Experiencing Egegik

For Eric

noreply@blogger.com (Life's Lessons) — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:00:00 +0000

I love you honey. I'll be on my way today!

May's closure

noreply@blogger.com (Life's Lessons) — Thu, 17 May 2012 05:18:00 +0000

April and May have gone by so fast. We are rapidly approaching Friday, our last day of school. We'll have the last bits of clean-up, maybe a little movie during school and then the potluck at noon with awards and some presentations by the students.

The following are some pictures taken this month, sorry, there is so much packing to do, cleaning to accomplish and the odds and ends to tie up that I really don't have the time to be too wordy right now.

For PE, the kids really didn't want to play, they wanted to go for a walk. Well, they are still kids and ended up playing anyhow, that guard rail turned into a balance beam!

A village resident overheard me talking about wishing I had gotten the opportunity to head out to South Spit and find some of the glass floats that people have tubs of around here. Later that evening, he showed up at my door with 6 of them. I taught myself how to tie around one of them, this is the result, one continuous string, hanger included. I took it to him later as a thank you, I'll be coming home with the other 5, knowing how to tie this version of the net and looking forward to hitting up a craft store for some materials and maybe beads!

Fly in, fly out....well, we get barges too. I sure hope that's how this got here. I rode in the back of this while helping a resident earlier this month. Let's hope it's the only time I ever have to ride in one! Oh, we have a water truck too!

For the past week, I've made pancakes every morning for any student who wants them in the morning. I've had lots of takers and made a very large dent in the pancake mix. This was a special request, choc. chip pancakes. I've gotten very good at pancake making now, though, not so great at eating them.

Oh, we had chicks hatch at the school! They were so cute, I had never been able to experience it before. I have to say, the little golden ones hold a special place because I remember seeing them at Wilco when I was younger, however, the little black and grey one below is my favorite! He had so much personality and was the only one like that. I think it was because he looked like a Siberian Husky with that mask around his eyes!

Mt. Pulik was beautiful when I went on a little campfire with two wonderful people and Hikup, their energetic dog. (one of the puppies I helped out earlier in the year) A rare chance to get a great picture and the ability to see the mountains in the area.

That will have to be it for now, maybe a post tomorrow night during the school sleepover, my last night here in Alaska.

Go out like a lion?

noreply@blogger.com (Life's Lessons) — Sat, 12 May 2012 19:29:00 +0000

I thought it was come in like a lion, go out like a lamb? Not come in like a lion, go out like a lion.

It didn't really matter though. We enjoyed it when we were able to get out in it! There was a good lot of snow dumped on us in very short order. It doesn't stop school here, they still come, we still have class and it's still fun to watch it come down all day. It's just hard to image it like this all the time. But, here I am, living with the snow, all the time!

This storm was particularly fun because of the wind that would rustle up the snow that had fallen and create some pretty monster drifts. It would blow the falling snow onto my front porch/stairway and it even made it a bit hard to open the door because it was so deep at one point. You can see in the picture that I had not made it outside yet. I have this nice big window in my kitchen that looks right down the stairway. The snow was piling up on the handrail, stuck to the side of the windbreak and this was taken BEFORE it started sticking to the door. At this point there was about 5 inches on the landing before I went out and cleared it off.

Now, when you get this much snow, and then it packs down as it clears, there is a bit more ice around to sled on. The kids love this and we took one afternoon to go and play after school. You see that races down the hill by Icicle Foods are a popular sport. What you don't see is that the races don't always end with everyone making it down the hill. Some slide off to one side and into a bank, some fall off a sled while the others continue down towards the bottom. We all have fun and it breaks the cycle of school and home.

My good friend Debbie and I went out for a little walk across the lake one day while the snow was still around. While walking across the lake, we ran into some wolf tracks. I thought they were pretty cool. A little scary they were right in town but we knew they had been in town already. I was happy to get some pictures of the prints. We started up the hill after walking across the lake and found ourselves "post-holing" and decided to head back down the hill. I figured instead of doing that on the way back down, I was just going to roll instead. What you'll see here is me at the bottom, my roll marks in the snow.....encouraging Debbie to do the same. I giggled, then she giggled and rolled part of the way down. I'm sure she'll not forget that any time soon!

This was also the time where I got to go and pick up a piece of my art that I will be bringing home with me, a locally carved mask from whale vertebra. This is NOT my mask, but another one carved by the same artist. I just thought this was too cute not to photograph and I know that a friend of mine will like to see it!

What's the worst..

noreply@blogger.com (Life's Lessons) — Fri, 11 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000

thing that could happen?

We all deal with difficult things in our lives. We all deal with difficult times. This year has already been rough and I'm sure you've seen that if you've followed along. By now you've seen that I've caught up through the middle of March...yes, I'm a bit behind....and that's ok. I didn't want to let these next two things out of the bag so early on. Purposeful slacking?

There's not a job for me here next year. That's right, my time in Alaska is rapidly coming to a close. I've known it for awhile and many of you that know me a little more personally might already know that as well. My experience here is rapidly coming to a close. I knew this already at the end of Fur Rondy. Ok, I deal with that. You mean I "have" to go home for the summer like I was already planning to do to be with my family. The thing is, now I have to go to the job fair to search for a new job.

Plans change. In the blink of an eye.

March 15th. No amount of technology can cross the distance from Egegik, AK to Home like you need it to. I don't care what kind of degree Western Oregon has given me, how much I've learned on my own, how big a smart board can make someone's body via Skype, it doesn't matter. You can't hug a screen when your Mom gets on the screen and you INSTANTLY know something is wrong. She was JUST HERE. What could have possibly have gone so wrong in one week?

Cancer. Again.

WHAT?! That gut wrenching feeling, knowing you can't do a thing about it, knowing you can't hug her, knowing that you can't hear what the doctors say, knowing you will not get to hug her for for 3 more months and knowing that it's not the little Stage II this time, it's the terrible IV that you didn't want to hear the doctors say ever. What is it about being cancer free for 5.5 years? I thought she was in the clear? She hasn't done anything to deserve having to go through this again. Anger, rage and confusion all directed towards the doctors for not doing their job. There should be a test, full scan done before they take someone off their drugs at the end to "double check". The intense rage will get you nothing though besides some high blood pressure and a gut ache.

All I can do is sit here and be supportive. Comfort, console, check in, and try to deal with it in my own way. Right now, that's through writing. Supportive through port placements, chemo treatments, hearing about what's going to be done next, and supportive through another round of hair loss. (and some pretty informative texts) By the way, she's starting to respond to her chemo treatment and the doctors have said they are happy with her progress. That's a positive sign.

So until I leave on May 18th, you'll see posts about experiencing my last few months of Egegik and we'll see how the job search goes. I'd love to find my "forever school". I'd also love to hear from some of the readers of this blog if they'd love to see it continue through updates when I think about Egegik or hear from the students. OR Would you like to follow me to a new blog when it's time? Please comment below.

Spring Break pt. 5: Rondy

noreply@blogger.com (Life's Lessons) — Thu, 10 May 2012 15:44:00 +0000

Once we got into Anchorage, found our hotel and got settled into our "deluxe" accommodations, we were ready to hit the town. Right outside our hotel was a Rondy shuttle stop which is marked by the metal Fur Rondy signs you see Mom standing next to here. It was definitely nice to have that ability to just hop on a shuttle and get around that route if we wanted.

One of our first tasks was getting to the stores and getting the shopping done and out of the way with. My friend Matt from work had a rental car and so willingly picked us up and took us around. It was nice because I had never driven in Anchorage, only ridden when I first got here in August. That was quite the ride then. We were all over the place! Now, I knew that I might need to pay a little more attention as Mom and I had talked about renting a car for the rest of our time. Anyhow, we hit the stores and Mom learned about Bush Orders and how you just leave your stuff there for them to ship to you at Wal-Mart. It's wonderful. I brought a cooler and got the cold stuff from Costco. Don't tell the hotel, but it sat on their roof outside our window the whole time we were there! How convenient, Automatic fridge! Once we were done with the shopping, we decided to hit up Red Robin for some dinner. Big mistake! Entire dinner comped...that beautiful dessert you see is the only thing we paid for.

We partook in a lot of the Rondy activities that were available. You'll see we hit the Charlotte Jensen Native Arts Market where you can get so many different types of Native Art. When I saw the title of it, connections were made between the Jensen Arctic Museum at Western Oregon University and this. Same family? I'm guessing I might be right. We also hit up the snow sculptures which weren't in top form as they had been snowed on. Pictures there were a little rough because there was a grey sky instead of a blue one to take pictures, but I'm sure you'll see the forms. I was impressed by some of the fur products available. I had seen a wolf hat on a man at the resort and found this one in a shop and they let me try it on. A bit forward for me, but it was good for a picture. Mom, however, found the more "risqué" area of the shop.

We enjoyed sites and sounds of downtown Anchorage, some late at night while searching (unsuccessfully) for geocaches. Our hotel view was of the carnival and we were just far enough away that we didn't hear it. The Ulu Factory was just over the road. We thought it would be fun to go and see. HA, tourist trap. Good thing we don't fall for those things and good thing it was free! The Alaskan Experience Theater was somewhat informational. Some updating is needed for sure and we were robbed because the hydraulics that simulate the Great Alaskan Earthquake didn't work. We did have fun, I enjoyed every minute with Mom and I know that even though we didn't see the Northern Lights, we still got to experience some of Alaska together.

Horse and Buggy Ride to Orso's

Explaining the Blanket Toss to us.

Spring Break Pt. 4: Onto Anchorage!

noreply@blogger.com (Life's Lessons) — Thu, 10 May 2012 01:52:00 +0000

The ski resort was great but it's time to head into Anchorage for Fur Rondy. We get to drive out of the skiing world and the fresh snow, along the sound and all the beautiful sights and into the city to see the sights, do some shopping, and enjoy some of the "touristy" attractions.

Below, you'll see a little photo journey of our trip into town.

Leaving the resort.

Low clouds blocking some of the view of the majestic mountains all around us.

State Troopers, always on the job! I have to say, this picture was taken from a moving vehicle at 60 MPH!

I just loved how the snow stuck to every nook and cranny of those rocks.

It's a Race!

The Sound looking back towards the resort.

Our Limo Van from one drop off site to the hotel.

Spring Break Pt. 3: Beautiful Alyeska

noreply@blogger.com (Life's Lessons) — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:18:00 +0000

Beautiful Alyeska and their crazy skiers!

So I know it's been a long time coming, but here we got with the rest of the posts.

Mom took the gondolas up to the top of the mountain with another teacher friend of mine. They are used by riders who just want to hit the restaurant up at the top and the skiers and snowboarders who are crazy enough to ride their way down from the top of the mountain as well. It was pretty cold as you can tell by the massive icicles hanging from the snow still on top of the building at the top. The wind is pretty intense up there too. That third picture shows how the wind shapes the icicles at quite the angle!

I'm not sure that Mom was so convinced about the sun deck at the top, I'm sure it's great in the summer time though. The rest of the pictures are from the top of the mountain and the general areas of restaurant/lodge at the top of the mountain. That last picture is a beauty as the clouds began to dissipate and a clear shot of the surrounding mountains came into view.

While she was up on her ride, I was busy learning how to downhill ski. I took some private lessons, advanced very quickly and was very happy that I had gone 1:1 with an instructor rather than with a group. He was a very nice man and was pleased at how fast I progressed through the lessons. Being a bit of an adrenaline junkie and competitive person, I know that only boosted my desire to continue to learn as well. Honestly, I can't imagine a better place to learn how to ski! I might have spoiled myself though. I'm not sure the Oregon powder will be quite as nice. I will give it a try though!

You can't even see where the chair lift goes because the clouds are still there....ride the gondola, then take the chair up further! These guys are NUTS!

Sun Deck?

Spring Break Pt. 2: Unless you're the lead dog...

noreply@blogger.com (Life's Lessons) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0000

After the few days of a literacy conference and a late night trip out and back to Anchorage to pick up Mom from the airport, it was time to get the Spring Break activities underway! We sure weren't going to waste any time. There was a lot to do and we didn't want to miss any of it. First on the list, a dog sled ride!

Chugach Express is a wonderful place to go through if you are in Girdwood. Dario and his team not only provide a great experience, but his expertise and knowledge allow for good discussions about his life with his animals. He answers questions, takes you on a great ride and brings you down to his kennel to show and explain to you what it's like to be a musher. In addition to our ride and many others just like us, his big project right now is getting out into the schools to provide an opportunity to reach the youth and provide them with an experience to bond with animals, develop skills, and feel the sense of responsibility you get when someone depends on you. *of course, this sits very well with Mom and I!

When we arrived at the pick up spot, all you see is a field of snow. Tell-tale tracks in the snow show that there's probably been a sled through here at some point in time, you can't see them anywhere though. So much snow has fallen that it's easily knee deep and very soft. We waited a bit, looked around and wondered about how our ride would be. Listening to the silence was peaceful and pretty soon you heard some calls and whistles. Around the corner comes Dario with his team and the riders just before us. Dogs pulling tight, they come along the tracks they've made previously in the day to where our trail meets theirs. Of course this is our guy, he's got a sled made for riding, his riders have a camera, and he greets us right away.

The family before us tell us that we are going to have a great time, thank Dario and go about their way. We get a run down of how the sled works and decide that it's a much better idea for me to sit in front where the seat is very low. Mom will take the chair level seat. Well, wasn't she lucky? Not only does the scenery not change.....the smell doesn't either! Those dogs fart when they start running! I could not believe it! Let me tell you, you think a dog toot is bad with just dog food, try getting the food they feed sled dogs! The initial start was a big slow, not a big jerk like I was expecting. The large amounts of snow that had fallen the past week really made the trail slow. It didn't matter, the dogs loved it and I was having a blast too.

The ride around the meadow was amazing. We were told a few of the dog's names before we started. Ryan was one of them. We found that out real quick because he is a young dog and needs a lot of correcting. (Sounds oddly familiar for some reason.) As they pulled together as a team you could tell they were in it for the workout and they loved what they were doing. The whistles and the calls of "Gee" and "Ha" were familiar as I had used them several times before with Ciqu. I thought back to rollerblading with him and it was comforting, and then a little memory escaped out the side of my eye.

As we came up to the kennel, we slowed down, came to a stop and Dario had an anchor in the ground to keep the sled in place while the pups rested and we took a tour. Looking back at the meadow with the sled in the picture, the sky was beginning to clear and the beauty of the day was just amazing. Word got around that there were new people coming down and all the pups were interested, up looking around. Dario explained how things worked and how they trained in different locations for different parts of races. When explanations were done, word then got around the kennel that we were leaving for a run, and those that were not already on the sled were not going. Howling from those not going started, those already on the sled howled in return! Music to my ears.

We took our time getting back around the meadow, enjoying every minute of it I know that it might not be something I ever get to do again. I love that Mom was able to come to Alaska and experience this with me, that we got a chance to be pulled by a team of dogs through feet of snow in the middle of some of the most beautiful mountains I've ever seen and that it's an experience that really could only happen because of this year in Alaska. I've been so blessed because of this wonderful year, even with the heartaches of being gone, it's provided not only me, but now Mom with some wonderful opportunities too.

Sled ride in Girdwood, AK

Dorothy and Dario with the dogs

Mom and Dorothy with the sled and dogs

Spring Break Pt. 1

noreply@blogger.com (Life's Lessons) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0000

There is so much to tell about Spring Break this year. A delightful adventure away from the village into Anchorage and then away to Girdwood. Alyeska Ski Resort to be exact is where we stayed. The district had a ploy. Don't get me wrong, I lept at the chance. They fly me out and back to a stunning resort and mountain in exchange for a few days of my spring break doing a literacy conference. I'm game!

So, off I went. Ski resort, ok. Last time I was at one of these, it was as a chaperone at Bogus Basin. The kids remember fondly how stupid I looked trying to learn how to snowboard. I remember, not so fondly, how I felt after learning how to snowboard. Several falls, cartwheels, somersaults, flips, and broken bindings left me fit for hot cocoa and pain killers. This time, I was going to learn how to ski. We'll get to that in a later posting.

For now, here's some pictures of the resort and the surroundings. It snowed almost the entire time I was there. Our bear friend here got several inches in the course of this morning. He was right out the window as you start to look up the mountain. There was so much fog and snow that you can barely make out the base in the background.

This second picture was how we were greeted as we came up to the front of the hotel. A flaming globe at night. Warming the hands as you waited outside for a cab or your car is an option. The inside windbreak was another one too, but this one looks much cooler!

My room was on the 4th floor. Since it was on the 4th floor, there was a roof that was right at my level and they had snow piled along that walkway/roof area. It was a bit weird but so much snow that I could barely see out my window! The other problem with that, they had to come by and blow the snow in case of an emergency as well. This man thought it was pretty funny that I thought it was cool enough to take his picture while he was working. He was clearing about a foot of snow though!

This last picture is of the resort from the gondola. Mom took this one while I was out skiing and she rode to the top with a friend of mine. Oh yes, Mom....that's right, she came to visit me! That was the other perk of getting to be in Anchorage over spring break. A visit from family and a WONDERFUL time with Mom exploring not only Alyeska but Anchorage as well.

More to come!

A big event!

noreply@blogger.com (Life's Lessons) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0000

It's a big deal when the dentist comes around. In and out of school all week. The kids have appointments for cleanings and fillings (if they need them) and they are only here for a week, so we make it work. It's pretty fun and an exciting time for some. A little buzz in the school about clean teeth and the ominous threat of cavities for those who haven't been the best brushers. Fluoride applications and the like seem to to be the talk of the town, or my little part of it anyhow!

Just before Spring break, it happened. Not only was it Dentist week, but I had a student lose a tooth! It was pretty fun I must say. I'm a secondary teacher. Most times, if a student looses a tooth where I'm teaching, it was from a fight. That doesn't happen very often thank goodness, but it's exciting!

Wiggle, Wiggle, Wiggle. She worked for several minutes just trying to get that darn thing out. It was so cute, she was so determined to have it out by the time the dentist was at the school that day. My phone call to the dentist earlier that morning allowed her to bring a special tooth box for our little wiggler to keep her tooth in once it was out. Then talks of the tooth fairy, where she was to put it ensued and it was a great treat to have an elementary student for awhile. So many experiences have been mine this year teaching here, I will never forget them! It was even better coming home from Spring break and seeing both front teeth missing!

Basketball Tournament Trip

noreply@blogger.com (Life's Lessons) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Sports in Alaska are so very different from what I was used to in Oregon. Each contest requires a flight for the team, sleeping on floors and several nights away from home. All the students get together for a few days of community service, competition and creative outlets of many sorts. In the middle of February, we had our basketball tournament. Well, we tried to have a couple of competitions but it didn't really work out that way. The first one was cancelled due to weather. Because of that cancellation and a delay, I got to go as a chaperone to the district tournament in Kokhanok (Cock-a-knock). Not having been there before, I was pretty excited to go!

Another flight, over water, past some mountains and getting to see some beautiful ice was amazing. You'll see that as the water freezes it creates some beautiful patterns. Many of which I try to capture but I'm sure just don't do it justice! We also get to see some mountains as we fly that are just pretty amazing because we don't have them very close in Egegik. Out the plane window, past the wings, you'll see a little hill that looks like a someone decided to push a pencil up from under the ground.

Once in Kokhanok, we get our belongings settled into the classrooms and the gym for the nights ahead. I was smart this time and brought one of the foam pieces off my bed and folded it up underneath me! Best sleep I've gotten on a trip this year! We had the usual group meals, basketball games and I spent a lot of time at the scoreboard this time! Every game except for one, I was the scorekeeper. I must say, one of the games with the hometown crowd was pretty intense!

This trip included the token walk with Jerik from Chignik Lake. This time there was no Dorothy slipping and falling. Just a nice little walk to the store to check out what they had there. Talks about anything that came up and plans for the future while walking in the middle of Alaska. Things that I'll never forget and was happy to experience. Thanks Jerik for lending the ear all those times!

This time the kids got to learn how to make fish camp stoves. I had never seen one before and I quite enjoyed the experience. I was amazed at how good some of the kids were in making them. They of course said they had made them before and knew just what to do. (Go girls!) Snip, snip, snip of the tin snips and they were done in no time flat! I've included a picture of the final product in use, a great little piece of camping and survival gear that could be very useful in the future! Thank you to Kokhanok and their staff for being such great hosts and to Colter for the dance! Oh, and speaking of the dance...someone from Perryville has a blackmail picture of me dancing....I think it's the Macarena.

Kokhanok Runway, just before "The flight"

Sunrise and Snow

noreply@blogger.com (Life's Lessons) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000

The cold weather here surprises me often times with some wonderful shows. I get beautiful sunrises and amazing sunsets. The colors in the pictures often times don't come close to doing them justice but I continue to take them anyhow. Maybe sometime I will get into photoshop and get them closer but for now, you get to see what the camera saw. An early (well, not so early) morning peachy sky out a classroom window.

We are often times also surprised by the the amount of snow that blows around here as well. A few inches will fall and then the wind picks up, blowing it from someplace, to my front door. Drifts, piles of snow massed by the wind are amazing pieces of art made by Mother Nature. This particular one is right outside my front door and requires shoveling from time to time. 27.5" tall and about 4-5 feet long with a width of 3 feet. That's a lot of snow to move! This time I only went as wide as the shovel was because I just didn't want to move any more. Besides, I only needed to walk through it right?

The other beautiful part of this is my one little classroom window. When the wind blows just right, the snow piles up on the bottom creating that "picture perfect" snow pile at the bottom. I love it! Too bad there wasn't a little Christmas tree outside with lights just outside that window!

These pictures were taken quite awhile ago, they could have been taken today though. Right now I sit and watch the fresh 4" fall off a neighboring roof as it slides down the steep incline. Plop, Plop, Plop. I think it would be fun to stand underneath. Just once :)

He's ok!

noreply@blogger.com (Life's Lessons) — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 16:48:00 +0000

You know, it's been a rough year here for me. Home life hasn't been the most wonderful for us because so many "experiences" we didn't want to deal with have come up while I was away. When you are 2,000 miles away, it's not the easiest to just hop in a car and get there in a few hours, much less get on a plane immediately and be there in 8. For me, it's at least a full day and about $1500!

When making the decision to come up here alone, I looked at the state of everyone at home. Everyone included our "fur kids" too. I didn't expect to have my husband have to put one of our dogs down in November without me there. I knew that he was old, but honestly, I didn't expect him to get so bad before the school year was up.

When we took Ryan (pictured here) in for a teeth cleaning, we sure didn't expect him to come back with really high liver enzyme levels either. We knew he had a mass on his leg they were going to look at and some skin tags on his elbow to remove, but the super high enzyme levels, that cancer word tossed out as a possibility. (We know what that can mean) This here I'm sure caused lots of worry for my husband as, well he might not admit it, but this is his FAVORITE "fur kid." Again, when you are 2,000 miles away, an expensive plane ride, and at least 24 hours from being home, there's not a lot of comfort that can be given in a Skype hug.

Crying together doesn't help. Words can only go so far. I'm not sure we were prepared to deal with so many "big events" this year.

The good news though, is with the treatments, the teeth finally being cleaned and the tumor removal (which was not cancerous!), we can rest easy for awhile and enjoy Ryan and his faithful personality. Eric and I have rescued him twice. Once from Hopes Haven, where they had him so he would be away from the abusive situation he was in and now from some medical situations. He in turn has rescued us many times over. Each time he "talks back" and puts a smile on my husband's face, snuggles in close for a hug, or just protects by being close. We know he loves us for who we are and I know he's saved my husband from being so lonely while I am gone.

We love our Ry-Ry :)

Ice Fishing

noreply@blogger.com (Life's Lessons) — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 04:37:00 +0000

Smelt or smolt? Which one did you get? One you put back in, one you keep. I wish I could show you pictures but the truth of the matter is, we didn't catch a darn thing!

I could make up a beautiful story for you and talk about how they jumped out of the hole right into our bucket, but that would be a lie. I could also tell you that we dipped our little hooks in and they hit them right away, that also would be a lie.

What I can tell you is that I had another wonderful experience and learned how to do something I never thought I would get to do. Ice fishing is something that was done to survive. Now, many items can be bought from a store, shipped in and it's not a requirement to ice fish anymore just to survive. I enjoyed getting the opportunity to see how it is done and experiencing the thrill of stepping out onto the frozen river, standing around hoping something would hit and relishing in the warmth of the jacket as the wind whipped by.

Learning how important it is to scoop the hole so that the ice doesn't freeze over, watching the ice build up on the line as you wiggle it to entice the fish and standing there in the wind and realizing why people do build the little shacks on the ice when they are out there for days were all great experiences. BUT DANG, it was COLD! BRRRR!

You might ask, "why make a hole in the ice in the middle of the river and then stand right next to it?" Well to catch fish of course, silly. That and because they have been doing it for years and I don't need to ask questions as to why it works, it just does. Not enough of a hole to make the pressure crack the ice around it where you stand, but just enough to access the water below. The mind tries to play tricks on you, well maybe just me, but as I stand around the hole, I swear I slid closer to it, the ice melting under my feet and edging me closer each moment. I know it wasn't happening but the fear of a leg "post-holeing" into the freezing cold water was one that kept creeping into my mind.

To say the least, we had fun, got some good pictures and enjoyed the view of the mountains and the company we kept. The only part that wasn't so great, my fingers got a tad bit cold. Frost "nip" they call it when I took off the gloves to take some pictures of the mountains. It was VERY cold!

These Mtns. caused frost nipped fingers. BRRRRR

City Dock with the Mtns. in the background

Holding the fingers trying to keep them from hurting so much!

The Deep Hike

noreply@blogger.com (Life's Lessons) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 01:20:00 +0000

A long hard walk through the snow. A beautiful blue sky and some wondrous sights to see was the adventure for the day. You never really know what will happen on a hike through the village but the guarantee of some adventure is definitely there.

The snow had been falling quite often for quite some time and the clear beauty of the day was exciting. What do we do on an exciting day? Go for a walk, of course. When it snows a bunch and then you go walking, sometimes the snow gets rather deep in spots. Trudging across the road, it's not really that deep. The road has been plowed several times. Step off of the road and you hit deep snow. We hit the lake just by the school and it was immediately knee deep sometimes deeper. Along the way I found a few things that peaked my interest. I stumbled along snow sitting on interesting dead plants, students upon hills, and a fox on a hill that we crept up on and watched as it saw us and then decided to leave.

It looks great, a fantastic mountain....we'll let you think that. The boys showing the way.

I was thankful to be in the back of the pack. The rest of the trekkers could break the trail and I could just tramp it down a bit more. Through the snow we continued across the lake to the banks of the lake where the kids knew it was much deeper. They had a plan in mind, knowing how deep it had been in the past few days while they had been out walking around. Now, they wanted to see how deep it was and put me in the lead. Let's see if the teacher could actually get through it!

Imagine for a second if you will, two students who are 6'2" plus, pushing a 5'4" (almost) teacher in front of them to see just how high up the snow is. Well, in the beginning I was up to my waist in snow. Each time I took a step it was walking from the hip. Not just moving the leg and the knee but actually picking up my leg, swinging it up and over the snow at waist level, and then taking another step. A few steps in, I found myself chest deep in snow. Time to be in the back of the pack again, I was just not up to that task of blazing the trail. Don't get me wrong, it was fun, it's just hard to walk when you can't bend at the waist any longer.

We ended the day with some flips off a snow bank, gymnastics skills coming in handy. The walk was long and tiring but I did have fun once again and will continue to enjoy each experience I have in Egegik.

We got a good amount of snow, the tree was looking rather festive.

So much snow and wind

noreply@blogger.com (Life's Lessons) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

The snow just kept coming down, blowing around and just socking our town with lots of the white stuff. Just outside the school I'm here with the school truck in the background and you can see that my hood is covered in the flying snow, houses are still hard to see and I've got my face pretty much covered up to protect it from the chill. The wind is brutal when it is so cold and it gets hard to see when snow is blowing into your eyes. Instant watering can happen when the wind flies right into your eyes too. Then you have a problem, tears plus cold wind can equal ice right near the eyes. Long eyelashes sticking together isn't always that fun.

Anyhow, with all the winter weather, it was fun to walk around the school grounds and see what it was like to walk in the wind and snow but I was glad that I did just walk around the school and wasn't somewhere that I had to walk to find shelter. While the blizzard was in our area, planes didn't fly. That means that the mail doesn't come. When mail doesn't come that also means that food doesn't come either. I was still waiting for my milk to show up from Anchorage at this point. (It finally came but it was delayed because of this storm!)

Once the storm had passed, roads were plowed and the village started to breathe again. Mountains of snow started to appear near our little school parking area and the younger kids were excited about them. A snow slide formed on one side and we climbed up and down the other to take pictures time after time.

The older kids have the exciting job of shoveling the boardwalks here on school grounds so that everyone can travel safely from building to building. They had quite the workout! They had a good amount to get rid of and with each toss, I swear more just fell down onto the boards. They got it pretty clear though, enough so we could get around. You see a 4-wheeler here pretty buried in snow and then a picture of myself kneeling on the shoveled boardwalk. Most of that snow is gone now as we have warmed up over the last week. Now we have piles of snow where the drifts were and some bare areas.

The frozen window

noreply@blogger.com (Life's Lessons) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:36:00 +0000

When I got back from the Christmas break, it was very cold in Egegik, it had been for some time. In my spare bedroom, the windows had completely frosted/iced over the sills. As you can see in this first picture, the ice completely covered the black casings of the window. Now completely white, no opening of the window was possible. Not like I'd want to anyhow, but it was new for me. The bathroom window was the same way as was the giant window in the kitchen. Sometimes that one gets opened when cooking goes awry! What I didn't know is that when they start to freeze and stay that way for so long, cracks start to appear. In this first picture you can kind of see it but in this second one, you can see how long it is. It wasn't there one day, and BOOM, there the next. Amazing what a little cold weather and pressure from all sides can do. The window just couldn't "breathe" anymore because it was frozen all around. The crack in this window and the one in the front room from the beginning of the year are now all covered with bright pink duct tape thank you maintenance, so things look bright and cheery!

As school creeps along through January, the blizzard warning came in, we got dumped on with snow, blowing snow, high winds and some more snow! It was amazing to see how our little village changed in a matter of hours it seemed. Everyone says it's the most snow they have ever seen here. I'm glad it's the winter I am here. I love the fact that I am getting a big winter with a lot of snow to play in. Though when you are outside, it's cold and you have to bundle up well, it's worth it to go and play!

Here we have our Elementary students out with their teacher. They are out by the gym where a snow drift has started and it's one of the only places where you can almost get away from the wind. The wind is blowing the snow around so much that you can barely make out the houses in the background. They were starting to dig into the drift to make a cove of sorts.

Huddled into the little cove in the drift, the two girls caught a break from the wind before jumping through the snow in the playground just before lunch time. Snow like this doesn't come very often and they really seemed to enjoy themselves. Oh, I did too, let's not kid ourselves!

Changing Education- RSA Animate

noreply@blogger.com (Life's Lessons) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:18:00 +0000

If you have never seen this, it's something I look at from time to time to remind me of a few reasons that I am in education, to remind me that we are teaching people, that there may be reasons why the students are not excited at school and to try to find a better way to integrate the technology, real life situations and to connect with them every day.

Something I never thought I'd see.

noreply@blogger.com (Life's Lessons) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:30:00 +0000

It was a myth, something I'd only heard could happen. It was finally cold enough, we were just silly enough and we had all the right tools. A cup, hot water, a camera and the cold weather.

Yeah for Alaska and the cold. You'll never see that in Oregon! (I hope!)

Do you see what they see?

noreply@blogger.com (Life's Lessons) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

The eyes of a child can sometimes show us what we are missing. They can enlighten us to what we skim over, forget what we once saw, or sometimes......what isn't even there. For the rest of the year, I'm not only teaching high school, I'm teaching elementary school science and history as well. My high school kids are being taught writing by the other teacher here and during that time, I get the little ones. Through their eyes, I'm sure I will learn just as much about the world, the way they learn and about myself and my teaching style as they could ever learn from me.

That being said, a story for your enjoyment.

Evaporation. One way to separate a mixture.

Our mixture on Wednesday was water and epsom salt. They were amazed at how quickly the water and salt combined to form the mixture of a solid and a liquid. The salt seemed to dissapear. Where did it go? How do we get it apart again? Some of the other methods we had used wouldn't work and they were skeptical that this new way would. I told them we'd check on it tomorrow. So we did. Nothing really changed, still "all water".

Over the weekend, because we didn't have science on Friday, of course the water finally evaporated and left behind beautiful crystals of salt. I was excited for their reaction as they were about to see that the water had disappeared into the air and left behind the solid that we had added to the mixture before. Not to disappoint me, they came with great reactions. WOW! What is that?! Is that really what's left?! It looks like a snowflake!

Epsom Salt Crystals

We chatted about it, I let them touch it and then immediately wash their hands and then I pulled out the microscope. Oh goodness, you would have thought I was royalty! They loved every minute of it. After some time looking at the crystals and seeing it look like wood or a sideways river, they began to see pictures in it. I'm not quite sure where salt crystals turn into bears eating fish in a river but that's what they saw today. There were also animal heads, birds amongst other creatures. I tried, I really did. I even showed them how to move the little pointer to show me just where they were talking about. I just couldn't see it.

Maybe through the eyes of a child we see new and exciting things. Much like I see Egegik in a new way that the people who have lived here their whole lives don't anymore. Today though, it just wasn't happening for me. Maybe another day.

Star light, star bright

noreply@blogger.com (Life's Lessons) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

First star I see tonight.

Check the website. Auroras are supposed to be "highly active." Even down this far, we should be able to see them low on the horizon. Upon looking out my window, the sight of a star high up in the sky signals to me that the possibility of clear skies all over further into the night might mean I get my first glimpse of the Northern Lights.

A little restraint, I know I needed to wait for the night to progress. Maybe I didn't. The site did say for the little half hour forecast that it was "extremely active," why wait?! So, I got my gear on, packed the camera up, the tri-pod so I could get video for everyone to enjoy, a water bottle (so I could watch it freeze), and my gun. Layers upon layers of clothes so I could burn inside and just stay warm outside went on and off I went. A nice evening walk through town to get away from the lights in the wind-chilled -22° weather and I was at a decent viewing spot (I think).

Low clouds, low on the horizon there were still some clouds right where they said we'd be able to see the lights. What a bummer. I figured I'd wait awhile and see what happened. Maybe I'd get lucky. Now, I don't know if what I saw was me WANTING to see them so bad, but I swore I saw a dance of blue lights across the sky but I wanted to see them again before declaring that I had seen the Northern Lights. So for now, I will say that I am still without a sighting.

My night was not without excitement though. I was rewarded for my efforts with an awe-inspiring sight. As I stand, watching the sky for dancing lights, a burst of light flew from one side of the sky and burned it's away across the sky until fading out as it went through the atmosphere. A true shooting star that seemed to be there just for me made my evening. It's my first one even! Standing all alone in Alaska, in a tiny fishing village away from the world, all I could think about is how lucky I am to have this experience. All I wanted to do was to share it with Eric. A smile and elation about the moment washed over my face and the emotion of the event was a little overwhelming.

As I decided that the cold was then a little too much to handle, the flapping of an American and Alaskan flag waved goodbye as I scurried down the road to reach the warm comforts of home.

A shooting star in Alaska, how lucky am I?

Is it hot in here?

noreply@blogger.com (Life's Lessons) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 08:05:00 +0000

Or is it just me?

I think it is hot. I'm 100% positive of it in fact.

Step inside and experience it with me. I'll tell you what it is like inside a wonderful Egegik Steam Bathhouse.

Grab your set of clothes, a towel and some soap, step inside away from the cold and feel the warmth begin to prepare you for what is about to come.

Inside this first room, the clothes and towels get left on the bench, you leave all modesty behind and walk with the others who are bathing into the steam room. Your life as you know it is about to change. From the unknowing inexperienced "modern showerer", you are instantly taken back to how it's been done for years in the villages by the natives.

Our host for tonight has grown up only steaming for her baths, she loves it and misses it when she travels. She waits patiently and explains what she's doing, which water is hot and which is cold. She tells us that the upper level benches put you up where it is much warmer and to sit down lower if we need to, and that using our washcloth dipped in cold water placed over our face can help if we start to get too warm.

SIZZLE.....water on the hot rocks.....instant heat....instant sweat, and instant amazement. I can't believe how much steam, sweat, and the like is running down my body. It's hot, a moment of panic grips my lungs, and I have to calm myself so I don't freak out. I was ok, I know I'd be ok, but that moment of panic was intense. Again, I look down at my leg and streams of sweat and steam from inside are pouring down, I have it dripping into my eyes and down off my lips, I wonder to myself, I wonder how many calories I could burn this way?

Cold cloth. I dip the washcloth into the cool water, bring it to my face, and have instant relief. Why didn't I do this sooner? I didn't want to be a wimp, that's why. You know what, it didn't matter now. I'm a first timer, she told me it helps when it gets to hot an I'm going to use it. Whew! It was a god send!

Out into the side room. Our clothes sit and wait but we take a quick break. We need to give ourselves a quick rest from the steam and take in some air. 3-5 minutes and we head back inside. I head back to the top bench because I'm going to tough it out, I want the full experience. WHOOSH....water onto the hot rocks. It got so hot, so fast! After about a minute, I grabbed that washcloth and got the cold water and it was covering my chest. I moved down to the lower level and had to protect my skin. The steam was intense. My face got water, my body got water. It was hot, I almost couldn't stand it. I did though and it felt so good.

At one point I did have to step out for a couple of minutes because I was feeling light-headed. They warned me to do so if it got too hot and I felt that way. I figured since it was my first time and she warned me about the possibility of passing out if I got light-headed, it was the good thing to do. Upon returning it was time to sit on the floor, let the steam cool a little and then start the bathing process.

It was just like a regular bath really. It reminded me of when you were little. Wash the hair, wash the body and then use the pans to dump water all over you. It was great, just three ladies in there chatting about anything and everything, taking a steam bath and it was not even weird.

We got done, our host squeegees the floor, and we head out to the other room to dry off. As we sit there, steam rising into the cold air from our skin, conversation flows as it has for the past hour and a half with ease. Dressing and re-packing ensues.

We scurry out of the steam house into the house and wait for the truck to warm up. A gracious thank you to our host as she drops us off for the evening and a clean, tired, and warm writer blogs before she heads to bed.

What a wonderful Egegik Experince!

Children of the Midnight Sun

noreply@blogger.com (Life's Lessons) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Children of the Midnight Sun By: Brown/Corral

Take a look inside the lives of 8 young native children and listen to their voices as they talk about what it's like to live in the different places, experience the different parts of Alaskan life and see just how different it can be for them than it is for the children of the lower 48.

Beautiful pictures show the light in the eyes as they express the love for their culture, talk about the heartaches they are overcoming, and what they are doing to preserve their ways of life.

I read this book to the elementary students as part of our history unit as they were to re-tell the stories to me afterwards. To their surprise, and mine, the last story in the book included Egegik! Maybe that's why we have an autographed copy in the library!

I hope you have an opportunity to enjoy someday just as I have. I think the best part is knowing how to say some of the words, struggling through others and knowing that pre-August, I wouldn't have had a clue!

What else will I find in the AK section of our library?

Photo Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Life's Lessons) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 05:54:00 +0000

I am a terrible blogger. Well, at least I have been for awhile. Maybe my New Year's Resolution should start now. The ease of uploading a photo to Facebook from the iPad really has kept me away from here. I need to get it onto here now too.

So for today, it's a photo blog. The much anticipated icicle picture. Our school has some fantastic icicles growing from the roof on my side of the building. I have the elementary students for Science and we started measuring the longest one on Thursday. To our surprise it started out at 43"! Today, 45.5" I didn't think it really warmed up enough for some melting and re-freezing to occur, and I didn't see any precipitation falling....so, maybe there is just enough in the air for it to keep growing! I really don't get the sun on my side of the building either.

Anyhow, without further ado..

Measuring earlier in the day.

Showing them how much an inch really is before they predict how long it will be when we measure.

My classroom, snow trying to fall off the roof.

Many large icicles.

The longest one.

Don't stand underneath, they are called "killer-cicles" for a reason. Maybe dangerous-cicles...

Anyhow currently the longest one is 45.5" and still growing. I will keep you all updated!

Happy New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Life's Lessons) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:07:00 +0000

It's been awhile, I know.

I've made the trip home again, flying for more than a day to see my family and friends. We've enjoyed the psycho dog reunions, last minute Christmas shopping, a good amount of gift wrapping (my speciality), the tree decorating, the hot chocolates and Christmas morning. We've been to several houses, seen many friends, enjoyed the good company and even celebrated Mom's birthday last night.

We came home early last night because we know one of the dogs doesn't like the fireworks that always goes off in the neighborhood. Last night we ended up sharing our bed with a more than slightly frightened Siberian Husky. He took up more than his fair share I would say. But, he settled down and at least we all got some sleep.

The new year has begun. Some look forward to new beginnings, changing habits, breaking habits, saving money, a new baby, a new house, a new marriage, etc. It's amazing how people want to change, will change and how these changes affect everything around them. I hope for everyone that the changes that happen with/to/for you this year are for the good.

I'm not sure what to look forward to this year. Life has changed so much for me and for those around me. I look forward now to flying back to Egegik to start school up again, a test in the middle of January, then to the end of February when I will be in Anchorage again experiencing something new there. Then towards the end of school we'll have many cool events and then I'll look forward to the middle of May and coming home for a few months.

What do you look forward to this year?