Day 25

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.