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.