I love Alaska, the final frontier!

YOU CAN'T BEAT THESE PICTURES!!!

Can you believe it? I was in the ‘great last frontier,’ ALASKA! I went there from 10/15 - 10/19/08 for an interview at the Providence Hospital of Anchorage for the Alaska Family Medicine Residency Program (AKFMR).

My first impression: Alaska’s natural beauty is amazing, lots of raw beauty, people are calm and nice, dawn and dusk takes about 2 hours, cold (20F in morning for a guy from CA), simply beautiful!

About AKFMR: the only residency training program in AK serving all of the 660,000 people. Their mission is to train family physicians to serve in rural Alaska. So, that makes a pretty hard core training program.

The first night I got there, I stayed with a first year resident and his roommate, The Accountant. As an introduction to the homegrown subsistence, they cooked me some genuine caribou brats! It was delicious, slightly 'gamey' (as in it tasted like wild animal), but very good! We sat around the table and talked about Alaska, and about how they are both avid fisherman and hunters. They hunt everything that God placed on this green Earth. But, they have respect for environment and the natural cycle, so, they don't just hunt for fun... Alaskans hunt to stock up their freezers so they would have food for the rest of the frozen year to survive the harsh winter. They also fish salmons and freeze them so they have fish for the rest of the year. They plant vegetables and harvest them. They make all their own meals. And… they exercise no matter its windy, snowy, icy, or when it is below zero!

Halibut Sandwish at Seward; Cajun blackened salmon

The second day I drove down to Seward in the Kenai peninsula. I drove along the ocean and took pictures of mountains reflections, bald eagles, beaver dams, glaciers, icebergs, swamps... I also went through the cool 2.5 mile tunnel in Portage to go to the sleepy sea town of Whittier. Then, I visited the wild life preserve at Girdwood. (I was surprised at how small the musk-oxs are!) Then, I went and toured around the town of Seward... I also ate a very delicious halibut sandwich at a little deli in town. That night, The Accountant taught me how to make 'Cajun blacken' silver-salmon that he caught earlier in the year. It was delicious... um, um, um... you have to be there.

The tunnel from Portage Glacier to Whittier

Going to the Kenai; Bald eagle sitting on the branches!

The next day, Friday, it was my scheduled interview at the hospital. I got there at 7:30 am and the day was started by meeting new people, staff, residents, and the program director. We were presented with all sorts of information about the program and all the in's and out's. We were also taken on a detailed tour of the hospital facility. Then comes lunch... then interviews. The hospital is brand new and beautiful with all new equipments. The interview was very good, had good conversations with all my three interviewers. That night, the residents threw us a welcome party at the house.

The day after, I drove up to Talkeetna, where it is called "Doorway to Denali" and "Home of the bush pilots." It also is a town pretty much like the town in the TV show, Northern Exposure. Here you can actually see Mt. McKinnley, which is the tallest mountain in North America, towering over 20,000 feet!

I am very pleasantly surprised by the natural beauty of the State of Alaska, its people (or the lack of people), and with the residency program. I will return!