As of yesterday, I really needed a day off from the monotony of sleep-study-class at UAA-sleep routine. My eye was starting to do this weird twitchy thing from always feeling stressed and inadequate in my results from this class. I know I'm only about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way there, but I feel like I should be scoring 10-20% higher than I am considering how much I study and how hard I try. Ok, finished whining.
At any rate, the whole experience was getting tedious, I was beginning to resent my presence here and my lot in life. Luckily we had the day off from class because we took a simulated essay exam on Thursday (which I felt OK about at the time, but upon checking the answers found like I more or less BOMBED, oh well).
So I decided to get out of Anchorage for a few hours. I had several choices for day trips including heading south to Seward/Kenai area or heading north toward Denali. The southern route was guaranteed to be crowded with folks on their way to Seward for the July 4 festivities, so I decided to drive up to the Matanuska glacier about 40 miles past Wassilla. The drive was FABULOUS. After about 45 minutes of sunny skies, fresh air, and great scenery my eye had stopped twitching and I found myself really enjoying the wide open spaces and listening to mediocre Top 40 on the radio.
According to my UB in NYC classmate/the only geophysicist I know, Matanuska is the largest glacier on Earth that is accessible to people. This picture was taken a few miles from the state park area and it's already pretty impressive.
The ubiquitous self-portrait. (Do you like my haircut? I got it at the new Great Clips near Target for $5.99 and it's still 100% better than the $20 haircut I got at the Aveda hair school in SoHo.)
Once I got to the state park area I headed out for a short hike with a few places to stop and see the glacier and mountains. It was only a 1 mile hike, but after weeks of sitting still to study and being indoors or in vehicles it was so nice to be outside and moving around. The only drawback were the mosquitos, which I did not anticipate being a problem so didn't bring bug spray. They made a feast out of my arms and shoulders, which made taking pictures difficult. I pretty much hauled ass back to the car after a certain point because the bugs were getting to me.
I took the rest of the day off as well to chill at home, watch a movie, and make myself a good dinner. So today I'm trying to make up for lost time by doing extra MBE practice questions in preparation for my simulated MBE on Tuesday. Tonight there's fireworks downtown and I think I might treat myself to a movie beforehand. In all not a bad weekend and just trying to make the most of the great weather without completely abandoning my studies.
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