Another eventful day! (Shopping, dinner with strangers, more shopping!)

Hey again! Today was another busy day! It started out kinda late, I slept in a while, and Jack drove me to the little (but I guess big in Alaska terms) town of Palmer, where Fran works. Jack left to go to work, and Fran took me out for lunch in Palmer.

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Interestingly, Palmer is NOT a gold rush town (like most places round here!). It's actually the only Alaskan community that grew up around an agricultural, farming industry. But even then it's not boring! It is actually the "colony" town. It's not even a hundred years old, but in America, that's old, so its a historical town. Here's the story as I understand it: In the Great Depression, loads of people were unemployed, starving, poor, etc.... So President Roosevelt sent about 200 farming families from the state of Michigan to build a new life and community in Alaska - gave them loans and land to help get set up, etc. That was in 1935! Nowadays, there are still "colony kids" surviving - but they are obviously all in their 70s and 80s! This is Palmer station (no longer in use apart from tourist trips, I think) and a lot of the buildings round there look like this, because they're all from that era:

So after I had lunch with Fran, she had to go back to work, which gave me about 3 hours to wander around town, look at the shops, etc. It's actually a really small town for me, but it had some nice places. I didn't really get to look round the shops as much as I'd liked because I did one of my silly impulse things again... Can you guess? I doubt it, because it's not something I usually do...

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...I had a haircut! Seriously, I NEVER have my hair cut in England, I haven't visited a hairdresser for years. It's mostly because hairdressers are often bitchy bimbos or chavs in England, and I feel judged every time I visit one. But I passed a hairdressers and figured "this is America. Everyone is friendly!" and then I thought "this is the perfect opportunity to get a haircut!". And I was right.. It was a bit expensive for a haircut no-one will even notice, but it was worth it just to have my hair cut by someone that's not trying to be Paris Hilton. I asked the hairdresser to take a picture afterwards, just in case anyone's interested. This is the result:

I know, nothing dramatic :-) But I had fun, they put me in one of those dryers that go over your head! XD

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Anyway, later on, while my aunt was at another meeting, I had a dinner date in Anchorage with a family I've never met before, and neither had Fran! Basically, a friend of Fran's knew a friend of hers that had a 16-year-old daughter who is visiting England next week, so she thought it might be good for us to hook up. So we did! It was kinda weird going out for dinner with someone you have never met before, but it worked out so well. The girl's name is Zoya, and she bought one of her friends along. They're all from Anchorage. Her mum (or "mom") paid for my dinner and everything, they were so nice. And the weird thing is we had enough in common - they had roughly the same sort of fashion sense as me, Zoya likes Muse, and so on... This is us with a fake bear (don't ask):

They seemed to understand my touristy desires so they didn't mind taking pictures of me next to dumb Alaska related objects/shops/animal statues. For example:

And there's PLENTY more where that came from. Trust me, I have been taking pictures of EVERYTHING (especially food) - and what you see here is just a pale reflection of what is on my SD card!

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So these girls (Zoya and Maddie) also understood my shopping needs. They fortunately have the same taste and budget as I, so they took me to this American mall, and (because we didn't have much time after dinner, Fran was due to finish her meeting) they directed me straight to the best stores:

So I bought 4 lovely lacey vest tops ($10 each - cheap!), 2 t-shirts, and a pair of cute denim hotpants! Okay, okay, I know that's really boring, hearing about my shopping purchases, but I get a kick out of it, so what the hell! I bought all that from American Eagle, which is a really cool store (better than Gap, cheaper than Abercrombie & Fitch)

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Don't worry, I won't be spending too much of my time or money clothes shopping, because I'm not going to be in Anchorage too often. In fact, I probably won't go again until Zoya gets back from her 2 week holiday in England, when I will be emailing her begging for her to take me shopping again! Heh. (Did I mention she drives!? She's 16 and she drives!)

If only making friends was so easy in England, I wouldn't be so worried about starting Uni in October...