Ahhh, Saturday mornings. I woke up early today after falling asleep in my newly remodeled loft to a beautiful snowfall. I made coffee and went to the school to put my load of laundry in and pack water, then came home to do a few other household chores: sweep, mop, do the dishes, empty the incinolet, take out the trash, and straighten up. I love it all, except for the incinolet job. I love staying busy and love our little house in the middle of nowhere.
Last night we played board games and charades at Paula and Brandi’s house, and afterwards Josh and I were itching to go on an adventure. He is leaving for Seward next week to take a job, so even though it was 10:30 at night, we decided to go for a hike. We suited up in our winter gear and strapped on our headlamps and started walking in the waist-deep snow out past the airport. He is a really knowledgeable outdoorsman, especially when it comes to animals. We tracked animal prints and hunted their hide outs, laid in the snow and star-gazed, rolled down hills, dug snow pits and buried ourselves in them... you know, the usual stuff. :) We came back around 12:30 am. I went out with him a few weeks ago to check his traps, and although he didn’t have any animals that time, he has caught several muskrats. He showed me how to skin them and that was a fun learning process.
I am planning on visiting Josh and Emily over the summer when I come back next year, and we are stoked about it - you can just walk outside and climb a mountain or hop in a kayak and paddle down a river, set up camp, catch a salmon and cook it over a fire... we were just talking about how perfect that kind of life is and how lucky we are to get to experience this whole Alaskan adventure. I’m also planning on coming back to Bethel earlier with Matt and kayaking and camping along the way from Bethel to Newtok. I hope that will happen - seriously, how cool would that be!? It would also save me a plane ticket. I made all my flights for the holidays, and the total cost of getting to Texas and back to the village is $2,600. Is that crazy or what? But it is worth every penny to see my family for a few weeks over the holidays and take a break from the village life to enjoy the pleasures of normal civilization.
We had a late start on winter, but it changed in the snap of a finger last Wednesday, dropping down to negative 20 with windchill and negative 30 the next day. I went out to take some pictures of the gorgeous sunset and steamy river, and for the sake of a good picture suffered mild frostbite on my fingers. I can’t tell you how many times that happens!
So I mentioned the loft... In my bedroom there is a loft that has been out of reach, and while Matt was over one day working out, he said it would be cool to have that as a reading/hang out area... and I couldn’t believe I’ve never thought of that before! So I ordered a ladder from Amazon and some other goodies and set to work cleaning it up, painting, and turning it into a really cool place. When all the materials get here I will take pictures and post them on facebook.
Only three more weeks until I fly back - looking forward to it, and I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Nonstop in Newtok
First off, I can't believe how fast this semester is going. With that
said, I apologize for not updating my blog more often! The time got away
from me! Everything is going smoothly. I love, love, love my class
schedule - I'm teaching more of my content area (health) and less
language arts, which I've always felt inadequate to teach. Also, my
planning period is right by my lunch period, which means my boss doesn't
mind if I go home and actually get planning done there, as we all spend
too much time working at the school outside of contract hours. We don't
have a teacher's break room, and all classes are full on your planning
period. So in past years you would just have to sit in the hall and try
to get some work done while stationed next to students who have been
pulled from class for behavioral reasons.
The weather is acting crazy. It snows, rains, warms up, then repeats the cycle. The boardwalks are often icy in the morning which makes it a dangerous walk to work. I should have long ago invested in a pair of slip on spikes, but I've made it this far. Kevin's birthday was Sunday, and we (Him and his 2 little ones, me, Josh, Emily, and Matt) went out to look at the river finally freezing up. The ice chunks were floating from the Bering Sea down to the Ninglick, and although it was below freezing, it was pretty warm since the wind that day was non-existent. A day without wind here is few and far in between.
After work my days are packed full with exercise. I'm on the last few weeks of the P90X workout, and Matt, the new teacher, has been coming over to workout with me. It's always nice to have someone to push you! I also try to get in at least an hour of jogging every day, but not enough to where I start using muscle for energy. I have a goal in mind - in the next 3 or 4 years, I want to hike the entire Appalachian trail, all 2,180 miles of it. So with every pull up I do, I'm thinking "you'll have to carry a 30 pound backpack for 5 months!" Actually, hopefully I can go ultralight. One step at a time, and when I finally start down the trail, I will be ready. As Eskimo wisdom goes, "You don't swallow the whole moose, you take small bites of it."
Josh is having the time of his life, and he is enjoying trapping animals. I've enjoyed learning how to skin a muskrat, and I've been out to see his traps, partly because I don't want to walk into one while I'm hiking solo. He is excited to start trapping foxes.
Halloween was fun... we had the Carnival, where the teachers ran different booths. I set up a ping pong booth, thanks to Audrey's gift of a ping pong net on the go. It was a lot of fun! The Haunted House was a hit, but Kevin and Josh, who were both scaring the kids, got punched in the face a couple of times from the youngsters.
In honor of the scary holiday, Betsy, Emily, Brandi, Paula and I decided to watch The Purge. It wasn't as scary as I thought, but it did make us jump a few times. Kevin and Josh of course had to sneak in the back of the house and jump out at us. Guys.
On Sunday I will be traveling to Bethel to attend a website training for our school. The plan is to take 2 students and come back Tuesday afternoon. I haven't been to the bush hub since late August.
The weather is acting crazy. It snows, rains, warms up, then repeats the cycle. The boardwalks are often icy in the morning which makes it a dangerous walk to work. I should have long ago invested in a pair of slip on spikes, but I've made it this far. Kevin's birthday was Sunday, and we (Him and his 2 little ones, me, Josh, Emily, and Matt) went out to look at the river finally freezing up. The ice chunks were floating from the Bering Sea down to the Ninglick, and although it was below freezing, it was pretty warm since the wind that day was non-existent. A day without wind here is few and far in between.
After work my days are packed full with exercise. I'm on the last few weeks of the P90X workout, and Matt, the new teacher, has been coming over to workout with me. It's always nice to have someone to push you! I also try to get in at least an hour of jogging every day, but not enough to where I start using muscle for energy. I have a goal in mind - in the next 3 or 4 years, I want to hike the entire Appalachian trail, all 2,180 miles of it. So with every pull up I do, I'm thinking "you'll have to carry a 30 pound backpack for 5 months!" Actually, hopefully I can go ultralight. One step at a time, and when I finally start down the trail, I will be ready. As Eskimo wisdom goes, "You don't swallow the whole moose, you take small bites of it."
Josh is having the time of his life, and he is enjoying trapping animals. I've enjoyed learning how to skin a muskrat, and I've been out to see his traps, partly because I don't want to walk into one while I'm hiking solo. He is excited to start trapping foxes.
Halloween was fun... we had the Carnival, where the teachers ran different booths. I set up a ping pong booth, thanks to Audrey's gift of a ping pong net on the go. It was a lot of fun! The Haunted House was a hit, but Kevin and Josh, who were both scaring the kids, got punched in the face a couple of times from the youngsters.
In honor of the scary holiday, Betsy, Emily, Brandi, Paula and I decided to watch The Purge. It wasn't as scary as I thought, but it did make us jump a few times. Kevin and Josh of course had to sneak in the back of the house and jump out at us. Guys.
On Sunday I will be traveling to Bethel to attend a website training for our school. The plan is to take 2 students and come back Tuesday afternoon. I haven't been to the bush hub since late August.
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