From Alaska to NC...Where Teaching has Taken Us

2009-09-01T19:14:00.001-08:00

North Carolina

2008-09-14T18:11:00.002-08:00

Well, it's been forever since our last post. Kerri and I accepted teaching jobs in North Carolina this year, and love it so far! Jimmy's favorite things about being in the south are the sweet tea, grits, and the weather. The people are really friendly, and we are teaching at great schools. Jimmy is teaching honors Earth Science all day to 9th graders. I am teaching 4th grade math and science all day. We'll start updating the blog more often soon! Here's a pic of our apartment.

Walking

2008-05-18T15:14:00.002-08:00

The year is starting to come to a close. It is finally starting to warm up here. Most of the snow has melted besides the snow that is in front of our house. It stays light out now until around midnight. This, along with the year coming to a close, has made the kids especially hyper this past week. I have been busy trying to help them stay motivated to finish up their final tests for the year. We also finished writing our final letters to our pen pals from Mrs. Bush’s 4th grade class. My students have really enjoyed hearing the stories from Michigan. They have especially liked hearing about all the hunting that we have in Michigan. Many of the students now want to visit there some day.

This past week Jimmy and I have been busy trying to get things ready to leave for the year. Graduation was this past Friday, and Jimmy and I watched the ceremony. It was nice to see all of the community that came and supported the 5 students. We have both been busy cleaning our rooms, grading papers etc. We have 4 days of school left next week and then it's summer vacation! The staff will have a workday on Friday to finish getting our rooms around and to put in our final grades. Jimmy and I will fly out to Bethel on Saturday. We will then fly from Bethel to Anchorage to Chicago to Detroit on Sunday night/Monday morning/Monday afternoon (we're losing 4 hours due to timezones alone).

On Saturday Jimmy and I took a walk around Toksook. It was interesting to see all the water that had melted. We were following a stream of water that had naturally occurred when I said, "I wonder where the stream went?" At that same moment, I fell through the snow and found the stream under the snow. I was stuck so Jimmy had to pull me out of the snow. It went up past my knee! The pictures you see are ones that Jimmy took of me after I was rescued. Have a wonderful week everyone!

Prom

2008-05-10T16:56:00.001-08:00

It’s been a busy few weeks here. Jimmy and I have been preparing for the end of the year. I can’t believe that we only have 9 more days of school left! It’s been an interesting year and I know that Jimmy and I both have learned a lot this year that will be put to good use in the coming years.

This past week the 3T-8th grades had culture week. The students were required to go to math, reading and writing in the morning. After lunch our students went to dancing and then had a variety of classes that they signed up for. They included beading, carving, NYO (Native Youth Olympics), outdoor survival, yo-yo making, doll making, mask making, singing and drumming, and needle case. It was a nice break for the teacher and students alike. I was in charge of helping out with the carving group. Now carving is a male activity so it was quite interesting to learn. I just wanted to watch but the boys insisted that I should give it a try. I figured why not; I was going to be there 3 hours everyday for 4 days. Many of the boys were really nice, and showed me what I was doing. I ended up making two boats out of the process.

Yesterday the students from 7th grade through high school went to prom. Friday afternoon was spent decorating the whole common area with various things to make it look like a prom. The gym had been closed all week while the junior class was decorating the dancing area. This of course left Jimmy with some creative planning because he teaches a gym class. Also the entire school had to eat in the common area where there is carpet. Instead of getting to play after they ate, the students had to watch various movies--mostly Veggie Tales and Kung-Fu.

While we were helping out decorating on Friday afternoon, I felt like I got to go back in time, through the various jobs that I have had. I had the privilege of taking off the nasty food stained plastic off the floor and vacuuming up all the excess spilt/left-over food. It reminded me of vacuuming a certain office while I was growing up. I also got to help out in the kitchen. I got to wear the hair net and all, just like when I worked in the dinning commons in college. It looked really nice when everything was finished!

They needed volunteers to help out that night so Jimmy and I decided to help out in the kitchen during prom. The dance was from 7-midnight. We showed up around 8:40 PM with helping hands. Thankfully Nicole (my peer coaching partner) had a dress that I could borrow so I didn’t have to wear my normal sweatshirt and jeans. It was so nice to see all the staff that came to the event and to see all the students being happy at the exact same time. The pictures you see are from the commons area of our school. Jimmy and I even posed for a picture.

Today our power went out around 1:00 and has been out ever since. We are currently at school where they have backup generators. Many teachers are here enjoying the warmth and electricity. We are still on a water shortage so I have been wearing the same pair of jeans for two weeks now. I am hoping to be able to wash our massive piles of laundry in the next few days if they let us. However, only time will tell if we will be sweaty-smelling when we go back to Michigan.

Next week will be our last full week of school. The gym will again be closed due to the school getting ready for graduation ceremonies. We will have 4 students graduating this year.

The other pictures were shot on various nights. I have been trying to stay up late enough to take some sunset pictures. The sky is so beautiful when the sun goes down here. However, it’s usually around 11:30 so I have been opening the bedroom window to take them right before I go to bed.

The end of the year is approaching

2008-04-26T12:27:00.001-08:00

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...

2008-04-08T18:50:00.001-08:00

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!

2008-04-06T20:53:00.001-08:00

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!

2008-04-04T17:14:00.001-08:00

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!

2008-04-04T08:25:00.001-08:00

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.

Potluck

2008-03-08T18:29:00.001-09:00

Jimmy and I both had a good week here at Toksook. We have been busy this weekend getting ready for next week (our last full week until spring break). We are both so excited that spring break is almost here! My mom will be visiting Toksook Bay in about a week and a half now.

On Thursday, we had a potluck for the interns that were here from the Anchorage area. They were both really nice guys and stayed here for two weeks to see what teaching was like in the Bush. It wasn’t as large as our normal potlucks but there was quite a variety of food. I felt adventurous and tried a bunch of it, which amazed me. The first thing I tried was Halibut, which I have wanted to try. It was amazing, and it reminded me a lot of the way that perch tastes. Then, I tried Musk-Ox sausage. It was interesting and tasted just like regular sausage, which I don’t care for. I then debated and finally was talked into trying beluga. I now have a new meaning for the song baby beluga. I don’t know of those who have tried it, but beluga is very chewy. It is not at all what I expected and I didn’t enjoy it. Then for dessert I had some amazing Eskimo Ice cream made by one of the teacher. I even took a little bit for my mom to try when she comes to taste it. It had salmon berries, blueberries, and a few other types of berries.

My kids also came up with a Yupik name for me this week. I am now named Naunraq Ilanaq. The first word Naunraq means salmon berry. The second word is named after a women that died this past week in a village nearby. The kids were really sweet and made me posters with my ‘new’ name on it.

The pictures you see here are the ones that I took with my mentor Pat last week on our walk around Toksook. Overall, it was a good week for both Jimmy and I. We still have a lot of work to get done this weekend and I am sure that the time change is going to mak for an interesting week with our kids. Thankfully, we only have one week left and then we are done with this quarter. Only one more left!

The Sun is Finally Shining

2008-03-04T17:23:00.000-09:00

I keep meaning to write on our blog, but other things keep coming up at school that I never have gotten the chance. It has been snowing like crazy around here. Last week we had an hour delay. The snow started around 2:00AM and it continued until around 9:00AM. It was knocking on our windows so hard it really felt like they would break.

On Tuesday of last week Jimmy and I were heading home from school. As usual the snow was piled very high and we had to jump to get into our house. However, this time the door was frozen. Jimmy and I pushed. Jimmy gave it a push and the door fell down. Right off of the frame! Here we are jumping into our house and landing on the door on the floor. It was quite a sight. I then had to run back to school in the horrible weather to let a maintenance worker know so we wouldn’t have a bunch of snow in our Arctic entry-way (basically an enclosed porch. Most houses here are equipped with one). Jimmy spent the rest of the time shoveling that night. The top picture is Jimmy shoveling (once again). If you look close you can tell that you can't see out of the window because the snow is piled so high. The second picture is the door laying on the floor.

Last week after school on Wednesday, our secretary stopped me and said that I had to go to the window and look out. Over the mountain (through binoculars) I could see a herd of musk ox! I had wanted to see them since I got here (preferably alive) so I was really excited to be able to see them in the distance.

Jimmy’s and my mentor came to Toksook last weekend. She was snowed in on Saturday, so was able to stay the extra day until Sunday afternoon.

It has already been an interesting start to the week. On Monday the kids had "Read Across America Day." We all wore our Dr. Seuss hats and our students read to the 1st and 2nd graders. We had 5 classrooms all crammed into one class. It was crammed, but it was a lot of fun.

Today, I took my kids outside because it is such a nice day out. We were only outside for 15 minutes but the kids enjoyed every minute of it. The kids are getting really impatient as the weather is getting nicer. They really want to be outside enjoying the nice weather that we are finally getting. Then, we went into the 3T classroom and my kids made ravens. Overall, it was a nice day and quite relaxing.

Stuck in Bethel and Tununak

2008-02-17T20:49:00.001-09:00

Jimmy and I had a busy week and then weekend. On Thursday I was busy at school until around 8:00. I had the after school program with the high school and then I had a family night. Family night is a night that the 3T-5th grade puts on and we have family members and their children come up to it. We ended up putting on a valentine card making session where the parents could have their picture taken with their child and put it on the card. It turned out to be a bigger hit than we had planned and a lot of community members showed up which was really nice to see.

This weekend Jimmy and I both went our separate ways to chaperone the middle school basketball teams. I went to Tununak, which is on Nelson Island just up and down the large hill (mountain) that we can see in Toksook. We left on Friday around 12:00 on snowmobile. It was quite the trip. You really have to bundle up when you travel in Alaska in the wintertime. I had on 6 different layers and my coat, a hat, mittens, snow goggles, -30 degree boots, wool socks, 3 pant layers, and my snow bibs. I felt like I weighed 15 more pounds and had a hard time walking. The trip over to Tununak was very rocky. I was taken over by one of the maintenance guys that works in our school. We also had to tow a sled of equipment behind us. There was more than one time that I thought I might fall off and die and then the sled would run over me. I thought that the half hour trip would never end! The thing that surprised me was that they don’t wear helmets on their sleds up here in Alaska. It’s something that I have gotten used to in Michigan, and I felt so much safer with one than without one!

When we arrived we had to play in less than 20 minutes so the coach and I got the girls to put their things away and quickly get ready for their game. Their first game went really well and the girls won. The rest of the night was spent watching the other 3 teams compete against one another and we also had another game that night. I had forgotten what it is like to be in middle school, and probably for a good reason. The girls were very nice but hyper for most of the time. They spent their free time in the gym and couldn’t get enough basketball. They played until 11:00 PM when we kicked them out! Then they didn’t want to settle down and I was still yelling at some at 1:30AM! I was sure exhausted come Saturday morning when we got up for breakfast at 8:00 AM. We then were supposed to play one game and be home by 2:00 PM. Unfortunately two bad things happened. We lost our last game and then the weather was horrible. We weren’t able to leave until around 8:30 PM. I was just thankful that we were able to get out. The other two schools were snowed in for another night. The coach and I were jumping up and down ready to leave and head back to Toksook.

Jimmy had similar issues. He went to Bethel with the boys. The boys won all 3 games but they also got snowed in. They were supposed to arrive on Saturday afternoon but didn’t return until Sunday afternoon. Thankfully Jimmy spent his morning calling the airport otherwise he would have been stuck for another night. The small window (1 hour) of good weather only lasted the time he was in the air. The weather is horrible again here with the wind blowing really strong.

Needless to say we are both exhausted but look forward to another week. I can’t believe there are only 14 more weeks left. Hopefully winter won’t be for the rest of them. I am ready for the snow to melt and to start enjoying positive temperatures again.

The pictures you see are ones that I took in Tununak of the school and village. The painting is one that is hanging up in the school that I thought was really cool. The village reminded me a lot of Toksook besides that it is a lot smaller, they have a smaller basketball court, and that the large mountain we see was on the opposite side than it is in Toksook.

We also added some pictures to an older post we called Berry festival. They were pictures form Jimmy't trip to Umkimuit and of the cross country course that we have in Toksook. It's nothing like the one in Newberry or the other towns that I used to run in, thats for sure!

The snow continues

2008-02-10T17:25:00.000-09:00

The past week has been really busy for both Jimmy and I. A lot of people were out sick again this week with the flu and cold. I ended up subbing the after school program on Tuesday because no one else was not sick and able to cover. This meant that I stayed until 6:00 this week on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. It was nice that I could help out, and even nicer that I will get a large paycheck. However, it did burn me out. The past week seemed to crawl for the both of us. I had two full mornings and an afternoon full of Terra Nova testing with my kids. The kids were really great sports about it, which was a huge relief.

It seems like everyday this week we had to shovel a mound of snow when we got done with school in order to get back into our house. Whiteouts were a common thing around Toksook. This morning (Sunday) we got woken up at 4:12 AM, 5:00AM, and 5:30AM this morning because our heater was not working properly. When the wind is as strong, as it was last night, the heater can’t get the fuel on its own. Therefore, we have to turn the heater off and pump it manually then turn it back on. If you choose to ignore it, it will continue to have a nice loud, high-pitch beeping sound until you get up and turn it off. Then it was hard to fall back asleep each time because the wind was knocking so hard it seemed like the windows were about to break! It was so windy that at times we couldn’t even see the house next to us! Our neighbor and her son came over and shoveled a little bit for us so we could get out. The picture you see here is what it looked like this morning when we were trying to go outside. Jimmy spent awhile shoveling it out. We were informed it was better to shovel stairs going up and then down instead of shoveling the whole thing out. This way you are only shoveling a little, instead of the whole walk way every time. It is just amazing how quickly the wind brings the snow back once you have shoveled. Thankfully, this should be our last month of really hard winter until the spring comes! Jimmy is the brave one that usually shovels as you see in the picture. I was warm inside cleaning and doing dishes. To cover up and keep warm when you are shoveling Jimmy is sporting the usual clothing that we have to wear – boots, bibs, hoodie, coat, hat, gloves, scarf, and then goggles. I know you are all going to run out and get cool gear so you can look like us!

I just received my ipod today. I was so excited to open it, and today is spent trying to put songs on it. We are currently at school right now, and we are supposed to be working on our lesson plans for the week. However, it is VERY cold in here (around 57 degrees) and our hands keep freezing. Jimmy and I both have our hoodies on and winter coats but we are still both freezing. It gets like this in the school on windy days because the wind comes right through our walls. The sad thing is Jimmy’s classroom is actually colder than mine because it’s upstairs. I think we are going to have to come back tomorrow on our vacation day and type our lesson plans. Then, we can borrow the key from another teacher (who has a classroom in the new part of our school) that can set the temperature.

It will be nice to have a short week and my kids will have to endure another round of testing on Tuesday. This time it’s to see if the kids are proficient in English. They say February is always testing month and I now see that it is true! Thankfully the most important tests that the students take aren’t until April. Only 15 more weeks of school left until we fly back to Michigan where there is warmer weather, trees, cars, highways, stores, TV, and Internet at home!

Birthday and Snow Day all in one

2008-02-04T20:38:00.000-09:00

Well today is Jimmy's 24th Birthday! Unfortunately, he had a large migraine and had to call in sick to school. I on the other hand braved the weather to go to school. On my way, I kept being blown over. We had wind chills -50 below! These were winds like I have never experienced before! I couldn't see anything because the wind was whipping up the snow. Then I kept hitting drifts of snow and falling down. I actually missed the door to the school and had to go back to try and get it because the wind lead me away from it. Then, after I had been there for about 15-20 minutes they delayed school for an hour. I began to work and warm up (my room was around 60 degrees all day). Well we all waited around for a bit, and then they called off school for another hour. We then started school at 10:45. I have to say, it was pretty humorous to watch the kids try and walk into the school. They were barley moving and almost being swept away. When I got done with the elementary after school program at 6:00 I began to walk home. I had to reach down to get the door handle. Then I actually had to jump in. The picture actually looks better than it was. Then Jimmy and I spent some time shoveling us out of it. Just remember when you think you have experienced bad weather, realized that it is nothing compared to an Alaskan Bearing Sea storm!

Update!

2008-02-02T11:10:00.000-09:00

Well it’s been a long time since we last updated our blog. Let's start from the beginning. Jimmy and I both enjoyed our trip home. It was a nice refresher and although we had a lot of delays, we made it back safely. I cut my hair while I was there and donated it to Locks for Love for young children that have ailments that prevent them from growing their own hair. Since we’ve been back, my students have been much more well-behaved!! This has of course been a huge relief. I still have some problems and struggles but overall things have calmed down a bit.

Last week, Jimmy and I were super busy planning for conferences and getting ready for classes the next week. I was sick this past Monday with flu like symptoms. I was happy to be back at school, and so were the teachers. We have been getting a lot of snow and wind in the past few weeks. We had a ton of teachers that left for a union meeting and our principal was also out for a meeting. They were all supposed to arrive on Sunday last week. However, they were all snowed in at Bethel. We had a total of 6-7 teachers gone, our head custodian, many aides were sick or snowed in, students were spread out in different villages, and our principal was also snowed in. This lasted until Wednesday at 3:00 when they were finally able to land their first plane. The school seemed like it was bursting at the seams! The kids were not used to that many substitutes and it got really rough. I felt like this past week was 3 weeks rolled into one! It was on Thursday and Friday having all of our teachers back and getting things back to normal.

Yesterday was spent making Yupik masks and making up a Yupik dance for our culture class that we have today. It’s crazy and exciting to think we only have 16 more weeks of school!

Our Trip Home!

2007-12-22T22:49:00.000-09:00

I hope that everyone is having a great holiday season so far! Jimmy and I enjoyed our trip to Bethel, but we were fried after it. After checking papers for three days straight the last thing I wanted to do was write or read anything!

The past two weeks have been pretty good here. Jimmy went back to Bethel the next week to take his Video Production students to an Apple Multi-Media Conference. He had a lot of fun while he was there. During this time I ended up getting a nice dose of pink eye. The doctor said that it should clear up within in a few days. I ended up getting rid of it 10 days later. It was horrible! I had to miss one day of school because of it. I had a hard time seeing and light was too painful for me. Thankfully, it is all gone now!

The last week has just flown by. We only went to school Monday thru Wednesday. On Monday we had a bit of a scare. Jimmy and I both fell asleep with the TV on (we have only one channel). At around 12:40 the emergency broadcast went off and the beeping woke us up. I though it was just a test but then someone's voice came up and said that there was a large earthquake (7.2 on the Richter Scale) somewhere in the Aleutian Islands in Anchorage. They put out a statewide tsunami warning for the state. The bordering areas (us) were at more of a risk. Thankfully they canceled the warning around 1:30 AM.

On Tuesday we had a Christmas party and Jimmy had the pleasure of being a certain big man in a suit with a nice long beard. It was pretty humorous and he did an excellent job with the kids. My kids sang, “Away In A Manager” to the parents and relatives that came. It was nice to see all the students performing and singing to the community. Nobody seems to mind that it was a religious song in a public school. The line between religion and school is more than blurred. It just isn't an issue here I guess.

We headed out of Toksook on Wednesday night and stayed in Bethel. We then flew to Anchorage the next day. Thankfully we got on the mid-afternoon flight because apparently the evening flight had some maintenance problems and didn’t get off until after midnight. We then have been staying in Anchorage for he past two nights. It has been so nice to shop in stores and the malls here. We rented a nice large SUV and have been driving that around the city. We went around to all the stores to get food for the next semester. It is amazing how much cheaper it is to shop for the food and then ship it to yourself. The other companies that charge you usually have quite a bit of charges for their services.

Today Jimmy and I stopped at a place for a quick pizza lunch. When we pulled up there was no parking and it was completely packed. It is called the Moose's Tooth. It was seriously the best pizza each of us has ever had! This is amazing to say because you know how much Jimmy and I both love and have tasted our share of pizza.

Tomorrow we will fly out of Anchorage at 9:42 pm and head to Minneapolis. Here we will have about a 4 hour delay and then we fly to Milwaukee. We are both hoping that we will make it safely and hopefully we won’t have any layovers.

The pictures that you see are of a sunset on our last weekend in Toksook. The other picture is of our plane ride to Bethel on Wednesday.

Break!

2007-12-04T21:46:00.000-09:00

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Jimmy and I went to a potluck dinner at another teacher’s house and had some amazing turkey. Jimmy didn't try any of course, because he doesn't like turkey. It sure was a nice break off from school for awhile.

Speaking of breaks, Jimmy and I are currently in Bethel right now. We flew out after school today to go to a writing conference. Here we will be grading 1,000 writing tests that the students wrote from all of the villages. It is a much-needed break for Jimmy and me. We have not been off the island since we got here in early August! We will be in Bethel until Friday afternoon and then we will fly back to Toksook. We were very worried today because there was a lot of wind, and they were wondering if he planes would even get out. A lot of times planes don't land in the village because of the danger of such a small plane and strong winds. Thankfully we saw it land and were able to get on when there was a break in the snow. We were surprised to see it was a larger plane than we had come to the village in. It had a total of 9 seats in it!

After we got on the plane with two other teachers from Toksook they told us that we would be stopping at Mekoryuk to drop off some passengers. I looked over at Jimmy and said who do we know from Mekoryuk? He mentioned that Kale, another first-year teacher lived there. When we landed I looked out the window and Kale was waiting to get on the plane. He is going to the writing conference as well. It was nice to see him and hear about his first year experiences in another village.

As I am typing this I feel so happy! Jimmy and I ate hot pizza for dinner tonight from a restaurant. We then went back to our hotel and watched TV and were amazed at the choices (we only have one channel at home), and that we could have Internet in our room! Not to mention the fact that there are people everywhere and we got to ride in an Chevy Avalanche on our way to the hotel. What simple pleasures that you didn’t think you would ever miss.

As we were in the pizza place I kept thinking about home and how much I missed it. Jimmy then looked up and said hey look at that picture. I looked up and there was a picture from Tahquamenon Falls framed on top of the cooler! How bizarre that we were in Bethel, Alaska and they have a picture from my hometown! I asked the owner where he got the picture and he said it was a pretty picture he got at the local gas station up the road to decorate his restaurant. What a small world!

Update!

2007-11-10T11:10:00.000-09:00

The past few weeks have flown by! We have had a lot going on. We were both surprised when we realized that it is almost Thanksgiving. The past few weeks have been spent planning, teaching, and relaxing when we have the time. It has gotten bitter cold here and the snow seems to blow all day! Jimmy and I are both looking forward to purchasing some snow goggles so that we can get to school and not feel like our faces are going to fall off. They say that they are a necessity here because the wind blows so much that there are mornings when you will walk out and not be able to see anything. It will be white-out conditions to the point where you can't see where you're walking because you can't open your eyes with the intensity of the wind.

Last weekend was a busy one for Jimmy and me. There was a death in the village, and out of respect all after school events were cancelled. Therefore, they cancelled Halloween and it was rescheduled for Saturday morning. Then on Sunday Jimmy and I both supervised the After School Program's (ASP's) pizza party gym time for three hours. After this we were both busily trying to get prepared for the week.

This week has also been a busy one filled with school events. I had two meetings during school time that I had to go to, as well as ASP. This Friday we had training all day. I think that it was a great break for our students and the teachers alike! We learned about PBS (Positive Behavior Support) and what it would look like in the classroom. It is something that is going to be implemented in the school after Christmas and I think it will alleviate some of the discipline issues that we have been having. I am actually on the committee, which is a really great experience for me. Today (Saturday) Jimmy and I both have our culture class again from 8:30-3:30. Here we are learning about the important stories that are in the Yupik culture.

We are both really looking forward to Thanksgiving. The school puts on a village Thanksgiving dinner the day before Thanksgiving. Then on Thanksgiving we are going to go to the Dean of Students' house to celebrate as a staff. I am looking forward to a short break and some great food! Another adventure that Jimmy and I just learned about is that we will be leaving for Bethel in December for a writing workshop training. Here we will be learning how to score the writing tests that each school has been working on. There are over 2,000 tests that the group of us will have to score over a three-day period.

The picture on top is actually taken today outside of the school. As you can see the snow-machines are already being used. You can even see our yellow house in the background on the left hand side. I hope that everyone had a wonderful Halloween and that you have a great Thanksgiving!

NYO

2007-10-28T11:43:00.000-08:00

Well it has sure been another couple of busy weeks here. We thought winter was here to stay. The temperature turned very cold and we had around 5 inches of snow. However, this week the sun came out and mixed with some showers, melted all our snow away. It is now a huge mud pit again; but we are happy to be putting our winter coats away for at least the time being and have gladly replaced them with our stylish mud boots!

Due to the nice weather we decided to take a walk the past two days. The pictures that you see here are from our walk out by the Bering Sea. We walked with a student from my class. While we were down there we met up with Dirk, the 7th grade teacher and his dog. These are pictures of his dog chasing birds on the water/mud because it was low tide.

School has been going well, but it is busy of course. We are getting ready for another round of parent teacher conferences this coming week. This time around they will be student led, which I have never seen before so it will be a new experience for me. We also have Halloween this week and all of the kids are really hyper and excited about it!

This past weekend we went to a NYO (Native Youth Olympics) meet that was held in our school. All the kids from the surrounding villages that are in NYO flew out to our school. The kids then camped in our classrooms for the night and performed in such events as the Alaskan High kick, Seal Hopping, and other various events. It was amazing to see these kids perform and the strength that they had. The one event that we stayed for the longest had two of Jimmy’s students performing in it. The kids could only use one arm to hold themselves up and kick a soft ball with their feet. The ball was then raised and if you couldn’t touch is with three chances then you were out (similar format to high jump in Track & Field). Jimmy’s students both did awesome, and came in 1st and 2nd place overall in the event. Our school took 1st place out of all of the other schools.

Other than that not too much has been happening out here. Jimmy had quite and experience the last two weeks teaching his physical education class how to square dance. He himself doesn’t know how to square dance, but took on the mission. This week his kids got to teach the 3rd graders through the 5th graders how to do it. It was quite chaotic, but it was funny to watch my kids bowing to their partners and joining hands with a member of the opposite sex. They were totally grossed out and tried to be the farthest they could from one another.

In less than eight weeks we will be traveling on four different planes and driving 5 hours to get back to Newberry. We are very excited to see our friends and family again! I hope that all the readers are doing well and that you are enjoying your fall weather! Get outside and enjoy the trees and nice weather for me. They are both something that we don’t have around here!

Our First Snow!

2007-10-13T13:38:00.000-08:00

It sure has been awhile since I last posted but the same ole same ole has been happening. The picture you see here is our first snow outside of our yellow house! It has snowed here a couple of times already, but this is the first time that it has stayed. We woke up today and this is what we saw. We keep hearing how warm it is back in Michigan and think about how nice a sunny day would feel like again. We keep wishing we weren't already in our winter coats buttoned up as we are still freezing when we are walking to school in the mornings. However, I am sure that it will get much much worse before it gets any better. I hear that we are in for a rough winter with cold wind.

Jimmy and I have been keeping busy. We have been at school a lot these days working on lesson plans and getting things organized. We are also in the After School Program (ASP) here. It is designed to help students improve their scores on the state test. Many of the students here have failed the state reading, writing, and math tests. To help them improve, and pass the test next time, they are required to come to the ASP for two hours a week. I have it on Mondays with the elementary and Thursdays with the high school. Jimmy has it on Tuesdays with the middle school and with me on Thursdays. This takes up a lot of our time and we don't usually end up getting home until after 6:00. The weeks are starting to fly by because they are so packed. I can’t believe its already October and Halloween will be here before we know it. The kids and staff are really into Halloween and that is all my kids talk about these days. After Halloween it will only be a short while before Christmas is here. We finally were able to purchase our tickets to fly home and we are looking forward to seeing our families and Michigan again!

When it is not weekends we mainly lesson plan and have a chance to relax and watch a couple of our Netflix movies. We have been working hard on trying to get satellite TV. We have spent over 15 hours on trying to get it hooked up. A couple of teachers even volunteered their time to give us a hand and try and fix it. However, after much frustration and disappointment we cancelled our service. We decided that we could live without TV for one year. We do feel very disconnected from the outside world though, and rarely know what is happening outside of our small village. To try and make up for this, we ordered a bunch of magazines to try and get ourselves up to date on what happens outside of Toksook.

This past Thursday something unfortunate happened to us. We came home from school after a busy day at around 10:00 and our house had been broken into. The front door was wide open. We were lucky, and only some money and personal items were taken. However, it did make us feel really uncomfortable and we are taking extra precautions to ensure that it doesn't happen again. The people have been really understanding about it and have offered us many kind words. We were ok though, and nothing too valuable was taken from us.

Other than that nothing much has been happening. Jimmy and I don’t go outside much now that the cold weather has set in because it has just been too muddy. Every time we go somewhere we have to bundle up and wear our mud boots. With the ground freezing we are hoping that we will be able to get out and get some fresh air soon. I hope that when you read this that things are going well in all of your lives. It has been so nice to receive support from all of you. We enjoy and thank you for the messages that you leave on here, notes that you send, and packages!

Rain, Rain, Rain

2007-09-23T14:48:00.000-08:00

It has been a good couple of weeks here. We both finally feel like we are getting used to the way things are around here. For one thing we sure are learning to be patient. We got our phone hooked up so we feel like we now have contact back to the world but we are still waiting on Internet and satellite TV. School has been going pretty well here. It’s busy of course, but we are getting used to the routines and the students are getting used to our ways of doing things. There have been rough moments, but for the most part things are looking up.

The rain here has finally begun to stop for a while. Although, right now when I am writing this, is of course raining again. I asked some local residents and they said that there has been a lot more rain this year than in the past few years. We both feel blessed that we get to experience it! We head out in the morning with our light winter jackets and our rubber boots ready for school.

We have also noticed a huge difference in the sun. We used to wake up and the sun would beat us up in the mornings. Now, it has not even started to rise when we are walking to school at 7:00. I am starting to realize that I am going to really start to miss that sun in the wintertime. Marty, one of the other teachers was showing me some pictures of how much snow they get here in the wintertime. I was shocked at the amount that was there! He had to dig out his house in order to get out of it. Now I am used to the snow and all, but this seemed like a crazy amount of it! I liked the pictures that people have shown me with their doors open and all you can see is the snow piled up the whole way up the door. They said that this is the way that you are welcomed to the day in the morning before school. I sure can't wait.

The pictures that you see above are of Jimmy and I. We decided to take a walk out on the Tundra on the big hill area. We never made it however, because the rain started but as you can tell we were prepared as usual. The other picture is of some of the landscape around Toksook. It sure is beautiful around here when it isn't raining!

Berry Festival

2007-09-08T08:24:00.000-08:00

It has been a long a busy two weeks here. We are busy trying to plan interesting interactive lessons for our students. Jimmy enjoyed his trip to Umkimuit. He had a chance to bond with his students and joke around with them. It did rain a lot in the mornings when they were there but overall it was nice weather and a fun trip.

The Blackberry Festival was a lot of fun. I (Kerri) was surprised at how many people from other villages were here. Jimmy and I went and helped out at the cross-country race. I was a director to tell students were to go and Jimmy did the scoring for the teams. It sure is a grueling course. I have been on my fair share of rough courses but this one takes the cake. It has a small stream in the middle of two large hills that you have to go up. There is no way you can run up these hills and from where I was standing I got to watch the kids on hands and knees trying to get up. Once they get up that large hill there is another one. They then head back (this is where I was standing). Thankfully the rain held off for awhile while the kids ran. Other than that Jimmy and I just enjoyed our long weekend and relaxed. I have been sick for a while so it was nice to catch up on some sleep and just relax for a while.

Not too much exciting has been happening here. We have parent teacher conferences this coming week so we are trying to gear up for them. We also both have class this Saturday morning for our Alaska certification.

I have not figured out how to add captions yet, so the top picture is of my classroom. The second picture is of Jimmy’s classroom. The third picture is the outside of our school. Notice all the mud? We also added some pictures to our first post one of a whale that we got to see and the other is Jimmy and I in front of a Exit glacier that is receding.

***The pictures that were just added were from Jimmy's trip to Umkimuit with his kids. The other 3 were the ones from the cross country race. In the back of one of the pictures you can see a small figure going up a hill and then on one. This is actually a runner. You can see how tough the course really is now!

Our First Week!

2007-08-27T16:34:00.000-08:00

It’s been a very busy first week for the both of us. Sorry to all of the readers that we have not gotten a post out yet. We have both experienced many firsts this past week: our first day of school, our first class, and our first discipline with our new class. It has been an exhausting, but fun week for the both of us. I (Kerri) learned how to Yupik dance with my students on Friday and during the week I took my class out berry picking. They picked raspberries, blueberries and blackberries. My aide then made Eskimo ice cream for the students. It was quite the process, and if you have never seen it before, then you will have to have me make it for you sometime. However, I am not going to tell you what is in it besides berries. The kids loved it! Most of our week has been spent being busy planning exciting lesson plans for the students. Many of the students miss the outdoors during the day, so it is a much happier class if you can get them up and moving. This is quite a struggle for me sometimes but I am beginning to learn the ropes. I also cut Jimmy's hair for the first time this week. There are no barbers in our town, so when we were in Anchorage we purchased a hair cutter so I could cut his hair. I was very nervous about messing it up but was surprised to find that it wasn't that hard and I didn't make it look too bad.

The weather is beautiful up here. It sure makes the kids not want to be in the classroom when it is sunny and beautiful. I begin to wonder, how many more days are there going to be like this before the long winter days start to come. Although it is beautiful today, most days it rains at least once. This past weekend we had hail and a thunderstorm. This is something that is not seen by the island very often. On the clear nights there are beautiful sunsets. They are all sorts of colors and overlooking the sea it is breathtaking. We should take a picture the next time we see one and post it.

Although this past week was very busy we have both been fortunate for the teachers that have reached out to help us at school to learn how things are run. We have spent a lot of time with these people. Last weekend we went over to Nicole and Marty's house for dinner. We ate amazing food (Jimmy and I are still stuck on the Raman and Mac and Cheese college phase) so that we refreshing. After dinner we played a really fun card game called down the river up the river. It is a cross between hearts and euchre.

Other than that not too much has been happening around here. We seem to spend most of our time here at school. At home there isn't too much to do. We don't have any TV yet; no phone, no Internet, and we are working on getting our oven fixed. Thankfully because of my brother, we received Netflix as a wedding gift that has been a fun thing for us to do every time one comes in. This weekend will be a nice break because we have a three-day weekend. It will be a busy one though because it is the Blackberry festival. Many people from the surrounding villages come and celebrate the festivities with us. We both plan on helping out with the cross-country run which is the hardest trail that I HAVE EVER seen! It is through a stream, up a few MAJOR hills, and rough terrain. It will be interesting to see the kids run it!

Jimmy will be leaving on Wednesday with all of the high school to go to a local fishing camp until Friday. Here they will hold their regular classes outside and the elders will come in and make the event even more special for all of them. It will be interesting to see how he handles it considering there will be no showers, or running water. I am sure he will do fine, but I am going to miss him when he is gone.

We Made It!

2007-08-17T23:06:00.000-08:00

We finally made it to Toksook Bay, Alaska. We have both accepted jobs here. Jimmy will be teaching Physical Education, Health, Personal Life Skills, Government, Weight Training and Conditioning, and Video Production. Kerri is going to be teaching 15 5th graders. In order to get here it was quite a trip. My brother Chris drove us down to Chicago where we flew to Anchorage (a 6 1/2 hour flight) and we stayed in Anchorage area for our honeymoon. We also visited Mt. McKinley and a few glaciers. We took a crusie and saw whales, sea lions, sea otters, and seals. From Anchorage we flew to Bethel (1 hour flight) where we had new teacher orientation for 3 days. We then got on a 7 seater plane last Friday (the biggest one they have) and flew to Toksook Bay (about an hour flight).

One of the first things that we noticed is that people are really friendly here! We then noticed how muddy it gets! Thankfully we were given some rubber boots as a wedding gift that we have used everyday since we got here. We have been out blueberry picking 3 times now! Dirk Martin, another teacher, was nice enough to show us some of the good spots on the tundra to pick. We have frozen two bags so far for the long winter when we won't have any fresh fruit.

We have been very busy with school training and getting our rooms ready for school that will start on Monday. We are pretty excited about starting the year and getting to meet all of our students!