Operation Santa Clause!

The air national guard and army came to Gambell the other day and brought Santa!  It was really amazing to see the kids with Santa Clause.  They even brought a band AND ice cream!!  Here are some pics - http://www.flickr.com/photos/176wg/

October + November = Cold + Wind!

My students made the Very "mathy" title!  

We have had quite some interesting months here.  The cold weather has set in and even some sea ice has made it way to the shore.  Before it got too cold I was have a little bit of fun in between all the school work.  

We had a big trash day and cleaned up a ton of trash that has been accumulating in the teacher housing forever!  It was really ridiculous, but at least we all did it together had a bit of fun with it :)

We also a "little water crisis" - as in there was no water.  We were very resourceful and caught rain water!  Luckily, just as the water shortage began so did a big rain storm and it rained nearly the whole time we were without running water.  

Here are our buckets collecting the rain water:

During our water fiasco my roomy had us a delicacy - Fried Oreos!!  They were AMAZING!!!

In the making:

All Done and topped with powdered sugar:

Next event was Halloween.  We had a carnival at the school and my class sponsored a bowling gaming.  It was a lot of fun, but a ton of work.  After the school carnival, the kids came trick or treating.  A bunch of teachers got together and sat in the hallway of one of the apartments and gave out candy together.  

My roomies and I were "The Three Blind Mice"  during school.

The Vice-Principal even got in the spirit of dressing up.  Here she is with one of our parents in witch hats:

Of course Puffin dressed up for Halloween and even had some costume changes :)

Here she is as a skunk:

And here wearing a halloween shirt and scarf: 

Here is Puffin's best friend Kiluk with his owner (Tyler), who is dressed up as  from the Raphael from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  

These are my Rommies Ashley is on the left with Kiluk.  Ashley was Donatello and Amy, who is on the right, was a Barbie Doll. :)

Here Megan, who is Splinter, is schooling Ashley on proper stick fighting techniques.  

We had a big teacher diner for Thanksgiving.  It was really nice and we all had a really good time!

Here is Puffin wrestling with Kiluk.  This was a few weeks ago and now Kiluk is about 3 times this size, but her and Puffin still play a lot!!  

Diner was a bit latter than anticipated so all the teachers hung out at my apartment while we waited.  Here is Megan giving me a hug:

This is me and my roomies hanging out while we wait for diner:

This is Tyler and Amy eating diner:

Here is a group shot of the whole gang eating:

The sink next door (where diner was) broke so they brought the dishes over to our place.  This is a picture of the Principal and the Vice Principal doing them :)

We have had quite a bit of snow.  Here is Puffin all ready to go out and play!  Yes, that is a snow suit...it is really funny because it keeps all her fur wrapped tight so she looks VERY tiny!

One morning my friend, Megan, came over to pick Amy and I up for the commute to work.  She couldn't get to our door so she went back and got a shovel and started digging us out.  Amy heard her and opened the door and started shoveling too.  They meet half way - what teamwork!!

Here we are all bundled up getting ready to walk to school:

Here is my neighbor, Mary Ellen.  She is packing down the snow with a tote.  We have a ramp outside our door - no more stairs for us!  

We made some taffy with maple sirup and snow.  It was AWESOME and I felt like Elf eating pure sirup:

My friends Natalie and Andrew thought the sirup was too sweet so they just had the bowl of snow - silly kids:

Puffin got a package from her Uncle John and it had a snuggle in it - really a snuggle...a snuggle for a dog!!

After all the snow fell we went out and played!

Here is Megan digging a snow tunnel between the two teacher housing apartments: 

Big Shoveling party!

Puffin and Kiluk playing in the snow:

This was me on the walk home.  We had to climb over drifts like this on our walk home:
Sometimes nice people will stop and pick us up.  This sled is attached is to a snow mobil.  
Here is Amy and Megan leaving the school:

When it finally stopped snowing, we went down to the water to watch the ice come in and see if there were any seals or walruses around.   It was really amazing, but incredibly cold.  Puffin was in her snow suit but I still had to wrap her in a blanket and carry her in my backpack!

Here is Megan watching the ocean:

Here she is just waving at me:

Here is Mary Ellen sporting a Polar Bear Ruff and Natalie trying to give me thumbs up!

Here are some left over whale bones partially covered in snow:

Puffin and I are on our way home from watching the ice.  Thanks Aunt Bobbie and Uncle Louie for the the Coat it is great!   Poor Puffin her tears were frozen to her face :(

Here is the village from the Air:

Here is a sunset from the plane:

September Events

Sorry it has been so long since my last post, but things here have been crazy.  This is my first weekend home in a while, but I have some great pics to share.  

Before all the traveling, we had a really nice day and after school about 20 kids and 4 or 5 teachers climbed the mountain together.  

This is a crazy kid climbing some rocks on top the mountain.

Here I am on top the mountain:

This is Puffin and that is Russia behind her - I think think this would be a nice Christmas card:

Puffin checking out the view:

Here is Gambell from the top - 

This is the lake, runway and then the ocean - how beautiful:

I try to take Sundays off from school and go out with Puffin.  I can't take her to school with me this year so I try and give her a little more attention on the weekends.  A few Sunday's ago Puffin and I walked up to North Beach about 2 miles from our place and played catch.  We were at the base of the mountain and I was hoping to see some cool birds, but it must have been too windy or the birds were just sleeping.  

This is North Beach:

On our walk there, we passed by these:

Why can Gambell (which currently has no water) have windmills, but the Cape can't figure it out? hmmm.....

I went to a village in the district for a "cultural weekend" and learned that living on Gambell has exposed me to more culture than I was appreciating.  Also, the weekend let some of the teachers bond and act like fun idiots :)  The village we visited was Shaktolic and was amazingly beautiful and the people were unbelievably friendly!  

This is the village as we were landing.  They have trees, mountains, lakes, and the ocean!

This is main st:

Megan, Me, and Natalie are all bundled up and ready to go.  That is a Blue Fox Ruff that I am wearing I was the only one that stayed warm!  

Here is Tyler and Megan on the Honda before our big adventure:

Superman:

Amy, my roommate, (the one from Shewsbury) and I:

This crater is over 2000 years old and was the site of the first Shatltolic residents:

Group shot of new teachers:

We met some very friendly natives that invite Amy, Megan, and I over for tea.  This is some drift wood they have collected.   The growths on the wood are called "burls", I thought it looked really cool.  They were a very interesting couple.  The husband has run the Iditorod 3 times, raised sled dogs and herded reindeer.  The wife collects a lot of artifacts.  This baskets is a berry picking bucket made of bark, leather, and ivory.

I even found a Purple house for Aunt Grace:

There were some crazy jellyfish washed up on the beach.  Here are a few:

Here is a jellyfish and a sea sponge:

Tyler is showing me it is a real sponge because he can wring it out.

A kid we were hanging out with found this sand dollar for me on the beach.

Here are some sleepy heads on the trip home:

Final Group Shot: