21 Below

Yes - the title means exactly what you think it should...it is NEGITIVE 21 DEGREES here!! It's a little crazy, but honestly I would not have known it was that cold just by feeling it on my skin. I have not gone out much today, but the walk over to school (all 40 feet) was not too bad. I only have a sweatshirt and gloves on - I am sure that doesn't shock anyone! Usually, I am getting teased because I always have snow pants and long underwear on. It must be cold though because Puffin feet were too cold so I carried her most of the way.

So, I went to another village for Thanksgiving - Manacottic (KMO). I have a bunch of friends that I met at in-service (orientation) live there so I went there for thanksgiving. It is closer to Dillingham, only a 10-minute flight. So, I flew from New Stu to Dillingham (about an hour) and then from Dillingham to KMO.


Here are some pics of KMO -



This is my friend Whitney, who I stayed with while I was there. We are walking through the village to the post office -

Here are some pics of Thanksgiving there -


Don't you love the Birthday Turkey Cake -






So I found a house for my Aunt Gracie, it is just a nice as the one we found in Bermuda!!

It's getting darker

We are definitely getting shorter days here and the sun may not rise until about 9 am, but this is the view of the sun rise from my classroom window:


It is really beautiful and it is like that EVERY morning.

Puffin and I had a pretty relaxing weekend. I made lesson plans and she slept. I baked some bread and she slept. I did my homework for some classes I am taking and guess what Puffin slept!

She probably slept so much because we were out hiking twice this weekend. We had a really good time and now that the tundra is pretty frozen it a lot more fun. We were able to hike up through some trees and saw the river freezing. Here are some pics from us standing on a precipice overlooking the river. We are probably 30 or 40 feet up from the river bed here.





Here are some big pieces of ice bumming into each other at the river bed:

This is Puffin looking over the ledge...if she thinks I am getting any closer she is CRAZY!!


When we were out hiking, we saw some hair like stuff on trees. I (madame nature) had NO idea what it could be so I took some pics and asked Alex. He explained that this is beard lichen and it is similar to Spanish moss, which is found down south.


Puffin is a hiking machine!! Here she is hiking right out of her sweatshirt -


But, I guess we were out for too long because our hike ended with me caring Puffin for a while. Once we were out of the woods and back on the trails, she was ready to run like a little maniac again though!!

Halloween

I had a wicked crazy week here, but it was VERY fun!!

We had a reading day here at school. We let the kids read all morning and then in the afternoon they paired up with elementry kids and read to them. It was really so cute!

Then there was some Drug-Free assembly, and the little kids did some native dancing to "scare the drugs away from the Villiage". That was really cool - I had never seen native dancing before.


Yesterday, I went 4-wheeling with my nieghbors. It was really fun - I even got to drive one!



Here is my neighbor teaching his daughter to shoot. They are Puffin's Babysitters when I go away. Roberta, the wife, has learned that Puffin will do ANYTHING for Chicken! HAHAHAHA

Here I am learning to shoot my nieghbors gun.

Here I am learning to shoot Terry's gun too! I know when I come back I am going to have to live in NH!! hahahah


We also had a Haunted House for Halloween. It was VERY fun! I was a skelton. I stood in a dark room with only a black light so I glowed, and I looked like only bones when I walked. I was VERY Scary! :)

Here I am Dancing in my costrum -
Here I am with one of the students who was a Mummy for the Haunted House -

I have been sick so there are no hiking pics this weekend, maybe next week...we will see!