H O M E P A G E Of The Family R.Girst
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Alaska (The Last Frontier) is the largest state by area in the United States (4.5x more largely than Germany!) and has approx. 600,000 inhabitants. Nearly half of its population lives in the most populous city Anchorage, but the capital of Alaska is Juneau . Anchorage is located on a fjord , at about the same latitude as Oslo (Norway) and has a similarly mild climate . By the way, Alaska and Norway have much in common : Fjords , mountains and glaciers , moose and charmful nature beauties . The time difference between Central Europe and Anchorage is 10 hours.
More informations about Alaska and Anchorage can be found at Wikipedia (the free encyclopedia) This map of the southeast of Alaska shows the environment of Anchorage and the localities, which are mentioned below . ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Simone's departure from Munich and the arrival in Anchorage,Alaska The journey to the "other side of the world" went via the Frankfurt/Main, Copenhagen (Denmark) and Seattle (USA) to Anchorage,Alaska and took 27 hours (a whole eternity, or Simone?)
Simone's family and her new home in Anchorage,Alaska
Matt (19) and Patrick (16) are both excellent nordic-ski runners: in Alaska they are on the top, but they had also on US level already very good results. At the last US junior-championships 2005 Patrick won in two disciplines silver medals (means vice-champion) . Congratulation !
Just arrived in Alaska and they went on a hike (Whittier-Ridge at Prince William Sound) (Prince William Sound is an area with fjords and bays) Starting from Whittier (90km southeast from Anchorage) one can climb to the Whittier-Ridge (approx. 800m high) . From here one has a wonderful view on bays (e.g. the Blackstone Bay), mountains and glaciers, how these pictures will show .
More beautiful pictures from a hike to the Whittier-Ridge can be admired here . The page Blackstone Bay Kayaking shows wonderful pictures from the glaciers Beloit and Blackstone . With Google Maps you can have a closer look to this area . Please try it ! ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Vacation with the family in Seward, Alaska Seward is located south of Anchorage, on the Kenai Peninsula and in the midst of the Kenai Fjords National Park . It is among other things a resort, from where trips with ships, boats or airplanes are started to the marvelous world of the snow-covered mountains, bays, fjords and glaciers. Where Anchorage, Whittier or Seward are located, the Kenai Peninsula or the Prince William Sound, this map will show it to you.
Sea, mountains, glaciers: Isn't one speechless with as much beauty ???
In the midst of beautiful nature one can observe also many animals :
Cross Country Running (abbreviation XCR) The Robert Service High School (called "Service"), where Simone goes to school, has a Cross Country team, named the "Cougars" . The girls and boys teams participate during the "Running"-season (August to October) resp. "Skiing"-season (November to March) at several competitions, that are finalized with the "Regions" (e.g. for the region Anchorage) and as culmination the "States", the Alaska championships.
The last "Running" season 2005 (it ended at the beginning of October) they had : - the "Regions" in Anchorage: "Service" (the "Cougars") won and Simone became fifth - the "States" in Soldotna (on the Kenai Peninsula): "Service" became third and Simone tenth (Congratulations !!!) The interest of the Alaskan people on Cross Country seems to be very large (one can see, many spectators are visiting the competitions) and the newspaper "Anchorage Daily News" reported on the runners . Here one can read the articles about the "Regions" in Anchorage and the "States" in Soldotna . It was enjoyable for us, that Simone was mentioned in the newspaper by this article from the "Regions" !!!
The homepage of the "Cougars" cares for and leads its members, announces the dates and competition results and shows on many pictures, what happens during the training, competitions and so on. Thus that the "Skiing" season is rather young, at present (Nov.) one can admire only few pictures on the homepage. But this will change soon ! The pictures and results of the "Running" season are unfortunately not available any more .
AFS is the organization, that`s "responsible" for, that Simone is now in Alaska The AFS organization organizes the foreign stay and all what's needed, prepares the "Students" for it and cares for the young people by their foreign organizations (in such one Helen is active) during that time in the foreign country . They offer them interesting things like e.g. rafting, but also information meetings, where the "AFS Students" are presenting their homelands to the other students and their hosting families. At the end of October Simone und 2 other Germans had in the house of Joy and Peter a Powerpoint presentation about "good old Germany" and so they filled the house with interested students and family members.
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