Life on the Last Frontier: 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...