For those of you waiting to hear about the mini adventure last night, I won't keep you waiting.

On the trip back to the hotel from the airport, I met the two Washingtonians and the Californian. Once we reached the hotel, we all decided to go out and get something to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings. Since we had no other transportation, we all decided to share a cab. $26 and over an hour later (the cab was far from prompt), we finally arrived at our destination.

We enjoyed a good meal over at the restaurant and some local beer. I am now a fan of Alaskan Amber, something you don't find back east.

After dinner, since we were in a "town center" type mall, we decided to explore some. We ended up wandering into a REI and stared at lots of toys that none of us bought. For the first time, however, when someone asked us about where we were going they were not left standing there in awe, confusion, or some form of dumbfoundedness. Apparently we weren't the first ones to come in there looking for last minute supplies. However, they did keep wishing us luck on our trip "up there".

After some conversation with the employees, we were even able to obtain the directions to the nearest light rail station (since none of us had any patience to wait for another cab or pay for it). After a moderate walk to the nearest station, we hopped on the first train that came in, though we had no clue which direction we needed to go in.

After consulting the map on the train (which showed the stops and not the landmarks), we decided that we couldn't really be all that far from the hotel and got off after a few stops. We then proceeded to wander in the correct direction, though we were unable to spot our hotel.

After walking for a while, we finally stopped in a random hotel to ask for directions. We then discovered that we were a mere ten minutes away. By car.

After considering our options, someone called our hotel and attempted to get their shuttle to come pick us up. Following a brief conversation with someone, we were informed that our shuttle would not come pick us up unless we first took the shuttle at the hotel we were standing at to the airport to meet the shuttle from our hotel.

A quick consideration of the facts made the decision easy. We would walk the five miles back to the hotel instead of taking two hours and several American dollars to get back.

So, a long, long, long walk later, we finally arrived back at our hotel. I'd like to say that something ridiculous happened during that time, but aside from amusing conversation, we did little else of note.

After getting back to the hotel, we finally figured out where the train station was, and have since determined to not screw up and have to walk back again. The above picture is the view of a train just outside the station from my hotel room.


In other news, we had our first day of actual work today. I am officially an employee of the company now, with health insurance and a 401k.

The first day of ARFF training was not particularly exciting. We did a fair amount of book work which left us all struggling to stay awake. As the afternoon approached, we did start to have some more fun. We were given sets of the shiny silver proximity gear that is sometimes issued to airport firefighters. It mostly fits and doesn't even smell that bad.

The rest of the afternoon gave us a "confidence maze". This is nothing more than your standard makeshift fire department maze that you wander through blacked out. The only really challenging part was a wooden box with wires strung out in every direction designed to trap you. Overall it was a good time.

Tomorrow we actually get to do some walkthroughs of aircraft which should be pretty fun. I know I'm looking forward to it. I'll see if I can't get some pictures for my two loyal followers.

Nightlife with a bunch of firefighters can prove interesting. Every night after class, we all need to eat. The nearest local eatery is a small hole in the wall dive bar that seems to love us. It goes by the name of the "Night Shift Saloon".

There food doesn't sound all that exciting, but is actually incredibly tasty. Also, since it is a bar, I have had the opportunity to discover some new beers. Tonight I am able to say that both Fat Tire and Buffalo Gold are tasty beers that get my recommendation.

Finally, since the bar seems to be so honored that soon to be Antarctic firefighters have now made it a temporary home, they have decided to give us the house specialty for free.

The house specialty is known as "Coondog". It is raspberry brandy and Crown Royal and goes down frighteningly smooth. Apparently the bar record is twenty-four Coondogs in a night. I have a feeling that the record may be challenged by someone on our last night in the country.

That's all I have time for today. I'm sure I'll come up with another good story or two by the next time I post. In the mean time, I'm going to get some sleep before my 0600 wake up call.