Act3: Discovering Fairbanks

Fairbanks is a very interesting town. To be honest, there is not really much to do here outside the tourist season, today I saw a young Japanese guy walking around a big abandoned tourist trap and he really looked so lonely. Although, exploring the lifestyle of people living in a place whose temperature can go down to -50’F ( -45‘C) (again, notice the “minus” sign!) is quite an experience.

In these days it has been quite warm here, around 40’F (4’C). it means that everything is covered by centimeters (or inches) of mushy melting snow, filled with the little stones they use on the road to improve the car traction. But this is not what I want to talk about. The interesting subject is: THE RESTROOM.

You may think that houses here would have a restroom like anywhere else in the States, BUT… The extremely cold temperature makes running water in houses a luxury, because it is hard to keep water from freezing when it is -50 outside. Some houses get a bunch of water from big filling places into enormous tanks meant to last a month (how they keep the water from freezing there I am not sure yet), and, giving the luxury of running water, many houses have an outside restroom. Apparently it is not that uncommon for laundry stores to have showers inside too, as a service. Now, many houses have outside restrooms in Samoa too, but after all, even if it is raining, you are always in a warm tropical weather. But, can you imagine having to run out of your house when it is -50 degrees, go to the restroom and having to lower down your pants?!? Man! These guys are tuff!!! (This outside restroom is actually made entirely of ice, but they are not all like this one..)

Here comes a trick that may not really solve the problem, but makes the experience a bit less traumatic… the blue foam. If the toilet seat was made of plastic in fact, your butt would probably glow there until summer comes, so “Fairbankers” use these soft bluish plastic foams that actually do not freeze that much and you can still sit in it.

THE CAR WITH A PLUG. The cold weather also made it challenging for car’s ignition to work, and nearly all cars have a plug coming out from the front (I cannot remember how you call the place where the engine is), hanging out like little tongues. And parking lots have electricity outlets like the one you would find in a house where you can plug your car. In Anchorage I also saw an remote car staff. So, as you are walking toward your car, you can turn it on using a remote control, it feels like Kit from super car.

More curiosity about Fairbanks… It was founded in the present place totally by chance. The boat that was sailing up the Tanana river could not sail any farther up and had to download all the building material it was carrying. It soon became a station where gold diggers would come, being formed mainly by men and few women. There was the highest rate of prostitution and saloon in the all country. Today, women are still missing. For a woman looking for a man, they say “the odds are good, but the goods are odd”. For a man looking for a woman they say: “you never loose a girlfriend, you just loose your turn with her”. That says a lot. So, Fairbanks is in a way the antipode of American Samoa, where on my opinion there are very few available guys.

Oh! And the other amazing thing: we are gaining 6 MINUTES of daylight everyday! This means that in 10 days it will be dark ONE HOUR later! This is very crazy and feels funny on your body/sleeping habits.