Today is September 29th, 2011...a thursday. I have just come back from my fantastic trip to Alaska which I took last month!! Alaska is an amazing place that you all should visit sometime in your life!This was a business trip (and a very long one) but it was a very unique and fun experience. On my buissness trip, I stayed in Anchorage, Alaska. (I got this pamphlet that told me all about the climate in Anchorage and the others around it.)Let me tell you, Barrow is the place to go if you want continuous day....and night. In the middle of the summer it's hot and sunny for days straight. It finally gets to the point where it was like regular days here in New York, though. You see, in the very top of Alaska, Barrow, it is continually sunny for about 75..80 days. In the winter, it's continually dark and snowy for about 2 months. In Anchorage the average high termperatures hover around 20 - 70 degrees. I was there in the summer and it was about 50...65 degrees about every day for the high temperature.
Alaska has 591,004 square miles of land which is a LOT! Imagine comparing it to the U.S. It would be gigantic! I looked this up for you guys. I hope you enjoy this. Click on the link and it will show you Alaska compared to the U.S. You can also compare other states of the U.S. to Alaska! http://www.birds-eye-view.alaska.edu/ch2/story2-3.htm
Alaska has a population of roughly 700,000. Alaska is the biggest state in the whole U.S.! That is so crazy! Texas is the second largest but has more than 10 times as many people as Alaska does. Alaska is a huge state with a small amount of people. Rhode Island which is the smallest state has roughly 1,000,000 people in it. It makes no sense how Alaska, the biggest state, could have such a small population. Coming from New York, it felt kind of lonley and almost like a ghost town there to me though...spooky....According to http://www.ers.usda.gov/, 213,829 people live in the rural area of Alaska and 478,402 people live in the urban area. You can definently see the difference...that's why it's so lonley in the rural area...
While I was in Alaska I did some touring of it. I mean, why wouldn't you? I saw tons of mountains, summits, peaks...whatever you would call them... streams and rivers too. I know that it's probably really weird to be telling you this but there are a LOT! Plus there's only 1 volcano too. A super cool fact is that there are 2,705 islands in Alaska. Wow! Alaska also has lots of lakes and bays as well. If you would like to see the exact number of each of those awesome features that Alaska's surface has, check this website out. http://alaska.hometownlocator.com/features/Alaska is a small state but that doesen't mean that it has a small economy. Most of the fish/seafood that we eat is from Alaska...especially the salmon. Oh..ho ho.....that salmon is the best that you can get anywhere especially fresh there, that's for sure. Alaska also produces oil and petroleum. Plus trees, barley, potatoes and oats. I also looked into jobs there for my sister, Kim, and I found out that if money for federal government jobs or the petroleum jobs...more than half of the population would lose their jobs. The employments of the people living in Alaska are rounded to about 1/3 of the population per a certain job or certain jobs. 1/3 of the population work with petroleum. Another third's population works in the federal government and the other works with fish packing, managing, tourism, etc.
I was getting kind of bored with work especially in a new and different state, you know. So I went to this museum and I learned all about Alaska. Did you know that the first people to live in Alaska came around 20,000 BC? To the left, there is a picture of the bering strait. The land in the top right corner in Alaska and the other is Europe Pretty cool, I'd say... The battle of sitka happened in 1802 in Alaska. It's suppossed to be an important event but I have to no clue what it is...There were gold discoveries and rushes in Alaska in 1880, 1897, 1899 and 1902! That's a lot!!!
Now I know that a lot of you would assume that in Alaska, they speak English. And you're right...they do! But they also speak a lot of other languages. I figured that out very quickly when I was talking to someone in English and they didn't respond in English but in another language.... Some of those languages are dying and some less than 20 people even speak it...which is kind of sad if you would agree with me. The people who work in the tourist centers speak Tagolog, Spanish, Japanese and German. The rest of the languages that the people of Alaska speak are Eskimo-Aleut, Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit or also know as Na-Dene, Eyak, Alskan Tsimshian, Alaskan Haida, Holikachuk, Tanana, Tlingit, Ahta, Ingalik, Koyukan, and the language Han.
Awesome Fun Facts!
-This is the Alaskan Flag. This flag represenets stars in the blue sky. The big dipper and the north star. What's really cool is that a 7th grader designed the flag by winning a flag design contest.-17 of the highest mountains in North America are in Alaska! Pretty cool!!
- One of the contests in Alaska is the cabbage contest. The largest cabbage evergrown there was 98 pounds!! This record was set in 1980, in Palmer, Alaska at the state fair.-North America's largest earthquake ever was recorded on the richter scale a 8.6 in Alaska which has been updated to be a 9.2 earthquake!
A Few Alaskan Words and American Words:
-Alaskan Horse - Large and lots of mosquitos.
-Chum - Dog Salmon
-Southeast Sneaker- Brown Rain boots worn "just in case" of rain or because of rain.
Alaska what a really fun place to visit so I encourage you all to visit sometime as well! I hope you have fun reading my blog...! Have a great day!!!
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Resources:
1. http://www.alaska.com/about/weather/
2. http://www.city-data.com/states/Alaska-Location-size-and-extent.html
3. http://www.welcometoalaska.com/facts.htm,
http://www.texasalmanac.com/topics/population,
http://www.city-data.com/states/Rhode-Island-Population.html
4. http://www.ers.usda.gov/StateFacts/AK.HTM
5. http://alaska.hometownlocator.com/features/
6. http://www.alaskaseconomy.org/files/UA_RS_13.pdf
7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska
8. http://www.akhistorycourse.org/timelines/pre1741.php, http://www.beringstraitcrossing.com/overview.htm
9. http://www.alaska.com/2008/10/20/1869/what-language-do-alaskans-speak.html, http://www2.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF4/419.html
10. http://www.welcometoalaska.com/facts.htm, http://www.alaska.com/about/weather/
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Picture Resources:
http://www.alaskaoutdoors.com/maps_travel.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alaska_population_map.png
http://www.climateshifts.org/?p=3161
http://www.beringstraitcrossing.com/overview.htm
http://www.welcometoalaska.com/facts.htm
http://www.alaska.com/about/weather
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