Videos from the Great North Adventure

I thought you all may enjoy some videos of my adventure walking to school the other day...

Here we are all getting geared up and ready to go to school:

We called this morning and said we couldn't see the village and we were afraid of walking this morning so the VP, Dawn, sent the "school bus". This is a video of us waiting for bus driver Merle to come pick us up.

These are videos of the wind and the view of the village from right behind my apartment

The wind blows hard:

There is a village down there I promise -

Here are some pengins trying to keep warm!

Here we are all getting into the "school bus":

This is a long one, but it is the WHOLE ride into school. This walk would have taken about 45 minutes due to the wind and blinding snow.

The walk in the light is a lot less dangerous and more fun because the wind is at your back! Here are some videos of Ashley and I on the way home:

Adventures in the Great White North!!

Let's start back at Christmas. My friend David came up to visit me. We spent a week here in Gambell and then a week in Anchorage. The week in Anchorage was a lot more fun. We did manage to have some fun while we were here. He even got the pleasure of fish for dinner on Christmas Eve! My mom sent him with dried Cod and Anchovies. I already had shrimp here so we got 3 out of the 7 fish, but it made me miss home a little less! Also while he was here we went exploring on the on beach. Here are some pics of our adventures:


I am standing in front of some bog ice chunks that have washed up on shore.
Here is the sea washing big pieces of ice onto the beach.



This is a picture of the sea ice actually UNDER the water. The waves wash over the ice and push some of it under!
Puffin got cold so I had to carry her after a while.
Then she got really cold so I carried her like a kangaroo inside my jacket. Her face was all frosted over and she was literally get blown around by the wind!


Here is David and I after our walk. We were certainly a little COLD!




On Christmas Eve, we flew out to Anchorage and I sure hope David wasn't looking for a vacation because I made him go EVERYWHERE! We saw a ton of moose all along the way. Every time we saw one, I made David pull over so I could take some pictures of them.
Here is a pic of one of them (I know it looks like a horse, but trust me):



We even drove down to Homer for a day. It was 6 hours each way, but it was really awesome. We saw a million Eagles!



Did you know an eagle can move its head nearly 360 degrees?



Here is a big one just chilling out and walking around:













The beach was beautiful so David thought he should put his feet in the water:





We also hiked about 2 miles in thigh deep snow for an absolutly Amazing view of Mount McKinnley!!!
Puffin got a haircut while we were in Anchorage. Isn't she BEAUTIFUL!!!

So onto more recent events...SNOW!!! Some days the wind blows so hard that the there is a ton of snow INSIDE our doorway and when we do get to open our door there is just a wall of snow blocking our exit. To get around this, we shovel the snow into totes and dump it into the bathtub. These pictures are of our adventure before we got to walk to school:

Also, we had to use TWO tubs - my apartments and my neighbors.

This is the AFTER - didn't we do a great job :)

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: