Christmas - Alaska Style

The 1st week of school is over...I can't believe it! Two elders in the village died last week so that caused us to get out of school early. Almost everyone in the village attends the funerals. Some of the teachers that knew the people who passed away went to the funeral, too. Most of the time the "viewing" is held in a house. The family who lost their loved one has a casket in their home on the floor and people in the village just come by to pay their respects. Just a little different from Pennsylvania!

One Yu'pik tradition is that when there is a body in the village there should be no bouncing balls of any sort. So, I didn't know about this and let my kids use basketballs one day during recess. Whoops! It's said that the bouncing balls disturb the spirit/body and it's too loud of a noise. I also heard that the bouncing balls can represent a head. Creepy!

Some classroom mascots. :)

Last week we took a boat ride to some secret places to find moose! Unfortunately, we didn't see any animals, but it was neat to see a different area around us. However, we did find some berries on our adventure! They were low bush cranberries and pretty delicious!

We got some more fish from a native. Nik was contemplating eating the eyeball...but he didn't. Good thing because apparently you can get sick if you don't cook it first. 

Cutting up fresh salmon!

Guess what?! We got ALL of our boxes!!!!!!! Getting a package in Alaska is like Christmas. We were all so happy on Friday afternoon when we got our boxes. They took up almost the entire back room of the small post office! I was so excited to open them and see my stuff. A few things broke in one tote, like a cup and a pencil organizer, but nothing major. Since we don't have a house yet I just have them in an extra classroom hanging out for the moment. Hopefully we will be moved into our house soon!

So beautiful! 

A picture of my room still in progress. I'm so close to having it done! It's hard to take my time and organize everything. I've thrown away so much already! I usually work in my classroom until around 10 p.m. There's not too much else to do here besides go for walks or go to the store. So I choose to spend my time in my classroom, for now. 

On Sunday we made homemade pierogies! They were so delicious. It was nice to take a break from working and do something fun. 

Master Chef, Nik. 

We did the ice bucket challenge on Friday...in the river!! It was SO cold!! It hurt my legs as we got deeper into the water, but it wasn't too bad when we actually fell in the water. We all definitely needed showers after that. 

Starting Monday the kids have off of school all week...moose hunting season begins! All the teachers travel into Bethel for training. They have Chinese food and Subway there, so it will be a treat! Although, a chicken finger and fry basket is about $17.

School has begun!

Waqaa (Hello in Yupik!)

School has started! It was a crazy start to the school year, but the kids seem happy to be back. I ended up having 20 first and second graders! They are a very energetic group and I will have to work extremely hard this year, however, I think I'm ready for the challenge. Since the sun doesn't go down until around 11pm the kids stay up super late! This makes them extra tired at school and they have trouble sitting up when we are in a large group on the floor. I'm gonna have to get extra creative with ways to keep them awake this year. I do have an aide for two parts of the day which is very helpful.

Here are some more pictures from around the village...

So many stray dogs!

A native came into school last week selling homemade crafts and such. I bought this nice hat for $40. My first real Alaskan purchase!

Yesterday we went for a boat ride to Bethel. It's about 13 miles by boat. Randy, a teacher who has been here for 11 years, owns a boat and took us out. The ride was a little rough but we made it! It took about 30 minutes. Once we got to Bethel we went to the grocery store to pick up a few necessities like bread and milk. I also bought a new card game, Skip Bo, to play. 

When we arrived back home to Napakiak we were putting the boat away and a native came by to ask if we wanted a fish. They just caught the salmon a few hours before and we decided to have it for dinner that night! (Although I ate steak..I never thought I would be eating steak in bush Alaska!) Everyone else enjoyed the salmon. The next night we took the leftover salmon and made salmon patties. I decided on just a baked potato and leftover pasta, but I had a bite of the salmon patty! It wasn't too bad. 

Nik, the high school teacher, and Randy went down to the river to gut the fish. It only took about 5 minutes to clean and gut it entirely. 

Fish head! 

The salmon was a female. Look at all the eggs!! We ended up just throwing the eggs back in the river after we were done examining them.

After we gutted the fish we decided to go for a walk to find more berries! We actually explored a part of the village we had never seen before. This is the real tundra. There was nothing around us at all! Unfortunately, we didn't find any berries. Apparently berries grow well if the winter before has a lot of snow. When the snow melts, it waters the berry bushes and helps them grow. Last winter Alaska had a crazy winter and they didn't get much snow...which means it's not a great season for berries this year. Maybe next year!

Napakiak sunset. 

The river is the most beautiful, relaxing place. Nik, Curtis, and I visited the river last week and took a picture. We go down there about every other day. It's only around 200 steps from the school. 

I will post pictures of my classroom when it's finally done! It's still a work in progress at the moment..I still have so much more to do!

The new teachers have been sleeping at the school/at the principal's house because our houses still aren't ready! We're all hoping that they are done sometime this week. When we move in and get settled I'll be able to post those pictures, too. Oh, how life in the bush is so different. 

A Tour of Napakiak, Alaska

Hi, everyone! 

I thought I would do a short post of my pictures from around the village. I'm living in Napakiak, Alaska. The state of Alaska is so large! Napakiak is in the Southwestern part of the state. 

If you Google Earth Napakiak you will be able to see my entire village. It's only about 1.5 miles long and approximately 350 people live here. There is only one school which houses grades K-12. There are about 90 students in all and I will be teaching 1/2 grade with 18 students! The natives are very friendly and happy here. I've taken multiple walks around the village and every time I pass a four-wheeler the people are waving and smiling. 

SO BIG!

Here's where I am on a map of the state...it's about 4,000 miles from Palmerton!

In Alaska the flower fireweed is very popular! The purple flowers start blooming at the bottom and throughout the summer they make their way to the top.  It is believed that when they reach the top the summer is over. In Napakiak the fireweed is very close to the top! It's been in the 60s and 70s here, that's good summer weather for Alaska! However, it will be getting colder by probably the middle of September. My roommate is going to try to make a jelly out of fireweed that we collected from around the village. I'm excited to try it! I sampled a fireweed ice cream in Anchorage which was like a fruity type of ice cream. 

This is one of the stores in the village, Jungs Trading Post. They sell a variety of items at the store and I've heard that my village actually has one of the best stores in the school district. The prices are still pretty high, but you can get some items for good prices. I believe a candy bar is about $2.00. 

They sell Hershey bars!

This is the other store in the village - "Naparyalruar Store"

We went berry picking a few days ago. This is a salmonberry. They taste just like fruit punch! Unfortunately, we only found about 10 of these berries, not enough to make jelly. :(

One of my boxes from WalMart made it here in under a week!

This is a dogs that roams the village. It belongs to one family in the village, but dogs usually stay outside here. It's so cute!

This was a tie-dye banner in the bingo hall. We attended a pot luck dinner here on Saturday. I tried moose soup! Not bad. 

Here's the bingo hall!

This is the gas station. It's about $8.00 per gallon. There aren't very many cars. Most people drive around four wheelers or "Hondas".

A welcome sign into the village at the airport. 

Tundra. It's very flat in my village, which means it can be windy! Also, when it's a bit windy it keeps the bugs away! When I was out for a walk on Sunday there wasn't any wind and the gnats were horrible! They call them noseeums (no-see-ums) in Alaska and they bite! 

People also leave their vehicles anywhere and everywhere here. There are so many in my village just on the side of the road. Many of them have broken windshields and flat tires. A part of the problem is that there's really no place to dispose of these large vehicles. 

I'll leave with a picture of fish head soup. We had the opportunity to try this during our district training in Bethel. I wasn't brave enough. Maybe next time...

P.S. The teachers might be going to Hawaii in March!!

My first few days in Alaska!

Hello from the 49th state! 

I love Alaska already and I definitely see why people move here and never leave. I'm finally in Napakiak and excited to start setting up my apartment/house and classroom! I'm so ready to get started with my "village life" and meet some of my students.

So last Friday I left the great state of Pennsylvania to fly to Anchorage! I got to Anchorage around 9 pm and it was still light out. All my luggage made it to Anchorage and only my water filter broke in my suitcase so I'll just have to purchase a new one. After we checked into our hotel we got to check out downtown anchorage and ate at a really cool brewhouse right downtown. It was called Glacier Brewhouse and they have the only wood fired rotisserie in Alaska. We got there around 10pm and the restaurant was still packed! I only got pizza, (my first meal in Alaska) but it was very good! They also give horse drawn carriage rides right downtown! I'm definitely going to do that when I go back next time.

My first night here the sun didn't go down until around 11:30. My hotel was right by a McDonalds and a Wendys! I was still on east coast time so I woke up super early the second day in Anchorage. We went to the mall on Saturday. First, the mall looks like it has about 5 stores from the outside, but when you go inside, wow! They have 5 floors of any store you could imagine. The entire top floor was a food court with tons of different food options like Hawaiian, Thai, Chinese, American, and Italian. I got a cool book at one of the stores called The Giant Cabbage: An Alaska Folktale. It's about a cute moose who grows a huge cabbage and needs to find a way to get it to the local fair. On Saturday night we went to a really cool wine bar called Whale's Tail. They have self serve wine cabinets for different prices. The wine was delicious, especially since I will be living in a dry town and won't have access to alcohol until November or December!

Sunday was my last full day in Anchorage and that was dedicated to food shopping. Things go a little differently here in Alaska, especially if you are sending groceries out to the bush. I went around Sam's Club and Walmart to collect supplies for roughly the next 3 months. I got a lot of macaroni and cheese! My carts at both places were so full, but I'll be good for awhile. I had to pay a little extra to get all of my supplies out to my village and hopefully it will be there in 1 or 2 weeks. Surprisingly, prices in Anchorage really weren't that different from the lower 48. Gas was $3.95 and a gallon of milk was around $4.00.

My full shopping order!!

                                 *This is the view when you walk outside of Walmart's doors.

                  *The Alaska Railroad building. We happened to be getting ice cream right near this building and a train came back from a day trip. I got to talk to a couple that was on the train and they said they were in Wittier, Alaska all day and that it snowed on them!! I would love to take a train ride in Anchorage sometime.

Monday morning I woke up and got to fly to Bethel. I was sad to be leaving beautiful Anchorage, but excited to start training and meet other new teachers. The plane ride was only about 1 hour and it was pretty small, only 75 people! When we arrived in Bethel the school district bused us to our dorms, Yutt, where we stay while we're in Bethel for district training. I did the normal filling out paperwork and got a new computer! They got pizza for everyone at dinner. It was nice to have fresh pizza for almost the last time in awhile! (A Digiorno pizza in my village is about $12.)

Tuesday we had actual training where we met the superintendent and learned actual Yupik dances! It was really neat to see the natives do something they enjoy. We also got to see some fish cutting. They cut the heads off right away and got to work! They showed us three different ways to cut the fish and they were all so good at it. They used a special knife called an Ulu, which is popular here in Alaska. They also had a BBQ dinner with pulled pork! After dinner we went to Swanson's store to collect frozen and refrigerated goods. Wow, prices are so much more expensive here! I got things to hold me over until I come to Bethel again in September. Good thing I have plenty of freezer space. :)

Here are some pictures from Bethel..

I arrived in Napakiak on Wednesday, finally! It seemed like it took forever to get here. I flew with two other teachers on a 6 seater airplane! They were nice and let me sit in the front. It was so awesome! The ride was only about 10 minutes and we got to see the open tundra. It was only a little bumpy, too. Right now I'm staying at the school until my house is ready. I'm also hoping my totes make it here soon! I sent 7 totes and 3 boxes of stuff so they should be arriving soon, hopefully before school starts. The children are really happy that the new teachers are finally here. When we arrived they helped us carry our things off the truck and were actually fighting over who was going to carry our luggage. They were asking us all what grade we were going to teach and one girl even gave me a hug. :) Here are some pictures...

My plane!!

Some earrings the Natives made for sale at the local store.

The river is right by my school and relaxing to listen to. :)

Part of my classroom! I have a lot of work to do!