The benefits of doing your homework!

My mom pointed this post out to me on the Fairbanks News-Miner’s Arctic Cam comments section, and I thought it was so useful that I’m reproducing it here. I don’t know this person, but it was nice to see that I had done many of these things before moving here, mostly because I *listened* to what long-time Alaskans were trying to tell me. IMNSHO, it’s a subtle thing about living here that maybe sometimes lower 48er’s don’t pick up on right away – all sorts of things about day-to-day living here don’t work here the same way they do everywhere else, so it’s best to come without a lot of preconceptions. Your acclimatizing will go harder if you refuse to dispose of those preconceptions. Things I didn’t listen to ahead of time? I came here with not enough in savings, and having already bought boots. Those boots of mine are *useless* at -25 or -30, when you’re standing in a parking lot helping tag and load 50 pound food bags. I should have waited. Yesterday I found some *almost* new heavy type boots with the thick removable wool liner (that mine lack) in Value Village for $3.50! I also didn’t listen about waiting to set up housekeeping. I should have done that. As a result, 18 months out, I’m still paying off debt. One more piece of learned experience: don’t buy any outerwear or outfitter gear that has a metal zipper. When it gets cold enough, the zipper will seize, and then you’ll have to take it to Apocalypse Design and have the zipper replaced with a heavy duty plastic one.

How to successfully become an Alaskan. – from alaskansheilah, newsminer.com arctic cam site

Unless one is military (they offer training, work, housing, allowances, and winter gear…a savings in the thousands or more. Starting off in Alaska the military way is almost traditional, and usually the best.)

I wouldn’t come to Alaska to live until spring, without less than several thousand dollars buffer (preferably about 10 in the bank, and tell no one except authorities about it) Do NOT set up housekeeping before; The first thing you’ll need is work. Have a job or at least 5-10 serious interviews to come to (if none of these pan out, at least you have the way to leave). Many are awestruck at the wages being so ‘lucrative’ at first…Understand this, if Alaskans are paid more, there’s good reason for it…this offers no “windfall”.

Next is housing. One can apply for the Nehemiah Loan for a zero down if you’ve never owned a home before. If not, you can usually get into something for 5-6 K. Owning however humble is the better way to go here for the price of rent is usually higher. Normally you can get your investment back if you sell or rent out.

Next is reliable transportation geared to withstand minus -65 degrees below zero (Do NOT purchase a vehicle with more than 45,000 miles to it- it will wreck your budget by piecemeal. If you can at all buy new do so.)

Next is emergency arctic gear. (One can buy used if need be.) You may not need it all winter…but not having it can kill you. Best quality and prices will be found at the Army/Navy surplus stores. If not in use, keep this (plus extra) in your vehicle along with other emergency supplies: food, tools, flares, road caution signs and medical kit.

Then you need to adapt to higher prices for essentials. You don’t have to like it, You do have to accept it. That way you can more realistically define what’s actually essential. Live like you’re desperately poor so you never will be. Keep that buffer for emergencies. Yeah, you’ll do alright! If I could make it 36 years, so can YOU.

Lower 48 expectations vs. AK veteran’s expectations

I’m constantly amused, aghast, or fascinated about expectations of Outsiders regarding their first trip to Alaska, and about what long-time Alaskans think about that. Now, it needs to be said that I am still very much an Outsider here myself. I have made it through my first winter, which I was assured was pretty lightweight compared to the 70’s and 80’s and before that. I love it here – it’s a perfect match for my tomboy-energetic-always-have-to-be-learning or thinking-about-something “teach me that *right now*” personality. Even if I wasn’t a librarian anymore, I’d have to find some way to stay here. I’ve met a lot of cool people so far, and none refused to get to know me because I’d only just arrived. But, I have heard this opinion voiced from some people who have been here a long time:

“So many people come up here looking for what they think they want as “an Alaska lifestyle”, I just don’t bother getting to know them until they’ve been here a while.”

“They have to be here for a minimum of seven years before I even want to get to know them.”

–Or, words to that effect. I’ve been told or read that the amount of time that is proper to spend waiting is anywhere from 1 year to 7 years to 10 years. I’m not really sure *where* this statement comes from? Is it because we have two big honkin’ military bases that rotate families in and out? Is it because people generally move here expecting one thing and get another? Not to be too “Obama-rific” about it, but why draw a line where there doesn’t need to be any? And if I only stay for five years, that deprives you of five years of knowing a pretty awesome individual! **sarcastic grin**

I’m not kidding when I say that almost *everyone* I’ve met who knows anything about Fairbanks, whether for a few days visit, a military posting, or through 20 years of living here, LOVES this quirky area almost immediately. (And, yes, once friends and acquaintances knew I was moving here, almost everyone knew someone, if not themselves, that had lived here.) So, I know I’m not alone in that, by far. I’ve had more people say this to me: “I loved living there, but I just couldn’t do / got tired of / wanted to escape from the cold and /or dark, after so many years.” Or, “I needed someplace to stay that was cheaper to live in during the winter.”

It seems to me that not having *any* expectations is the best way to enjoy life and get acquainted with people here, but that a certain maintenance of “the Alaskan lifestyle” appearance is important so that tourists can travel here and get their expectations met (and spend their $$!). That’s no different than the marketing hype that goes on in Florida. It’s like there are two Fairbanks: One for the tourists, and one for the people who live here. Just like when I was growing up in Sarasota / Bradenton / Venice. I guess what I’m trying to get to the heart of is: How can you ever know when you’ve gotten to the real “authentic” experience of being or living somewhere? Isn’t that going to change with each person? Your experiences of what it’s like to live here are going to be different than mine, whether we’re in Fairbanks, AK, Walla Walla, WA, Seattle, or Sarasota, FL. All else is folly – so, it’s ridiculous to feel “gypped” by your side trip to Fairbanks, as I overheard someone downtown say the other day. (They must’ve been off a Princess bus or something – and that may be the reason why for the “not bothering to get to know” statements.)

Can’t wait to see what summer is like here! 😛