Whalefest, specifically, the polar plunge, is one of the most talked about events that happens at UAS Southeast. Tons of students and faculty come together to jump into the harbor and drink hot chocolate. Now remind you this is at the beginning of February and we are in Alaska, so it is unbearably cold, but that didn’t stop us. That morning I changed into my bathing suit and then added 2 more layers on top for the walk down to the harbor. When we arrived, there were people clearing ice from the harbor because it had frozen over the night before. Fire fighters were dawning their dry suits, so they could help out in the water. As it got closer to the time to jump more people started to show up and I had to keep reminding myself that I would feel accomplished after doing the plunge.
They split us up into groups of five and sent us down to the end of the dock. All the sidewalks were covered in gravel to keep people from slipping on the ice, but I felt every single rock under my frozen foot as we walked down. But I had no time to think about that pain because as soon as we got to the end, they were counting us down and I had to jump. Leading up to the jump you know the water is going to be ice cold but what you forget is that it’s also the ocean, which is extremely salty. As soon as I entered the water I gasped and took in a mouthful of this said ocean water and was immediately overwhelmed. My body was struggling to make it out of the water, but I eventually did, only to be met with more gravel on the ground for my feet to step on.
We scurried to the top where there were glorious hot tubs filled with warmth. As we sat in the hot tub trying to raise our body temperature, they bestowed medals for us to wear which was pretty neat. The day was far from over there was still a bonfire to be had and ice to be skated. Jumping forward to ice skating I realized how painful it is to fall, which I did multiple times, and led to a significant number of bruises. I didn’t realize how many Alaskan love to ice skate, when I stepped on the shuttle there were so many people who had their own pairs of skates. I was even more surprised when everyone could skate like a professional. Stay tuned for the adventures in Anchorage.