Day 138

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.