I've visited Alaska recently. As you can anticipate, it's a BEAUTIFUL place, stunningly beautiful. However I am not going to talk about that, I am going to talk about how "cold" (Note 1) Alaskan are.

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It started from the moment I was at the gate for the plane to Anchorage. The flight attendant asked us:
"What's the special greeting phrase of Alaskans?" (us thinking)
"You know, Hawaiians have ALOHA. How about Alaskans?" (we think even harder)
"It's I AM COLD" (the flight attendant was LOL and we all froze).

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The bus driver at Denali NP looked serious with mustache and low voice. He explained to us the history of the park and spotted animal for us once in a while while driving. Other than the common mammals (bears, fox, etc), he spotted many different birds that most of us had no idea about, because, from what he said himself, that he had great interest in birds. He collected bird samples. Nobody in the bus seemed to care about birds (due to the lack of knowledge I guess), the bus was very silent and the bus trip seemed bored. After a while, he spotted another bird and said "On your 3 o'clock direction, there is XXX. I love birds, I collect birds. And I eat them too". We all froze. After another long pause, I decided to take a revenge while he mentioned he collect coins from
different countries. I asked "Do you eat them too?" It felt great.

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We took the small airplane to Katmai NP for bear watching. The plane was so small that all our backpacks had to be given to the guide. We did that on the way to Katmai. On the way from Katmai, I was kind of unsure and asked "shall I give my bag to you?". The guide friendly replied "yes, and I will keep it forever".

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At Katmai NP, the ranger was explaining to us the male bear as "boar" and the female bear as "saw". Then there was this one guy next to us happily announced: "my wife always called me the BOAR". The ranger replied: "I thought she meant BORING".

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One day we were walking on the street. All in a sudden a family with a middle-aged dad and several kids ran crazily past us, almost knocked us over on the sidewalk. After passing us, the dad hollered "sorry, we are racing with squirrels".

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So I figure, having 8 months of winter with nothing to do, all they can do is to crack jokes. To fit their weather, the jokes have to be subzero cold.... Before I end this blog, I would like to graciously thank my friends Athena and Chris for their insightful suggestions about our Alaska itinerary. After all, you can't beat someone who has visited the state for 7 times. The trip couldn't have been so unforgettable without them. Ask for the link if you wanna see photos of the trip. Warning: your standard of pretty landscape will be dramatically raised after seeing these photos ;)

Note 1: "Cold" is an expression commonly used in Taiwan, meaning something is supposedly funny, but not really. After hearing the "joke", the audience stands still don't know whether or not to laugh, as if she's frozen (-->cold).