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