Speech meet and WEEKO

Hello All!

So this week has been completely hectic. My mom and brother came to visit me last week on Thursday, bringing my new puppy Weeko with them. They came for the 1st annual Tommy Phillip NYO Tournament! It was so much fun! CRAZY BUSY but so much fun. I was the all around gopher, scoring events, measuring for events, serving food, cleaning, etc. Nick basically hung out with the boys from the village all weekend. He came and about an hour after he and mom showed up in the village Nick was hanging out with the boys, helping out at NYO practice, etc etc. I hardly saw him the entire time! Mom helped out in the kitchen and then got the happy task of filling out awards. We all had a great time :)

Here are a few pictures of Nick hanging out with the boys and the NYO events.


This is Tommy Phillip. The tournament is named after him. He is the first NYO coach for the district. He is highly respected within the sport.


This is Nick with Alexie (one of our students) Alexie won the seal hop competition. He and Nick had a lot of fun together.



This is one of the events, the wrist carry. Our students won first place for both JH and HS.


Alexie competing in the Eskimo Stick Pull.

I'll put up some more pictures of NYO when I upload them from our school server. One of the teachers took a bunch of really good pictures and I just need to upload a few.


The next big news is I got a puppy!! Her name is Weeko which is "pretty" is Sioux. Mom brought her with her. She's an Native American Village Dog, which is an actual breed believe it or not. Basically she's a mix of German Shepard and Alaskan Malamute. She is too cute! Here are some pictures of her that I've taken so far.








Last but not least is that I just got back from Bethel for the JH Speech Meet.
I took five girls to Bethel and they all did very well. I had one girl go all the way to round 3 and almost to the finals. I was so proud of all of them! They did so well! It's so hard for them getting in front of people and talking (like so many others...) but they did it and I couldn't be happier!



Here are the girls waiting for the plane to take us to Bethel!


The girls in the plane. The pilot let us take two roller costers....where the pilot goes up....and then down. It's so cool! and unlike Amanda (Ms. Frey) none of my girls cried....tehe.


The girls and me at the dance.

The meet went on for two days. We flew in on Tuesday morning and then went into the first round. We were all scrunched in the lobby of the district office. After the first round we got to go over to the high school to put our bags in our assigned classroom and then have dinner. After dinner it was round two. After that we had free time. The girls and I wandered around for a bit and then went to the room and hung out. They listened to my iPod, took a test for one of their teachers, and then we put in "The Sleepover" and watched that together. We were the only school in our classroom so that was super nice. The floor was a different matter but oh well.

Wednesday was another full day. We had to get up early and bring all our bags back to the D.O. because the high school had classes, so we couldn't keep our bags there. One of our students, Kelly, made it into the third round so we stood around to get coffee for about 30 min. and then went and supported Kelly during her round. After that we had to sit around for a long time. Luckily, we were next to the media center, so the girls just went in and checked out a couple of movies. Unfortunately, Kelly didn't make it into the 4th round so we had to sit around even longer. at 3:30 we had free time so I took the girls to the store. They had been asking ALL DAY to go. I have no idea what is so amazing about going to the grocery store but they loved it! It was SO COLD walking to the store. Strong winds. After the store we went to the movie store so that I could buy a few DVDs. I knew we would be sitting around tomorrow, waiting for the plane, so I got some movies just in case we have to stay there awhile. That night there was a dance and I swear I dance more than the girls did!! A couple of first year teachers were there so luckily I got to chat with them.

That night the girls decided that sleep was not an option. I still had girls up at 3:50 AM!! So MAD!! I was not a happy camper with those two. Later that morning, we went to the airport. We had check in at 8 AM. Unfortunately, Mother Nature decided that that would be the day we had our first snow! It was crazy! We sat in the airport from 8AM until 4:15 PM, when we finally got to go home. The girls were so happy because they missed another day of school. Our principal was at the airport with us too, also weathered in, coming from Anchorage and a training he had there. I also met the principal from Quig, our neighbor village, and had a great time chatting with his wife. Their daughter got first place for humorous interp. at the speech meet!

All in all it's been a crazy couple of weeks and it's not looking like it's going to let up any time soon. Halloween is next week, plus two training sessions. After that it's HS speech (if anyone decides to sign up seriously), school, after school program, basketball, and then Christmas! OH and guess who was signed up to help organize the Christmas Show that the school puts on....yeah this kid.

Well....as the old proverb goes....I can sleep when I'm dead.

Love and miss you all. I'll put more pictures up from speech, NYO, etc. As soon as I download them. Mom is also sending me some pics so I'll wait for those as well.

Pictures! Finally!

Hello All! FINALLY! (sorry) The reason for the yelling is that my blog is finally letting me post. Before the window was all screwed up and I couldn't write anything! or show pictures!

The first picture I'll share is my house! It's super tiny but oh so cute, and the perfect size for me :D

The next picture is of the school. If you were standing on my little front porch and looked to your left the school would be right there. That's actually where I was standing when I took the picture.


The next pictures are of Dad and I in the plane flying to Kong and some pictures of what the tundra looks like from the sky :D


The next picture is of the "New" School. It was hopefully going to open around Christmas time but unfortunately they've been having some issues with the plumbing, So the school will not be ready until next school year. On an even sadder note, they are moving my house to where the new school is so every morning I have to walk a mile to the old school, in the winter! The new school is a mile away from the old one....gah!



Here are some beautiful pictures of the tundra. We (and by we I mean Megan, Amanda, Rachel, and I) take a lot of walks along the board walk to give the dogs exercise. It's awesome because the landscape never bores you!




These are some pictures of Kong. The first one is of the "main drag." Basically it's one of the main boardwalks that we take to go down town to pick up things at the store, go to the lagoon to dump the honey buckets, or go to the post office. The next picture is of the post office, and the last picture is of the river and one of the barges that came in.




THROW PARTY! These pictures are of a throw party for Mary Lou's daughter. She got married that day :) Mary Lou is one of the elementary teachers at the school. The other picture is of Amanda and Rachel. I took this picture a few minutes before a big plastic bucket was chucked in my direction. It was one of those big plastic buckets you can use to haul ice or fish, whatever. I didn't catch it but I did slice my hand open "blocking" it. I must say Amanda and I are getting better at the throw party technique. We know now where to "stand" to get the best loot and when it comes to the candy I stay out of her way....Amanda gets Mean! I once got a fruit by the foot.....and she didn't.......oooohhhhh Lord. She didn't like me for awhile.




Amanda dumping her honey bucket. I believe this was the second time she did it and that was enough. I am now the official dumper for Rachel and Amanda. It truly doesn't bother me ( Megan doesn't care either) My payment is a pop and a candy bar....I know...it's pretty steep but Hey! I have to live too ya know! The usual payment to have a student do it is $5. So I'm probably, realistically with the prices here, about the same.




PUPPIES!! Well, Moose is a puppy. Midnight is only a year and a half. Lacy....well she's an 'ole bird. Megan, Rachel, and Amanda all have dogs so I'm constantly around them...which I love! Hopefully I'll be adding one to the pack here soon but until then I'm the loveable Auntie!

The first picture is of Moose and Midnight on my couch. I babysat them while Amanda and Rachel were doing.....something. Midnight is a vizsla, heeler mix. I've never seen a vizsla black, we have our vizsla Bailey at home and she does not look like that! Midnight is definitely vizsla though. He does the weird head thing and he tries to hug us too. (Just like ours back home) Moose is a golden retriever. I have to say babysitting them gets confusing with both of them having "M's" as their first letter in their name. The next picture was taken on Megan's couch or what she calls her 'basement', cause it's the "Dog Couch." Lacy is the dog on the right. She is a crochety old lady who likes to keep the other two in place. Love her! The last one is of Moose romping around in the tundra :D





These next pictures were taken the day that we cooked the goose and the tom cods. Margaret is on the right and she's the school's secretary. Love her! She's a doll. She brought us Agudach that night too....I'm officially addicted to it. The next picture is a handfull of berries I picked one day on the tundra with Amanda, Megan, and Rachel. I think I've started Moose on an addiction with berries because I fed him half the berries I found. And Agudach is made of berries....so there ya go.




Last but not least, some pictures of my students! The one on the left was taken for their class newspaper. This is my "older" high school class. They came up with the idea of the pose, I just took the picture. The class newspapers actually turned out too! I was very proud of them. The other picture is of the Cross Country Team!! They did so well all! If you want to see better pictures of the x country team, go to Amanda's blog. I'm a follower of hers and she has tons of pics from Cross Country.





I hope you enjoyed some of my pictures. I promise I'll put more up later. I'm coaching the speech team so I'll put some pictures of that as well as what my house looks like and all that jazz. Love and miss you all! CHEERS!

Top 10 Things I Love About Alaska

Hello All! So I'm a horrible blogger and I know it. Even AMANDA is giving me crap cause I haven't updated my blog so again...I apologize and I'll try to stay faithful...

I figured since 4 weeks have already flown by (HOLY CRAP 4 WEEKS!) I've decided to write a top 1o list of things that have happened up here so far that I have enjoyed. I'll try to produce pictures eventually.

Top 10 Things I Love About ALASKA!

10. The Salmon Fishing. For our first inservice we got to go salmon fishing and it was awesome! The boats up here are way different than what we have down in ND/MN. They are solid Aluminum and the hulls are shaped different. They have a more flat shape to them. We had to take the Kuskokwim River to go fishing. Driving on that river was nuts because of the different levels and sand bars. I had a lot of fun! Our captain told us that in the spring they go logging, to get firewood for the year, and they came back with 40 logs that were just floating on the river after the winter and the ice broke. He said it only took them a couple of hours to get the logs and stack them but it took forever to bring them back into Bethel. I unfortunately didn't catch a salmon but Amanda did and she was a first timer! It was great seeing her face when they decked the fish....hilarious.....pretty sure she's scarred for life :D

9. The Staff at DRKMS. The people I work with are truely the coolest people around. They are super supportive and don't tire (well not noticeably) from all the questions that I'm constantly asking. The high school "crew" include Megan Hagelund, Rachel Johndrow, Sheila Phillip, and Sherman Igkrak . (Megan's trick to Sherman's last name is to say it super fast and put your hand over your mouth, it usually will sound something like what it's supposed too :tehe:) Megan (pronounced Meegan) is math and has been here 3 years. She also helps out with NYO. Rachel is the science teacher and has been here for a year. Sheila is the JH reading/writing teacher, we share the junior high, and she's originally from Kong. Sherman is also originally from Kong and has been teaching for 30 + years. He teaches yupik culture and language. There are some other classes in there but that is their "core" teaching subjects. The other teachers are awesome as well but these are the guys I am constantly hanging with and bugging for help.

8. Amanda Frey. (Yes Amanda you're on here) Amanda is the Special Ed. teacher and the other new teacher to the Kong staff. We are both newly graduates from college and I'm not going to lie, a sort of life line for me. We are truely lucky to have each other because we're the same age and in that we actually have a social life. I must add her new puppy moose to the category because he is tons of fun to have around and is completely adorable. (We like to joke that moose likes me better than her but we all know he adores her.... :D )

7. The Students and Cross Country. The students here are a challenge and I love it. They challenge me every step of the way and I really do appreciate it because it keeps me on my toes and push me to be a better teacher. They have a lot of fun ideas and though they love to push buttons, they are ALL good kids and will be able to do great things. Now all we have to work on is the whole enjoying reading and writing.......yeah.......that's going to happen......Also; I'm the new assistant coach for the cross country team! YEAH! For those of you that know me...that pretty hilarious! it's been an adventure and I've actually ran with the kids, I have the voice of a coach apparently (who knew?) But that has been a lot of fun and again a bonding experience for Amanda and I. Amanda is the head coach.

6. Berry Picking. I love berry picking! All you have to do is walk a couple of "blocks" on the boardwalk and then go into the tundra and find berries. I have to say that the black berries are my favorite so far. The salmon berries are tart but I'm told that we have to wait until the first frost and then go pick them, they will be a tad sweeter. It's so cool to just be kneeling in the tundra and picking up berries whereever you find them. Must say moose is becoming a good berry picker and likes to eat berries out of my hand when he went out. Not going to lie, it's a lot of work. Takes forever to fill a gallon pale of berries but it's worth it when you take them home and eat them...YUM!

5. MOOSE. (and this time I'm not talking about Amanda's puppy) One of the villagers got a moose and of course they split it up among the village. Megan, Margaret (the school's secretary) and I hopped on Margaret's 4-wheeler and went and grabbed some. It tastes so good! Megan baked it and it was so good! Added some potatoes, peppers, and onions to it and called it good. Highly recommend for anyone.

4. Akudach. (Also known as Eskimo Icecream) This is by far my favorite Eskimo food that I've tried so far. Traditionally it's made with seal oil, and that tastes interesting, but here in the village they use crisco (at least in the akudach that I've tasted) The recipe is crisco, sugar, water, and berries. It's basically a heart attack in every bite but it tastes delicious. With black berries taste so good with it too. I highly recommend and if anyone comes and visits me I promise I'll use the berries I have saved in my freezer and we'll make and eat it!

3. Goose/Fish Story. This is one of the funniest things that has happened here on the tundra so far. So one random night Amanda had some visitors come by at 1:30 am and gave Amanda two geese and 9 tom cods. I actually had to get out of bed and check to make sure there wasn't a serial killer outside her house before she opened her door! She had no idea what kind of birds they were either, it was kinda funny when she was describing them to me and some other teachers. Anywho.....I had to help clean the birds because I knew how and she wanted to eat the birds, naturally. Well I cleaned one and Amanda cleaned the other after mine. My bird literally fell apart as I tried to clean it, Amanda's bird went beautifully. By the end of our adventure both our hands are COVERED in blood and we have an audience of about 6 dogs and 4-5 children. It was so funny....again the things I've introduced to Amanda. I may be a bad influence :D Amanda cleaned the fish with Margaret and we ate them whole (Margaret made a soup with the heads and tails of the fish) Our fish was delicious, Margarets soup was SUPER fishy....one taste and I was dunbar.

2. Walks Along the Board Walk. So Megan and Rachel have dogs, along with Amanda, so we have been taking a lot of walks on the board walks. It's so much fun watching the dogs run and jump and just viewing the beautiful tundra. I really enjoy just taking in the scenery and spending some quality time with my colleagues and the dogs. On a funny note: the last walk we took we went all the way out to the graveyard. Part of the boardwalk turns into a bridge to go over one of the random rivers around the village. While we were walking across Amanda noticed that one of the boards on the bridge was broken and she mentioned that something could fall through, it's pretty dangerous. Not even two seconds after she said that Moose fell through the hole! The poor thing tried to hang on but then fell and hit a board on the way down. He was fine but we were all horrified and laughing all at the same time! The poor thing started crying because the grass was taller than he was and he was soaking wet. One of our students, Austin, had to walk into the marsh and get him. Moose bounced back but Amanda took a little more time. AND we found out that Moose has worms.....LOL yeah....she cried a little.

1. Wolf Story. This just happened and I have to put it as my number one because it is so funny and this doesn't happen anywhere else! Yesturday we were eating lunch, me, Shelia, and Rachel. Shelia was telling us a story of how her husband was out moose hunting and one night he went off a little bit to talk to the moose. He left camp to listen to see if he could hear the moose calling to each other. (it sort of reminded me of Tom up in Canada with the loons) Anywho, he went out and after a bit he stopped and there was a wolf right in front of him. So he takes off running towards the camp and the wolf pounced and grabbed his leg! So her husband turned around to grab the wolfs head and try to choke it or do SOMETHING to get it off. He yelled wolf and his brother ran from camp and brought his gun (unfortuntately for Shelia's husband, he forgot his gun at camp) His brother yelled, "Where is the wolf?" and her husband called back, "RIGHT HERE!" After a little bit of manuvering they were able to shoot the wolf. Her husband had to Bethel for treatment and they sent the wolf's body to see if it had rabbes. GUESS WHAT: the wolf had rabbes! LOL ok not that funny but it is. So that was the awesome story of the week.

Well that's it folks. I'll put picks up tomorrow.......hopefully! Love and miss you guys!

In-service and such

Hey all....so this is a brief look at what we had to go through with in-service. So I had to fly into Bethel for our first in-service. The plane stopped in Quig...which is another village across the river...to pick up some more passengers. It ended up being a mom and her two daughters. They were saying good bye to their Dad and the two girls were crying like no other. Not going to lie, I teared up a bit. The mom and I chatted for the entire 45 min. flight about teaching (we're both teachers) and her telling me about the area. She worked as a guide for the fish camps for about 8 years so she was a well of knowledge!

When I got there I was picked up and brought to the district office to sign up for the teacher's union, get on pay roll, check that all my paperwork was in order, make sure I had my benefits lined up, and to get my new lab top :D By the end of it all I had the BIGGEST headache. I could hardly see straight. I chatted with a few teachers....you know...the whole awkward meeting new people situation. Finally I got to go to my hotel to get some ibprofin and take a mini nap. By the end of the night some of the new teachers sat outside to talk and I joined in and being ME made myself at home. That's were I met my new partner in crime...Amanda Frey.....who is also a new teacher in Kong.

The following days were full on information on the phase system for the curriculum, meeting new teachers, and getting to know the Yupik culture of our students. On the second night we got to go salmon fishing! It was amazing! I went with Amanda (new teacher) Eric (who is originally from the cities), Matt, and Capn Jeff. Tons of fun. Amanda had never really fished before and she got a big 'ol salmon! Good times. The best was that she didn't realize they have to bop the fish on the head to A. get them to stop wiggling around so they can get the hook out and B. to kill the fish. She was tramatized slightly and me being me....I laughed. :D The only other person that caught a fish was Capn Jeff. Amanda got to keep the fish so we were both excited to try that out when we got to go home to the village.

After three days of training Amanda and I headed back to the village. We came back to the village on a Thursday and had to go back to Bethel for more training on Monday. The whole time back we spent in our rooms trying to figure out our lives and decorate our rooms. We also cooked up the salmon and let me tell you.....fresh salmon is delicious! YUM YUM! Don't worry....I made sure to call Dad just so he knew that I was eating fresh salmon and he wasn't...tehe.

Then that Monday we went back into Bethel with all the staff and we got to meet all the staff at Kong. Training was exhausting but it was nice to see the other new teachers again and to get to know the new co-workers that are stuck with me for the next 9 months. Took a couple of classes on smart board, SIOP (don't ask) and bloggs. We also got to go to a fiddle dance. Let me tell you....there was NO fiddle but I did two step with a couple of elderly men. Yeah...that's right. Two stepping and waltzing. Gotta love it!

That's all the highlights of training. I'll continue with the village and the first week of school tomorrow. Promise.....I hope ;)

Love and miss you all. Wish you could be here to see the beauty of the tundra. It truely has been amazing so far. Coming up: first week of school, cross country (yeah!), throwing parties, and parent/teacher conferences. KISSES!

Photos from Belize

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you.

Hey all....this is a blast from the past...BUT a lot of my photos from Belize I saved in snapfish photos so now I'm sharing them with you! You can click on the link and look at the 500+ photos........perhaps browse is a better word for it. Enjoy! I know a lot of you have been asking and here they are....I'll put up the rest later.

Peace!

Dad's mini adventure :D

OK so I've neglected my blog....big shock....but I'm hoping to do better. It's been a crazy experience so far and it's bound to get even better.

Dad came out to the village with me and we both realized that I had no food whatsoever! None of my boxes showed up.....well not true. All my books did arrive. Which is important! BUT I can't eat them....so Dad and I had a bit of an issue. My principle is a saint and gave us some peanut butter ( I had a loaf of bread in my backpack.....don't ask) apples, and soup...which lead to a bowl as well cause I didn't have any! Let me tell you....it's a tad frustrating. My boxes are still somewhere....not where I am! I've been in the village since the first and no boxes yet. GAH! Any who....long story short....Dad and I had a wee bit of an adventure getting him home as well. Dad was supposed to leave on Sunday but the weather was not looking good. It was windy, rainy, etc. We sat in the school office for a couple of hours waiting for a plane to take him to Bethel but no one would land because of the conditions. Dad was a tad frustrated because he needed to get back to Anchorage....where some of his stuff was still at the hotel! and also to get on his flight home! We went to my place for a bit and watched "Meet the Fockers" (always a classic) and waiting. Then all of the sudden my principle was at my door saying a plane was landing in 5 minutes and that was the ONLY one for the rest of the day. Dad and I popped up and ran to the school....said goodbye....and Dad walked "briskly" to the airstrip, in the rain, hoping to catch a ride to Bethel.

My principle and I sat inside and watched Dad fly away. He got home safe and sound. He was supposed to leave Kong at 11:30 and wound up leaving around 6:30. Then I was on my own.....dun Dun DUN! (dramatic music...) actually it wasn't so bad. I put things away and started on lists of things I'm going to need (like FOOD) when I'm in Bethel, etc. The next day I went to Bethel for my first round of new teacher training in LKSD....woohoo!

OK that's my pre-training blog. I promise the training and more info on my village are coming! I need to get my pictures up-loaded, etc, etc. Love and kisses to all and you'll be reading more soon ;)

ALASKA!

Hey all! So Dad and I headed out to Alaska and it was an adventure! We left at around 8ish and it was a solid 5 hour and 15 min. flight from Minneapolis to Anchorage. The flight wasn't bad at all. Dad smoozed the airline and got an exit row seat so he could have leg room. Happiness ensued. Dad and I napped and read.

Once we landed we had a few issues finding a rental car. Dad wasn't quite sure if he rented a car or not so we went around to a bunch of the car rental places to see if we had a reservation or not.....slightly awkward. In the end we didn't so we had to get a cab. All the while we were dragging all our luggage around, which proved to be quite ridiculous and uncomfortable. We were sweating by the end of it. Finally we got to the hotel and took a few minutes to collect ourselves.
We went on walk about and took in downtown Anchorage. We made our way to JCPennys and took care of some things. Eventually we ended up in "Humpys" ......which is a nick name for the pink salmon.....sickos.....Anywho it was a funky bar/restaurant and dad and I enjoyed some nachoes and halibut. Good times. By the time we got back to the hotel we were exhausted! Dad fell asleep by 7:30 (10:30 ND time) I managed to stay up until 9:30...trying to acclimate.....and listened to Dad's snoring.

Day 2 involved getting a rental car and driving around Anchorage. Along the way we found a Wendys and Appleebees! Great town by our measure :P Dad and I got me set up at Sam's club and payed a butt ton of money to ship my food and all out to Kong. After that we stopped at Best Buy and dad harrassed them for a bit....cause he can....at one point the guy brought up google earth to help dad find a store.... :D Then we hit a sports apparel store. By the end of all that dad and I were very hungry. We finally found an A & W and enjoyed our lunch! We eventually went to a battery store to pick some things up for dad. We went back to the hotel to hang out for a bit. Later that night Dad and I decided to go to the movies and when we got there we had missed "Transformers" so we decided on "The Ugly Truth" Hilarious! Especially since I went with my dad!

Day 3 involved a road trip! Dad and I drove down to Seward to just experience the drive. It's gorgeous! We saw mountains, the ocean, glaciers....it was just incredible! When we got into town we putzed around, shopped a bit, and took in the sights. We saw some pictures of HUGE hallibut! HUGE I tell you! Then we grabbed some sandwiches and went back to Anchorage. It was about a 2 hour drive, so a fun travel day! After that we just packed and took it easy....we had to get up at 4am the next morning to head to Kong.

Day 4 Dad and I traveled to Kong. The airport was ridiculous and dad and I almost didn't get our coffee! That would have been bad for everyone! Once we got to Bethel.....we hit more chaos. It was a mad rush to get to the shuttle to take us to the other hanger for our flight to Kong. Once there it was getting into line.....waiting.....make reservations for the 5th time....waiting again. The flight to Kong was awesome! Small plane! It sat 4 all together (pilot included) It was loud but the view was too cool. The tundra is truely beautiful! Dad and I snapped some pics and tried to talk over the loud plane. Once we landed we met up with my principle. NICE GUY! He totally saved our lives. None of my food, clothing, etc have arrived yet. Yeah....none of it. So I had nothing....at all. My principle gave us some food, toilet paper, etc. Life saver! Dad and I unpacked what was there and got my house in order. Then we went over to the school to just take that in. Afterwards we watched movies and ate PB's...it was awesome!

Day 5 dad was supposed to leave at 11:30 but no one showed up. We wound up hanging out in the office for a couple of hours trying to find Dad another flight and figuring out if he'll make his flight back home tomorrow. It was pretty tense for a bit but he finally got out later in the day. It's been raining most of the day so he almost had to stay another night.

It's been an adventure so far and I'm leaving for Bethel for the training tomorrow....I have a feeling more good times are around the corner! :D

New Adventure

Hello Hello!

So the rest of Belize was family time....But I did swim with a BULL SHARK while snorkling with my dad later on in the week.....intense man...INTENSE!!

The blog is still going to continue but I am back from Belize and am now preparing to teach in Alaska. I accepted a position to teach in Kongiganak Village, in Alaska. The population is around 425 people and I'm so excited to see what new adventures I will encounter at this new school. My Dad and I are heading to Anchorage on July 29th to pick up supplies and will be in the village on August 1.

I hope you are as excited as I am for this new adventure! It's gonna be good!!

Islands..to inland...and back again :D

Hey All!

Oker it's been a super long time since I've blogged so hang in there...but tons of awesome stuff has been going down!!

Well Ellen, Eric, and I showed up in San Pedro and went to Ruby's Hotel....not the classiest place in the world but it worked. After we checked in we went to look for food right away! We were starving! After that we lounged around on the beach for a bit and hung around in our room. I was hoping for a hot shower but low and behold....NO HOT WATER! After two solid months of cold showers, and then one hot shower in San Ignacio...I was ticked....I was teased by that one shower! We also didn't have a TV like in San Ignacio so we found up writing short stories to read to one another (wow we are nerdy English teachers) and told each other our favorite legends, etc. It was a nerd evening to be sure but we kept ourselves entertained. That day was election day and at 2 am that morning we heard a huge parade going through town declaring and celebrating the winner....GAH! Those of you that know me know that I hate politics and it was ironic that I escaped the US stuff just to land in it in Belize...2 am parade...not cool. The next day was a laze around day and we just explored the island and did a little bit of shopping. I walked around the island and made friends with some locals that I met, Ellen and Eric chilled on the beach. We met up for burgers and then signed up for snorkeling. The rest of the day basically just involved chilling on the beach and drinking at this awesome place called La Playa....super sweet bar right on the beach with big couches to hang around on. We had dinner at the Reef Restaurant and had another nerd night by contemplating the new Star Wars movies to the older ones....WOW!

OK the best day happened on Friday. We woke up and it was pretty crappy looking outside and we were supposed to go snorkeling at 2....eeekkk!! Well we went to breakfast and hung around town for a bit hoping for sunshine....and it came! We set out for snorkeling as planned. We went to Hol Chan and Shark and Ray alley! I can't even desribe what we saw...it was sooo awesome! At Hol Chan we saw three eagle rays....so beautiful! Two sea turtles...CRUSH! and tons of other awesome fish! At the end we get to just float around and explore by ourselves. Ellen and I were looking at some coral when I look down and there is a 5 ft. moray eel just sitting right below me....GAH! It was sooo cool! After that we went to Shark and Ray alley. We got there and as soon as the boat was parked we saw a big nurse shark come up to the surface....Eric wasn't too excited to get into the water. The guide chummed the water and we had 3 nurse sharks swimming around and about 5 southern sting rays chilling too. One sting ray was over 5 ft. wide...it was HUGE! The guide brought it right up to us with some fish he had and we got to touch it. Ellen was doing some pretty sweet matrix moves to avoid the stingrays's tail...teheh :D

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and we spent the rest of the night hanging out, reading, and just recaping the experience so far. On Saturday Eric left to go home and Ellen and I headed out for Caye Caulker. Caye Caulker is very different from San Pedro....way more relaxed and I think has a friendlier vibe. We checked into Tina's Backpackers Hostel and if you're looking for a cheap place to stay in Caye Caulker....this is it! $10 US a night!! Super funky place too! When we got there, there were mostly people from Germany and Sweden hanging out. It's a great place to meet people. Ellen and I spent the next two days literally sitting on the dock or hammock, reading and talking about our teaching experience and what it will be like to go back to America....we're not looking forward to it...

After a couple of days we were feeling isolated and were not used to just doing basically nothing. We both realized pretty fast that we are not made to be beach bums. So we planned out a trip back to the mainland, specifically Belmopan. So on Monday we headed back to the mainland and after a boat ride and bus ride we wound up in Belmopan, the capitol of Belize. It was a holiday so we had a little difficulty finding a hotel. We wound up at this Chinese hotel and it was....special. We had a room that looked like a prison cell and Ellen and I were both convinced we wouldn't live to see tomorrow...it was so shady... Our taxi driver was the nicest guy and he drove us to the hotel and then drove us to the internet cafe and to a pizza place....such a sweetie! That night we washed our clothes in the sink....super ghetto! It was so funny...Ellen washed hers in the shower...I do believe that it was not really doing that much in the clean area but I didn't argue with her. We got our first hot shower since San Ignacio so for that I loved the hotel. It was so funny staying there and the owners wife yelled all day....just was yelling...in mandarin so Lord knows what she was saying....it was definitely an experience.

Ellen and I called our trusty tour guide, Jiovan, so take us to the ATM cave (Actun Tunichil Muknal) It looked super cool and we wanted to do it. So on Tuesday we got up early and met Jiovan. While eating breakfast he mentioned that we may be taking the tour with some other tourist...no problem for Ellen and I. The night before I was freaking out because Ellen was leaving on Wednesday and I was supposed to meet up with Sam and Lana (two other teachers) but they hadn't emailed me to let me know where they were at....so I could be by myself in Belize for almost a week....NOT good things. So we drive to the half way point to meet up with the other tourists. We walk to the other van and when we opened the door there were Sam and Lana!!!! How crazy is that!!! Fate is a funny fellow! We also met Sam's friend Mike and Lana's boyfriend Eric. The ATM cave was insane! We hiked for an hour, crossing three rivers...intense! Then we got to the cave and hiked, swam through this cave. I mean it was climbing through cracks in the walls and all these rock formations around us. At a certain point we had to put socks on and we saw actual pottery and human remains from thousands of years ago.....TOO COOL! There was a perfect skeleton on the top of this ridge, perfectly preserved, of an 18 yr. old girl. This is by far the coolest thing I've experienced while traveling!! On the way back our guide poked at a termite nest and we ate some termites...they taste exactly like carrots!! Too weird!

That experience took almost all day, we left at 8 and came back to Belmopan at 5. Then Ellen and I packed up and took another bus to San Ignacio. Sam and Lana were staying there and I needed to go there to meet up with them so off we went. That night Ellen and I checked into another special hotel and ate a great Italian dinner, Sam and Lana recommended the place. We were supposed to meet up with the girls later on in the evening but we couldn't find them. Turns out that they fell asleep...LOL. The next day we were heading out to Tikal, in Guatemala. That morning we all got up and had a farewell breakfast with Ellen at Pops. The two best places to eat in San Ignacio are Helens and Pops!

After saying goodbye to Ellen we drove off to the Guatemala border. After getting across we found a guy to drive us to Tikal and back. The drive to Tikal was two hours of very bumpy road but we were in a super comfortable van so it wasn't too bad. We found a tour guide and off we went. Tikal is an AMAZING maya temple in Guatemala! So beautiful and big!! We only saw about 20% of the city and only 70% is actually excavated! So cool! We climbed up one of the temples and when you looked out you could see jungle and the tallest temples peeking out of the jungle :D We also saw toucans and howler monkeys!! :D :D Lots of climbing up and down temples. After that we had lunch and our guide took us Flores Guatemala, that is like an island and the capital of that department. Flores we beautiful and we did some fun shopping! It kinda reminded me of Italy in a way...though they speak Spanish which was different for me coming from Belize. Highly recommend going to Flores Guatemala. We got back to San Ignacio pretty late, like 8:30 - 9, and we found food and then went directly to bed...it was a LONG day :D

The next day we headed out for Caye Caulker. We took a bus first to the Belize Zoo. It is a super funky zoo and if you have little ones I would recommend it. You see a lot of popular animals from Belize and it's in a fun jungle setting. We saw a Harpy Eagle and that bird is BIG!! Crazy looking but very beautiful. There are only 6 or so left in Belize, very endangered. After the zoo we headed to Belize City and caught a water taxi to Caye Caulker.

This is were the fun begins. We had a lot of difficulty finding a room for 5 people....everything was super expensive and none of the hostels could hold us. So after a bit we just checked in at the Rainbow hotel. Throughout all of our looking we had this guy, Bobby, offering us this house for $25 bz per person. We thought he was full of crap and told him no but he is a very persistant guy. After following us for like an hour and a half we finally told him "OK Bobby, we'll look at the house after dinner." Turns out the house is amazing and we rented it for two nights, after our first night. After dinner and looking at the house we went to sing Kareokee...and it was fun. I had to end the night early because my knee was killing me.

The next day we hung around the island and swam at the wedge, which is the local hang out. We also moved into our house, too cool. We ran into another teacher, Eddie! The world is so weird, and hung out with him as well. The island life is pretty fun when you have a group of people. We have just been relaxing and taking it easy. :D It's a tough life all around.

I think that's enough for one blog. I hope everyone is doing well back home and I'll be home in about a week....Yay....and boo all at the same time. Love and hugz to everyone and I'll write again soon!

Travel Time!

Oh boy! It's been a fun couple of days!

So on Sunday, Ellen, her fiance Eric, and I got on a bus at 6 am to travel to Belmopan and then eventually San Ignacio. We had to get up at 5 am to get ready, say goodbye and get to the bus stop. The bus ride took quite awhile. It wasn't an express bus so we stopped a lot! About every 20 min. the bus would stop to pick up or drop off. If we took an express bus we would have traveled directly to Belmopan. We stopped in Dangriga for a 10 min. break and then went to Belmopan. We got to Belmopan at around 11:30. When we got there we were supposed to call a guy called Giovani. He is a friend of Ellen's home stay brother Howard. They worked together and Giovani was supposed to hook us up with cave tubing and zip lining. We called him at Belmopan and he picked us up, along with his tour partner Dion. They are the best tour guides in Belize!!! If you ever come to Belize, especially the Cayo District or San Pedro...look these guys up!

They picked us up and for $150 US they drove us to the cave tubing/zip lining place, bought us drinks, they were our guides through the caves and zip lining, and drove us all the way to San Ignacio; they also helped us find a hotel and a place to eat that night. LOVE THEM!! They are too funny! Dion loved the fact that Eric flew over 2000 miles to propose to Ellen. They definitely kept us entertained all day.

Zip lining was a lot of fun and Ellen conquered her fear of heights....well sort of. There were howler monkeys earlier in the day but we missed them...typical. The guides were super funny as well. All around good time. Then the cave tubing. While hiking to the caves we all got into a conversation about food and by the end of it we were all starving!! We've eaten things like armadillo, iguana (can only be female!) cocao, caldo, king rat, etc. The basic rule down in Belize if the animal is breathing, they most likely will hunt and eat it! The water was pretty chilly going into the caves but no one got hurt ( sorry mom..tehe..) Dion was a great guide and we had fun looking at the bats and how they make their holes in the ceilings of the caves. When we got out of the caves it was raining..... :( .... so we were a tad cold. We searched out iguanas and talked to keep warm. It was fun though, good bonding experience. When we got done I was almost blue but all in all it was a good day. When we got into town we found a hotel call the Casablanca and again...if you come to San Ignacio....Casablanca hotel! It's $75...belize...per night. For three people, that breaks down to $15 US....HOLLAR!!! And decent rooms! Hot water! Great beds and clean! It's a great little hotel....go now!

Anyways....so we got to the hotel and at first we could only stay the one night. Well we are planning on staying in San Ignacio until Wednesday, we need a place for two more nights. Then we met up with Giovani and Dion at this awesome restaurant called Hoya's (I believe) great food! We all chatted for awhile, had a few Belikans...and relaxed. We terrified the guys but explaining some of the winter sports we do in Minnesota...their faces were priceless!! Dion is a semi professional soccer player and he's convinced that if he's asked to play in Minnesota...he's going to be sick that month...tehe. Afterwards we went back to the hotel and found out there were some cancellations so we get to stay at the hotel all three night! It's a good day!! I took my first HOT SHOWER in 2 months!!! Can't even describe how wonderful that felt!! Then we went to sleep pretty fast...it was a long day!

On Monday we met up with our amazing tour guides once more and headed out to Xunantunich and horseback riding. Xunantunich is the most beautiful Maya temple I've seen yet! It's huge! We climbed to the top of the highest temple, The Castillo, and it's 180 ft. high. Awesome view! You could see Guatemala from the top. That was so worth the trip! Then we went horseback riding in the rain forest. It was the best trail ride I have ever been on! We saw howler monkeys, tik tree...which are used to make yachts, and saber trees. The saber tree is said to hold up Belize and it keeps the heavens were they are supposed to be and the underworld where it's supposed to be. It's on the Belize national emblem. It was some pretty crazy riding and if you haven't rode horse before...don't go on this trail ride. It was at the Banana Boat resort and they also had a mini zoo! I saw a jaguar and it was less than 3ft away from me!!! So beautiful! They had spider monkeys just walking around the resort that you could feed and just watch. They also had tons of different birds. A little deer was also there and all Dion and Eric wanted to do was eat it.....silly boys....tricks are for kids.

The trail ride was so amazing and I got a beautiful horse named Rain Drop. Eric got Glenda, and Ellen got Rocky and she was mighty testy. Tried to knock Ellen off a few times, wasn't quite used to the trail yet. We went through mud, rivers, fields, etc. Crazy fun! Again we drove home and had some dinner with the guys and just hung out. It was another awesome day! We are so glad that Howard hooked us up with these guys and they are going to help us out at San Pedro as well. Again we only paid $150 US for both tours and the trail ride was at least and hour and a half. Bunch of travel time in between and they bought us lunch. Great deal all around :D

Today, Tuesday, is our rest day. We are planning on just exploring San Ignacio and relaxing. Slept in and took our time. Tomorrow Giovani is going to take us to Belize City to catch the ferry out to San Pedro. There we are relaxing and snorkeling....gonna be good!!!

Hope everyone is good back home and hopefully I can find an internet cafe there keep you guys posted! Stay warm...I know I am ;)

Love ya all and miss you! Only...what....14 days till I see la familia!! Excited!

Last Week at Tumul Kin :(

This was my last week at Tumul Kin and I can't even put into words how sad I am.

I'll start off with two weekends ago, when we went to the keys. We got up early on Sunday morning and went down to the docks. The group that was taking us to the keys are called TIDE and luckily Jon and Eddie live with the person who runs TIDE, so we got a good deal. The boat ride to Snake Key was about an hour long. The weather was perfect! This is the first Sunday that I've been in PG where it hasn't rained!! (Well besides the first weekend that we got here) We got to the key and it was paradise! I mean this little island and this beautiful white sand beach surrounding it was all for us! No one else was around. We all got settled and then into the water we went. Snorkling was so much fun. We saw tons of bright red and yellow star fish, squid, sea urchins, barracuda, parrot fish, jelly fish, sting rays, and the best was this giant tuna fish....it scared the pants off of Lana! I heard a scream and immediately thought reef shark and I turn around and it's just this giant tuna....LOL. We layed on the beach, read books, talked, snorkled, ate lunch, and just basked in the beautiful water. It was seriously paradise. Our lives rule!

The next morning I got up at 5 to meet the bus and prepare for classes and my observation. I had 2nd and 3rd form all worked out. The 2nds are going to be doing literature circles with "The Indian in the Cupboard" and the 3rds are going to learn about Reader's Theater and write one of their own. So exciting!

The highlights of the week were just hanging out with students for the last time and joshing around with them. I got a giant package from my mom with Valentines candy so I was giving out chocolate all week, if they didn't like me before they loved me now! There was a group of students from Toronto Canada that came to Tumul Kin so we moved Culture Night from Saturday to Friday night. Jen, who is my weekend roommate at Cristina's, came out to Tumul Kin to see Culture Night. We hung out during the day, with the other college students, and watched the Tumul Kin boys try to smooze their way with the ladies. Good times.

At Culture Night the 1sts did a hilarious skit about a man who dies and how they try to bring him back to life....it was great. Then the 3rd formers danced a few traditional dances, including punta! The marimba players performed, and the Toronto students did a step routine for us, impressive and the students loved it. Then the final show was the 3rds had an eating contest. The first half they had 4 competitors and they had to shove 4 bananas in their mouth. Whoever were the first two done moved on to the next round, a ramin eating contest...that was too funny!! Don't worry I have video of it to share! Then we danced the night away. I danced every dance and the Toronto students joined in....it was a hoot!! We danced marimba, harp, punta...it was all good. Jen even danced with us! This was definitely the best Culture Night that I had been apart of.

Saturday we all felt kinda weird because of the move of Culture Night. All my classes were going very well and I did a lot of teaching! Definitely in my element! On Saturday night we played monopoly, what else? On Sunday I went to all of the special classes and helped strip the jippy jappa for the baskets, then took pictures of everything. It was fun, again to just hang out and be with the students. Later that afternoon we had a community meeting. There were some public apologies for behavior issues. At the end of the meeting, Mr. Pablo was talking about how lucky they were as a school to have such good students and also good help. Then he started talking about how they were lucky to have me for these past two months and if I would like to say anything. Yeah....I started crying like no other. It just hit me all at once. I tried to thank everyone for everything and to express how much this experience has meant to me...I'm still not sure if they understood everything I said. Then when I was done I thought that would be the end but student after student got up and said something about how they appreciate me and how great of a teacher I had been, etc, I could not get ahold of my self, it was the most amazing thing. We were all crying by the end of it. To ease the saddness we picked rice afterward to help level us.

After the meeting we had sports so they had their running contest. I got to be the finish line judge. The boys had to run so far and then the girls had to finish it up. There were four teams that competed. One of my students, Selvin, beat everyone! He started the race and was the first to finish it! Apparently this is the second time he's done this. Then the played football and I watched and laughed. The girls had to play too and some of the boys took some time to adjust to the "new" players. LOL.

The rest of the week flew by and before I knew it Wednesday came and I had to say goodbye. It was a pretty quiet day and there wasn't as much talking as their usually is. I cried in all of my classes, saying goodbye, and we had a "free" day in classes to say goodbye. In 1st form, I got a class pic and video, and then we finished "The Giver" and then we learned and played spoons. It was a fun class. Then I had 2nd form. Again we took a class pic and video. Then we just chatted and they came up with a Tumul Kin Wish List. :D Then we sang for the rest of the class period. My last class was 4th form. We took a picture and video, went over homework, and then talked for the rest of the period. 3rds had their goodbyes the day before and we were supposed to go down to the river but it was raining, so we watched "Accepted" instead. :D :D

Saying goodbye to everyone was the hardest thing. They all gave me letters, that I CAN'T open until I get home. I had one student who cried all day and there was nothing I could really do to console him. I didn't leave until around 7, so I hung out with the students that stay at the school or don't leave until the next day. When I finally had to leave we dragged it out as much as we could. All of us were bawling and I had students clinging, asking me not to leave. Yeah it was so hard. Then Aurelio said we had to stop at his place quick so I could say good bye to his son Utzil. When I walked in all the staff were there! They threw me a surprise dinner! Cried again! It was a super emotional day....obviously. I brought a student Mathew back to PG for the weekend because he didn't have a place to stay. On the way to PG we all jammed out to "Who Let the Dogs Out?" and Celine Dione....good times.

It's been a super emotional rollarcoaster so far. This upcoming two weeks I'll be heading north to the Maya Temple Altun Ha, with Ellen and her fiance Eric. Then we're heading to San Ignacio, west side of Belize. There we are going to see the 1,000 ft. falls, another Maya Temple, Spanish Lookout, etc. The Cayo district is supposed to be amazing so needless to say we are super excited to ship out tomorrow (Sunday). After all that we are heading to the Keys and I'll be in San Pedro and Caye Caulker for a couple days before coming back to Tumul Kin for the torch run and meeting up with family :D So excited to see what the next few weeks have in store for me! I will definitely try to keep up the blog when I find internet!

Stayed tuned!

Shout out to Uncle Terry! Love ya and hope to see you when I get home!

Love you all who have been keeping up with the blog. I'll be home March 21 and I hope I get to see people when I get back! Love, Hugz, and Kisses!

Woa! It's been awhile!

Hey all you happy people!

So it's been forever since I last wrote and I'm not sure where I left off so I'll just bounce around and give you some highlights. For the Super Bowl *boo that the Steelers won :( we went to Ellen's "moms" place and watched. We had peanuts, coke, beer, and pizza...it was fabulous! I'm sure all the locals heard us hollaring and wondered what the stupid Americans were up to now.

I didn't think I would be doing much this last session because it was finals week. They reviewed all week and then Sunday through Wednesday were finals. There wasn't much prepared for "review" and it was a semi awkward week in teaching. Everytime I was told..."And now Ms. Garnet is going to teach the class...." I was first shocked and completely unprepared...and second I had no idea what they had done for most of the semester....no one thought to fill me in. There were a couple of awkward moments. I introduced "sparkle" to some of the classes to help them review vocabulary. That was fun! For those of you who don't know what "Sparkle" is...shame on you. We also started telling jokes, riddles, and learning hand jives. I will let you all know that I didn't start this....that was all Aurelio....but I did get a couple of students with some riddles. ;)

In the mornings we have started a new tradition that I like a lot and will cry when I have to leave. I usually show up to the library around 9-9:30 and read or prepare for class. Classes start at 10:30. Lately my 1st form students have been coming into the library and chatting with me. Now we read to eachother in the mornings. Their favorite book to read from is "Where the Sidewalk Ends." They love the poems and the library has two of that authors books so we take turns reading poems. I usually have a crows of 7-10 students listening in. It's so much fun!!

Another highlight was on Thursday night. The 4th formers are learning about debating and also about the land rights issue that is huge here in Belize. The 4th formers were given the assignment to write a speech as if they were going to address the cabinet on the land rights issue. They are also having a mock court case on the land rights issue here at Tumul Kin. I was picked to help out the side of the government....gulp! The 4th formers are on the side of the Belizean people. It was a lot of fun to watch the students and this coming Wednesday we are cross examining witnesses....I hope they take it easy on me! I'm a "famous" historian who knows all about the history of Belize....yeah it's hard to BS my way through this.

On saturday, instead of culture night we had presentations. Before dinner all the specialty classes showed what they had learned or made throughout the year so far. They showed off their jippy jappa baskets, their kuxtal (bags), the performing arts danced for us, and the marimba class all played different tunes. It was a lot of fun. After dinner I told a riddle to Ms. Heather and Mr. Pablo (Ac. Dir.) just to pass the time, before I knew it I had 15 students trying to figure out the riddle too! Before they could answer the 3rd formers gave presentations on the Queqchi, Mopan, and Yucetan Maya. These are the three Maya cultures that are present in Belize. It was so interesting! My favorite part was learning about the courting rituals. Mr. Pablo told us that if a young man wanted to marry a girl he had to go out into the jungle with her father and uncles and chop wood. They would call him "pig" and if he couldn't keep up with the chopping they would eventually pen him in with all the wood they would chop, like a pig! It was so funny to watch some of the boy's faces when they heard this! At the end of everything Mr. Pablo finally figured out the riddle....hahaha.

Saturday started the testing for English, it was the composition section. After that they all had testing everyday. I supervised a couple of tests for Mr. Pablo so he could go to meetings. Some of the students got to experience my "angry teacher" face during testing. Biggest pet peeve as a teacher; when students talk during a test! So I scared a few students and then all was peaceful in the land. On Tuesday night the boys wanted to learn spoons but come to find out that no one had a deck of cards...gah! So we decided on Monopoly. Holy Cow!! The boys really got into it! They were buying hotels and houses left and right! I don't know about you....but we usually never get that far! There was yelling, bagging, bargoning....so funny! Two of the teachers came to watch and were wiping their eyes they were laughing so hard. I had one student in the hole with the bank by over $3500! The rest of the students watched "white chicks" but we stuck with Monopoly.

On Wednesday I woke up, went to the library and came across a bunch of the boys clearing out this land right next to the snack shop! It was crazy...no worries I got pictures. All the girls stood on the sidelines while the boys hacked, raked, and threw debre everywhere! I'm sure it's good frustration management but I get super nervous seeing some of those students swinging machet's everywhere! After watching for a bit I did some planning....don't know if that will help, and then played more Monopoly after lunch! The boys really enjoy the game! I was just banker this time around. Then I went to the caves with my student Melisa and just relaxed in the water all afternoon....it was a hot day! When I got back the boys wanted to play again but we had no where to set up. So we waited until the commons area was free and set up. Half way through we all made dinner. Ms. Nat (the cook) left along with most of the other students. The only students still at Tumul Kin are either leaving on Thursday or stay at Tumul Kin. Usually they live a long ways away and it's cheaper for them to just stay at school. I got to help make flour tortilla's and help bake them! It was fun! Then we sat down and played Monopoly! I left at 10:30 and they were still going! It was down to just two boys and myself...I had 4 hotels! Two boys got knocked out. Too much fun!

On Saturday I have parent teacher conferences, Sunday going to the keys with the other teachers, and Monday I'm being observed by a supervisor (which may blow up since I don't really teach a lot....gulp!) Wish me luck all around!

That's about it for now. Yay for my cousin Jess who is getting married on Valentines Day! Happy Valentines Day to everyone...hope you eat a bunch of chocolate for me :D

Family: Need to know plans...email me or whatever. I lied...I get done on Feb. 25...so I'll going to make plans unless I hear different from you. Communication people!!

Love and Kisses to all...hope everyone is well and I hear you got a bunch of ice....dang....that sucks.... :evil smile on my face: Keep your chins up!

Schinanigans

OK I know that the title isn't spelled right but I also know that spell check wouldn't be able to figure it out so....there. I hope you all enjoyed my pictures! It takes forever to put them up so this will have to do for now. I wish I could put pictures of me and my students but I think it's not allowed so you'll all have to use your imaginations.

This week was awesome when it comes to student interaction, not so much with the teaching but hey what can you do. On Thursday, I believe, I was walking home after classes with some students when I saw one of my boy students shimming up a coconut tree.... I mean he just climbed right on up there! It was awesome to watch. He chucked down a few coconuts and they graciously offered me one. I looked at the thing and said, "OK exactly what am I supposed to do with this?" They replied, "You drink it miss!" I said, "Yeah, OK, how?" Mind you we are just talking about a regular coconut, fresh off of the tree. They replied, "You break it open and drink it miss.." I said, "Ah...and how am I supposed to go about breaking this thing open?" They said, "With a machet (machetti for those Americans that may not put it together)" This was said like I was the dumbest person in the world. "Yeah...I get that but I unfortunately forgot my machet back in Minnesota...the airlines really don't like it when you bring giant knifes on the plane." They all thought I was hilarious and they cut it open for me. I had fresh coconut juice with the boys and then they sliced it in half and we had the soft inner goodness too. It was awesome! During that time we all talked about movies and some of these students can quote movies nearly as well as I can....:tear: I was so proud! They would definitely fit right on in at home ;)

Then after dinner I stuck around to hear marimba practice. These three boys always play the marimba after dinner. I stuck around and hung out with some other boys that wanted to stay and we all laughed, and talked about Minnesota. They taught me, sort of, their national anthem and another dance called Sapatiado. It was great! On the way walking home they kept warning me about Tata Duende. I asked who that was and they told me that he is an evil little man that likes to steal kids while they are walking home in the dark at night. Now I've heard that he either smells really good or like garbage right before he kidnaps people, so I'm prepared either way. It's fun to hear, everynight when I go home, someone warning me about Tata Duende. Pablo has a cute little figurine of him at home, I need to find one!

On Saturday the students decided that they wanted to read a poem for cultural night. It's called "Sonneys Lettah" and it's in creole. We found it in this Belizian book of poetry and short stories. It's great! The students decided that they wanted to act it out too, so we choreographed that! Too much fun! I also taught them spoons and we had a tournament, I was sadly beaten...dangit!
The students are all expressing an interest in learning hip hop so they had their first lesson today and they have decided that it's a lot harder than it looks but what to keep going. We are supposedly performing next culture night...we'll see.

At culture night this week, the 2nd form put on this cute presentation of the Yucatan culture. Then the 1st form acted out a story about Ananci the spider. Ananci is a collection of child stories. It was too cute and super funny! Then the 3rds performed the poem and I got to be a cop, woot! Thank God for my acting background....hahahaha. The last event was that the 1st form boys performed this fire dance, where they were swinging and twirling sticks with fire at the end. I was so nervous but it went off without a hitch and they did super well! Pablo put on rave sort of music and in a weird way it looked sort of like a rave with the fire and the pitch black night.

On Sunday I danced all morning in the performing arts class and played frisbee all afternoon with some students. At one point we were playing frisbee and football all at the same time...weird I know but we pulled it off! It was super hot and we all decided to go down to the river to go for a swim. I "slipped" into the water and I had three students yelling that they would save me....bah! What funny guys...LOL.....That water was fabulous! The boys were whining that the water was cold and I told them they hadn't experienced cold till they tried Lake Superior. I was just weird cause I wasn't cold. Along the river people sell crafts so I browsed with the students and just hung out, it was a good day!

Preparing to leave for PG on Wednesday, I left with Don Victor but I had to ride in the back of the pick up with the marimba. It was so much fun!! One of my students was convinced that I was going to die, riding in the back of a pick up?... and I had to remind him I wasn't made of glass and I had done this before....dork. It was so much fun, by the end of the drive I looked like Bridget Jones when she gets done in a certain convertible ride, but it was worth it. Wind in my hair, warm air swirling around me, and very few bugs to eat...perfect! It was great to be back in PG and all we did Thursday was sit in the sun and soak it all up....ahhh wonderful!

This post is sort of short and sweet and just highlights from the rest of the week I've had. I write more about the weekend when it's done :D Yay for the superbowl on Sunday! We are all heading out to a party at the Reef Bar to celebrate!

OK parentals. The clan is trying to make plans so I need to know what you are thinking for visiting. I may be in Guatemala when you decide to come out and how am I supposed to meet up with you....no cell phones and internet isn't exactly reliable. SO! Let's try to set this up. Please. Congrats to Nick with his goal and to the BW Blades and their 1st place! I wish I could have been there!!

Nick: also I have a student and we had a huge conversation about fishing, hunting, and videogames. You two should really meet! Though he speaks in creole half the time and it takes me a bit to figure out what he's trying to say. Cool kid. I wish you could come and visit me!

Dave: you should definitely check out ticket prices. Belize is beautiful!! I'm sure if you asked Cait she would let you know about travel plans and you could probably bop around with if you would like. I don't know, check it out.

My students really want to meet my friends and family so if anyone would like to visit during spring break, the students all say, "Come On Down!" LOL they are too funny! Hope all is well with all of you. I miss you and love you all!

Pictures!

Here are some fun pictures of the group at the Reef Bar, taken
this Thursday. The woman in the picture below is Joan, she
owns the bar, is british, and a hoot!!

A few pics lower are from last night (Friday) the girl on the far right is Jen and it was her 25th birthday last night so we had to take her out. The picture of the water is the view of the pier from the Reef.

Below that are some pics from the group at the Maya Temple Lubaantun and the view from my window...jungle :) enjoy!