My next trip was to Alaska, where I spent Christmas and New Year with the Fugere family. Rather than facing the long, COVID stricken journey back to the United Kingdom, I had been invited by my close friend and fellow exchange student, Riley Fugere, to spend time with his lovely family in Alaska. Riley is a National Student Exchange (NSE) student from Anchorage, Alaska who is spending the year at Sonoma State. I decided that staying here in the US and visiting a very unique state for Christmas would be a great perhaps once in a lifetime experience. Although I knew it would be very strange missing my family and friends back home, especially my mum and Grandma's Christmas dinner, I thought it would be a great opportunity to try something different. Christmas in a different country means different traditions; for instance, I found out that pigs in blankets are not the sausages in bacon I love, but just sausage in a pastry! Christmas is also not really a thing over here. However, seeing how an American family celebrated Christmas was very exciting to me, especially in the winter wonderland of Alaska.
As soon as Riley mentioned the idea of me coming to visit Alaska, I was so excited to experience the iconic winter wonderland. I was not very prepared for this trip as I had only packed my year abroad suitcase full of clothing items suited to the shorts and t-shirts weather of California. This resulted in my getting off the plane at Anchorage airport in shorts and a sunhat when the temperature was a cruel -25 degrees Celsius (equating to -13 degrees Fahrenheit for you Americans). Riley had also been very reluctant to tell me about the four hours of daylight that the state receives in the wintertime when I arrived. I was beginning to think, “What the heck have I got myself into?!” To save money on plane tickets, I arrived a day before Riley and rather wholesomely spent the time doing jigsaw puzzles with his mum and momma Fuguguee, as Riley calls her. I fast learnt that the way the locals beat the cold of the harsh Alaskan winter was to not go outside! The main thing I certainly couldn’t complain about was the guaranteed White Christmas that was in store, as there was a constant thick crystal white blanket that covered every surface outside.
Riley arrived and the fun began, sledging down massive hills, cross-country skiing, tubing down ramps, running on snow-filled icy roads, snowmobiling, and Nordic Skiing. I had never skied before in my life and Riley was in no position to have the patience to teach me, so he decided to only give me a few ‘key’ pointers on the ski lift up to the top of a massive mountain. “David there are just a few things you need to know….” He said, “There is the French fry position, which you use to go, and there is the pizza position, which you use to stop. “And lastly, when you get off the ski lift at the top of the hill you need to jump down the small slope. THREE, TWO, ONE, JUMP!!!!” I immediately found myself having fallen down at the bottom of a relatively tiny little slope at the top of the hill. What a great start! After eventually making my way to my feet, I then dawned down the huge side of the mountain that I had to ski down with no experience. Basically, my first run was a disaster, but I made it down in one piece and then straight away went all the way back up to the top to do it all again. I really enjoyed skiing after I got the hang of it a few runs in and it was a great first experience in the end! I’ll just assume Riley knew what he was doing with his teaching methods, but I will get him back one day!
Snowmobiling was another activity that I had never done before and papa Fugere was very keen to take me out on a day trip, despite Riley’s hate with a passion for the sport! Riding the snowmobiles proved to be a lot simpler than I first thought, until riding over a frozen lake that began to crack! One of the snowmobiles got stuck in the panic and we had to pull it out of the lake. This was just all part of the true Alaskan experience. Papa Fugere has a real passion for snowmobiling and was constantly giving out tips and tricks.
In the Fugere household, it is tradition to go to the Christmas Eve Mass at the Christian Church, where Papa Fugere plays on the drums in the Christmas concert. He had a mean drum solo that finished off the night! Christmas day then arrived and after opening presents in the morning we tucked into a traditional Alaskan Christmas dinner featuring a moose meat jacket potato, followed by gingerbread men making for dessert. This was a very nice change of tradition and a lovely family fun experience! A few days later we celebrated the New year with fireworks at a friend’s house because it is legal to set fireworks off in your own garden in the state of Alaska. Here I met Riley’s friend’s dad with whom I had many interesting conversations about his military days travelling across Europe and actually witnessing the Berlin Wall in Germany being torn down. Overall, my trip to Alaska was a very unique and amazing, perhaps once in a lifetime, experience that I will never forget! Thank you so much to the Fugere family for adopting me as another son! My sister back home was very jealous that I had two new brothers and a sister to replace her for the Holidays.