You will have a lot of fun! And you'll be about as safe as it is possible to be anywhere.

Barrow has a very international population. It is first of all an Inupiat village, and about half the people here are Inupiat Eskimo. They totally control the politics and government of Barrow. The largest minority are the typical Americans. They are basically transient though, and few of them expect to spend their entire lives here. They make up maybe 1/5th of the population. The rest are mostly various Asians, with a lot of Filipinos, Koreans, Thai, and Samoan and Tongan people. There are a few from Latin American, the Caribbean and Europe. Put it this way, almost no matter which restaurant you eat lunch at, you'll hear several languages. Probably two or three by employees and three or four more by other customers.

There is very little random violence or random crime in Barrow. If you choose to "party", all bets are off! Otherwise there is virtually no chance of anything. Put it this way, we all leave our keys in the truck, and in January we often leave it running too! (4-wheel ATV's, snowmachines, or 5-gallon cans of gas, however are often stolen.)

There are cabs everywhere. It costs basically 6 dollars a ride to get around town. Not bad when you consider the price of gasoline is $7 per gallon. Depending on your clothing you can walk too. From the center of town to anywhere is 1-1/2 miles. But... in January it might be anything from cold to colder. Expect -25C to -45C, though it could be either warmer or colder. -34C is about average at that time of year. Also note that the sun will come up for the first time on January 23rd (for about 1 hour). So it will be very dark at 10 AM, with daylight at 2PM, and very dark again by 5PM. Not to worry, there are street lights on every power pole in Barrow and there is no such thing as a "dark alley" here!