Friday, August 6, 2010
Trish Cunningham
I, too, am also not in that picture, although I do recognize some good friends right in the front row. Maggie and Jane and I traveled a lot, a whole lot, during the year. Don't remember much about my classes. I never lived in the dorms at all. I shared an attic with another girl from our group, and a French student. When I wasn't traveling, I spent weekends with my French family, winemakers in Berson, a whole experience in itself. I can't say I remember too many people from the American group but it is fun to reconnect. I live in Alaska now for the past 35 years and have done many Alaskan things. No they don't speak French here, but it is a different country from the Lower '48. Anybody can contact me, although you probably don't remember me either. Trish
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Hi Trish,
ReplyDeleteI do remember you, although I'm not sure you remember me. It's great reading your story, but I'm very curious about the "Alaskan things" you have done. Please fill in the details about Alaskan life.
As for me, I have spent the last forty years in and near Pau doing French things, but you know all about French life and after 40 years I really don't see anything unique about it.
Hope to hear more from you! Linda Cozadd V.M.
here goes, don't know where this will land. all things alaskan mean i came up here to be a dog musher and live amongst the trees. i did both and many many more. anybody who remembers me knows i was the worst dog musher in the history of the state. never won a race, frequently lost my team and had to walk back, overfed the dogs who mostly lived under the kitchen table. our first home was a 16x24 ft. cabin, no water, no electricity in the beginning. our first bathroom was a board nailed between two trees and our kitchen was a five gallon bucket of water. all that sounds really really terrible but somehow it wasn't. i was young and in love with the state and in love with some people who changed my life. again i was adopted, this time by a 70-year old musher who owned at least 75 dogs. i kept the memories and a couple dogs (stil have one blue-eyed sweet sweet female husky) and stayed. eventually, when the kids started coming, i gave up most of the team. went from teaching to journalism and back again. alaska lets you try whatever you want without asking questions. never did use any french and it's long gone now. except once an air france crew was lost in a mall in anchorage and i was able to give them directions to the bathrooms fluently, present tense of course.
ReplyDeletefor the first 25 years, lived on beautiful finger lake halfway between palmer and wasilla. (yes, the same wasilla). wrote a history of the matanuska valley, an interesting frontier and a beautiful native culture. live in anchorage now and still love the state. am outdoors summer and winter, hiking, biking, skiing. went back to college at 50 and got an MFA inc reative writing, now working on a book. i was poor and broke for a long long time so never made it back to france or europe but hope to start traveling again soon. my last son just graduated from high school and i'm free again. would love to hear from others about their year in france. have more salacious stories but those will have to wait for another time. trish
Thanks, Trish. This is just what I was anxious to hear about. A wonderful life!
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