More on the second day in Dillingham

First, I'll start by trying to answer a few questions. Although I can see Nushagak Bay from my living room window, there are no belugas visible from "Beluga Bluffs." And I haven't started work yet. I start September 2nd, the day after Labor Day. I have driven by the courthouse building, but I don't plan to go down and meet anyone there until tomorrow.

No, today was a mostly lazy day. We got up, and had a breakfast of apples. Then we watched a bit of television. Samara wanted to go shopping. I wanted to balance the checkbook. I won. Turns out, we're pretty much broke from moving, which sucks.

Samara called Shelley at the hospital to let her know that she was in town. Shelley seemed to react as though Samara was her long-lost friend. That seemed like a good thing. So Samara made a plan to meet with her at 3:30.

That gave us a few hours to kill. We started by driving to the post office and making sure our keys worked in the PO Box. They did, but it was empty, of course. I found out from talking to someone later in the day that the postal service doesn't know dick about sending packages to Dillingham. The promise of 12 days for parcel post service is a load of horse crap. It takes about 4 weeks, if not longer. Yeah, that's right. Our clothes that we mailed before we left won't arrive until about the time that our car does. Lame.

So went from the post office to get some lunch. We stopped at the Windmill Grille, on windmill hill, but they weren't taking credit cards yet--only local checks or cash. So we drove out towards the hospital, so that Samara would know how to get there.

Then we went for a drive down Aleknagik Lake Road, out to the lake. Actually, I'm not sure if we went far enough. We found a lake, but it wasn't very big. We took a picture or two, though, and then we came back. Maybe if we get bored this weekend, we'll take another drive.

When we got back to town, we came home and made turkey sandwiches, since that's cheaper than the restaurant options, and we're suddenly poor. (Now's a good time for another shout-out to everyone that gave us gas cards and money before we left--THANK YOU! We'd be really, really poor if it hadn't have been for these folks.)

After the sandwiches, we went to the local bank. There's only one, but thankfully it's a Wells Fargo. We've already got our home equity line of credit and home mortgage through them, so it was easy to add a checking and savings account. Samara had to leave to go see Shelley about half way through opening the accounts, though, so she took off in the car.

Mary, at the bank, was really nice. She's been here 19 years, with her family. It seems like everyone we've talked to here has been here for a long time. She said it's bear season, but that since they containerized the dump and starting burning trash, there hasn't been a big bear problem in Dillingham. To be honest, we're disappointed that we haven't seen any wildlife.

On the plus side, Mary at Wells Fargo said that there was a teller position open at the bank. So that's at least one option for her.

I walked home from the bank. I have to say, I think as long as the weather is good, I can walk to and from work.

Samara got back from the hospital, and she wasn't exactly thrilled. She met some nice folks, but there's some bad news. Apparently, the hospital has a native preference policy. That means that if any qualified native applies for the job she's after, they get it instead of her. It doesn't seem like such a bad policy, except that the job she wants only requires a high school education. It's a tobacco cessation program job, and that's what Samara wrote her Master's degree thesis on. So she's probably more qualified than anyone could be, but she won't get the job if someone with a high school degree applies. To be honest, that kind of sucks. Anyway, they said she'd find out in a couple of days. Apparently they already did offer the job to a native, but it was turned down. So maybe Samara has a chance. If not, that teller job is available.

So now it's off to the N&N Market, or perhaps the AC Value. We need some toilet paper, among other things.