Transplanting to Alaska from Louisiana in 10 years (pharmacy, teacher)

[Magic Qwan]

My step-brother wants to come, now! Thinking about it, Anchorage itself is a little bigger than I thought. Are there some smaller towns within about 20 minutes? That would be a bit more practical for somebody from a smaller town, like myself. I live about 20 minutes from the nearest urban center and that seems about right for me. Anchorage is only slightly too large, so I'd probably still be happy if there wasn't anything smaller within a 20 minute drive, but it would be nice if there was.

[Magic Qwan]

School is almost back in session and I was wondering what the career outlook was for geographers in the area. I plan on that being my major and would like to know if that is in higher demand or not in the area. By the way, it was finally cooler these past few days, but I was too sick to enjoy it! Isn't that a burn?

[Magic Qwan]

I just looked up the water temperature at the US NODC website, your water temperature in July is our water temperature in January. 58 is really cold water where I live. Most people I know can handle down to 85 degrees and up to 120 for water. I'm a little better with cold water- been down to 75, but that felt about as cold of water as I could stand. If your wondering when it was that cool, it was when we filled the pool for the first time and I took the temperature coming out of the hose. Does the air around you affect the way water feels? I know it was a miserable 115 that day, so the heat index must have been around 225 degrees. This actually shocks me, becuase even though I know the humidity on that day was 80% or close, as my area never leaves that range, and as we were having a heat wave, 10 degrees above average for that time of year (this was last August), I had no idea that I had survived that high of a heat index! I even looked up for verification that day in particular so I could give the exact HI. I had just mowed then, half an acre. I guess I always knew that it felt hot as an oven in a metaphorical sense, but know I know that it literally felt like an oven due to HI. No wonder so many of my friends and family died last summer! 105 to 115 is a huge difference.

I might have already awnsered my own question, but does air temperature affect appearent water tempurature? As far as air temperature goes, I wouldn't care to see another summer day again, but I'd miss swimming. What would be warm water to you would be ice water to me if not…

(seeing as how summer nearly never ends here, I guess I'll have to see another day.)

[Magic Qwan]

Because the edit feature wouldn't post my edit, I'll just tack on a brief message here. I was a little low on my guess for the average, non-heat wave heat index. It is normally between 158.2 and 186.6, so 255 was exceptional even for here. I knew it was high, but not that high, so when I looked up the day we filled the pool last August, that high of a number caught me off guard.

[duckieee]

Just as an FYI, you may not be able to afford to go to a college or university in Alaska, but go to a state school wherever you are that participates in National Student Exchange (NSE) and you can spend a quarter/semester to a full year at a school in a different state as long as the school you go to participates in NSE and a school in Alaska does. Which I know at least one Alaska university does. And you pay instate tuition and room and board. A lot of college students come down to Washington through NSE. It's pretty much the in country equivilent to studying abroad.

[Magic Qwan]

Originally Posted by duckieee

Just as an FYI, you may not be able to afford to go to a college or university in Alaska, but go to a state school wherever you are that participates in National Student Exchange (NSE) and you can spend a quarter/semester to a full year at a school in a different state as long as the school you go to participates in NSE and a school in Alaska does. Which I know at least one Alaska university does. And you pay instate tuition and room and board. A lot of college students come down to Washington through NSE. It's pretty much the in country equivilent to studying abroad.

Ok, I'll look into it, but I have a feeling I already did. Isn't based on the region of US? Did they change it to have the whole US as one system? If it is still based on region, the south central US is far away from the pacific northwest.

[duckieee]

Originally Posted by Magic Qwan

Ok, I'll look into it, but I have a feeling I already did. Isn't based on the region of US? Did they change it to have the whole US as one system? If it is still based on region, the south central US is far away from the pacific northwest.

I know in the western states, Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) is a regional thing where you can spend your entire collegiate career at a school in a different state in the western areas for instate tuition. That might be something along the lines of what you have found.

National Student Exchange is across the US, and rather than being able to spend your entire collegiate career in a different state for instate tuition, it's a term or an academic year in a different state in the US, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. A lot of people don't hear about it ever because the majority of people prefer to study abroad on a different continent. But HERE is the link for the overview of NSE. I've only met 2 people at the 2 different universities I've attended that have done NSE, and they really liked it. It'd be worth checking out and seeing if you can do that!

[stuckupnorth]

Sky is the limit come while you can and work here. I'll trade for some of that LA weather

[Magic Qwan]

Sounds good. That AK summer doesn't look too shabby right now, either.

[Magic Qwan]

4 more years, now.