Nature Week

This past week I have seen more nature than I have ever seen in my life!

On the first of May, our river broke. Here is what it looked like from my apartment:

This is what it was like at the beach:

Here is what some of the ice build up looked like last night on the river:



I went hiking with some kids and Puffin and we managed to find the last bit of snow.


This is the stream we hiked down to:

Here is Puffin happily enjoying the snow.
A Bald Eagle followed us on our hike:

It has been very hectic here with the end of school coming up on Friday. We had graduation last Friday and 13 students walked. That is a VERY big class. Here they are celebrating after the ceremony:

We also had prom that same night. Prom here is really just a big community dance that some of the graduates and their dates dress up for. It was really fun. There is a band and they play only old country music. I "two-stepped" with a few elders.

The other day a friend of mine got a bunch of ducks. He brought about 10 of them up to the teacher housing for us. So, I actually plucked a duck - like took the feathers all off of it!! It was pretty weird and gross. I was totally grossed out by the whole experience. It peed on me and kept making noises as air was escaping from it's belly. My friends were all teasing me that the duck was mad at me and asking me to stop plucking it...I didn't think they were very funny. I said if I had nightmares I was going to come and stay with them! I didn't actually cook my duck. I just gave it to one of the other teachers who was going to roast it or whatever.


This is a friend of mine that I steam with at night. Here son-in-law caught a porcupine! They called me over to try some, but Puffin and I were out hiking so we missed out.

Last night I was out on the river and I saw a otter and a bunch of MOOSE!! I can't believe I really saw moose - they were huge!! We even saw a little baby one. It was really cool!

The other day, when I was walking with Puffin down at the beach, I saw a beaver that someone had shot out on the river and he was taking it home for diner. I had no idea they were so fat and their tails are scaly like a snake! In person, they look nothing like they do on the cartoons.

The Season Known as Breakup

In Alaska there is no real Spring, instead we are in the season known as Breakup - the river starts to thaw and hug pieces of ice will soon be move down river, the snow melts, and the roads "breakup". Puffin and I played hookie from school yesterday and we out hiking around.

Here are some pics form our adventure:

Here Puffin is running free outside of my apartment -

This is Puffin playing in the mud -


Here she is playing with Licorice - the two of them are very good if not unlikely friends. Licorice, a black lab, waits at the door of my apartment after after school, hoping I will let Puffin come out and play.

Puffin is taking a break from some hard playing -

This is my apartment building from the old airport-


Here is the view from our hike -

Sun Rise

I thought you might want to share in the beautifulu sunrise the other morning. I made Puffin get up to watch it with me, but she seemed pretty unimpressed :)

This is the view from my new apartment:

SPRING!!!

Well, it is April 22 today and I think it is finally spring! Today it is 50 degrees out - practically a heat wave. I have traded my winter boots for spring ones and my Carhart Coat for a lighter Land's End one.

Unfortunately, the rain is starting to move in so the snow will be gone soon and the mud and puddles are already coming up strong. The puddles are crazy there are about two inches of mud, but underneath that is a sheet of ice so if you slip you not only land on ice, but also in a very cold mud puddle. Luckily, Puffin is a little girl and HATES the cold puddles so she isn't getting too dirty, but she does get to run around outside a lot.

The sun is starting to stick around a lot longer. It starts rising at about 6:30 now and doesn't set until about 10. Even at 11:30, it is still just dusk outside so getting to sleep is getting more difficult, but it is really nice to leave school at 7 and still be able to go out walking with Puffin.

Another great part of spring is that there are a lot more Eagles out flying around. :)

Moving...

I decided to accept a job in on an Island out in the Bering Sea.  I know I am crazy, but I really think this will be an incredible experience.  The island is way out in the sea about 200 miles from main land Alaska and only about 40 from Russia.  You can actually SEE Russia from there!  

If you want some more info, check out this site -  http://www.tsuru-bird.net/gambell  

I promise I will post lots of cool stuff when I get there :)  

Spring Break

For Spring Break, I went to visit Alex. Now this should not be hard since we are both in Alaska, but since we are in Alaska not only did it cost more than coming home or going Florida - it also took longer! I spent a whopping 30 hours traveling each way. Of course most of that was hanging out in airports, there was only about 5 or 6 hours of actual flying time. First, I left my village and went to Dillingham. From there, I hoped a flight to ANC then onto Fairbanks where I spent the night. The Fairbanks airport, although it an international airport, is completely baron - no food, no water bubbler - nothing! Puffin and I had a lovely meal of trail mix and watched some TV over the Internet. Finally the next morning, I took a cab to an airstrip and waited there for a flight out to Alex's village. Luckily, Alex was waiting for me because then we had to drive to his actual town. Like I said it was a lot of traveling, but it was worth it. I had a very nice time with Alex, and I cooked up the rest of the meat I brought home from Davis Square.

I SAW THE NORTHERN LIGHTS!!! They were beautiful, but I only saw some green and white and grey, but still it was amazing!! I couldn't get my camera to take any pictures of them though. I am not sure if it was because there were street lights or just because I was taking pictures of the sky at night, but really they were great!!

This is me outside waiting to see the lights:
(Yes that is a fur hat - it is actually seal and beaver fur. The gloves are beaver and fox. Not only is it the warmest thing ever, the hat also blocks ice from forming on my eyes.)

I learned that I think I really can camp!! Alex's apartment was interesting. It is a trailer with no running water or bathroom. He does have electricity so we had a light and a fridge and a space heater. I wasn't allowed to be at his work (where there was running water, a bathroom, and shower) so he snuck me in at night when everyone was gone for the day. Only once we got caught, and I had to hid in the bathroom until his co-worker left. Now, you all know how often I pee so it was a VERY interesting trip. One morning I woke up and really thought my kidney was going to explode!

These are some pics of where Alex lives:

This is the outhouse that I could have used, but there was a bit of snow in the way...
Here is Alex packing my stuff into the car in front of his trailer:

While Puffin and I were visiting Alex, we did a lot of reading, finished up some courses I was taking, and went hiking. These are some pictures of our hike:

This is the trail we followed for a few miles.

At the end of the trail, we came to a river and this was the view from there.

We also walked by a lot of REAL log cabins! This one even had a totem pole out front.
We saw a lot of animal tracks, but luckily NO animals. I have NO idea what I would actually do if I was ever faced with an animal!! Bear Bait (Puffin) and I just pray we never find out!



It was really a nice and everything worked out fine and I think this experience really prepared me for my camping trip this summer. Speaking of the summer, I will be driving the road system and seeing all kids of things form Glaciers to bird watching! So far, it is just Puffin and I traveling and camping together. So if anyone wants to join me, please do! I will be adventuring from about May 20 until the beginning of July then I can coming HOME probably for the whole month of July!!! This schedule is VERY flexible. My plan is to rent a car, drive the road system, sleep in the car and camp along the way. If I hate it, I will just be home drinking Iced Coffee sooner!!

Beaver Fest

Sorry this is a little out of order, but I have just been so busy I haven't gotten to post this. We had a carnival like thing here called Beaver Fest (Feb 19-22). One of the main events is dog sledding so here are some pics of the dog races.

Here are some pics from the races:






How cute is this little boy:

The Highlight of Beaver Fest is the Junior Miss Competition. It is a bunch of high school girls who compete in what can only be compared to a beauty pageant. There "talents" were mostly comedy acts which was REALLY funny. One girl "sang" the song "Let Me Clear My Throat" as an old man. She was fully in costume with a cane and all! She was really hilarious - even the elders were laughing!! I had the very important job of tallying all the scores from the judges. I guess because I am the math teacher it is assumed I can add.

Here is some of the audience:
While everyone waited for me to add the scores, the contestants and some of the elders did native dancing:
Here is the Winner - Tersea:

The dances were another big part of the weekend. Every night, there was a live band and most of the village gathered in the gym to dance. I learned to "two-step" and I had a wonderful dance partner - Craig. This is Craig at the Dag Races:

I was exhausted the night of the pagent but I was glad I made the effort to go to the pageant. It was the best part of the weekend. That weekend was one of the craziest ever or so I thought, but it just kept getting more insane! First we were hosting the middle school basketball tournament from Thursday - Saturday afternoon. Then, on Sunday morning I left for Juneau. I was coaching 3 teams that weekend so I was pretty busy, but as I walked off the court on Friday afternoon the principal said to me "The housing is done - you need to be moved in but Sunday night." I looked straight at him and said "Are you insane?", but he was serious so literally between games I had to pack my apartment and move all my stuff up the hill to the new housing (7 months late) IN BETWEEN games. It was so crazy, but it got done so that is really all that matters :) So, I left for Juneau on Sunday morning and had a wonderful time at the conference. But when I was at the airport going back, I got an email that the games for the upcoming weekend in Dillingham were being pushed up to Thursday. Without ever returning to Stu, I went straight to Dillingham and coached until Sunday morning.

I also received an email that we were moving into the new school and classes would be held there on Monday morning. Again, my reply was "Are you crazy?" But nope, we opened a new school on Monday morning - without ANY materials! It was quite a week. We had nothing - no paper, no pencils, no books, no student computers, no soup in the bathroom, no chalk for the board, NOTHING! It was the week before spring break and since I had been gone the whole week before; I figured it was useless to try and teach math so we did a whole unit on drugs and addition. We watched intervention and read parts of the book "A Million Little Pieces" and discussed what happens to your brain and your body on drugs and alcohol. All in all everything worked out. Supposedly, they have finished moving all the supplies from the old school to the new school. We will see - tomorrow when I return to Stu, I plan on unpacking my classroom and setting it up. As soon as I am settled, I will post some pictures of that too!