliver groceries to the airport via bush plane from Anchorage, even perishables. Even with the taxes and associated fees it’s still less expensive than shopping at the AC (local grocery store) so I’m in. I submitted my first order via email last night. I don’t think I can describe just how strange it was to grocery shop this way!

 

            Work has been pretty boring to be honest. It won’t always be this way, it’s just that the first while is a lot of onboarding and boring HR stuff. Things will pick up once I start working with clients, which I am really excited for. I talked this week with a supervisor and we discussed what my interests are clinically and what kind of clients I work best with, etc. It was a good conversation and I’m excited to get started!

 

            The first few days of being here felt more like a trip than anything else, just like a temporary thing where I’d eventually return to my apartment in St. Louis.  Around day 3-4 is when I started getting what I can only describe as homesick. That’s also when the midnight sun started interrupting my sleep. It wasn’t homesickness in the nostalgic, longing for home kind of way. It was more that the reality of just how far away I was from home was setting in, as was the decision to move here. I a little bit went down the road of “what have I done?” but I figured I was only feeling that way because I felt so disconnected from the world without my phone. I made a few phone calls and within a few hours I was feeling much better. I’ve noticed I’m the loneliest after work, around 6pm Alaska time which is 10pm on the east coast and 9pm for St. Louis so it’s on the later side which is a little difficult. My pillows arrived today and they smell like home, wherever that is. 

 

            The week has had its highs and lows but overall has been fine. It’s nice to live close to the water. I always wanted to live by the ocean. To be fair I never thought it would be in the Arctic but never say never J Below are some pictures of sea and the little lagoon by my building. Enjoy! 

Until next time everyone, 

Veronica <3 

 

 

Friends and family, 

     Many of you know this already but just in case- I have accepted a position as an itinerant therapist for a hospital in a small town in north western Alaska, just north of the arctic circle!   The job is working with native Alaskans that are scattered in the north west arctic borough. I leave on Friday (9 July). I've spent the last 8 or so weeks saying "good-bye" and "see you soon" to the people in my life and one thing that comes up every time is that I should start a blog and document my experiences. So, here we are. Fortunately I love to write and was likely to blog some of it anyway so now I'm just making a firmer commitment to blogging. 

   For this first post, while I am still in the lower 48, I thought I'd answer all the questions I've gotten several times as well as just share a little bit about how I'm feeling about the transition. I've organized this is in a FAQ format for convenience :) 

How did you even find this job? 

A friend at work had family who had worked for Indian Health Services (IHS) and worked on reservations before so when I decided to cast a wider net in terms of my job search I thought it would be cool to live and work on a reservation. I started looking for jobs through IHS and that's how I found this one. I applied on a whim, I was so used to being rejected at that point that I truly did not think I'd get interviewed or even called. Immediately I started researching Alaska, the organization, and the town. Honestly it just seemed like an adventure, and I am so down for that after being grounded for so long due to the pandemic. So that's how it all started. At some point I obviously made a choice to pursue this opportunity and a choice to move. I spent a lot of time talking to friends and the people close to me about the pros and cons. At the end of the day the pros outweighed the cons. 

How are you feeling about leaving?

  I leave on Friday and I am feeling pretty good. The anxiety is present but comes in a waves. A few days ago I was in this "what have I done?" place but the last couple days I'm just getting excited. It's all very surreal, I don't think I have any clue how much my life is about to change. I am excited though, and as ready as I think I'll be. Honestly the "see you soon's" are starting to get to me. It's emotionally exhausting to process and transition and/or terminate all of my relationships. I'm a sentimental person and I feel my feelings big so all of the goodbyes and starting to wear me down. It's just a lot of feelings all of the time. 

Won't you be cold? I thought you hated the cold? 

Yes, I will very likely be cold. And yes, that's not my favorite thing. The weather on the arctic circle is obviously extremely cold in the winters with very mild summers and lots of snow. It's not my ideal climate by a long shot. I had to really think about this and I just decided that rejecting this job because of the weather conditions sounded really stupid. To me that is just a silly reason not to do something. As I've gotten older I've appreciated the cold more and the heat less so at least there's that. I just figure people live this way their whole lives, it can't be impossible. I've been doing a lot of shopping and gathering my gear to get through my first winter. 

    Well, I think that's about it for this first post. Feel free to comment if you have any questions you want answered either now or in a future post! 

Love to you all! 

   Veronica