Adventures in Alaska

August... what a good month!

2010-09-02T10:42:00.000-07:00

School is back in session, when I'm not teaching I'm out picking berries and hunting with KC. Here's a great picture that was taken at inservice with my old roomie, Robin.

Here's a picture of all the raspberries i picked last weekend, YUM!!

When we were drifting down the river we saw some awesome bald eagles.

A close up a raspberries... mmmmmm!

More raspberries. There were so many raspberries you could never pick them all!
The mosquitos are mutant huge! scary!
This is the coolest picture I've ever taken, so sweet!
The woods near New Stu. Trees are so great!
This is what a bear can do to a smoke house!
Lots of people wondered how I got my honda up to Stu... this is how. In KC's boat 30 miles up the river from camp.

And that's all I have for you today. Hope you're all good!

Camping is fun!

2010-08-11T14:39:00.001-07:00

I took some pictures before I left camp, but I haven't had time to post them. So here you go.

This is Obie, he's the best dog ever!

I was very excited to eat homegrown radishes.

Here's a teepee/greenhouse we made, it's awesome!

Yummy king salmon!!

Here's some fish strips hanging in our smoker. The process:

1. catch the fish

2. clean and filet the fish

3. hang the fish

4. dry the fish

5. brine the fish

6. smoke the fish

7. eat the fish

Here's our washing machine. Old school!

So anyway, I'm not at camp anymore, I'm at teacher inservice, so I have to go. But I hope you are all doing well, I'll be back at school soon, summer is officially over... pictures of my new house and school in New Stu to come.

Summer 2010 on the Nushagak River

2010-06-28T15:02:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm not in Togiak anymore. Away from the bay, up the Nushagak river about 70 miles there is a quiet little cabin, a workshop and several outhouses where the fun never ends. Long summer days and endless fish, who could ask for more?

This is what I get to look at every day... The Nushagak River.

Here's the main cabin!

Here's our windowed in porch, built in little gardening spot with a beautiful view!

Here's a nice chromer king salmon, 20 pounds!

Obedia got caught up in the net.. brings new meaning to catching a dog fish!Got the recliner in the boat... life is good!

This is my first King Salmon ever!
Between throwing the stick for Obie, we're hauling wood, water and supplies. We're processing fish for preservation. We're growing a garden. Busy people!

Hope you're all doing good too!

Yes, I'm still alive

2010-01-18T17:39:00.000-08:00

You've probably stopped checking, long ago coming to the conclusion that I wanted to see how a sign post tastes at -15 degrees, or maybe I swam away, eager to see what life would be like as an ice cube.

But if you are one of the few that has not yet given up hope, that somewhere out there Tara is still keeping it real in Togiak, you will be rewarded with some random pictures.

I know what you're thinking. "Totally righteous dude!" Yep, I can read minds, long distance, through the internet. Next time you check my blog, I will be a millionaire, but it will take me 6 months to post about it.

Let's see... since October... I've taught a lot of math in the village, met and fallen for an awesome guy, went on a ridiculous vacation, and taught some more math.

And now, the pictures.

This is a really big puzzle that KC, Robin, and I did.. it took a lot of time...

This is the view out of the airplane between Togiak and Dillingham... I started flying a lot to see my boyfriend.

This is an aerial of Togiak

another

This is at a basketball game, cute shy little Joel and Andrea

This is Gala at the grocery store after choir practice, love her!

This is near Talkeetna, where I went during my vacation

Mt. McKinley, biggest mountain in North America. Talkeetna, Alaska, about 3 hours north of Anchorage. Awesome!

The outhouse at OC's cabin... For those of you that have a fascination with outhouses... you can admit it here, this is a safe zone.

OC's cabin. We stayed in a little cabin nearby for 3 days.

The view from the kitchen window at OC's... Mt. McKinley! Sweet!

Dusk in Togiak....

During my Christmas vacation I also went skiing in Anchorage... didn't take any pictures of that though... sorry!

Hope you're doing good! Life is good here. My roommate is the best, my job is fun (don't tell anyone though), and I'm feeling good!

I'll try to get to the library more to update more often. I'll just be chillin here in the mean time!

As of lately

2009-10-15T20:04:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody, I thought it was about time for another update... I guess it's probably a little over due. Well, here you go!

A sweet picture of the mudflats and the bay today... just another beautiful day...

Everybody loves rocks... or is it just me?

Caribou skull... just chillin.

Up close on the caribou skull.

This is Teddy's drying shed, where he is drying a whole bunch of red salmon

Me and the fishies

I have a strange fascination with drying fish...

This is the backyard of Jeremiah Steck, his neighbors have a lot of old equipment.

Here's a picture of the mudflats outside my apartment today, we had some pretty impressive wind and waves a couple days ago, so the mud is especially awesome looking.

A cake that I helped Michelle make for Andrea's sister, brother in-law and nephew. It was awesome having visitors from the outside!

Here's some pictures from a long time ago... Lida visited and we all camped out at second creek. We set up our tents and cooked dinner over a fire. Fun!

Night time is coming. Camping on the beach, another beautiful night. Check out the size of the moon!

Some bear prints that we found on the beach the morning after camping....

When Lida visited we climbed two hill for some serious berry picking.

Here's Andrea, resting after our intense climb!

And me, enjoying the beauty of Alaska.

Things are going pretty good. School is pretty awesome, I love my job. Home is great, friends are super, and everything is just good. I hope you are all doing good. I miss you all...

Ohh Togiak... How I love Thee.

2009-09-02T16:16:00.000-07:00

So, I haven't posted any pictures yet this year and I figured you guys were due for some updated photos. So here you go, in no particular order.

We went out net fishing in the river, that's our net out in the water, catching delicious silver salmon

Andrea and I have been doing lots of berry picking. This one is taken on the top of Two Hill, there were lots of big blue berries :)

When I went up river with Lenny we saw 4 grizzley bears!! Thankfully we were in the boat and they were on land! This is one of the smaller ones we saw.

Here's the counselor Robin, with her prized catch from the day we went up river with Lenny.

This is Lenny, he's awesome. He took a couple of us up the river in his boat for fishing and stuff.

Here's me and my first silver salmon of the season. I was very excited!

This is what it looks like up river. There are mountains and stuff too. It's really beautiful.

Ahh fishing... very fun!!

This is what I see when I look out of my window in my house. It's the bay!

This is my house and my 4-wheeler. Not too shabby.

This is a picture of some houses in the village. Pretty nice truck eh?

This was taken when we went out to second creek, that's Andrea and Michelle chillin by the creek. We picked lots of berries that day.

That's the end of my picture reel for now. School is awesome, life is good, and I'm happy to be alive. I hope all of you are good as well!

Back in Togiak!

2009-08-22T13:39:00.000-07:00

Ok, I don't want to jinx myself, but so far, this year is amazing. I'm not kidding. I feel like a new person. I have a new place to live, I have a new job, new principal, 6 new staff members, and so far everyone has been great! Here's some stuff that's making me feel great:

Today I walked on the beach, watching seagulls hang out. It's sunny and warm with big puffy clouds.
Today I gave an older gentleman a ride from the village up the hill, he spoke no english, but was able to use his hands to gesture his great appreciation.
This week, 95% of my high school math students turned in quality homework everyday.
This week I heard students say "wow, I'm actually learning something!" and "math is actually kind of fun" and "this is going to be a great year!" and "your class always goes by so fast!"
This week students actively engaged in discussion about how math problems can be solved.
Yesterday, my new principal told me that I'm doing a good job.
Yesterday I hiked to the top of 2 hill with some friends, picked blue berries and admired the view.

If things keep up, my blog could get pretty boring because I'll just brag about how happy I am all the time. That is a risk I am willing to take. By the way, my summer was freaking awesome, thanks to all the great people I saw. You should call me and tell me how you're doing.

Last week in Togiak

2009-05-18T10:36:00.000-07:00

I'm Done!!!!! I'm on my way out of Alaska as I type this. The last week of school was great, I got my room all cleaned out and stuff. Thanks to Justin, I got to go out on the boat and see big gray whales!

Here's Captain Justin

Here's Dennis and Michelle out on the boat!

We also saw Summit Island, Crooked Island, Round Island, and Black Rock. Also, herring fishing season is about to begin so we got to see lots of huge fishing boats.Here's a boat called the Maverick, I guess it's been on Deadliest Catch. The Time Bandit is also in our bay.

The Bering Sea... and some islands and stuff out there.

Michelle took some pictures of the whales, those may come later.

After the boat ride, Jon and I finished up our painting project. Andrea and Justin thought it would be nice if we painted their son's room for next year. So we painted Joel's room, he is 2, so we thought we'd decorate with some animals and an arctic water theme. Here's Jon Sharp, painting some geese

Here's a Walrus that I painted and a puffin

And here's Jon's whale. I hope Joel enjoys his new room!

Now that I am leaving I know I will miss Togiak. I already can't wait to see all of my friends I've met there again next year. I think about my students and hope that they don't forget everything they learned this year. I'm sad that some of my favorite people are not returning next year. I'm also excited about all the changes next year, new apartment, no roommate, teaching math instead of science, a bunch of new teachers, new principal, new teacher steam house (called a maki) and new adventures lay await.

Now I'm heading back to Michigan. This summer I will visit many places, among them, North Carolina, Nebraska, Montana and Colorado.

I hope everyone has a great summer!!

Spring Flood

2009-05-01T22:39:00.001-07:00

I've spoken with many people and they all agree that this is the most snow that Togiak has seen in many years. Everyone here loves snow, so they were all very happy. The only problem is in the spring, the snow melts and the water has no where to go, thus, flood.
Where's the sign indicating a flood?

Hey, look, there's a bunch of water in the street...

Driving in the "street" on my 4-wheeler. I asked Sam, the water has to be up over your tailpipe before your ride will die. Good thing! That's the AC store in the back by the way. Around the corner, kids were paddling around with shovels in a little boat. Who needs Venice when you've got Togiak?

So far, no one's houses have flooded, so hopefully it won't get too much worse before the bay melts and the water will have somewhere to go.

We also made our way over to the airport...Here's my new plane.... ok, not really.

And here's the sign at the airport, basically saying how all alcohol is illegal, as of 1982.

That concludes my fun for the day. Just two more weeks and I'll be on my way back to civilization. See you soon!

Porcupine Stew!

2009-04-18T18:27:00.000-07:00

Well, today is a great day, not only is it Saturday, but I also got to see a porcupine, which is always a good time. Justin and Tim set out to get a bear, but since they didn't find any, they settled for porcupine instead.

Here is Justin, posing with his porcupine.

Here are the quills of the porcupine, very impressive!

The porcupine was very heavy to hold.

I was stuck by the quills! Ok, not really, I put them there and did not sustain any bodily harm. Though, they are very sharp!

Here's some quills, they're about as long as my finger!

So, that was fun. In other news, we dissected a shark in biology, the kids were very excited about it. I'm completely recovered from my life threatening flu. I'm going to Dillingham this week WOOHOO! Only 4 more weeks until I get to come home!!! Yay!!

One last thing

2009-04-05T17:52:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention, my last event before falling ill was Joel's 2nd birthday party last weekend. Michelle and I were the cake makers, so we had our own special shot here.

Joel's favorite is fish, so we made him a fish cake, actually we made two fish cakes and a regular cake. No fish were harmed in the creation of these cakes.

We were also celebrating the birthday of Kinka, Theo, Lisa, and Gala.

Alaskans eat cake and ice cream too. Sorry if that's too "boring" for you.

We played Eskimo Bingo and I won a little plastic container full of gum with $3 inside. Someone won a 3 lb bag of rice. I was jealous (you know how much rice costs!?)

ok, back to being sick. peace...

Memories of being healthy...

2009-04-05T13:32:00.000-07:00

So first thing my mom says on the phone, "why don't you put more pictures on your blog?" Didn't you read my last entry!? I'm DYING!*** But, dying or not, I aim to please. So here's some crappy pictures. No, I'm serious, they're not very good pictures.

In my fragile and decrepit state, close to the brink, I sit and remember all of the fun things you can do when you're not sick... like snowshoe up mountains.

It was March 23, 2009. Unfortunately, it was doing that stupid snow/fog thing, so you can't tell really that we're on a mountain. So let me give you some perspective.

This picture is from the day at the Gull, but you can see 2 hill and 3 hill in the distance. Brenda, her brother Brad, and I snowshoed to the top of 3 hill. Yes, it's called a hill, but trust me, if you snowshoed to the top of it, you would call it a mountain. It's only 1200 ft tall, but we're at sea level and anyway, I'd like to see you climb it!

Brad and Brenda taking a breather about 3/4 up the mountain.

It was a lot of work!

When we got to the top we noticed there were lots of little bumps, so we picked one and deemed it the official top, here's Brenda celebrating our victory! We climbed all the other bumps too, just in case.

Here are my climbing buddies, Brad and Brenda, chillin with some cool rock formations.

I will always look back in this day with regret... how could I forget to bring a SLED?!

As a parting gift, I will give you a picture from my grocery store. You think your toothpaste is expensive?

Just imagine thinking that you're saving $0.29 by paying $7.10!

ok, well everything is getting cold and dark now... I must go... farewell my healthy friends... may you live to enjoy my blog, long after I am gone.***

***Disclaimer: I might not really be dying. It's probably just a really bad flu bug. I apologize if this dramatization offended you. Also, my mom does care about me. Word.

I have pneumonia

2009-04-04T12:57:00.000-07:00

Ok, maybe I don't have pneumonia, but I'm not ruling it out just yet. I'm so close to the end of the year, I really hope I live to make it home. Maybe it's the whooping cough. Or better yet, tuberculosis. I'm very scared because there are no doctors here, so if I do happen to have a horrible disease no one will ever know. Here's to hoping I live 6 more weeks!

Only 7 Weeks left!!!!

2009-03-22T11:28:00.000-07:00

How am I, you might ask? Well. Let me show you a picture instead of using words:

This is what happens when you are in bush Alaska for 8 months.

So, it's March 22 and it's -13 outside this beautiful sunny morning. It's so deceiving, it looks so nice and warm with all the crazy sunshine, it's just for looks I guess. We had spring break a week ago, that was fun, lots of sleeping, went to Dillingham with Michelle for some recreation, that's about it!

Yesterday (after Saturday school, yes, school on Saturday to make up for a snow day) we (Andrea and Justin Olson, Brenda and Brad Woolley, Jamie and Tim LeCount, Michelle and Dennis Schnieder and myself)

decided we'd all drive out to the Gull, this boat that has been grounded in the tundra, it's a couple miles from the village. A major tourist attraction! Here I am, with all of my layers of insulation:

Brenda, Michelle, and me:We climbed up on it, it's a little old, so I was very careful where I stepped! Here's a view from the top.
I went down inside too, found some dead bodies, ok not really, but it was pretty creepy down there. Here I'm coming back out.
I climbed up to the highest part, but I couldn't get down without help, it was very scary!Leaping for freedom:
One last shot:
School is school. Life is life. It's all good. You know the stuff. Hope you're all good, I miss you! You should call me, I lost my phone card. :)

Pictures

2009-02-28T13:27:00.000-08:00

So I thought it was about time to post some pictures of stuff.

Here's the tundra since the blizzard, nice and snowy!

some houses and stuff

I'm decorating a butterfly shaped cake, why not?

The end result (very delicious)

This was when Brenda and I skied to the village. When you are out in the middle of the tundra there's really nothing else around except snow. What a nice day!

When Brenda and I got to the village we stopped into the Boys and Girls Club where Gala is the new director! Hi Gala!

Life is good these days. Lots of days off because of blizzards and broken plows. I have a renewed appreciation for life after having almost lost it in the blizzard. Can't wait to see everyone in a couple months!! :)

Wow

2009-02-26T10:09:00.000-08:00

So, here's what's going on with me:

1. Brenda and I skiied to the village and almost didn't make it back because we're so out of shape. I'll post some of those pictures later.

2. I went ice-fishing for the first time and caught a trout. It was fun, in that strange yay-we-get-to-stand-in-one-spot-for-3-hours-and-hope-something-bites-my-hook! kind of way.

3. We had school, even though there was a blizzard warning, and got trapped in the school all night. Because I'm a genious, I went with a few other teachers to go to the apartment, even though you couldn't see a foot in front of your face. We made it to the apartment, but I have no idea how. I have never been so afraid. EVER.

4. It's almost spring break and I'm so excited!

So what's up with you?

Snow Day!

2009-02-14T13:00:00.000-08:00

We had our first snow day ever yesterday. We woke up to 5 ft drifts everywhere! Even the snow plow was stuck! Sorry the pictures are so dark, this was about 10am.

That's the apartment building, snow everywhere! We had to step up a foot and a half to get out the door.

This is one of my favorite... the snow drift is taller than the steam house!

Under that 5ft drift somewhere is a 4-wheeler, you can see a little bit of the handle bar sticking out.

Doesn't everyone want to get their picture taken with the 5ft drift that appeared over night? This is right in the middle of the "road" by the way. After this was taken I tried to dig a tunnel through it, but I only got a few feet.

"Hey honey, can you take the car to go get some milk from the store?"
"Can it wait til spring...?"

You haven't seen comedy until you've seen a hotdog get stuck in a 5ft drift. Here's Michelle and Dennis taking Frankie for a walk.

Here's Michelle in her snowball barricade that Lisa and I help her build. The snow was very stick, perfect for snowball fights and snowmen.

We also did some sledding, which the camera did not participate in, sorry. We have the best hill in town right out on the backside of our apartments. It was so much fun!

There's not really a whole lot of other news. Just teaching and hanging out. Hope you are all doing good!

Van Der Graaf Generator

2009-01-27T12:24:00.000-08:00

Hilarious!

One of these days I'll update for real. Rock out.

Day 164

2009-01-18T11:01:00.000-08:00

What a great first week back, seriously! Students were in a good mood ready to do work. Friday we had a wind storm and school was dismissed at 1pm. The roads and parking lot were an ice rink and with winds of about 90 mph cars and 4-wheelers and buses were blowing all over the place. I blew off the road 5 times just trying to get back to my apartment and it's only about a mile.

My favorite announcement all year was at about 10am, they come over the intercom "sorry for the interruption, but there are many 4-wheelers blowing off the parking lot into the tundra"

Here's some pictures of the parking lot when all the students were trying to get out at 1pm. There was no bus so all the parents had to come get them- what a mess!
That's the big grating machine and all the kids skating around about to fall on their butts.I other news, my name has officially been yup'ik-ized, as a student wrote on my board:
This is Ms. Balice'aq, signing off!

Day 164

2009-01-11T16:18:00.000-08:00

They got a moose! After going out a 3rd time, Sam, Tim, and Justin came upon a herd and got a shot on a bull. I went down to Tim's house today, they are in the process of cutting, grinding, and packaging up the meat. It is some kind of operation! So here's Henry the Moose...
He's pretty quiet, not really up for lively conversation.

Here's one of his legs.

And some ribs.

Then we walked out back and interrupted some crows dining on moose hooves.

And some bald eagles heckling the crows.

There were 3 bald eagles that I saw today, they are so beautiful!
And that is my Sunday! Tomorrow school starts up again, though I don't know how many will be showing up because there will be another funeral. The whole village just kind of stops when there is a funeral, which is understandable.

So anyway, I hope you guys are all doing well! Later!

Day 157

2009-01-04T21:48:00.000-08:00

I was in Michigan for the holidays, now I'm back in the sub zero land of Togiak, Alaska. Not too much is new, just settling back in. While I was gone there was a blizzard and my 4 wheeler is blocked in by a bunch of snow. I haven't tried to start it yet, I've heard from the others that it might be a battle to get it started. I took a picture of the digital thermometer in the other apartment building, it's a little hard to read, but it says that it's -24.5 degrees outside and 45 degrees in the arctic entry.

I'm pretty sure it didn't get above -15 today. Everyone is excited because it might get up to 9 above by Friday. Tomorrow teacher inservice starts, the students get another week off before they come back.

I feel energized by my trip to the lower 48. I can make it another semester!

Day 138

2008-12-16T22:37:00.000-08:00

My new lap warmers:

Michelle and Dennis's dogs, Frankie and Pickles.

I'm going home in 4 days! I'm so excited! I made it through one semester! Happy Holidays everybody!

Day 137

2008-12-15T18:30:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody! I'm still alive! In less than a week I will go back to Michigan for the first time in 4 months! It feels like 4 years! I'm so excited to see my family! So, I've been here a long time. Lately I've been hanging out with my awesome neighbors, they have the coolest dogs ever, they are called Pickles and Frankie:

Funniest dogs ever. The weather has been all over the place. It was pretty cold when I got back from my trip (-10) but then it was warm and balmy for a week or two (20s-30s) and now I'm not sure if it's made up its mind to be one way or the other. The other night we had some freezing dew that made all the bushes look very cute:
Then this morning there was about 3 inches of the wettest snow you've ever seen. Perfect for snowballs and snowmen. not that I made any of course, I was off to school. Oh school. How very much fun we had balancing chemical equations today.

4 more days. Just 4 more. I can make it.

See you soon!!

Day 357924857

2008-11-30T15:58:00.001-08:00

Ok, so it hasn't really been that many days. I'm just lazy right now and don't feel like trying to figure it out. I'm pretty sure I'm past the hundred mark. Time has been flowing like molasses lately. So slowly you can barely tell it's even moving. But there's only 3 more weeks until I get to go home.

I went to Portland Oregon for a science teacher conference last week, it was freaking sweet. I got to go to a research facility where they house 4200 monkeys for experiments and stuff. Monkeys are sweet

This week was Thanksgiving. We had a staff get together, lots of food and games. 4 days off from teaching. Nice break, though it could be longer.

Well, I should probably get some work done. Toodle-loo!

Day 95

2008-11-10T21:31:00.000-08:00

Hey, I'm 25 and still alive. Just sort of lost myself for a while in the little details of life. Not a whole lot new to tell, I've just been working a lot trying to teach some kids some stuff. The snow is enough to get everyone hopeful but not enough to go hunting on snowmobile. Or so I've been told. Basically no one has gone anywhere.

We had Halloween, that was mildly entertaining.

I think it was before that when we went out on a boat around in the bay, here's some pictures of that.When we landed down the coast we stopped for some hot chocolate and coffee by a stream. That's Jamie LeCount, Tim LeCount, Me, and Andrea Olson. I think in my head I was saying something like "I can't put my arms down!"

Now this one is a classic. Can't tell who anybody is. It's like where's Waldo, except it's where's Tara. I will tell you that I am one of these lumps of insulation and synthetic waterproof material. In this picture is also Tim, Jamie, and Andrea. Like you could tell.

This is a picture I took of the other boat at some point. That's Jeremiah Steck, Andrea (yes, she has a rifle), Brenda Woolley, and Justin Olson (he is camouflaged). Sam Bourgeois also came on this trip. Steck, Justin and Sam all shot lots of ducks and they were quite proud of themselves.

I just had a birthday, turned 25. In Alaska. It made me wonder how the rest of the world was doing. Then I was happy to see who our new president elect is. Good birthday present. (But if you ask almost any Alaskan Native, Alaska is not really a part of the United States, so forget it.)

I also received very nice packages from my Mom, my brother's family, and I guess Grandpa, but I haven't gotten to the post office in a couple days to pick it up. I plan to go tomorrow. Thanks to everyone for the cards and packages.

Oh, I guess I do have exciting news: I'm going to Portland, Oregon in 2 weeks for NSTA conference. It's always fun to be completely surrounded by other science nerds. (Though I do recall being slightly overwhelmed by this last year at MSTA). I got a $1000 PD stipend from the district, although it looks like the trip is going to go over budget and I will have to spend a chunk from my own pocket.

After that it's Thanksgiving then only 3 weeks til I come back to Michigan! I can just see the trees and taste the espresso now. I miss all you fools. Keep smiling.

Day 73

2008-10-18T15:13:00.000-07:00

It's October 18th, there is 8 inches of snow, and it's still coming down! The tundra with snow:

There's been snow on the ground for a few days now, but it's super deep today because it snowed all night. I woke up this morning determined to go out and enjoy the snow, and enjoy it I did! Upon walking outside I discovered that the snow is perfect for packing. After a short snowball fight with Dennis, I spent 45 minutes making a snow man of monstrous proportions. Dennis helped me pick up the heavy parts. Here it is all said and done:

Then Jon stopped in between running errands in the snow, I feel the need to document his ketchup and mustard getup.
My roommate and I went down the hill today, got gas, had no mail, and grabbed a few groceries. Driving in the snow is sweet!

I guess that's pretty much it, this week went a little faster I think. Had a couple long nights up at the school trying to get work done. I'm starting to feel settled, which is comforting. I guess the shock of the move is finally starting to wear off, thank goodness.

Oh there is one more thing that happened this week, I worked open-gym Thursday night (we charge people $1 to use the gym after school, we rotate through the staff for volunteers) and a kid broke one of the windows. I had to call the police and keep kids from cutting their arm off on broken glass. I found out later that it was a 2nd grader who broke it, for real. They have some tough kids around here.

Ok, on that note, happy day to you all!

Day 65

2008-10-12T10:47:00.000-07:00

What do you say when someone says, "want to learn to make jam?" You say "Totally!" because let me tell you, you are in for a good time. This is what I did yesterday: I learned to make jam (which actually only took about half hour). Then we played dice for about 3 hours (I won both games, thus being named Zilch Queen), then we steamed for about 2 hours. So, want to learn to make jam?

Here's how Esther Thompson gets her jam on.

Measure out 4.5 cups of your favorite fruit, as Andrea demonstrates. (We have fresh cranberries.)Then crush them with a slicer thingy, the kind that's kind of circular but has a bunch of blades on it and you go crush crush crush in a big ol pot.
Then you put the pot on the stove and add 7 cups of sugar. Stir and cook until it's boiling violently like a "volcano" make sure it gets really "angry" then it's ready for 2 packets of Certa (stuff that makes it jell). Cook and stir until it is dissolved into the berry slurry.

Then comes the really intense part! You have to pour the slurry into jars as quickly as possible! This recipe makes about 4 jars. We used a measuring cup to dunk in the berries and pour into the jars. Make sure the mouth and threads of the jar are clean, then put the lids on and turn them upside down. FAST! Go FASTER! Leave the jars upside down for exactly 7 minutes, then turn them right side up. Wait a little bit and the jars will seal themselves!

Woo! I'm telling you, that last step was frantic. But, the dividends were rich, we had delicious cheese cake (Esther makes some killer cheese cake!) topped with our fresh cranberry jam and we each got a jar to take home with us.

So, I have a lot of work to do today because I played all day yesterday. Bleh.

In other news, it's cold but deceptively sunny. We had volleyball games this weekend, I was a line judge, we got our butts kicked by the other village. We also had a staff volleyball game Friday night, it was awesome. School was crazy Friday, the kids were so full of it.

I bought plane tickets, I'll be in Michigan from December 21 until January 2nd. Let me know if we can hang out!

Day 62

2008-10-07T18:51:00.000-07:00

Well, look at that. I've lasted 2 months in Alaska. No Beaners. No movie theaters. No Meijer. Just teaching. And Theo's coffee. And beautiful scenery.

Anyway. It's October, which my boss told me, is the start of winter. I'm dressed in snowpants and down parka, scarf and hat to go anywhere.
Teaching seems to be going smoother. Most of the time anyway. I'm pretty sure that teaching is one of the hardest jobs you can have. You work millions of hours for mediocre pay and everybody gives you a hard time for not being a rocket scientist. Whatever. I guess I knew all this before I went into it. Sort of.

I don't know, it's been a pretty slow week, just kind of mellowed out, doing work for school, reading books, etc.

Went to the post office today, picked up a bunch of boxes for my roommate. Here's my ATV loaded up outside the apartment.
Oh, and here's that picture of the dents I made in the wall of the apartment building. Those 4 dents are from me running into the wall with a 4-wheeler. Pay special attention to how close I was to the water thingy.
I'm out.

Day 53

2008-09-28T13:02:00.000-07:00

Great news! I didn't get eaten by a bear last night! We didn't see any bears or bear tracks, that's probably a good thing. We also were fortunate not to wash away in the tide.

There were 8 of us that ended up going:
That's Justin, Brenda, Lisa, Me, Andrea, Jamie, Jodi, and Tim. Yep, Brenda brought a tripod. We camped on the beach right near a babbling brook. We took 6 4-wheelers and 3 tents. Me and Lisa shared the little blue one.

We built a fire, cooked some hotdogs and marshmallows, and took to our sleeping bags. I was pretty warm in my 2 pairs of wool socks, parka, snowpants, 3 hats, and sleeping bag rated for 0 degrees. But my nose was still cold. When we woke up this morning there was a layer of ice on the outside of our tents. Here's Brenda, she's pretty happy looking for just waking up.
Then you turn around and see the most amazing sunrise ever:
I love this picture of Jamie, pancakes can change your life. This is proof:Andrea, Lisa and Brenda wait patiently for the most delicious food they will ever taste:
We had pancakes, eggs and coffee for breakfast. We packed up all the tents and gear and took to beach trail. On the way back I quickly stopped to take a shot of this waterfall, pretty impressive, right?
The trip went off without a hitch, but not without a few humorous moments:
-me, falling down trying to get Brenda's 4-wheeler to pull start.
-Lisa, falling on me when she was trying to get into the tent.
-the bunch of us jumping like spiderman to cross the creek
-Lisa, almost floating away in the river when we were crossing on our 4-wheelers
-me, my snowpants getting a giant hole burnt in them from standing right behind Andrea's 4-wheeler when it backfired. (I'm fine)

So there you have it, group camping trip that worked out great. No one died and everyone was pretty happy.

Now back to reality, I get to work for the next 5 days. Bleh.

Day 52

2008-09-27T15:20:00.000-07:00

Sha-Zam! I'm still alive and feeling awesome! Life is good (besides the whole, I have to go to work everyday). I guess work is not that bad.

My neighbors got a Wee, so we had a party last weekend, pretty fun stuff. Then it was the week, which lasted 3 years. I've been practically living at the school, I think I should just start sleeping up there, for real.

The sunsets are really beautiful here, so are the sunrises, for that matter. Here's a picture of the sunset the other day.
Last night I went to steam again, I forgot to drink a bunch of water before I went, so I started feeling a little strange. My heart was beating a little fast and it was a little hard to keep my eyes open. Brenda saved me by letting me have some of her water. I'm just not very good at steaming yet, I guess. Anyway, one of the ladies said that last summer she picked 74 gallons of berries. I was very impressed.

Today I went to the store, and paid $5.50 for a half gallon of milk and $5.50 for 4 apples. They actually get some pretty good Gala apples in. Crisp. Juicy.

I went to the post office, I was very excited to get a box from my mom, it had a bunch of food in it! Life cereal, my favorite, and probably about 5 or 6 pounds of nuts. Now I think my diet is complete: berries, salmon, chocolate and nuts.I guess we're going to have fresh salad greens in a couple weeks too. This is my roommate's neat plant growing contraption.
Justin Olson is working on trying to build a shed, he's going to use all this wood from the old school that's full of nails, so I've been helping pull nails this weekend. Fun stuff. It's really good weather today, so I'm happy that there is a project to work on that's outside. Though I should be at the school planning for next week.

Today I learned the Yup'ik word for white person, gosuk.

I saw the most beautiful bird today, it was huge, and all black with a big white V on it's back. I have no idea what it was.

Tonight we're going camping up the beach! I'm very excited. I borrowed a tent from Jon Sharp, who apparently has better things to do than sleep outside on the beach, in weather that might get down in the 20s where bears might eat us. Psh, yeah right. We're going to drive all the way up to 3rd creek, which evidently is passed 2nd creek, which is the farthest I've ever been up the beach. There might end up being like 10 or so of us going. About half of the school staff.

I'll leave you with yet another picture of the tundra at dusk. You can never really get enough of the tundra.
So, unless I get eaten by a bear tonight, I'll be posting more excited enthralling Togiak news later.

yo yo peace out G 5

Day 45

2008-09-20T17:08:00.000-07:00

More bad news, Sirius radio doesn't get a signal up here. For real. What the heck. We're way the heck out here with no radio and we can't even get SATELLITE radio. Another reaffirmation that I really am at the end of the world, in case somehow I was starting to think I was still connected to the world in any way. What a silly idea. So, I guess radio will just be added to the list of things that I will live without. I am roughing it, I'm telling you. No car, no coffee shops, no book stores, no sidewalks, no tv, no radio, no restaurants, no movie theaters (though I just found out we can rent movies at the store, which is pretty cool!), no alcohol, no TREES, and pretty soon no daylight! But, instead of having all of that, we have lots of tundra, berries, 4-wheelers, dirt roads, ponds, little houses, steam shacks, and stray dogs. Not to mention the huge bay and the awesome river, FULL of salmon. And supposedly moose and bears, though I haven't seen any yet. So whatever, I guess it balances out.

I didn't do much this week besides work. Lots of work. Physics is killing me. There's no books, no curriculum, no materials to do all these "awesome" labs with, nothing. So, you tell me what I'm supposed to do... I've asked some of my colleagues and mentors and stuff, the first thing they always say is, "dude, just wing it" I love it. To which I reply "well, if I knew enough about physics I would, but I don't, so what's the next solution?" Whatever, something will be decided.

My biology class spent the week trying to learn the organelles, so they made these sweet models from clay, they were totally into it. Here's Damien's model.

My family is all having their annual family reunion in Michigan right now. Makes me sad that I can't be there. Why can't it still be in July? Hm? It's a load, that's what I say.

Last night we had homemade pizza and watched the movie 21, great movie. It made me want to go to Vegas.

I ran all the way to the village today. It's like 4 miles. I didn't know I could run that far, but turns out it's not that hard.

Oh, so I got in my first (and hopefully last) 4-wheel "accident" today. Jon Sharp was at the post office when got there and he let me drive his 4-wheeler back because he felt like walking it. Then I ran into the apartment building because his breaks don't work. Yep. I was screaming and Theo was outside with her cat watching me and Dale came running outside asking if everything was ok. I was going pretty slow by the time I hit the building, maybe 5 mph, I don't know, Jon's 4-wheel doesn't have a speedometer. It dented the metal siding. Whoops. The 4-wheeler wasn't hurt and I was fine, didn't even budge. The main result was me feeling like a ding bat for not down shifting when the breaks obviously weren't going to work. Instead I put my foot on the ground trying to slow down like that. Yeah, pretty awesome, I know.

After all that, Andrea and Brenda called me up and asked if I wanted to go to 2nd creek with them, so we drove out there, pretty fun. Did you know that beach grass grows in Alaska?

Then on the way back, instead of going down the beach and back up in the road, we went through the tundra, which was really fun! It was all muddy and we were sinking in everywhere, I think we were pretty lucky not to get stuck. Supposedly there's mud around here that just sucks things in like quick sand. There have been at least a couple 4-wheelers completely eaten by the mud here. But not today! Woo!

Well, I hope you've all enjoyed this installment of "well, I've got a 4-wheeler, what kinds of stupid crap can I do?"

Day 39

2008-09-14T12:18:00.000-07:00

It's been a while, let me tell you, not a lot has happened. Ha. Well, ok, that's not entirely true. But I am enjoying the slower pace of life. Not always having to rush around everywhere.

I guess I can start by telling you about the steaming experience last weekend. Steaming is pretty crazy up here, people have these little shacks for steaming. There are two rooms, one is really hot and small where the stove is, the other is cooler, there's more room to sit and relax. In Togiak the men and women go at separate times, I heard that in other places they have co-ed steaming, no thanks. The hot room is really hot, they really cook you in there, I heard that sometimes they get it up to 350 degrees. When I went we had it at about 260, not too bad. But then they splash water on the rocks-wooo! Hot! Anyway, it's a cleansing thing, it's also very social. You hang out for a couple hours, at least. Good time.

So, this week went by pretty good. I did lots of teaching. The kids did a little learning. Fun times. It's been raining A LOT, so I haven't gotten out a ton. Let me just tell you, it sucks riding a 4-wheeler in the rain without sunglasses. Your eye balls feel like they're going to burn right out of your head. Unless you just close them. which is always exciting too. Went to a teacher's house down in the village last night for some cajun food, that was fun. I also convinced Jon Sharp to help me make a mancala board.

I spent a lot of time sanding yesterday.

Also, in my spare time, I learned how to juggle scarves. Except my scarves are too heavy, so I'm not very good at it. Whatever. In Alaska you gotta have hobbies.

In tribute to the hurricane season, my current issues class made some models of cities which have been hit by different level hurricanes. This was a really fun project that got all the kids involved. Here they are, in order from 1 to 5

Hit by category 1 hurricane, this is supposedly somewhere in Africa?

Hit but category 2 hurricane, those are the twin towers, I think this group was a little confused.

Hit by category 3 hurricane, I think they named it hurricane Ling Ling

Hit by category 4 hurricane, they named it hurricane katrina, even though katrina was actually level 5.

Hit by category 5 hurricane, named hurricane Yo Momma (the blue stuff is water.)

Yep, this was a good project.

Thanks for tuning in to this week's edition of, "Well I'm out in the middle of nowhere Alaska... what am I going to do now?" Have a good day!

Day 31

2008-09-06T16:42:00.000-07:00

I've been in Alaska for a month! And I'm still alive! I would say that's quite the accomplishment. So I've taught another week, it was a long week, even though it was actually only 4 days. I won't go into detail about my students and so forth, but I'll just tell you it's different from Michigan.

My physics curriculum finally came (2 and a half weeks into school) so it's going to be fun trying to find all the materials that I will need for all the freaking labs. But I guess the kids will like it because of how labby it is. I haven't looked at it closely enough to figure out if these labs are actually going to teach them anything about physics. We'll see.

Other exciting news, we just had a Step Up marathon, consisting of Step Up on Thursday night, and Step Up Two, The Streets, Friday night. Both excellent movies, I recommend them to anyone.

Oh, Thursday was also Parent night at school, so several of the families came to the school to meet teachers and stuff. It was sweet because these cool Yupik dancers played and danced a few traditional songs, that was awesome. Sorry I didn't have my camera with me, but I can tell you that it was neat.

Today I hiked out past the dump up Two Hill with Mark Snell, middle and high school special ed teacher, and Maddy, an energetic dalmatian. My feet are pretty tired, but my new hiking boots worked great and my feet don't feel as bad as they could after hiking about 8 miles. In this picture you can kind of see the village, waaaaay out there, then the bay just past it. So, the first row of buildings is the school, my apartment and some other newer housing, that's called Togiak Heights, then all the way down to the water is where Togiak proper is.

Look at all those lakes! If you like lakes, Togiak might be the place for you! It was very windy on top of the hill. You could see pretty far, even though it was kind of cloudy.

Well, um, still haven't decided to buy sirius. I got a gas can. I'm about to go steam for the first time. I'll let you guys know how it goes!

Chow!

Day 25

2008-08-31T16:51:00.000-07:00

Hello all, great news! I haven't died yet! Yep, still alive. That's pretty much all the news I have. So, I thought I would tell you about some of the mundane things, like berry picking. You're probably wondering, who cares about some berry picking? Well, I'm here in Togiak to inform you that berry picking is the be-all end-all. You pick berries or go home! Ok, maybe I'm just being silly.

Anyway, picking berries here is not like picking berries in Michigan.

First off, you have to wear rubber boots. Because there is standing water in the tundra.

Second, berry bushes are actually little tiny plants that grow close to the ground. So you can either bend over, or you can crawl to pick them. Exhibit A:

Third, these are wild berries, not commercial, so these blue berries are about half the size of the ones you're used to. If you're lucky. Here's what I got after picking for 45 min. Exhibit B:

Fourth, people eat berries on everything. It's just how it's done. You pick gallons of berries, freeze them, then eat them on everything all winter long. Don't argue with the conventions! You fill your freezer with fish and berries! Exhibit C:

Now you know everything there is to know about berry picking in Togiak. Hope you're happy.

Also, it's about time I put a picture up here of the mystical, magical, expensive, and source of all joy and light: the 4-wheeler. I found out that it has an automatic transmission switch. This means I can perpetuate my laziness to yet another venue in my life. Not bad. It's kind of rainy today, sorry there's no sunshine in this photo.
Yep, it looks just like everybody else's. I haven't named it yet. I was thinking either:

-Burton, the dusty road I grew up on
-Flash, in memory of my pony
-Herman, in memory of my first cat
-Daffy, in memory of one of our crazy goats
-Stubby, in memory of that one chicken that lost it's feet to frostbite
-Chief, because it's fun to say chief

So far Stubby is winning. Cast your vote now!

Day 22

2008-08-28T21:02:00.000-07:00

I'm sad to report some unhappy news, the shortwave radio is not strong enough to work out here. All I get on it is static. I feel incredibly isolated. Civilization is merely a foggy memory, full of exhaust fumes and busy people.

Also disappointing, my speakers that I sent to myself are busted. So I have no way of listening to good quality music.

On a more exciting note, my 4-wheeler finally came! I drove it to get the mail and go berry picking today.

A bunch of teachers left for the weekend to get a moose or a bear. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with a three-day weekend. I suppose can get some work done for school. Yippy.

Tomorrow I will get my first real paycheck. I should be excited. I'm not really sure how I feel about it. I don't know if I'm mentally prepared to be a part of the working world. I guess it doesn't really matter if I am or not because I'm definitely a part of it now. It is what it is.

I'll leave you with a couple pictures from when we went out to second creek last Sunday. A bunch of people went, Andrea, Justin and Joel, Brenda, Lisa, Melissa, Dennis, Michelle and myself. Here's one of my roommate, Melissa, fishing:

And one just to prove again that I am in Alaska. For real.One last note: I'm beginning to discover that I'm a little bit of workaholic. Maybe it's just because there really isn't anything else to do. Yeah, that's probably got something to do with it. Man, when the corporate world hears of this it will be huge for the business sector, I can just see it now. "Want to boost productivity in your company? Well, just send everyone to bush Alaska where there's not really a whole lot else to do besides work!" Yeah, you can't even listen to the radio!

Whoa, I just got a great idea.

Dude, why didn't I think of this earlier, I should get sirius radio! I bet that would work here because it's satellite! I'm so looking into that...

Ok, well that's all I have for now. Peace!

Day 18

2008-08-24T13:01:00.000-07:00

I'm recovering from a big day yesterday. We went up Togiak river and caught a bunch of salmon, made a fire and cooked some salmon, caught some more salmon, then came back. Then we cleaned all the salmon and filleted it for the freezer. We have 10 salmon in our freezer!

Here's the crew before we set out, minus Melissa and Sam. So there's Ellen (she didn't go), Lisa Wicke (new elementary teacher), Tricia Wick (principal's wife and middle school math teacher), me, Jeremiah Steck, and David Wick (the principal).

Sam is the best fish cleaner in the whole world! He's also very good at convincing people to eat things like fish nose, cheek and eyeball, he made it sound like such a delicious snack! I think he's holding a bunch of fish eggs in this one.

This picture is a little misleading, I didn't really catch this trout, it was caught on the net. But it definitely made a good dinner! I did do some pole fishing, I caught 2 great big silvers.

Here I'm holding a beating heart from a salmon, it was so freaking sweet! Cool science fact: if you squeeze a heart right after it stops beating it will start beating again!

Here's Jeremiah Steck the shop teacher pulling in a silver salmon off the net. I think this is the owner of the fish heart in the previous picture.
When we were eating we found some gigantic bear tracks... we were all glad that Sam brought a gun. We also saw moose tracks, which got everybody excited because moose season opens in a couple days or something. Yeah, that's my foot.

So, I think it was a pretty great day all in all. Still haven't seen any bears, but I did see some tracks. I learned how to clean and fillet a fish, which is awesome. I also developed a deep deep appreciation of rubber boots, rubber gloves, and rain gear.

We went shooting at the dump the night before, that was interesting because we ended up having some issues with the 4-wheeler starting. Only to find out an hour later it was because the kill switch had gotten hit. Yep. I suck at shooting nazi shotguns.

So, what's the vote, should I buy a gun?

Day 16

2008-08-22T17:29:00.000-07:00

I did it! I haven't died yet! I finished my first week (well, it was only 3 days) of teaching in Togiak. It's a pretty sweet deal, I'm telling you. Highlight of the week: the lunch is FREE!!! I'm so excited! Not only is it free, but it's ok to get seconds! Even thirds if you are that hungry! I was informed that it would make me fat, but I don't know if that's really possible. We'll put it to the test. A very cheap, tasty test. :)

At least I know I'll get one good meal a day.

My students are pretty sweet. I feel lame because I still don't know all their names. My class sizes are perfect: 10, 6, 17, 6, 8, 9. That's right. My biggest class has 17 kids. You have time to be jealous later. My 4-wheeler still isn't here, they keep telling me "tomorrow!" but I know better. So for now I don't really have a way to pick up all the stuff that is probably sitting at the post office for me. I'm going net fishing with the vice principal tomorrow, which is freaking sweet. I might go shooting this evening. We're either going to the dump or to the beach. The dump is funny, lots of stuff from a long time ago, just sitting in a big pile. I haven't been to the beach yet, so I hope that's where we're going.

My tea came! I almost died without it.

I ran out of milk and cereal. Now having to eat oatmeal. Bleh.

I got pretty home-sick last night, I couldn't fall asleep because I just kept thinking about everybody in Michigan that I wished I could see. I hope you are all doing good.

Stray dogs outside the apartment? Sure why not. There are 6 more where this came from.

Oh, I took a couple pictures of my room at school so you could see how sweet it is. I like bragging.

It's pretty well stocked... tho the microscopes only go up to 400x. Whatever. It has a fume hood. That I probably won't use. Bam. They also don't have the gas hooked up. Great.

The view out the window shows the tundra and the bay, pretty much the same thing you see from my apartment.

I can't wait til I get my shortwave radio. Should be here soon!

Stay alive!

Day 12

2008-08-18T18:49:00.000-07:00

Hey there! what's shakin? I've been doing lots of work for school, but I thought you might like to see the advancements of the housing industry in bush Alaska, so here's some pics of my new digs.

Kitchen, very nice, very nice
Living room, nothing to complain about here...

And the view from the window... that is the bay, those mountains are actually islands. the tundra smells like pine, it's awesome.
i went berry picking in the tundra, that was fun. school starts wednesday, i'm really excited. but i'm tired right now, so i hope you guys are all doing good. :)

Day 9

2008-08-15T17:53:00.000-07:00

Aw man, this stuff is getting crazy. I have arrived in Togiak. Flew in yesterday on a itty-bitty plane. All of my stuff made it too, which is pretty awesome. My apartment is really nice, I still have a ton of unpacking to do. My 4-wheeler is supposed to show up on Monday. We worked at school today, my room is really nice.

I wish I had some house plants. I might get a hamster. I want to get some cockroaches. And a snake. Can you tell my classroom is lonely?

The people around here seem totally friendly and the staff of the school is freaking awesome. They seem to treat people pretty good around here. It is probably gunna take a while before I figure this place out...

To be honest, I'm a little afraid of when I do.... I might like it so much that I never want to leave. We shall see how I feel in January when my 4-wheeler won't start because it's -50 degrees.

So, I set up a post office box today, you can send me food at this address

PO Box 371
Togiak, AK 99678

I gotta go, I'm really hungry.

More later.

oh, I almost forgot, here's a link to some pictures taken at inservice.

bye

Day 7

2008-08-13T15:19:00.000-07:00

Hey, just checking in. Still at the in-service in Dillingham, which is basically just teaching me how to waste time during boring presentations. (In case I wasn't already proficient from my college training.) Yup. Also, update on my class list. I picked up a math class. So, I'll be teaching:

Biology
Physical Science
Physics
Issues in Science
Remedial Math

No chemistry or environmental science. I'll be flying to Togiak tomorrow after in-service is over. I can't wait to get started with the mountains of work for teaching. I hope you guys are all doing good.

Here's a picture for you. This was taken by this great chick named Liz from Boston. That is Aleknagik Lake behind me.

Peace

Day 4

2008-08-10T16:11:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a couple days, though it sort of feels like a couple weeks when you are on Mars. I'm staying in a hotel in Dillingham, Alaska, which is home to the next American Idol, this guy who stands on the street day and night singing ACDC songs. Here's the view from my hotel window, just past the village it is pure wilderness.

You probably can't imagine how friendly the people are here, even if you tried. So go ahead, picture the friendliest people you've ever met, then multiply thier friendliness by 3, then fill a whole village full of them, and that's Dillingham. The guy at the hardware store talked to us for half an hour about moose, fox, wolf, bear, knives, 4-wheelers, fishing and cold weather. Random people stop you to ask who you are and how you're doing, and well golly are you enjoying yourself. They don't really say golly, but it sounds like something they would say. Random children wander up and look at you, not knowing what to say. It's crazy to see people living together and getting along all the time.

On a separate note, there's no internet around here, except in the district office, which is where I am right now, hiding in the staff lounge. There are also no cell phone towers, so don't bother with calling my cell phone, I won't get your message until Christmas when I go back to the lower 48.

I went to the grocery store, that was a sobering experience, the prices I remember:

$8.50 Gallon of milk
$6.50 Bar of deodorant
$15.00 3 pounds of ground beef
$1.50 per pound of watermelon
$3.50 Bottle of pop (a small one)
$7.00 Bar of cheese

Needless to say, I won't be wasting any food.

Gas is $6.50 a gallon. I hear it's $8 in the smaller villages. Good thing I won't need a whole lot to drive a 4-wheeler.

I went out to eat with some of the other new teachers at the local place called The Muddy Rudder, food was good, though $10 for a small cheese burger with some potato salad. It was better than I was expecting, honestly.

The locals are all complaining about how hot it is, which is funny to me, it's like 65 and perfect. They would hate Michigan summer.

I have a mysterious bump on my arm, it's getting bigger and itchier all the time. I'll let you know when my arm falls off.

I've been jogging and walking down to the water, which is a smaller bay within Bristol Bay. The air here smells fresh and a little bit salty. The weather has been beautiful, sunny and breezy. I'm waiting for the rain to start.

Teacher inservice is going great. So far I've learned about the discpline system of the school district, which is the Responsible Thinking Process. They have quite the training sessions for it and it boarders on being its own religious doctrine. Now repeat after me "you can't control anyone but yourself." The premise is good, I'll let you know how well a discipline policy where you aren't supposed to control the classroom works out.

During teacher inserivce I've also met lots of nice people who work at the district office. They have given all of us our own MacBooks, which is sweet. And, the icing on the cake was an awesome trip up to the Aleknagik Lake (this picture doesn't show how it's 12 miles long)where we saw sockeye salmon spawning up a stream (SO COOL),

picked wild blueberries and made eskimo ice cream (called aqutuk (a-goo-duk), it's a blend of berries, crisco and sugar, but people make it all kinds of different ways), went swimming in pristine cold water (in my underwear), cooked salmon on a fire, and went fishing on the Wood River (nope, I didn't catch anything, but the others caught some crazy looking humpy salmon and some trout). It was so beautiful and so fun. Who gets paid to go fishing? Oh, that's right, I do.

I'm starting to get used to the time change, it was definitely killing me for a while. Returning staff shows up tomorrow, we have inservice until Thursday when we will go to our villages. I can't wait to have a place to call home, even if it is in the middle of the wilderness at the edge of the world.

I hope you're all doing good back home, or where ever you are. Sorry this was so long. See ya!

(Couldn't help but try out the new toys on the MacBook)

Day 1

2008-08-07T09:39:00.000-07:00

Well I don't know if it's really day 1 yet, since I'm not in Togiak yet, but I am in Alaska, so I guess that counts. I'm not in Michigan anymore. The plane ride was long, but enjoyable. The weather here is beautiful, 60 and perfect. Anchorage seems like a nice place, there are mountains right over there and it's really quite beautiful.

I just wanted to mention that the men here seem like goliaths, I don't think I've seen a normal sized man yet. It's like all the giant men of the lower 48 were like, well, Alaska is big, I think I would have enough room there. There also aren't really any natives here, which isn't really surprising to me.

It's time to get back on the plane to go to Dillingham. Hope you're all doing good!

PS the time change is killing me (that's a 4 hour difference for those of you who weren't sure.)

Day 0

2008-08-06T06:17:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm not in Alaska yet, but I will be getting on a plane today, a 7 hour flight to Anchorage, Alaska. I'm staying in a hotel tonight, then traveling to Dillingham, Alaska tomorrow, where I will be for a few days for the teacher inservice. I just love the fact that one of the days of inservice is spent fishing. Within a week I will be in Togiak, running the high school science department. Bam.

I hope my 4-wheeler is there when I get there.

Alaska is a big place, you can look up Togiak, Alaska on a map website, I've also got a little picture here. I'm going to the southwest part of Alaska, not too far from Russia.

I will try to keep you all updated on stuff that happens. Maybe I'll start keeping track of how many bears I see.