Piano Lessons

School has started again, meaning it's time to pick back up on the piano lessons that I let slide last spring. Okay, so my last lesson was in January. It just kept not working out, either I'd be out of town, or busy, or at work, or Lindsay would be. And, as we all know, I only do things when there is a deadline hanging over my head. Because of this, my poor piano sat abandoned all summer. Poor piano.

Lessons are on Saturdays, and I do most of my practicing for my lessons on Friday night and Saturday morning. Yes, I know, shame on me. This week, in an effort to not waste this opportunity I have, I actually practiced today, Monday. I also printed off a set of flashcards, because I should be able to recognize notes at this point, and I can't. It's really embarrassing when I hit a wrong note, Lindsay just looks at me, and I try to figure out which one it is without counting up from middle C.

Last year, when I was taking lessons, I'd sneak off to the coffee shop to practice a couple of times a week. When I moved into my current house, I was able to pick up a piano for free, because it needs some work. The piano tuner only comes out once or twice a year, and all she could really do is figure out how many keys were broken, and what parts she needed. There was no point in tuning the piano at that point, since it would need to be tuned again once the new parts were put in anyway.

For right now, I'm only playing in C and G position, so none of the broken keys are within my range. Unfortunately, some of the keys that are within my reach are horribly out of tune. Like, don't-practice-when-others-are-in-the-house out of tune. On more than one occasion, I've gone in for my lesson, played a piece on Lindsay's nice piano, and realized I recognized it once it was played correctly.

I'm not very good at what I'm doing. Like all art, I prefer to appreciate it as opposed to create it. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of the "and crafts" part of "arts and crafts." It's a trait I've picked up living with my family. I can mass produce almost anything once I can take it apart. I think my past seniors and the 800 Valentines Day cookies we used to make are a testament to that.

I may never be a concert pianist. I may never even be good enough to play for sacrament meeting, but I'm glad I'm learning, if for no other reason than to entertain myself on the long Alaskan nights that are coming up.

We're past the equinox now, and are back under 12 hours of light a day. Here in Nome we lose about 6 minutes of daylight a day, so we can get down to the three hours we get on December 21st. It's already getting colder. I'm sure Daphne wishes I'd turn the heat up. I just can't bring myself to give up on the idea of summer yet. Not just yet.

The two sides of my life

When I lived in Shishmaref, there was just my life. I felt no real split between my work life and my social life. It would have been near-impossible anyway. My roommate worked at the same school I did, most of our friends worked at the same school, and those that didn't were parents of kids from our school. When it was time to sit around in the evening and share the highs and lows of our days, they were all focused on our shared kids, shared administration, and shared activities.

In Nome, there is a large divide between my work life and my other life (church life? home life? social life?)

My personal life consists of Daphne, the cabin Fosters, everyone at church, Erin Forton and her circle, and the random people that I have met and befriended while living in Nome. (I'm looking at you, Nellie from Airport Pizza.)

Work has it's own set of people, situations, acronyms, and problems. And even my work life is split into two areas: those that work for Kawerak: Wellness, Headstart, Community Planning, IT, Accounting, etc and those that work for other entities but share cases with the Child Advocacy Center: Child Protective Services, Alaska State Troopers District Attorneys Office, Behavioral Health, Sexual Assault Response Team (nurses), Department of Juvenile Justice, etc.

In general terms, I can talk about anything I want with all of the above people. However, if I want to name names, give details, or get opinions on the more difficult parts of my job, it has to be someone from the second set of work people. It's not only wrong to burden my visiting teachers with the details of my day, it's also illegal. And for those who haven't worked in social work, it's hard to explain why I continue to do what I do, when everything I say about the job sounds depressing on the face of it.

You may be wondering where I'm going with this. Well, here it is: Since I choose not to discuss even the public aspects of my job (I'm sure it bleeds through, but it's accidental), and I'm no longer taking classes to use as conversational fodder, I sometimes feel like I'm stuck with the banal aspects of my life. Travel plans, who likes who, who said what about who, how I was told by a girl who was told by another girl that she asked a boy if he would date a certain girl, and he said no, and what that implies for everyone involved. (I would like to say that was a joke example; it wasn't.)

Because of this, I have decided to expand my mind in the following ways:

-Finish reading the "College Bound Reading List" given to me by Kathy Reim, my 11th grade English teacher. It is an impressive list, and I've highlighted the books off of it as I read them. I am, however, only a quarter of the way through the list. I'm starting up again with Wuthering Heights, based on the fact that it's already on my bookshelf.

-Start up on stained glass again. I unpacked my boxes with Sarah Hofstetter the other day, because she needed some glass for a project. I forgot how much fun I used to have making projects with glass. I'm gonna carve myself out a piece of the shed where I can start working on projects again. This will help fix the problem two ways: 1) keep me away from the situations where I find myself over thinking things and getting gossipy, and 2) give me things to work on inside when everyone is hanging out together. And yes, I mean setting up a stained glass Pinterest board.

-I feel that something about world news, politics, or scientific advancements should go somewhere here. Umm, I'm going to outsource that to the vlogbrothers.

Hopefully, with these changes, my personal life will stop feeling like a Jane Austin novel, and I'll find ways to de-stress from the job. I think these are positive changes.

Nome supplies

Here is a barge very similar to the one that brought my truck up in the spring:

Mine had, among other things, a couple boats, a camper, and a giant pile of lumber on it. This one seems to be mostly containers.

Here is a tanker. It may be bringing us our winter gas. Right now, because of hunting season, gas is on sale from $6.10 down to $5.97. We were all thrilled, and filled up our cars.

My guess is this: Gas doesn't go on sale. It doesn't have to. There are two places in town to buy it, and it's the same price at both. I'm guessing that the tanker is here to fill up the storage tanks, and they realized there was too much gas in them from last winter, so they're trying to sell off the old stuff before they fill up the tanks with the new stuff. But that's just a guess.

This guy has been sitting out on the horizon for several days. It must be frustrating for the men on the boat to know that they're this close to restaurants, pretty girls, and beds that don't rock, and still not be able to come in.

New house, new friends, new couch.

I will not start this post with an apology for not writing in a year. This is mostly because I've checked my blog list, and most of the people I follow haven't either. So let's do a quick wrap-up of what has happened since January.

We got the house! The paperwork all went through, the interest rate was agreeable, and one of the nice parts is that it came mostly furnished. We've since bought new living room furniture, a new mattress for me, and a piano (the piano was free, getting it to my house was not).

An amazing man is renting my cabin. His name is Ian, and before he moved in, he was living in a house he built himself on West Beach with the other gold miners.

My cabin was not entirely suitable for human habitation, so we cut a deal where he would fix it up in exchange for a reduced rent. Here is what he did, (along with Scott, when he got here):

-Leveled
-Patched and painted
-Tore out the broken cabinets and installed new shelves
-Tore out the carpet (which Scott said smelled like a 70's porno) and put in new carpet/linoleum.
-Hooked up the stove/oven that Dad shipped up on the truck
-Moved furniture, including the fridge out of the shed, the couch out of the house, and the mattresses from the UPS truck.
-Got the water turned back on, and fixed all the pipes that had burst during the freeze.

During the remodel, they had no running water, so laundry, showers, and flushing all happened at my house. It was sort of like summer camp for them. We had the girl bathroom upstairs and the boy bathroom downstairs. The water is turned on now, and it's a nice little cabin, and the boys seem happy there. What they do not have, however, is internet. So they still have to stop in to check e-mail and go on Facebook.

For a while, we had a delineation, boys in the dining room, girls in the living room. Lately, we've gotten a bit more mixed, especially if we're watching Pitch Perfect, Star Trek, or Easy A in the living room. It's nice. It's cozy, it's family.

The job is still going well. I'm a lot more comfortable in it than I was. Our CAC educator and interviewer is getting super-pregnant, and will be taking her leave sometime in late September. I think we'll be able to carry on without her for a couple months. Not as well, of course, but carry on nonetheless.

Erin Forton had her baby, which means the cat will go back to her sometime this week or next, so that's exciting for me. Daphne has already admitted that she'll miss the cat, but it will be nice to walk into the back door and not smell the litter box. Additionally, Ian has been out of town for about a week, and will be out for another week, so we've got Bullseye the dog living at the house right now. He's more fun than the cat. He does tricks, enjoys being pet, and likes to snuggle for extended periods of time. He also likes going for rides in the car, which the cat does not. He and Daphne have to fight over the window seat in the car. Daphne doesn't like sitting in the middle, because there's not enough room for her feet. Bullseye doesn't like sitting in the middle, because he can't stick his head out the window.

Of course, driving around with the windows down will soon be a thing of the past. There was frost on the truck window when I woke up yesterday. Not cool, Alaska. Not cool. Theoretically, it's still supposed to be summer. I just kept reminding myself, over the summer, that I shouldn't complain about the heat, because I'd miss it when it left. We may get a couple of warm days later, but it's not looking good.

I am happy, content, and cheerful in my current situation, and that's a combination I've been looking forward to for a while.

Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess. This princess went on many adventures, and fought many dragons. She had many loyal and faithful friends who helped her on her adventures, and made them exciting and wonderful.

One day, she was invited on an adventure by a fellow princess, who turned out to be a dragon in disguise. The princess was very sad, and didn't feel safe. She spent a lot of that adventure counting down the days until she could return to the castle, and let other people keep her safe. While she was on that adventure, she found out that there was trouble at home. The king had fallen under a spell, and there was nothing the princess could do to fix it.

When the princess was able to, she ran home as quickly as she could, and helped care for the king and queen, who, in turn, loved her unconditionally. There were some small adventures while the princess was back at the castle, but they mostly ended with her back at the castle. While it was nice to be at the castle, and nice to have people around who loved her unconditionally, the princess knew that she couldn't continue to stay there forever. 

The princess bought a new steed, a beautiful blue steed with an extended cab and 4-wheel drive. The princess was very proud of her steed. She also studied under some very wise men, and was able to finish her education. 

The princess realized that the king didn't need her help anymore, so she headed off on another adventure, leaving her new steed behind, because he couldn't follow her through the mountains she had to traverse to get to her new destination. Instead, he was going to get on a barge and meet her the following spring.

I wrote that part yesterday, but I just can't get myself back into the mood to write the rest of the story that way. (No more Nyquil, probably) so I'll just give the current update:

My job is going really well. I adore the other three women in my office. I feel like I'm doing good in the world. Also, when I get lost, I just have to remind myself that I went to school for 4 years and did a semester of student teaching before I was able to teach students, so I shouldn't worry if there are things I don't understand after 3 months.

I am having a really good time in Nome. I've been to several events hosted by the Nome Arts Council, including an open mic night where I recited The Road Not Taken. I'm also taking piano lessons, and while I'm not a naturally gifted player, I'm doing okay. 

Also, I'm in the middle of buying a house. It's 3 bedroom, and has a rental cabin in the back. My offer has been officially accepted, and tomorrow the inspector and I go through it, to make sure it's okay. Then it's just down to the finance guys, and I get to move in on Valentines Day. So that's exciting.

New things to do, new things to learn

Okay the internet, here's the deal with the new job:

1) I've been there three weeks, and I don't even know if it's mine or not. Interviews are next week, and then recommendations are being made to the president, who will decide if I should keep my job, or if the other woman who applied for it should get it. Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal, but the corporation is a native-owned one, and as such, have native first hiring preferences built into their bylaws. My one hope is that she got bad references and forgets to show up for the interview.

2) The ladies in my office, Luella, Stacy, and Traci are amazing. They are funny, and kind. They are all super-good at their jobs, and are teaching me a lot. Stacy convinced me to fill out a foster-parenting application. I'm halfway through with it.

3) We are working on a project right now to remodel the interview room. Partially because it has poor microphones in it, and partially because it's boring and ugly. The paint is WAY too bright, there are no comfortable grown-up chairs, and the sound echos both into and out of the room. I've been working on improving the sound quality in the room (acoustic panels and thick rugs) and Luella is working on microphones and furniture. We're also working on a Rasmuson grant to help pay for it, as our office is entirely grant funded.

4) I don't get to talk about the kids I meet there. Not their ages, genders, or reasons for visiting. Nope. Nada.

5) I am currently working on a project where I make coloring books, and age appropriate books and toys in bags for the clients when they come. Today I bought $50 worth of beading supplies, and will spend a chunk of time next week making baggies of bracelet making kits.

In other news, I've started writing my novel for National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, which started today. I'm 850 words in, so that's going. Also, I start piano lessons tomorrow morning, and I'm taking a pottery class through the college starting Monday. I wasn't planning on all these things starting at the same time, but I think I'll be okay. One of the ways this job most surprises me is that when I clock out at the end of the day, I'm done. Like, done-done. There's no work to take home, in fact, I shouldn't take work home. And since I'm being paid by the hour, the company doesn't really want me to stay until all hours working overtime.

Life in Nome is a bit of an adjustment, but I think I'm doing fine.

Nome, Alaska

Recently, my mother posted on Facebook about how very few of her children were staying current with their blog posts. I reminded her that the URL for my blog is "Colleen in Alaska," and it was about my adventures teaching. Since I was both unemployed and not living in Alaska. I felt very justified in not updating this. Now I'm back in Alaska, and working with children again. So while the premise changes a little, the overall theme of the blog doesn't. Let's go back and recap the summer:

As my time in Akiachak came to a close, I looked for jobs on the road system, and also down in Washington. I didn't want to be more than one flight or a 4 hour drive from home. This limited me to areas with major airports, or Western Washington. 

I returned to Washington, moved back in with mom and dad, and started applying for jobs locally. I applied for jobs, and more jobs. I got an interview out at the ocean, and thought it went well, but... I also received rejection letters. Lots and lots of rejection letters. Some through e-mail, some were actually written on paper and mailed to me. They depressed me. A lot. I'm not sure how authors do it. I'd go through the mail, open a rejection, and go lay in my bed and cry for a while. It got bad. I got depressed. I kept filling out applications, but I figured nothing would happen. And I was right, nothing did.

Then a job opened up in my hometown, and I was stoked. This! This right here! This is the reason I hadn't gotten another job! I was destined to stay in Woolley, get a job, buy a house, get a dog, and live the rest of my life out as planned. Mom and I went to the open house that that particular school was hosting, only to find that they weren't actually hiring someone. They just had to post the job so they could hire the woman they already had picked out. And something in my broke. I couldn't even hold out until I was home to break down and sob. I felt like such a failure as a person. I couldn't get a job, I had few friends left in the area, and I didn't even have a dog.

I texted Matthew that night and asked if I could come to Utah for a week-long vacation. I'd been avoiding spending a lot of money, or taking too much time away from looking for work, after all, what if I went on a vacation and got a call for an interview!? 

So I gave up and went to Utah to visit family and friends. I had a fantastic time. I saw friends and family, I bought Kendall licorice, and we looked at horses. And, during that time, I was offered by four households to move in with them while I looked for work. And I know that my personal self esteem shouldn't be influenced by outside sources. I know that I shouldn't feel like a failure just because I was unemployed, and I shouldn't feel good about myself just because my friends loved me. Oh well, that's how it works.

One of the offers of residence was from one Miss Erin Margaret, in Nome. She owns and runs a coffee shop here, the Bering Tea. She needed a vacation, and wanted someone she trusted to oversee her employees and drink hot chocolate. I figured I was qualified for that. She also informed me that if I wanted, I could probably get a job or two while I was here. In fact, if you don't get a job in Nome, it's because you're not trying.

So I agreed to come up for a month. And once a couple people from a couple different HR departments found out I was coming, and with a strong recommendation from a different friend, I had people calling me. Then, this other friend, Traci, called me herself, and let me know that she had an opening for a child advocate at the Child Advocacy Center, which she ran. Since I already had an application in for Kawarek, the local non-profit, all I had to do was send my paperwork to her, and she offered me a job.

So now I'm in Nome, training to be a child advocate, and waiting for my boxes to show up. I'm renting a house with Erin, and looking into buying a 4-wheeler, which I can drive on the streets, all winter. This would be less expensive than shipping my truck up, and it gets better gas milage than a real car. I work half just about exactly half a mile from work, so while it's a nice walk home, the 8 am walk in is less than pleasant on some days. And soon we'll get snow.

More information to follow as I continue my training and become more integrated into life here in Nome. 

Life update

Happy August, everyone. So, what's an Alaskan teacher to do in the summertime in Washington? I'm thinking of my post from last summer that has every other line item as "look for work." This will be very similar:

-Look for work
-Procrastinate working on Masters Thesis
-Look for work
-Go to Portland to visit Amy Cellar!
-Swim laps
-Look for work
-Grandpa's 80th Birthday Party!
-Swim laps
-Look for work
-INTERVIEW!
-Single adult conference (Hi Steve!)
-Swim laps
-Get rejection phone call from interview
-ignore looking for work
-ignore classes
-be a bit depressed
-continue to swim laps
-support parents after dad's heart bypass
-get out of funk
-work on thesis
-swim laps
-apply for jobs
-get letter of rejection for a job I didn't apply for
-sleep study. Worst night ever.
-frantically work on thesis
-Swim laps
-turn in thesis, find that there are no jobs open right now, pool is closed for a week.

-now what?

Dad's Heart Attack

Everything is fine now.

On Sunday morning, Dad had a massive heart attack. The paramedics responded with amazing speed, and he was quickly rushed to Skagit Valley Hospital. He had two angioplasties, and a breathing tube, and was put into a medically induced coma until he was able to breathe on his own.

Last night, I was able to talk to him for the first time since he woke up. He's doing fine, and is in good spirits. He's messing with the nurses and making jokes.

My mom told me to stay in Alaska, and to not skip out on work to come home. I obeyed, and when I talked to my father, he said the same thing. I have 5 more weeks here in Akiachak, and then I get to go home and hang out with my dad.

Let the countdown begin.

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Today is the first day of parent-teacher conferences for the 3rd quarter of the year.

Let's keep track of the project as time goes on today:

2:20: School lets the kids out.

2:30: Parent Teacher conferences official start.

2:40: MY DOOR OPENS! Oh, it's just a kid, bringing back a broom. No parents yet. I wonder what's on Youtube?

2:43: PARENTS! The parents of one of my favorite kids (Oh, wait, are we not allowed to have favorites? Whoops.) came in and we talked about their son, and waving at strangers, because you never know who they'll be. We talked about how the husband waves at planes, in case they're looking, and how the wife is afraid of moose on the path. We talked about my new ice cleats, and the mittens Diana made me back in '04. All in all, it was a fantastic conversation.

3:00: More parents! Not quite as fun, but really, what do you expect?

3:10-3:50: Proofread a persuasive essay for the parent of two of my kids. Seriously. For 40 minutes. It was a good paper, it just needed proofreading, which is what we're working on in class too. Her husband seemed a bit grumpy about it, but I showed her how to track changes, and how to insert page breaks. She was impressed.

3:55: The mother of one of my students talks to me about her son's missing assignments. I discuss his ongoing stomach problems. Both issues are assigned to the suicide of his brother from November. We are both fine with this.

4:00: Watching Youtube videos.

4:15: Parents!

4:19: Youtube.

4:45: I've talked to two other teachers, and I've watched Youtube videos since my last check-in.

5:15:  I think we're done here.

And we have them again tomorrow.

Spring

Spring is coming. I think. No, no, it's coming. I'm pretty sure. And here is the proof:

I haven't seen those fuzzy nubs on the trees before, so that must mean it's spring, right? Either that, or it's warm enough to walk around with my hood off, so I can see them for the first time.

 While getting ready to take the previous picture, I stumbled across some rabbit tracks. There they are, hopping through the snow.

 The top crust is strong enough that I could lean on it to take the picture, but not to step on, or I'd fall through.

And these are my footsteps, forwards and backwards. There's a pretty thick crust, followed by a lot of fluff. 

 Standing on the school porch, this is a view of the cemetery. It's up there on the hill. You can just make out the white crosses on the ridge.

And for those of you (Matthew) who think that the amount of snow I'm working with her is the same as the amount of snow you have down there, this is the snowdrift that the maintenance men had to dig through to clear our path. In real life, the path is a wooden sidewalk, and the pile of snow is actually a hill sloping DOWNHILL towards those basketball hoops.

So yes, this is spring, kind of, sort of. The main noticeable difference is the amount of sunlight we are getting now. There are days when I walk to school in the semi-light, and walking home in the light. It is awesome!

Mornings

Last night I made sure to take my camera to bed with me, just to share my mornings with you guys:

7:00 Alarm rings, go back to sleep. 

7:20 wake up, realize that all my clothes are in the dryer or in a pile on the floor. Whoops.

At least here, we have a washer and dryer in our house, so I can throw stuff in the dryer before I go to bed, and pick it up dry the next morning. That's pretty awesome.

Then it's off to the bathroom. Wait, is that a floor that slopes so far to the left I'm afraid that I'm going to fall over when I stumble in there in the morning? Yes, yes it is. (Cute rug and shower curtain are Mandii's.)

Time to get dressed. What's that, wool socks and a pair of pants under a skirt? Yup, that's how I roll in the winter in Alaska.

 To the untrained eye, this shelving may seem overloaded with cereal and tomato sauce. It's not true. I've simply bought enough to get me through the rest of the year.

 Oh, look! All of my meals for the day. Breakfast in my snowman bowl, (Thanks Gramma!) crackers and cheese for lunch, and porkchops in the crockpot for dinner. And yes, that milk comes in a box, and has a shelf life of almost a year, before it's opened.

The view out of my front door  at 8am. Yup, snow and darkness, sounds about right.

Here is me trying to lock my front door. Of course, it only works if I can close the door all the way, otherwise the key won't turn, and then our house is left unlocked during the day.

And here I am, with my facemask on, and my parka (pronounced par-kee). The wolverine keeps me from getting snow in my eyes, and it's awesome.

Front stairs. When the new broom gets here, we'll be able to clear these off a little better. I like the grating, because it keeps the snow from building up too much.

Snow drift along the side of the house. Someone walked over it earlier, but I chose to go around instead.

On the way to school. I like to follow the snow-machine tracks, as it gives me an idea of how deep the snow is. Those lights way in the distance are the school. This picture is about halfway between my house and the school, which is so much closer than my first house.

School was not a normal day today, since we had an educational conference for parents instead of normal school. Tomorrow we fly to Akiak for inservices, and we're back to regular schedule on Wednesday.

Pictures

I was talking to my brother a couple of days ago, and he said my blog would be a lot more fun it I put more pictures on it. So I walked around with my brain turned on for three days, thinking of things that I could take pictures of for you, my dedicated reader.

And I've got nothing. Seriously, nothing.

Here's my day:

7:00 Alarm goes off. Hit snooze, don't remember.
7:09 Alarm goes off. Hit snooze, realize I did it.
7:18 Alarm goes off. Hit snooze, rationalize that I don't need "that much time" to get ready.
7:27 Alarm goes off. Freak out about how late it got. Vow to get up earlier tomorrow.

7:27-7:50  Dress, pour bowl of cereal and milk, cut two pieces of summer sausage off the block and quarter, slice cheese, count 8 crackers, read book while eating cereal, put lunch in coat pocket, put on boots.

7:50 Leave the house, locking the padlock, as apparently some kids have a copy of the key to the knob.

7:50-7:58 Walk to school in the dark. Thanks for the flashlight, Dad!

7:58 Arrive at school. Check Facebook and Pinterest. Maybe talk to the teacher across the hall. Sit at my desk with a glazed look on my face.

8:30 Kids show up.
8:31 Pledge of allegiance.

8:33-11:59 Teach morning classes. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd period are on the same reading program. It's a reading program, they're all the same; you don't want to hear about it. 4th hour is awesome. Good kids, good literature, just all around awesome. They even got to skype with Dad one day about his job, and what training he needed for it.

12:00-12:35 Lunch. Eat my crackers and cheese by myself. Have an orange. Watch Scrubs on Netflix. (Or Doctor Who, or Hulu shows.)

12:35-2:18 More classes. Same material as 4th hour, completely different kids. Maybe look out the tiny window once. Sigh because of the cold, dark, and snowy conditions.

2:21-3:11 Prep. Watch more Hulu/Netflix. Work on the Romeo and Juliet vocab and review questions for the next unit.

3:15-4:00 HSGQE (like the WASL) prep class. We're working on grammar, and mechanics. Ahh, good times.

4:00 Kids leave. Either get ready for study hall, or get back to work on Romeo and Juliet. Watch TV, play on Pinterest/Facebook.

7:30 Realize what time it is, and promise to go home earlier tomorrow.

7:45 Walk home in the dark. Thanks for the flashlight, Dad!

8:00 Eat dinner. Wash dishes. Watch a little TV.

10:00 Crawl in bed, read for a while, go to sleep.

Do it all again the next day (including the parts where I swear I'll do it sooner the next day, then don't).

There just really isn't a lot worth taking pictures of there. I have no children of my own, I have no dog. Half the time, when I get home, Mandii is already in bed, and most of the time, when I wake up, she's already gone.

I'm sorry my blog is boring, but right now, so is my life. The best thing that's happened to me this week is a mysterious Amazon package with Carcassonne in it. Maybe I'll try to set up a game night, and then I'll have something worth taking pictures of. In the meantime, he's a photo of Akiachak from 1999:

Because the kids asked how it works...

Today, a student asked about some of the pictures on my bulletin board. I have one of my siblings from 1998 up, and one of my living grandparents. The picture I had of my parents at my college graduation got lost during the move. I found the broken frame, but no picture.

To rectify this situation, I tried to go online and show them some pictures, but since Facebook is blocked during school hours, we ended up looking at some blogs, especially Matt and Heather's, as they have adorable children to look at.

Then my new class came in, and asked how I did blog posts. So now we're sitting here, and I'm typing this while they watch me on the Smart Board. Whooo.

Limited sunlight

Now that I've moved farther south, I have the joy of having more sunlight. Even now, in the darkest week of the year, I still have a fair amount of sunlight. Of course, it's a bit hard to see, since I have one 2x2 classroom window that looks into the kindergarden room unless you're hanging out of it.

Up north, in Shishmaref, they're down to about two hours of direct sunlight right now.

My friend, Lisa Ripper, stepped outside of her door every hour for 12 hours, and took a picture of the world around her. Please go look at her fantastic pictures here:

http://ontheroadwiththerippers.blogspot.com/2012/12/12-hours-in-shishmaref.html

It is amazing to see just how little light they have. Since I live up here, I don't notice the change from day to day.

Talking to Students

This morning, during class, I was giving a student some direct instruction on his persuasive essay. He'd been gone for a while, so we were trying to catch him up quickly.

In an attempt to get him done faster, I was being very specific about what he should write down. The following conversation was so funny to me at the time that I decided to share with all of you:

"Write down, 'Credit cards are bad for teens.' ”

“Credit cards are bad 14.”

"Why did you write 14?"

"You said fourteen."

"No. For teens." 

Ahh, and suddenly it all made sense. 

November Wrap-up

For the first time in seven weeks, I was able to stay up as late as I wanted on Friday, and sleep as late as I wanted on Saturday. So, of course, I was asleep by midnight, and awake before my alarm went off at 10.

Later in the day, I found out that our wrestling coach had committed suicide. Mandii and I made some food to take to the family, and I realized that nothing in my life is ever going to be as bad as what his mother is going through. Bad haircuts, storm-bound planes, and an inability to sleep in late on a weekend is never going to be as bad as having back surgery then losing your son in a three month period of time.

I am so thankful for my life, family, friends, and health. I'm grateful that I get to spend Thanksgiving with the Hatch Family, and that I have a job and the funds to do so. Life is pretty good for me.

Akiachak House

When I first moved to Akiachak, I was put in a two bedroom duplex by myself. It was empty of personal stuff, (it had beds and couches and things, but no art, tv, dishes, etc) and lonely. Also, every window looked out at either another teacher house or the district office.

After two weeks of that, I got lonely. Okay, to be honest, I was lonely the second day. I would have just sucked it up and dealt with the loneliness through a regime of Netflix and iPad games, until everything changed.

My first real friend, Mandii, was not getting along with her roommate. Also, both halves of the neighbors came to me about living with them instead of them living with their roommate. However, one has three dogs, (not housebroken) and one is a smoker. I turned them both down.  As time progressed, and their lives became more difficult, we got together and decided on a switch.

The lady with the dogs moved to my house, I moved in with Mandii, and her roommate moved in with the smoker, who has promised to not smoke inside.

Moving in with Mandii has been the best thing that has happened to me in this village. We have the same taste in movies and music. We have the same opinions about a lot of the people we both know. We have similar backgrounds and family values. Also, she's from Port Angeles, which means I can say things like: "The brass gorilla at Woodland Park" and she completely knows what I'm talking about!

The house we live in is still called: "The brown house behind the green duplex." It is currently being re-insulated, (additionally insulated? insulationally upgraded?) and has had silver insulation put over the entire outside. This has cut down on the heat loss and external noise, but one piece is not as secure as it should be, and it makes monster groaning noises outside Mandii's window. Hopefully when they put the plywood and paneling on, that will go away.

With no further ado, my house: "The silver house that used to be brown behind the silver duplex which used to be green."

Behind the house, off to the left are trees, and the old school, which is now boarded up. Off to the right are neighbors, and Mandii took this picture while she stood on the porch of the green building. Also, please not the box pipe on the right hand side of the picture. That is our water coming in! WHOO HOOO. Showers and dishes and all sorts of wonderful things. And I didn't even have to haul it in myself.

This house is also a short distance from the school, instead of the 3/4 miles the last house was. It now puts me at a greater distance from the store (which used to be on my walk home). However, when I went to the store today, I bought ice cream, butter, two potatoes, and a Cadburry egg. So it's not like being away from the store is that bad for me.

Plans Change

The initial plan was to finish out my 8 years in Shishmaref, and move back to Washington to continue my life. After four months in Washington, I started getting homesick for Alaska, and I was also discouraged with the lack of job opportunities in Washington.

On the 5th of September, two weeks after the school year started, I received a phone call from the principal of Akiachak School, in Akiachak, Alaska. The call came in at 2:15. She called back at 3 for the interview, and at 5 I received a call offering me the job.

Early on the morning of the 6th, I flew back to Alaska. It's been a bit of a whirlwind, and I'm still receiving some of my grocery orders from my first week.

Enough talk, onto the pictures!

Akiachak is a Yupiik Eskimo village in south-west Alaska. There's about 750 people here, and the school has about 180 kids. This makes it pretty much exactly the same size as Shishmaref. The biggest difference is that while Shishmaref was on an island, we here are on a river, and there is plenty of room to spread out, so we did.

 This is the school. The gym, offices, and Hall of Elders (cafeteria) are in the big round side, and you can see the high school on the left there. The elementary side is on the right, behind the dome.

That tiny window on the right is the one in my room that I can open. I also have a row of windows up high, which are covered in blue curtains. The other window that opens is the Social Studies room, and farther down is the mechanics room and the wood shop.

 This is the old high school, which is now used for storage, and is next to my current house.

I took this picture of the mud pit I walk through on my way home, not realizing that my new house is a tiny slice of brown on the left there, behind the trailer. See how spread out everyone is? That's nice.

 This is the washeteria, which I don't have to use, as I am on running water, and have a washer and dryer in my own house.

The river, from the road. It actually has flooded in the last couple days, and is much, MUCH higher right now.

 Cop truck. Not broken, but they needed the wheels for the SUV they also drive around.

Native store. It's pretty much like every native store.

 Yup, $6 for a box of HoHos and I think that's $8 for some cinnamon rolls. They've been there since I got here. I'm not trusting them.

Just a sign on the cash register.

Okay, I'll post more later.

Summer

This blog is supposed to be a bit like Star Trek: Our continuing mission to seek out new life, and explore new civilizations. But with more clothing on the women, and less people trying to kill the captain.

I am no longer in Alaska, so I have nothing really fun to write about. For example, I'll give you a rundown of my summer so far:

Look for work
Start another class towards my Masters
Swim laps
Look for work
Swim laps
Parade!
Look for work
Work on my class
Go to UTAH to visit babies!
Look for work
Swim laps
Work on my class
Look for work
Swim laps
Pick berries
Pick berries
Swim
Class
Berries
Look for work
Berries


And now the pool is closed for 10 days for cleaning, but there are still plenty of berries for dad and me to pick, and of course, I can continue to work on my online class and look for work.

I know, there's a reason I don't usually post in the summer.