Juneau Trip

Just recently, I went on a school trip called Close-Up where we meet the government of Alaska. My brother Dennis, Maggie, and I were the students that were lucky enough to get chosen to go. We experienced many firsts on this trip. We went rock climbing which was scary because I am deeply afraid of heights. I got the guts to reach the top because Denny was in charge of "blaring" me. Being the "blare" means that you hold the rope that is hooked on the climber and you are in charge of holding them and reeling them down. I trusted Denny so I was able to actually rock climb. We also went snowboarding, another first, and Denny learned right away. I spent the whole time there being instructed and taught how to use a snowboard. I didn't get to go down the actual hill. Dennis learned in less than 5 minutes and was racing down the hill in no time. I have to admit that I was envious of his skills but I was also proud that he got to experience it. When our time was up for snowboarding, Denny didn't want to leave. On our way back to the city, he mentioned that we should move there one day. If we didn't move there he said that we better travel there as much as we can. I guessed that he fell in love with snowboarding right then and there. On another night, we Contra Danced. It is an interesting way of dance. It is similar to Fiddling but has more action and more smiles (i'd think so because I hadn't been fiddling before). We participated and had loads of fun.
We got to sit in meetings that were held by the Committee, Senators, and Legislators of Alaska. It was pretty boring at times; i fell asleep at one of them. One thing I noticed at one of the meetings was that native people are very impatient. We'd spent many hours at that meeting. I was observing people and seen that the natives were sitting in their seats moving around, looking annoyed/mad, and sleeping. The kassaqs were very alert and asking questions like crazy. I found this kind of funny because the topic was very uninteresting.
We stayed in a hostel which is different from a hotel because it is more home-like. We had to clean up after ourselves and were assigned chores before bedtime. In our room, we had four bunks. My roommates were Marlene, Maggie, Alicia, Madison, and Alexis. Marlene and Alexis are from Napakiak. Alicia is from Kokhonak. Madison is from Chignik Bay. Madison and Alicia were probably the youngest in the group but the tallest/hugest of us all. What do they feed these people?!
They were an amusing group of people. You could probably hear us laughing from the living room. Many times, there would be a chaperone coming into the room and telling us to quiet down (even after lights out). I was glad that I got a chance to meet these people. One of the girls were born when their mother was 14-years-old. They lived in a tent for about a year because her grandmother was drinking at that time. I respected her mother at that moment even if I don't know her. To this day, I think that her mother is filled with bravery. I mean, she was 14-years-old, a newby mother to a newborn child, and living in a tent despite the cold weather Alaska holds! I still cannot believe that she could go through that. The age 14 is like 5 years younger than me right now. And I still don't know how to make a decent meal that doesn't come with instructions!
We also got to go into the Governor's mansion which was beautiful. I wanted to live in there the instant I went inside.
Altogether, this trip was amazing. Juneau is a beautiful city and I would love to live there one day.