Went for a 2 hour walk yesterday. I put my feet in the Bearing Sea (felt like Maine water). I looked out and thought, what odd little boats. In fact, they were dredging for gold. I walked along the sea and collected sea glass. A little girl, around 8 y/o looking for her shoes and crying. She said her grandmother was in the car ready to leave without her if she didn't find them. We found them and she offered me a piece of her sea glass for helping her find her shoes. It was so sweet! Apparently they don't teach STRANGER DANGER here!

Took my first trip to the grocery store...OMG! Gas $4.49, Milk...any guesses, $9 a gallon, $6 on sale (what a steal), 12pack of diet pepsi, $11....guess I will be drinking only water.

Went to dinner for the first time with some new friends from work (I passed 4 people I work with on the 7 minute walk home...I will know everyone in town in the next 7 days). We went to a place called Husky's...the menu included rubens, burgers, korean BBQ and sushi..haha, what a mix.

After dinner we went to a few of the local shops where they sell native crafts including walrus tusk carvings and walrus whisker earrings as well as gifts from russia..(PS, I can't currently see it from my window!!) However, there are satellites on the mountain top where they used to monitor Russia during the Cold War.

Oh, and I looked at a map in the hospital today that still had USSR on it..it made me laugh.

Also, I finally live on 5th Ave...sure it's in Nome and not NYC, but really isn't it all the same!

You will also note in Nome that there are broken down cars and snowmobiles everywhere. It takes a lot of money to ship out cars so after they are driven around for a few years and people move, they just leave them here. Apparently, there are people down in "shanty-town" who live in a broken down bus. I was told that a doctor did a home visit last winter down there where there was 5 inches of frozen urine at the door of the bus and a man inside who needed 3 fingers and 3 toes removed from frostbite...there is no heat in the bus apparently! Someone is found dead there yearly during the winter, so sad!