North Carolina

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

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

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

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!