Living in North Pole, Alaska

Living in North Pole, Alaska was probably one of the most adventurous experiences I had ever embarked on. My father had just gotten stationed at a nearby army base called Fort Wainwright and my family and I were going to be moving from Tennessee. I had heard all kinds of stories and read up a lot of information about Alaska, and I can vouch for being beyond excited. Alaska is a totally different life style compared to Tennessee. The weather and climate shapes the way people live and how things are done, especially in the winter months where the temperature lingers tens of degrees below zero ferenheight.

One of the things I looked forward to when moving up to Alaska was that in the summer the sun does not set and in the winter it does the opposite and this is because Alaska is so far up north. Now I lived in the more cold and frigid region of Alaska, the interior. When winter came along there was already snow on the ground and temperatures were below freezing by September. This climate shortens all outdoor activity for the summer. Football is only a couple months long and on Halloween you can’t even wear your costume because the weather too cold. We Alaskans even have plugs on the front of our cars because when temperatures get down to ten below zero your car could freeze and not start, so you had to plug it in so previously installed heaters could keep the engine from freezing. Sometimes people would just leave their car running while they went into the store, no one would try to steal someone’s car.

When temperatures get as low as -20, walking outside starts to get painful no matter how much colder it gets. Your car starts to drive like it is about to break down and the shocks get so cold that you feel every little rock on the road. Also not only are the temps this cold but the sun also isn’t coming up because of the near missing days that I experienced during the winter. Imagine a cloudy day being warmer than a sunny day, or that it is warmer