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!