N300PW, Merrill Tower, Winds 200 at 6, Runway 25, Cleared for Takeoff

So school is pretty cool - it should hardly count as 'going to college' because all my courses are about the fun stuff - aviation! Today I got to go up in a Kingair (a really nice twin engine turboprop) for about an hour and fly around (see the pictures below).  The Marine Corps was doing a recruiting thing at the school and had offered to take the aviation students flying as part of it.  I'm still not joining the Marines (much to Mom's relief and Cody's chagrin, I'm sure), but it was a cool experience.  I asked the pilot who took us how much it cost the marines for the hour long flight and he said that after including fuel, maintenance, and the per-hour lease on the airplane, it was about $1,200 per hour.  Thanks to all the faithful taxpayers out there for financing this trip for me!

It's fun to live here, too.  There are a lot of campus activities to take advantage of, plus hanging out with roommates, other aviation students, and the singles ward.  I can't say the weather is horrible, but it seems to be about 30 degrees below what it is in Riverton on any given day.  Yesterday we got snow in the mountains and it was about 40 degrees.  Shorts, flip-flops, and a T-shirt did a little bit to voice my objection to the temperature, but not much to change it.  Despite living in Alaska now, I still haven't seen too much of it - I've only really been in Anchorage (which does, in its defense, sport the occasional moose).  It was pretty cool today to get to fly up to a glacier without having to go too far from the city, though!