September

A question I often get is "what do you do for fun up there?" Well, when actually have some downtime after work and household chores, I have a few really great options. I enjoy venturing out on the tundra and exploring, and I've talked about how the teachers enjoy playing poker on the weekend; every now and then we'll play dominoes, sometimes we watch movies, have BBQs, random parties, or go to the school and play a staff volleyball game.

The volleyball games are really fun. We had one probably three weeks ago and I just recently got rid of swollen knees and bad bruises that came with the win. Kevin and I are extremely competitive and it's great to be able to share that spirit with people who were raised the same way in sports: give it your all. We both have had trouble getting the kids to accept that frame of mind, but they just don't get that dedication and sacrifice that are innate in us.

The school year is going pretty smoothly, except that Naomi, the other language arts teacher and my old roommate, has been out for nearly 3 weeks and won't be back for a few months; she is in Anchorage with cancer. We are waiting to hear how bad it has gotten. We’ve had a few subs from the village fill in her place, but we will have to find a long-term certified sub. She has to have chemo and will be out for the year. Yesterday we went and packed up all her stuff and we just hope she can get better for next year. In the meantime we’ve all kind of split up her duties and helping out where necessary.

My boss bought the kilz we need to paint our house, so that’s what me and Betsy have been doing in the evenings. It is so much better smelling and looking! We are gradually making the place feel more like home by ordering curtains, couch and seat covers, and rugs that make it look less like a dirty hostel.

We went to Bethel for a district-wide in-service and braved the crazy 50 mph winds in that small plane. It may be fun for a little while, but after an hour of a bumpy roller-coaster flight you get a little tired of it. The only semi-good thing about going to Bethel is the store they have - it still has ridiculously high-priced goods, but they have a bigger selection than we do. Besides that and a bank, there isn’t much to do there. So we make up our own entertainment. We’ve made it tradition to play a scavenger hunt game every time we go in the Bethel store - we split up into teams, each team makes a list of 20 items that the other team has to find, and the first team to find them all wins. It’s a lot of fun because we pick hard to find items or really embarrassing things.

One day in Bethel me and Brandi opted out of the lunch sack they gave us to walk a mile to Subway, which is the only chain restaurant in Bethel. They do not have a 5 dollar foot long; they have an 8 dollar foot long. But it was worth it because we never get to eat out and we don’t have all the good and fresh meat and veggies that Subway offers. Good stuff!

We had our first snowfall Sunday! It didn't stick but we do have frost every morning, and small ponds have ice on them. We are all anxiously awaiting winter!