Under The Sky of Alaska

Big Lake, Alaska
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I stayed in Big Lake, Alaska for 9 months as an exchange student in high school. Big Lake was located inside the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, or the locals called it, “Mat-Su Valley” or “The Valley”. It is considered Alaska’s Playground with a lot of outdoor pursuits. Camping, cycling, fishing, hiking, etc. are some of the activities the locals enjoy in the summer time. In the winter, it became ice-skating on frozen lakes, riding on snow-machine (or the contiguous US, “The Lower 48” as in Alaskan’s language called, snow-mobile), snowboarding, skiing, etc. I graduated high school in Hong Kong before I went there. Therefore, I took my extra year in Alaska as a year-long vacation. After all, I knew what I want to do in life and Alaska was filled with expertise in that area. I wanted to be a pilot, and the Alaskan bush pilots were world famous. I was lucky enough that my host dad owned an airplane, a SeaBee, which could take off from land as well as water. He took me up flying was one of the most memorable experiences I had in Alaska. Once I was in the air, the surrounding environment became crystal clear. I had no idea there were so many lakes in Alaska. I looked down from the plane and there were lakes everywhere. My host dad told me that the lakes were formed back in the ice-age. When the ice melted, there was something called water appeared (Duh!) and they formed the lakes. It was a calm day and every one of them looked like a huge mirror.

Sunrise on Big Lake
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Around the lakes were forests, which were dark green in late summer, orange and yellow in the fall, white in the winter, and bright green in the spring. Forests extended to the horizon, where the mountains were. The top of the mountains were always covered with snow, and the locals used how much of the summits were covered in snow as an indication of future temperature changes. There was this mountain where the local called the Sleeping Lady, which as you might guess, looked like a lady sleeping on her side. The Sleeping Lady was locating at the edge of the Mat-Su Valley, and it was the closest mountain I could see.

There were only 2 seasons in Alaska: winter, and construction season.

Mount McKinley from Big Lake
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Further away, Mount McKinley can be seen clearly. Mount McKinley, or the locals called “Denali”, a name given by the native Alaskans thousands of years ago, was the tallest mountain in North America, standing 20,320 ft (6,194 m) from sea level. Above the mountains was the best sky I have ever seen. It’s the biggest, the bluest, and the cleanest. Even the clouds were prettier than the rest of the world. I lived right by the lake, and my host family had their own dock. I went down there almost everyday because of the stunning view there. The sky was red and orange and yellow and purple, depended on the day. Sometime the sky just looked like it was on fire. It was also amazing to see how the season changed. Most people thought that there were only 2 seasons in Alaska: winter, and construction season. This was not true. As I said earlier, the leaves changed colors depending on the season, and for every color, the lake had its own unique look. The views were never the same. Due to the latitude of Alaska, the length of a day greatly differed. I had some days with 4 hours of sunshine while some days with 19, which the sky would never get completely dark at night.

2 in the morning... enough said.
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Imagine telling kids to go to bed because it's late and they replied, "But it's still bright outside!"

I think I would teach them how to read a clock.