The salmon capital of the world!

So lucky for all of you, I have the evening free and the day off tomorrow so I'm able to do another blog post in a short amount of time! Don't get too used to this though - I have a feeling that my posts will not ever be this frequent because I can already tell I'm going to be one busy person!

But I had an exciting day! Today's inservice was focusing on living and teaching in bush Alaska and the natives that are in the villages. Which, in this case, they are Yupik. So we started out the day with breakfast like normal and then four of the natives that work for the district in four different villages spent the morning telling us about themselves, their families and their culture and background. I heard so many great stories and they are wonderful people. The three ladies are older and have been in the villages for many, many years. In most of their cases, their fathers/grandfathers/relatives were the ones that founded the village. The village that I will be going to was actually "founded" by one of the ladies father who was a reindeer herder. After a flu epidemic wiped out a lot of the villages in Alaska, they had to find new places to go. She said this was about the 1930s! 

Before we heard the stories, we were greeted by them coming in doing a traditional Yupik dance and song. They sing in Yupik language and have specific moves that tell a story throughout the dance. They have props that are used for many dances but in this case they used decorative dance fans! 

The long part is caribou fur and the inside of the fan with the red beads is seal fur! They're so neat looking!

After we learned more about the culture and listened to them talk in Yupik (which apparently I will have numerous students speaking) we took a fun field trip!

Our field trip was down to the beach of the Nushagak Bay. By the way, I have to clarify that the body of water in my last post that I said I wasn't sure what it was, someone told me it was a lake. I asked Bill (one of the guys that works at the district office's son) from Dillingham that we rode with what it was and he said it was Nushagak River - just to clear that up! Anyways, we drove about 7 minutes down to the beach at low tide to check one of the District office guy's nets to see if we had any salmon. Turns out, there were 15!

This one was a silver salmon and Bill said it was pretty standard size for that. The bigger ones are called King salmon and then we had a red salmon in the net and we also had a humpy! In the second picture, I was instructed to hold the fish like that because I was told that it made it look bigger and all the intense fishers do that. I'm not sure that I did it right?

 Before we headed out into the rain. Rain gear is a must! I will also tell you for those of you that don't know, this is Megan! Her and I actually went to Kutztown together believe it or not and now we're in the same school district in Alaska.... who would have thought? I think we've said that numerous times this week so far. We definitely didn't see this coming when we were sitting in class together freshman year of college! It's really nice to have someone at this inservice that I know. :)

On the beach looking down! 

This would be my new principal and the kindergarten teacher from Manokotak! 

After we got the fish out of the net - which we did not physically do because it's not allowed by Fish and Game since we don't live here technically - we spent a little bit more time out on the beach and then we decided to head back because it was raining and kind of chilly. After we got back to the DO (district office) we headed down to the shop where we got to do some really fun things.....

I've got step by step pictures too, thanks to Megan. :) Here you go.... 

 First you clean off the sand and the dirt using the knife. Which this is a knife that is very popular in AK. I had the opportunity to buy one numerous times when I was here before but never did. But now that I've gotten the chance to actually use one - I think I may just make a purchase. It's called a Ulu and it's a cresent moon shape! 

Next, it's time for the head to go! With this knife, you have to use a rocking motion with your wrist. It really doesn't work well if you try to saw through it or cut like a regular knife.

This was one of the ladies, Fanny who lives in Togiak and has her entire life. She has many, many interesting stories! She's very sweet and was helping me to use the Ulu and she was showing me exactly where to make the cut. 

Got it!

Gotta get the guts out now. Some people eat parts of them but this time we threw the guts out. We only saved the eggs from the females and the heads because those can be fermented and then eaten and from what the locals told me, it's a delicacy! 

Then you start to filet the other side and as you go along, you break the back bones and you should actually hear them crunch to know you did it right. You really do hear it!

And there's my first salmon filet! I successfully did the whole thing for the first time and I enjoyed it so much! Maybe that's odd, but knowing me, it's no surprise. :) I can't wait to do it again! I'm also happy that I now know how to do it for future reference. 

This is Steve holding the humpy and Ester getting ready to show us how to cut the fish. Nikki, Steve's daughter is standing next to him and she is absolutely amazing at it! This type of salmon gets a hump on their back after they spawned and it eventually grows bigger. This hump isn't too big! 

After that we had hot dogs on the grill along with a ton of sides and dessert. Then it was back to the training and more stories. We learned a lot of Yupik words and phrases and when I say learned, I mean I attempted to say them numerous times but it is hard and it's going to take me some time to get those words down. I think I'm going to need my kids to teach me! I'm thinking I'll work that into my schedule? We ended the day with dinner. You can guess what we had I'm sure. Fresh salmon from the grill, salad, bread and all sorts of other delicious food. Along with homemade cobblers and ice cream for dessert. We're really getting spoiled with the food here! And I have to say, that was the best salmon I've ever had, but I expect nothing less being that it was just caught hours before in the salmon capital of the world. ;) 

We did some more walking around tonight because the sun finally came out and the rain stopped for a bit. Megan and I actually ended up sitting outside on the steps using the wireless for a bit because that way I could get my home cell phone to work! Plus it was nice to just soak in some vitamin D because you never know when it'll be back! Now I'm happy in my sweatpants and sweatshirt and just relaxing. I'm still exhausted and am looking forward to our day off tomorrow. Which that means, NO alarm! However, staying in a room with this many other people, I'm sure will mean that I don't sleep in too long. We will see! 

I'm happy to be back but am looking forward to getting to Manokotak to actually get in a routine and get started in my own classroom!

One of the girls that will be my neighbor there is coming to town tomorrow and is going to bring my GCI cell phone with her. It's currently in my apartment waiting for me because they wouldn't ship to PA so I'm hoping to have that working tomorrow night or Monday. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

I hope everyone at home is having a good weekend and not having too much fun without me. ;) Miss you all!