The end of the year is approaching

Not too much has been going on around here therefore there have been no updates. We have been keeping ourselves busy, winding down the year. We can’t believe that we only have another 19 more days school days until we are done with our first year of teaching!

Today Jimmy and I woke up bright and early for the last day of our Culture Class. The school district ended up giving us too many days of pay, so they created an in-service day for us on a Saturday to make up for the extra day. That day was today.

Yesterday I took a fall on the 3 steps we have in our school. I was so excited because 8 of my students passed a math phase this week and I was talking to Jimmy about it. When I was walking I was also talking (not a good idea on a Friday) and I fell down the steps. I have a bruised ankle and couldn’t walk on it yesterday. It is feeling much better know, and I can walk with only a little discomfort.

We still have a bunch of snow here. The days have seemed to get warmer though. The temperature got up to a blistering 35 degrees earlier this week. We have yet to reach the freezing mark since Tuesday though. The temp has been stuck in the teens and twenties. Hope everyone is having a great week.

Wishing for sleep...

It was our last full day with the kids this week. Tomorrow and Thursday we will have our last round of parent-teacher conferences. Then Friday is always a half day due to in-services.

Jimmy and I have both been really exhausted this week. On Sunday they had their final night of the dance festival. It didn’t end up getting over until around 12:30. Then, all of the people hopped onto their showmachies to go back to their house. Since we live right next to the school this is all we heard from 12:30 - 1:00AM.

Last night Jimmy and I both went to bed early. At around 4:40AM I hear a beeping noise. I think that it is the fire alarm to tell me that it needs new battery. I wake up Jimmy because I can’t reach to get it off the wall. When Jimmy went to look for it he realized that it was the carbon monoxide detector. He figured the batteries needed to be changed and did so. However, once the new batteries were in and we reset it, it began to beep even louder. Jimmy then realizes that it’s the actual alarm and we begin to pack up our stuff to go to school. I am so tired so I borrow Pat’s (our amazing state mentor) bed to sleep in Jimmy’s room until school starts. Jimmy decides to stay up. Not a good way to start the day!

Other than that not too much eventful has been going on around here. Daylight seems to last forever now. The sun sets well after 10:00PM now and it is getting much lighter in the mornings. The pictures you see here are ones that I took at about 6:30 PM. As you can see our spring has not happened yet, and the snow fell all weekend. Right now I wish I was in warmer weather watching the snow melt instead of watching it grow.

Great Weekend!

We both got to relax this weekend, which has been really nice. It has been snowing all weekend and there is a dance festival here so the town has been hopping. Jimmy and I both enjoyed our share of movies this weekend we watched Bee Movie, No Country for Old Men, The Game Plan, and Nancy Drew. We even had a date last night where Jimmy made me some cheese tortillas and we watched The Game Plan together.
The highlight of our weekend was not only our date, but on Friday they instilled our washer and dryer in our house! We were so excited, but then quickly disappointed, because the washer wasn’t working. I then ran to school and the maintenance worker came and said he had forgotten to turn on the water. We were so excited when it finally worked. It’s been quite a few weeks without doing laundry. After the water scare, and then going to Bethel and me being sick it’s been a good few weeks with dirty clothes.
This week is going to be pretty busy for both Jimmy and I. We both have parent-teacher conferences this week on Wednesday and Thursday. Then, on Saturday we are helping with the final after school program party for the kids who earned enough points to come. It should be a great week and we are looking forward to it. Only 7 more weeks of school left.

Worst week ever!

I wrote the entry below last week. Here is the update since then - Jimmy and I got on a plane to leave for Camai on Friday afternoon. When we got there we met up with our state mentor, Pat and some more first-year teachers for dinner. After this, we decided to go to the Camai festival. It was really interesting to see all of the dancers from different villages. We stayed long enough to see about three different schools participate. Toksook Bay did not perform because we have our own dance festival this weekend. We then went and stayed at a bed and breakfast for the night.

On Saturday we both had our last class of the year and we were supposed to leave to come back to Toksook. This way we figured that we would be able to relax a little before planning for the big testing week. Jimmy and I both lugged our luggage to the church where we met. The class got over around 2:00pm and when we looked outside we realized how bad it was. The winds were horrible and the snow was heavy. We still decided to go to the airport in hopes that we would get out. We both hopped into a taxi cab (7.00 a person to get to the airport) and waited. When we got there they said that no planes had gone to any villages yet that day due to the weather in Bethel. At around 5:00 they cancelled all flights going out. Jimmy and I were the first in line in hopes of getting a flight out on Sunday. They said that there was a bunch of people trying to get out and therefore they would be doing first come – first served. Jimmy and I decided to try and get there around 8:00 when they opened to ensure we were on the plane that left at 12:30.

We took another taxi ride (another 14.00) back to the bed and breakfast. They said that they had given our room away, but there was a nice room in another building. When we arrived and checked in Jimmy only two questions, “This room has Internet and Cable right?” Which as you can tell, are luxuries that we go without in Toksook. The man said that they did, and we got the key and got settled. Of course neither the Internet nor the cable was working and we had to call the owner to come in and fix it. He was very kind, and got it working for a bit but it died again after he left. Jimmy and I were both frustrated and set off to get some snacks for the next day. It was calling for bad weather again, and we wanted to be prepared with food incase we had to be there all afternoon.

On Sunday, we arrived at the airport bright and early. We sat there all day listening to the intercom say that we were weather delayed. We had nice company because there was also a bunch of other first year teachers that were waiting for their planes. We were all on weather delay. Finally at around 4:00 they cancelled all flights going to Toksook. We were the first in line again to sign up for the 9:00 flight out in the morning. Thinking we were smart, we called the other airlines hoping that they hadn’t cancelled yet. They said they had so we cut our losses and tried to figure out where to go for the night. We called the bed and breakfast that we had stayed at the first night and they told us that we would have to remain in the same room if we came back. We didn’t want this and had slept so horribly that we decided to see what other kind of places there were in Bethel. Another teacher recommended another bed and breakfast called Highway Haven and we decided to give it a call. They had room and the women on the phone said they had Internet and cable so we were hooked! We called a taxi again (14.00) and went to the B&B.

When we arrived the room was so nice and so was the women who ran it! We were so happy! We then ventured out for some frozen food to take home and some dinner. We decided to stop at Subway and then to the large grocery store (compared to the small grocery stores we have) where we picked up a few pizzas, yogurt, and snacks for the next day of airport fun.
After we arrived back at the B&B we relaxed a bit and sent lesson plans to our boss for the next day. Jimmy talked online with our dean and he said that the other airline flew into Toksook! We were so mad that they had lied to us and told us that all their flights had been cancelled. About three hours later I began to feel really sick. My stomach felt horrible and I began to get a fever. I went to bed but woke up running to the bathroom. I spent most of the night curled on the bathroom floor on top of a towel hugging the toilet. It was the worst night ever.

We packed our things the night morning and I was feeling horrible. I was not looking forward to being in the airport again. I decided to lie down on the floor and try and sleep before they called us to board. However, I kept getting up to get sick in the bathroom. They called us to board at around 9:00 and I was so happy to be finally going home where I could be sick in my own bathroom. We boarded the plane and set off and I fell right to sleep. When I woke up and looked out I couldn’t see anything – it was so foggy. I was defiantly wide-awake now! Jimmy said that we were almost to Toksook based on the map. We got to the next village over and the pilot turned around to go back to Bethel. He said it was unsafe to land. I was so disappointed. Obviously, I didn’t want to land in that kind of weather but I felt so horrible and I had waited so many days I just wanted to be home! We got back to the airport where I curled up in a ball again and tired to sleep. The rest of the afternoon all we kept hearing was that we were on weather delay. Finally around 2:00 they said that they were flying their first plane to Toksook. Of course, as luck would have it, we weren’t on it. Thankfully we were on the second one though that left around 2:30. By the time we finally landed the weather had picked up again and they didn’t know if they were going to be able to fly anymore that night.

I arrived at home, took a shower and went to bed. This is where I stayed all of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. It was the worst sickness that I have ever felt! I went to the clinic on Wednesday after another bout of sickness thinking that I had to be dehydrated. Thankfully she said that I was doing everything right and just to ensure that I kept drinking water. My kids were really sweet when I came back. They made me a large hope you feel better poster. The trip to Bethel sure was fun. We spent just $74.00 going to the airport and back alone for all of those days, lots of time in the airport, and then I got food poisoning.
I am looking for a much needed break this weekend. We have our dance festival here, which should be interesting. We are in another storm again so we aren’t sure how many people will be able to make it here. I sure miss the springtime weather that everyone in Michigan says they are getting. Enjoy it for me! It was -1 degrees windshield here today.

The pictures that you see are of a happier time, when my mom was visiting!

Week with my Mom!

It has been a couple of busy weeks here! After much success with the raven art project two weeks ago, the 3T teacher asked me if my class wanted to blow eggs with her class. To blow eggs the students poke both sides of the eggs with a syringe. Then, you take the syringe and extract the egg inside. After awhile, it is impossible to extract the yolk and therefore you have to blow on one end of the egg to get the yolk out. Thankfully, we had a lot of parent volunteers to help and the kids had a blast. I was surprised at how well they did with the syringes! Then two days later the kids got to paint them for Easter. (FYI: A 3T is a year that is in between 3rd and 4th grade. The students speak Yupik until 3rd grade and the 3T year is the transition from Yupik to English.)

Last week we only had school on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We had the rest of the days off for our Spring Break. My mother braved the planes, weather, and interesting people and made it her on Tuesday. She flew out on Sunday from Green Bay and then had a layover in Minneapolis. She then flew the 6-hour flight to Anchorage where she spent the night. The next day she flew to Bethel and then to Toksook.

Tuesday night was spent shoveling. Jimmy shoveled for over an hour and didn’t finish until around 10:00PM. When we went to leave in the morning the snow was piled up ¾ of our doorway. Jimmy did a quick 5 minute job and then we had to go to school for the day. It continued to be horrible weather on Tuesday so we didn’t think she was going to make it. At 1:00pm they began to clear the runway. No planes had come in for two days. She arrived around 3:00 on one of the two planes that came in that day. Grant (one of the three airlines that comes to Toksook) didn’t even fly out here that day. Thankfully and miraculously I put her on the airline that did, Hageland. During the day my kids were so excited that my mother was coming. I kept hearing, “When is she going to be here?” “Can we visit you tonight and tomorrow?” My mom had an interesting time trying to get into the house with all the snow. That night she slid into the house on her butt, it was quite a sight and I am laughing now as I am thinking about it.

Wednesday the bad weather continued and no planes landed again. My mother decided to volunteer her time in the classroom. She got to watch my kids paint Easter eggs. Each kid got to paint two hard-boiled eggs. They had to pick between the two and decide which ones they wanted to be in the Easter egg contest that was judged. Two of my students placed in the contest. The second place winner decorated her egg like Plankton from Sponge Bob. The first place winner made her egg into a pig. It was so cute; she painted the egg pink and poked holes to make it have a squiggly tale, legs and a nose out of pipe cleaner. They both got chocolate bunnies as prizes. Then at around 2:00 we went into the commons area and the middle school students hid the Easter eggs for my students. My students then had to try and find two eggs that they could take home with them to eat. Thankfully after this the students left. Then it was the middle schools turn to get their eggs hidden by the high school students. The high school also participated and got to decorate and have two eggs hidden.

The next few days were spent trying to stay out of the blowing snow, relaxing, and showing my mom around Toksook. She got quite an adventure saying up here. I took her to the store on Thursday and she got to see how expensive it is to buy food here. She could not believe that a pack of 24 toilet rolls cost $30.00. Then she got a nice mastodon ivory bracelet as a memento from her trip. It was really nice having someone else around to talk to, laugh with, eat with, and enjoy adult company with. She also brought us a bunch of food including fresh Wisconsin cheese, frozen pizza, and other snacks. Dirk came over on Thursday night and had lasagna that my mom cooked and played some hand-and-foot with us.

My mom was supposed to get out on Saturday so that she would be able to catch an early flight on Sunday morning out to Anchorage. However, the weather was not cooperating. It was horrible all day on Friday and the winds wouldn’t let up. When we woke up that morning my mom was shocked by how bad it was outside. The snow kept blowing and at times you couldn’t see the house that was less than 200 feet from us. This was nothing new to us, but she said that she now sees what really bad winters are like! We even took her out on a walk on the Bearing Sea.

Thankfully the weather finally died down after the two-day storm and she was able to get out on Sunday. However, we did have to reschedule all of her flights, which turned out to be quite a mess. I miss her already, but it was so refreshing to have her with us.

On Tuesday our state mentor, Pat, came out and worked with us until late in the night. She is such a huge help when she is here. She showed me how to do a few new programs in my classroom and she is always has such great ideas and insights. I can’t imagine doing her job. She is constantly going to different villages and mentoring first and second year teachers. She has 2 people she mentors here and many others in more remote villages. She sleeps on the floors of the school, on couches in people’s houses, or anywhere that she finds comfortable. She also brings us food with fresh fruit, which is always nice!

Today was also eventful! Jimmy is at home sick with a stomachache and I had to send two of my student’s home within 2 hours of school starting because they both had pinkeye. I then spent my prep-hour disinfecting desks in the hopes of spreading it to the rest of my students and myself. Then, in the afternoon my students were working well with one another and the sun was shining so I decided to take them out for a walk. Today is also our last day of the after school program. Jimmy and I will both now have an extra 4 hours of our lives back every week! What a relief.

The pictures that you see are those of us getting ready to brave the weather outside. My mom is looking outside in one of them, and I think this is where she spent a lot of her time hoping that she would make it out. The lower ones are when we went walking on the Bearing Sea.

Expect another update soon. Jimmy and I will be traveling to Bethel for the Camai Festival. Here they will have native dancing, native food, and an art show. Then on Saturday Jimmy and I will have our last culture class that we are required to take as first year teachers. The year sure seems like it is coming to a close.