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)
