Alaskan Fall

The past few months have been filled with wonderful new things!  So many things, in fact, that I haven't had a spare moment to update the blog in a long time- my sincerest apologies.

So fall in Alaska goes something like this: September starts out around 45 degrees and mostly cloudy but sometimes some sunshine happens.  Then one day it's 30 degrees and snowing, and that's that.  There's no trees to pick apples from, and the ground never thaws to plant pumpkins in.  So all of your Facebook apple picking, pumpkin patch, fall leaves pictures are quite a tease from this far north.

School has started and has been quite an adventure in itself.  My 15 adorable 2nd graders are a bunch of the most active small-ish Eskimos I've ever encountered; they sure keep me on my toes!  We'll soon be starting our Halloween festivities in school, and hopefully I will remember to take some pictures to share the 2nd grade cuteness with you.  Our Mixed Six volleyball season got off to a great start a few weeks ago (23 kids at the first few practices!), and our first tournament was 2 weekends ago in St. Michael's.  I had an absolute blast travelling with my group of 8 high schoolers and coaching them through their first games.  Again, I apologize for no pictures.

Outside of school-related things, I've had quite a few opportunities to get out and explore!  My roommate and I have ventured out of the village multiple times now, in an attempt to get to the top of one of the mountains outside the village.  Each of our trips has been a solid reassurance of my great skills as a 4-wheeler driver.  One adventure involved a high school student kindly pulling my vehicle out of a mud pit, another trip had both my roommate and myself almost knee deep in freezing water digging my back tires out of quick-sand, and another involved a lot of splattered mud all over a friend.  But, we finally made it to the top this past weekend!  The views were great!

I also had the chance to tag along on a musk ox hunt.  Sounds exciting, right?  Let me tell you a few things about musk ox.  They are huge, wild, smelly, extremely furry cows.  That's all.  And not the brightest sort of cows.  We drove our 4-wheelers pretty close to the herd, and then walked right up to them.  When hunting musk ox, don't worry if you're not a great shot.  If you miss, they run about 5 yards away, stop, and continue eating grass.  Giving you the perfect chance to try again.  And again.  And again.  And again.  Until you finally have shot one.  And then you get to smell like a musk ox for the rest of your life (I've washed my entire outfit from that day about 7500 times...).

Oh, and how could I almost forget!?  I am now a proud owner of a .45 ACP handgun.  (I'm just laughing at myself as I talk about this like I know anything about guns).  It was an I-live-in-Alaska-so-why-not? decision. 

A couple of weekends ago, I travelled to Unalakleet for a first-year bush teacher "Culture Camp."  I had a blast with friends from other villages learning about Inupiaq Eskimo culture.  We spent the weekend without electricity (except during daylight hours), using outhouses, sharing crazy life stories by flashlights in cabins, and sleeping in sleeping bags.  Oh, I guess we also learned a few things about Eskimos too.  Beading, Eskimo dancing, musk ox hide tanning, kiviut (musk ox hair) processing, kuspuk (traditional Eskimo shirt) sewing, berry picking, canoeing, salmon filleting, and general outdoorsy Alaskan adventuring.  The highlight though, was falling into an icy river with two other friends.  Although growing up knowing how to canoe, I had forgotten the importance of the person in the middle of the canoe to be sitting on the bottom of the boat, not the bar across the top.  Needless to say, upon hitting the water after just a few minutes into our trip, we all panicked and acted like crazy people.  We all ended up being totally fine, soaked, and hysterically laughing at ourselves.  A swim in a freezing Alaskan river is quite an exhilarating experience! 

 A few weeks ago, I turned 22.  Sure, go ahead and sing that annoying Taylor Swift song, I'll give you a few minutes.... yes, I'm feeling 22.  Okay.  Anyways, I think this birthday tops most of the previous ones.  The entire school sang to me during morning assembly, and all my wonderful high schoolers made me beautiful cards signed with lots of hearts that were delivered periodically throughout the day.  AND.  The best part...
my roommate totally surprised me with a homemade cake and take out Chinese, flown in from Nome!  Ordering out is an option here, but the process is a little more complicated than when I lived in NYC.  Make sure you order before around 2pm so there's time to make your order before the afternoon flight out.  After making your order at the restaurant, it's driven to the airport, put on a plane, and flown out to your village.  At 4pm the flight gets to Brevig and you can go out to the air strip to pick up your meal!

This little place I've landed in is a pretty special place.  I think I'll stay awhile.