Fleeting Wor(l)ds

Summary

1. Habits
2. Childhood time
3. Reading
4. Lunch
5. Board Games
6. Snack
7. Screen Time
8. Diner
9. Creative Activities

Because I am sure there are millions of ways to travel, we can escape even in 100 feet square, we can recreate American in the middle of nowhere; in those weird quarantined times, I got the idea to create a file “Special Quarantine”: A reachable world. Following my wandering steps for eight months, I am offering you to stop by Ireland, Iceland, Alaska, some Western provinces of Canada, some united American States; sprinkling clothes opinions, cooking ideas, books / music / movies advice, and other surprises…

Spring is forgotten, it has chosen rain, grey sun and sad clouds to grace our April sky. Then, let’s keep playing with seasons and fly to lands where nights rise eight months a year, let’s blossom our day in our imaginations. I could choose the season when daylight lasts 24 hours a day, but then I would have to recreate both Mount Denali and Lake Kathleen’s grandiosity in your living-room to enable you to climb, it would only feed your quarantined frustration. Let’s keep dreaming then… Let’s fly to GREAT NORTH OF AMERICA!

I take it wide; if my Great North mostly contains Alaska (US), my true soul illumination where I spent a couple of months, I take some liberties to include Yukon Territories (CA) that I fleetingly crossed. Of course some cultural differences remain – one was touched by Russia and forges by the US, one was drawn by British Empire – but their essences look alike, Native Tribes have their own borders no matter the straight line on the map, trees have their own language drawing the same untamed painting. I allow myself one last impertinence, I will sometimes share my own Far North, the one I experienced without being utterly Alaskan, the one linked to people I met.

What power art thou, who from below
Hast made me rise unwillingly and slow
From beds of everlasting, everlasting snow
See’st thou not how stiff, how stiff and wondrous old
Far unfit to bear the bitter cold
I can scarcely move or draw my breath
I can scarcely move or draw my breath
Let me, let me freeze again
Let me, let me freeze again to death
Let me, let me freeze again to death

Henri Purcel, King Arthur

Welcome to My Great North of America!

1. Playing with codes

2. Reaching your inner child

I think in those peculiar times, full of doubts, fears, anxiety, slump and lock down, we all need to go back to some sweeter and carefree time that only childhood feelings might give.

I therefore first offer two cartoons you may use as magic potions.

The first time I met Alaska, I didn’t even know it. I was 6 and I discovered, heart lighted, our favorite slug dog: Balto. 
The cartoon tells, in a very romanticized way of course, a real even that happened in 1925: the famous Great Race of Mercy towards Nome (AK). Following the mythical Iditarod Trail, slug dogs led by Balto, were this Little isolated village’s salvation as it was in the midst of diphteria. Iditarod Race still celebrates every year the successful expedition.
If the action precisely takes place in Alaska, it actually shows a tradition common to both polar areas since Yukon Territories knows their own race: the Yukon Quest.

This Disney cartoon takes place in North America during post-iced era, without fully giving the location. Names give us clues though, for instance the main character most likely named after the Kenai Peninsula (South Alaska). Inuit legends used to tell all living creatures were created by Spirits, pictured by aurores. We thus follow Kenai’s journey of initiation, who needs, in order to become a man, to achieve the symbol of his totem animal, the Bear of love. We then look at the world through this strange animal’s eyes, as afraid as us as we are of it. We kind of become a bit of Brother Bear as well.

I then invite you to this reinvented “spot the difference” game. In the Great North I discovered, I faced animals I had never seen, only in pictures; there, they were before me, sometimes close sometimes far, in flesh and hair, and I often got confused. Therefore, here is a funny game to recognize and identify them:

Rule n° 1: Match the right specie to the right picture.
A Serie: Moose – Caribou – Wapiti (or Elk) – Black-Tailed Deer
B Serie: Kodiac Brown Bear – Black Bear – Polar Bear – Grizzly Bear

Rule n°2: Match the right ID to the right specie.
A Serie: CERVIDAE
Ruminant mammals, you can find cervidae’s heads as a trophy on any Northern Wall. In the wilderness, they are moving alone or with their families and are, most of the time, completely harmless (except sometimes for moose). You can meet them everywhere: in town, in your garden, on the side of the road! Except for me apparently… I wouldn’t say I didn’t see any during my wandering, but I still wait to meet a Blue Bull Moose!
a) I am the only cervid specie for whose both male and female grow antlers. The peculiar shape of my front antlers allow me to dig through the snow in tundra. In some regions, I might be called a reindeer (yes, like Santa’s).
b) Some call me an ugly horse, I mostly live in swamps, I don’t have very good eyes but have very good ears. Some might also say I am not the smartest animal, but let’s be honest I have a very big head for a very small brain. If you run into me in wilderness, flee away as fast as you can, I will probably not be able to run after you, my too big antlers will slow me down.
c) I am the second biggest cervid in the world. Like my friends, I have velvet on my antlers. I used to live across all North hemisphere a long time ago, my habitat has now shrunk to America and Eastern Asia, but there is more of my kind in Oceania even though this not my homeland.
d) I thrive on the edge of the forest, as the dark forest lacks the underbrush and grasslands I prefer as food, and completely open areas lack the hiding spots and cover I prefer for harsh weather. I often am most active at dawn and dusk, and am frequently involved in collisions with automobiles.

B Serie: BEARS
Contrary to popular belief, bears don’t normally just attack for no reason. It is important to realize bears are as afraid of people as we are of them. They usually attack people because they were startled and not as a food source. Most attacks happen in the spring time because famished bears have just finished their hibernation and are most likely to be startled by human presence. Bears that attack people are usually killed not only because the fact they attacked someone, but they say once a bear has tasted human they now associate them with food. Bears will also eat other bears.
a) I have a pronounced hump on my back, the tip of my fur takes some lighter colors that can make me look grizzled. I tend to be found the most aggressive ; first, because it has to do with individual personality, but also because if you bother me in the beginning of spring time and that I am starving, you must not be surprised I am in a bad mood! Therefore, if you run into me into the wild, run or I’ll eat you!
b) Part of the largest land carnivores currently in existence, my body characteristics are adapted for cold temperatures, for moving across snow, ice and open water, and for hunting seals, which make up most of my diet. Although I was born on land, I spend most of my time on the sea ice, which explains why my scientific name means “maritime bear”. Endangered specie, it is forbidden to hunt me except for Native Alaskan for whom it is part of ancient traditions.
c) I am one of the smallest specie of bears and I am therefore often killed by other bears when we are competing for a food source. I love to eat plants but I am also often in the same areas that people are because I looove their food, this is why more people are attacked by my specie. If you run into me in your garden, act like gorilla, for some reasons, it makes me want to run away.
d) I love salmon and berries. I mostly live in Southern Alaska. I tend to get larger than other bears because I have a higher protein diet and I am not dealing with the colder northern temperatures. I you run into me, don’t run away, it will give me the idea to chase and eat you, make a lot of noise instead and slowly walk away.

BONUS: Spot the bogey.
Among all those pictures, spot the intruder(s).
Give the reason why it is not totally an intruder considering my journey.
Tell me how those animals fight each other.
Clue: Answers to those questions might be found in my Alaskan tales (post with the name of this animal): Forget me not

Quizz answers further below

Photos: source internet

A Serie: CERVIDAE

B Serie: BEARS

Besides, I add to this fun part, a video game found as I was looking for informations for this post: Never Alone, first game developed in collaboration with the Iñupiat, an Alaska Native people. Nearly 40 Alaska Native elders, storytellers and community members contributed to the development of the game. You play as a young Iñupiat girl and an arctic fox as they set out to find the source of the eternal blizzard which threatens the survival of everything they have ever known.

I finally propose to make a little apartment trampoline (only possible if you are quarantined with other people). Indeed, an Alaskan tradition, the Nalukataq (or “blanket toss”), tells some Inuit hunters used to support a seal skin on which was bouncing one of them allowing them to have a better look on whales. Best jumpers could go as high as 10 meters! Today, Nalukataq is part of some Inuit festivals and of course the World Eskimo Indian Olympics – among other crazy activities like carrying weight with your ears if there are any volunteer…!
For now, if you really fell reckless (which would be against our current rules), you might create your own version of Nalukataq: instead of a seal skin, take a regular blanket and make somebody bounce in it (3-4 participants minimum).

3. Some of written journeys

I am offering here my personal non-exhaustive list, based on my own reading (or not, because, against my habits, I didn’t read a lot during those eight months wandering, I was too busy writing myself and living in flesh and blood). If you wish, you might find more polar novels on this website.

* The call of the wild, Jack London: It is, without doubt, THE iconic book of a region – Yukon Territories – and of an era – the Gold Rush -. It is so iconic that I must confess I haven’t read it… Yet, I feel called myself, by this wilderness I miss so much, by those poetry of another time, and instead of losing myself in vain word, I will quote Jack London:
“But especially he loved to run in the dim twilight of the summer midnight, listening to the subdued and sleepy murmurs of the forest, reading signs and sounds as a man may read a book, and seeking for the mysterious something that called — called, waking or sleeping, at all times, for him to come.”
[As matter of fact, Chris Sander made a movie out of it and might be found on internet. As for me, I won’t watch it before I have read the book.]

* Tisha, told by Robert Specht : Unfinished reading of my travel, we follow Anne Hobbs’s story, a teacher (mispronounced by little Native Alaskan as Tisha) fresh arrived from Oregon, she discovers harsh and unfair life up North. Natives and White Men coexist and don’t understand each others, most of the time judging each others. The storyteller never judges though, never really takes sides and tells her story with a lot of self-deprecation. She gives a vision with no filter of this foreign land that and where she falls in love with.

* Inuit Mythology, Evelyn Wolfson: Storytellers told two kinds of stories: ancient and recent. Ancient stories told about encounters with animals in human form, and about witches and sea goddesses. Recent tales included the adventures of hunters on land and sea–stories about courage, strength, vanity, and conceit.

4. In between two llamas

You feel a bit hungry but not for a very big meal and you really don’t want to lose a minute of this mesmerizing Great North, it will then be a quick snack for lunch: quesadillas. It is not Alaskan tradition at all (it is more related to close bounds between Mexico and the US), but it always brings me back to Alaska since I ate some for the first time over there. Once I had tasted it, it became my first-best in between a hug for Stormy and a walk for King Bob: you take two burrito, spread a lot of cheese (orange cheddar preferably), pill up the two burrito like a sandwich and cook in a pan on low heat, you have to get the perfect balance between melted cheese and soft burrito… if the burrito gets too crunchy, you are screwed! Eat with a nice salad in order to get your five greens per day.
NB: You can add whatever you want to cheese: vegetables, bacon, ham, peppers, etc…

5. Recreation with Adrienne

For the record, Adrienne was the Nautti Otter’s manager, where I worked away in Kenai Peninsula. Adrienne is very fond of board games! She spent long nights with Nur (another workawayer) playing a card game called “Shut Out”, fondly renamed “Fuck You“. My first wish was to share the rules with you but when I asked Adrienne, she was unable to explain… Here is what I managed to get:

If not, here are Adrienne’s favorite games:
Qwirkle
Set
Dobble

6. Sweet Time with Aggie

As my stay at Hannah’s had just started, she just had a heavy surgery and her mom was there to help with Charlie. Aggie then baked some sweets that changed my life forever. I thus share the recipe with you in order to change your life too!

HELLO DOLLY COOKIES
10oz / 280g condensed milk
1 cup / 180 g coconut
1 cup / 150g chocolate chips
1 demi bâton / 55g butter
1 cup / 150g vanilla wafers or Graham Crakers
Some chosen nuts, Aggie’s favorite: pecan

DIRECTION
Melt butter in a cake pan. Put in layer of wafer crumbs, layer of coconut, layer of chocolate chips. Pour milk on top. May add layer of nuts. Bake 30 minutes à 180°C / 350°F oven.

You may play some music to cheer this little baking time, Into the Wild‘s soundtrack, or an Alaskan group for instance.

7. Big or little screen with Hannah

Once all animals were fed, Charlie was asleep, night had risen – earlier and earlier! As a matter of fact, it is a really strange thing to spend fall time in Alaska, when I landed in Anchorage mid-August, it was barely dark before 11 p.m; a month later, day was over around 7 p.m, we were loosing up to 15 minutes A DAY! Once the night had risen then – , time was meant to meet Hannah in her living-room, always followed by a beer and cradled by a movie that we barely watched, liking better the sound of our own secrets.

For the beer, depending on what continent you are on, there is little chance you find Alaskan products… If you are lucky go for the Alaskan Brewing Company. If you are not and you still want to get closer to our taste, choose an IPA (favorite Americans’ beer) or a White (I don’t like IPA and there are good Alaskan White beers).

A for your screen, Hannah loves thrillers, the two options will therefore be for strong stomachs:

* Hannibal (TV show), Bryan Fuller: Before anything, I need to clarify this TV show has nothing to do with the Far North (the action sets in Minnesota), there is no hidden message “be careful, Northern people are savage eating each other!”, however the organic atmosphere still reminds a bit of a certain idea of wilderness that applies to Northern territories. And I couldn’t not mention it when it is so related to my stay at Hannah’s and my own Alaska.
Characters and elements appearing in Thomas Harris’ novels Red Dragon, Hannibal, and Hannibal Rising with focus on the relationship between FBI special investigator Will Graham and Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a forensic psychiatrist destined to become Graham’s most cunning enemy and at the same time, the only person who can understand him. I must confess this not (really not) the kind of TV show I usually watch. First, because it would give me nightmares and then because the TV show loses some qualities (according to me) at some point… Note, however, Mads Mikkelsen’s good performance and some other good actors (actresses need to work some more though!)

* The frozen ground, Scott Walker : Based on the crimes of the real-life Alaskan serial killer Robert Hansen, the film depicts an Alaskan State Trooper seeking to apprehend Hansen by partnering with a young woman who escaped from Hansen’s clutches. The action is set, actors play their part and you follow the move, a bit disturbed, of this gasping thriller (we did watch the entire movie!)

Or not…

Because I have some propositions to balance the aforementioned dark atmosphere, and they are not fully related to Hannah.

* Klondike (miniseries), Simon Cellan Jones: Based on Charlotte Gray’s novel Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich in the Klondike, the TV show follows two explorers’ adventures, seeking for their identity, as they finally decide to join other gold diggers in 1890 Yukon Territories. Telling with great truth the White Men’s arrival in those remote lands where First Nations had been spared until then. You can feel this territory’s strange energy ruled by other laws then modern society knew and you understand better why those lands still get such a peculiar feeling nowadays. You meet those who made the Yukon, and still kinda define it today: the outlaw, the idealist, the whore, the explorer, the preacher, the dreamer (Jack London before his call of the wild)… All looking for the same thing in their own way: the meaning of life.

The Proposal, Anne Fletcher: In a lighter genre and if you like romcom, this movie setting Sandra Bullock as Margaret Tate might be your choice. Margaret forces her assistant, Andrew Paxton, to marry her so she is not sent back to Canada. He agrees at the condition she makes him an editor after their marriage. Because immigration controls suspect them, they have to spend a weekend together in order to make it realer and the couple travels to Sitka (AK), Andrew’s hometown, to meet his family.

Into the wild, Sean Penn: I couldn’t make this non-exhaustive list without mentioning Sean Penn’s movie. Even if I must confess that 1) I didn’t really like it the first time I watched it but my memory is blurry (I wanted to refresh my mind but my overbooked quarantined didn’t leave me a minute), 2) Alaskan people have a very cold opinion about the real story it is made off. You will then make you own mind… Just graduated from college, Christopher McCandless, 22, decide to hit the road, leaving everything behind. Across the US, he reaches his goal when he explores Alaskan wilderness alone, in order to live in total communion with nature.

Last tiny proposition that I haven’t watched but stroke me as interesting: Wildlike, Frank Hall Green

8. Family meal with Charity

When I was in Alaska, I got a chance to taste meat I would never have pictured as such: moose, deer, caribou. I understand that from our supposedly “civilized” world, it might sound chocking to say I loved it. But let me give you some context: it is very hard to grow anything in both Alaska and Yukon Territory, all the food available in grocery stores is quite expensive (everything is imported from Canada in Alaska or travel long distances in both cases), people therefore use their natural ressources, fishing or hunting, which is part part of being closer to the nature they have voted for.
In Hannah’s family, they hunt one moose and one deer (and/or one caribou) per year, they share some pieces with family and neighbors, and she can feed on this meat for the entire year. This is why moose replaced beef in my Alaskan dishes (and I am not usually a big meat eater).

For tonight, I doubt you have moose in your fridge, I will then go back to the Great North other ressource: fishing. Oceans are full of cod and halibut (I fished some by a seasick day), rivers and lakes are full of salmons. I know you are less likely to get American fish and this is not the point. The idea is to keep with the theme and prepare some of those fish dishes (I am about to start thinking my wandering was led by my love of salmon so often I offer salmon dishes!). You may improvise or chose what Charity (a workawayer) cooked for my last night in Seward.

TEMPURA BATTER
2 cups Flour
1 Tablespoon Baking powder
1tspoon Garlic powder
Salt and pepper
1/2 tspoon Basil
1 Egg 
about 2 cups Milk

DIRECTION
Mix together these liquids in a separate bowl.
Add this liquid to all the dry ingredients and blend together, it should be a soupy batter and you can add a piece of fish with fork and pull it out covered, place gently into hot oil. If it is too thick to do this procedure easily with fish ,just add more milk and blend together.

9. Northern Lights

I gazed at my first (and only) Northern lights last August and the colors waltz’s memory still travels me to beautiful daydreams. It was so unexpected in the middle of August! I was on the edge of Hannah’s ridge, nearby Denali. I was admiring Alaska dark immensity and I was drowned by a beautiful green hemmed by exceptional pinks.

I had that crazy dream, in order to end this day, to be able to recreate Northern Lights in your living room with light effects and everything… But I’ll need to lower my ambitions down, except if you want to try this questionable experiment!

But because my creativity is endless, I still give you some alternatives…

First, if you want to learn more about auroras, you might give a look to this website.

Then, you may feed yourself some dreams with one of those documentaries:

I eventually still propose to recreate your own Northern Lights in your living room! In order to do so, it is easy:
* Draw a large mural of Northern lights following this video‘s advice
* Light up a fire if you have a fireplace, dim your lights, colore them with a soft green if you wish (colored bulbs, fabrics, etc…)
* Turn on your favorite music or fill the air with night sounds
* Gaze at your masterpiece, on the edge of a book or a glass of wine, your hand in your quarantined companion’s hand there is one

Reading tip for your night aurora:
His Dark Material, Philip Pullman : Although it has been marketed as young adult fiction, Pullman wrote with no target audience in mind. The first volume, Northern Lights (or The Gold Compas in North America) is mostly set in the North Pole – at Svalbard to be precise –, far from America then… Yet my teenage memories of this trilogy utterly cradled my Northern Wandering and this is the reason why I invite you to read it under you own aurora. It follows the coming of age of two children, Lyra Belacqua (who first name refers to a small constellation visible in temperate northern latitudes shortly after midnight at the start of summer) and Will Parry, as they wander through a series of parallel universes.

Sweet dreams to you all! 

If you wish to keep wandering through
this Great North of America,
read my Northern diaries

Forget me not
On the road

Quizz answers

Read More

Cervidae : Moose : 1/b – Caribou 5/a – Wapiti (or Elk) 2/c – Black-tailed deer 3/d
Bears : Kodiac Brown Bear 4/d – Black Bear 1/c – Polar Bear 5/b – Grizzly Bear 3/a
Intruder : llama (4-5). Because I worked in llama ranch last September. Llamas don’t fight, they spit at each other.