Seal Butchering Pictures

Here are the long-awaited photos from the seal butchering event.

Above is Buster, our wiry go-to handy man and general source of mischief. He has the heartiest laugh I've ever heard for a man who is no more than 110 pounds soaking wet. He has one speed: turbo. Often, he comes into my class in the morning with his giant coffee thermos and sparks some great conversation with his own questions about the topic of the day. It's almost as if I planted him there at times. Each day, we have the following conversation at some point. It goes like something like this:

Buster: "HELLOSISTERHOWAREWETODAY!?"
Me:      "I am doing well, my brother, and how are you?"
Buster: "I am well, my sister. YOUGOTENOUGHBLOWTISSUE?"
Me:      "Yes, I do. Thanks, Buster!"
Buster: "GOODBYESUNSHINE!"

As I have said, Buster also has one volume: LOUD. He cracks me up daily. Every school should have a Buster.

Buster carefully butchers the seal, separating the precious blubber into a bucket to divvy up amongst the villagers. I tried some as a dipping oil for dry fish, and it was delicious. He also cut off the flippers and gave them to me for class. It was perfect, as I was discussing animal adaptations with three of my sections. I then finished dissecting the flippers for my oldest group, which they found pretty cool. One of them said he found it disturbing that I enjoyed doing that as much as I did, and that he hoped I wouldn't dissect him. He's a great kid; he was the one who first requested better reading books for high schoolers. An advanced student, he hopes to be a pilot.

The Kindergarten teacher brought some of her kids to the Yup'ik room to witness the event. It was an exciting day all around. What you see above is exactly how these kids learn best. The Yup'ik culture is strongly rooted in oral histories and demonstrations (not that that should be a huge surprise...), which explains why these kiddos are so engaged. Put them in a classroom, and that kindergarten teacher has to restrain them from leap-frogging from desk to desk. (I'm not joking about that. She is a certifiable saint, as are all elementary teachers.)

Also, I did get the chance to try eel, and it tastes just like tuna - just a bit stronger.

Hope you enjoyed the quick update. We have just one and a half days left this week! Our Christmas program is Wednesday evening, during which my group will perform "The Twelve Yup'ik Days of Christmas." There will be a community feed Thursday at school, and then we teachers will take off on a chartered plane to come home for Christmas! I am so excited!

This first half of the year has flown by, and I'm sure it will continue to do just that. See some of you soon...cheers!

Nine Flights for Turkey Day...Totally Worth It!

When Mom asked me about my plans for Thanksgiving, I mentioned that it might be fun to visit Aunt Sue in Portland, OR, if she wasn't opposed to the idea. About 3 days later, Sue and I had finagled flights to get me to the Lower 48 for a little R'n'R. What I did not anticipate (but probably should have) was the fact that traveling in bush Alaska is always filled with surprises - some pleasant, others not so much.

It ended up taking nine flights to get to Oregon. Why? Well, due to weather and some missed connections, I got to see nearly the whole of western Alaska before leaving. I left Marshall at 10 on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and eventually landed in Portland at 7:30 am Thanksgiving Day. So, here's the story...

10:00: Leave Marshall on a Cessna 6-seater. Pit stop in Russian Mission before heading to Bethel, our main hub city.

11:00: Nearly immediately upon entering Bethel's airport, they called for my next flight, which was to visit three villages before landing in Anchorage at about 2:00. I bumped into a fellow new teacher from another village, Sean, who flew standby and weasled his way into a seat on the direct flight from Bethel to Anchorage. We planned to meet in Anchorage for a bit, and I went off on my flight.

We left for Pilot Station. No problems. We left for Mountain Village to pick up one passenger, Lisa, a nurse who was returning to Anchorage on my same flight schedule. At this point, we were only slightly behind schedule, but not for long. By the time we reached St. Mary's, another hub city, we had missed our connecting flight to Anchorage by about 15 minutes.

I was neither surprised nor too upset by this turn of events. My feet, however, were extremely bitter and tingling at this juncture due to the temperature of the little bush planes. I left my warm boots at the village thinking that I'd be in a toasty plane by noon. Lisa was kind enough to lend me a pair of warm socks at St. Mary's for the remainder of our journey. At this point it was about 2:00.

The airline did right by us and got us to the hub city of Aniak [Ann-ee-ack] by 3:00 which eventually left for Unalakleet [You-nuh-la-kleet], which is on the coast. It was at Aniak that I saw the first green plant I'd seen since the freeze in October. I was pumped!

Yay for green plants! I also thought the pot to the right was just cheeky, especially for its location.







6:30: We left from Unalakleet for Anchorage, and by this point Lisa and I were old pals. We chit-chatted, finally able to relax and enjoy our hard-earned glass of Sutter Home wine on what would be our final flight of the day together. As we deplaned in our destination city at about 8:30, I tried to return the socks, and Lisa refused. She then offered me a place to stay should I encounter any other travel issues. Such sweet people here, I tell you.

Classy, I know, taking a picture of my wine.
But when this little beverage is as rare for me
as it is these days, I feel the need to capture
and treasure it!

If that wasn't a big enough day, I went to the baggage claim only to discover that my bag never arrived. I couldn't truly blame them given the rigamarole of the flights I'd taken. Hey, at least I got my money's worth! I got to take a few extra flights, see a few villages, AND they lost my bag for me - a first! If that's not a total package travel experience, I don't know what is! Good thing I have a Type B personality. I believe my dear father's blood would have boiled. Love you, Dad!

8:30 pm: I called Sean, who had arrived hours earlier. He was waiting for his dad to get to the airport (they are Minnesota boys), and when he arrived at about 9:00, we all went for food and few drinks (only the second real meal of my day) at their hotel bar. Sean had taken his extra time in Anchorage to get to know the bartender, so we were well taken care of when we arrived. They took me back to the airport for my 12:45 am flight to Portland. Woo-hoo!! Just two more flights to the mainland!

12:10 am: I got there just as boarding began. Settling in for the four-hour flight, the guy next to me turns and says, "Just so you know, I snore really loud and I just had a giant bean burrito. I'm Jeremy." Cracking up, I responded, "That's just what I wanted to hear!" Jeremy, who works on the Aleutian islands as a firefighter, was headed home to his family for his 5-week break from work. We chatted and eventually tried to sleep. I got the middle seat, so I spent that flight just trying not to fall on either of my neighbors.

The plane lights came on again 30 minutes before we were to land in Seattle just as a notification of descent, then turned them off again. I turned to Jeremy and said, "That was just plain mean; I don't think I slept at all!" Again, Jeremy said exactly the perfect thing. "No, you were snoring like crazy and drooling everywhere!" Just to clarify, that is so not true, even though I'm know I'm capable of it. He, however, got lots of sleep slumped against the window.

6:00ish am, TURKEY DAY: I had a very slight layover in Seattle before getting to Portland at 7:30 am. My aunt picked me up and we went shopping for a few things, unknowing that my bag would never arrive in Anchorage. She fed me real eggs and bacon and I luxuriated in a few hours of rest before getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner with her fabulous friends. They prepared a delicious meal, supplied copious amounts of amazing wine, and sparked some hilarious conversation. They even let me drive their Miata the next day-score!

Sue's friend Vince told me that "one must squeeze the
marrow out of each and every day." Well said!

After Sue's fabulous friends hosted a lovely Thanksgiving meal, we all
went out on a wine tour the next day. Look at me - my hair is down
and I'm NOT wearing a coat or hat! I felt like I was in the tropics. 

Aunt Sue treated me to more wonderful food, some shopping, and a facial on Saturday before my return to the village. The return trip was pretty uneventful compared to the trip out. I did sit next to a woman named Rona who taught in a bush village when she was my age. She gave me some sage advice and, like Lisa, gave me her card and told me to contact her should I ever need anything in Anchorage - a good doctor, coffee shop, or even information on teaching in the Anchorage school district. I then spent the night in the Anchorage airport, which I don't think I will do again. Too tiring. I value my beauty sleep pretty highly these days.

As you see, the logistics of getting into and out of the village are messy. Flying itself on those little bush planes is a fun experience - they pretty much ask you your name (sometimes not even that) and seat you on the plane. The pilots also handle the luggage. Just before takeoff, they holler out your name and say "How much do you weigh?" All passengers respond and the flight begins. As for the actual flying and landing portion of the flight experience, it is much smoother than the bigger planes, which makes sense if ya think about it.

I made it back to the village Sunday evening to find that my things had been moved to the new teacher housing! (I'd packed up before I'd left in case moving was a possibility.) It's modern and very nice. The queen bed is fantastic, which makes getting up in the morning darkness quite the struggle. It's not without its quirks. For example, the shower rods don't quite fit. Never fear, my new roommate Mary McGyvered a solution with an empty can.  See below:

Sorry this post is so long-winded! My trip was full of random events and therefore quite therapeutic. Again, I met some fantastic people, both in Oregon and along the way. I hope to return in the spring for another break.

In under two weeks I will be home! I can't wait to see friends and family and gear up for the spring semester. Happy Holidays to all!

Regional Volleyball Tourney

We did it, folks! Our team took second in the Regional Mixed Six VB Tourney, which gave us a ticket to the state tournament in Anchorage. Two of our players were named to the All-Tournament team and one was even named MVP. I'm excited to take these kids to the city as a reward for all of their hard work this season.

As stated earlier, I was the tournament coordinator for this event. I ran my buns off from Wednesday through Saturday the week before Thanksgiving. Though we did great as a team, the whole coordinating experience was exhausting. I have a newfound respect for all who put on tournaments for my teams as a kid and teenager. My fellow teachers as well as the custodial staff were awesome and helped around the clock to make sure we had ticket takers, line judges, scorekeepers, meals, and concessions. The entire region was at our school, which meant that every classroom was utilized as a sleeping room for the 10 visiting teams as well as the referees. (Remember, no hotels or restaurants.) I made at least four airport runs to pick up teams, and the school counselor made about eight more. The cooks were the real heroes of the weekend, having prepared breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks for the 10 teams, their chaperones, and coaches from Wednesday through Sunday. Math Teacher figured out that it came to somewhere over 3,500 plates served.

What I did not anticipate was the lack of follow-through demonstrated by the volunteers I'd lined up to line judge and keep score. Some showed up on time, others left in the middle of matches, and still others showed up with five minutes to spare to cross their names off the sign-up sheet and leave. My new role for the weekend immediately became that of finding line judges and scorekeepers at the start of every single match, and sometimes in between games of matches. I did time in every role myself. Turns out some people signed up others as a joke, and some just couldn't seem to back up their words with actions. Thankfully, other teachers and a few community members stepped up to the plate, and most everything went off without a hitch. Needless to say, this novel situation did make for a pretty stressful few days.

As I vented about this situation to a couple close friends, I came to see how truly different and difficult it is living here. In perfect hindsight, it is absolutely foreign to me that parents and volunteers would back out at the last minute for reasons like needing a cigarette or needing to eat supper. My regular reaction would be something along of the lines of "Couldn't you do that before your scheduled volunteer time?" Instead, what came out of my mouth at the time was something like, "OK, well, thanks for being here! We'll figure it out!" followed by a forced yet cheerful smile. I started to fault myself for not planning better, but another teacher said something that stuck with me. "Susan, even if you had put in 50 more hours planning, things still would have gone exactly as they did. The planes still would have been late and people still would have failed to show up for the jobs they signed up for. Things are going as smoothly as they can. This is how events always run around here." I finally relaxed after that statement.

It was all worth it! See below.

   

Second place finish - headed to State!

Kindergarten Teacher, 4th/5th Teacher, and myself with one
of our youngest fans. We girls treated ourselves to a movie
night after this marathon of a weekend.

So, there you have it! I have a couple more posts in the works. Sorry this one took so long, but as we all know, this is a crazy time of year! Next up is the tale of my visit to the great Continental US for turkey day. Ciao!