When I first sat down to type up this blog entry (a few days ago), I was on a roll and had a good amount of extra time so I had a very long post written up about the Yupik language and what we're doing with it in school, the list of months and their meanings, the days of the week and then numerous other words that I've learned over the past couple months.... but, that didn't save unfortunately so today when I went back to finish it, here I am starting over and because of lack of time, I'm not going to have that post this time. I promise you (mostly my Gram and Grampa) that I will post all that Yupik stuff, soon!
Although that post did get lost, I wanted to at least post that I was still alive and well since I've been neglecting my blog much more this time around. But in my crazy, chaotic life, I still find plenty of time to think about everything... too much thinking time if you ask me. : )
Things have been relatively normal here in KMO (which is what Manokotak is referred to around here and for the planes). Being busy with school and school work and then going home to entertain and be with Macy have pretty much become my routine. Now that I have this crazy dog, I don't know what I'd do without her. I really do love her, even if she's slow on the potty training.
This past week we had a shortened week due to our inservice day on Friday. Meaning, the kids had off Friday but we did not. Our day was spent meeting with others in the district and getting our paper work organized and doing other odds and ends.... a little overwhelming at times since this is my first year but I'm managing, thanks for awesome co-workers who put up with all of my dumb questions!
Friday during the day we had a pot luck lunch in my classroom since we all had to be here anyways. Got everyone together and we all got to socialize. Then after our long day, LeEsia and I took the four wheeler out for a spin and got rained on.... but it was fun even still. I have to add that Macy was in her crate from 7:15-3:30 without being left out at lunch for the first time and had NO accidents! I was so proud. : )
After our four wheeler ride, we went into the school where there has been a Spiritual feast all weekend. It's a series of pot lucks followed by church services throughout the entire weekend. There are a lot of people from different villages here this weekend as well. We went in and were walking by when they invited us to eat with them so we did. I got to eat things like spawned salmon, raw salmon, some other type of salmon, moose spaghetti, aqutak (the berry dessert I wrote about when I was in Port Heiden) and so much more. It was nice to be there interacting with so many of the locals. Then LeEsia, Katrina and I went to the service they had after the pot luck. It went until about 10 pm but we didn't stay that long. They had the same thing both Saturday and today. The only difference was that on Saturday they had a funeral at the school during the day for a village member that passed away. They have all of these things at the school because it's the only place in the village that everyone can fit. We took our weekly town trip to the store and the post office Saturday morning and then Saturday evening all the staff came over to my apartment for Aurora's 2nd birthday party! I was fun and Aurora is such a cutie. She loved all of her gifts.
This week I also got the opportunity to try otter. We can put that as the first thing I've tried that I don't like. The high school science class skinned it and got it all ready and then the next day, they joined up with the home ec class and they cooked the otter with some help from one of the native aids. They brought some down to me during the day and I took one smell and knew it wasn't going to be as great as I was imaging. But I tried it anyways and it wasn't for me.... too oily, fishy and just had a very odd taste. I was a little disappointed that I didn't like it but it's okay. Still one of those things I can say I tried and what other place in the US can say that they do that during school?!
I don't think I remembered to write about this before but a week or two ago, two of my boys showed up at my door with this Spruce Hen in a bag. One of the boys has been wanting to show me how to pluck it and gut it for so long so he finally went out and shot me one and brought it to me. They spent some time with me that afternoon and showed me how to pluck it, gut it and cut it up. Then they cooked it for me and we ate it! Only in Alaska....
Everything the bird had just eaten... the berries didn't even look touched!
No surprise to anyone that I enjoyed this process...
This is the brain. I tried to eat it.... I took one bite but couldn't eat any more - it was too mushy for me and that says a lot if you know me. I'm willing to eat just about anything! So that's the second thing on that list of things I don't like.
That's the finished product... I ate the eyeball, too!
The very first student of mine that I met. On the plane into Dillingham I started off sitting next to her and her sister! This was taken at the spiritual feast this weekend.
I've had quite a bit of thinking time lately and for some reason in between the chaos of my classroom, the extra stuff outside of the classroom and my time with Macy, I've thought about how lucky I am to be here. I was looking through some old Alaska photos as well and that may have had a hand in those thoughts but I really am so lucky to be up here. This is one amazing state that I've had the chance to live in! I NEVER thought I'd leave my hometown, let alone the state of Pennsylvania and to end up in Alaska of all places. I thought I'd grow up, get out of college, move back home, eventually marry someone around my hometown and stay there because that's what I always wanted. And don't get me wrong, I still want to be close to my family because I couldn't imagine staying this far from them forever. But, now that I'm here I can't imagine not having these experiences and not meeting the awesome people that I've met. I can't count the number of people that have said to me "I've always wanted to go to Alaska" or "Alaska has been a dream of mine" or "I would love to live in Alaska one day" and here I am. I'm living that dream that a lot of people have. I'm doing what I love in an absolutely amazing place. Not just the way it looks but the way of life. It's so much different than back home but a good different. Am I homesick? Yes. Do I miss my family and friends? Yes, a lot. Am I upset because of the things that I miss at home? So much. I am missing get togethers with my family and friends, holidays with the family for the first year ever and to top it off, I had to tell two of my very best friends that I could not be in there weddings and I couldn't even come to their weddings because I'll still be in Alaska... which absolutely killed me. But am I thankful that I'm here? Of course. Sometimes I forgot where I am... I get up, go to school, do some extra things and repeat, day in and day out but when I really stop to notice the millions of stars in the sky or the gorgeous views or the fact that people here use four wheelers instead of cars and they hunt for their food all the time, I can't imagine not being here right now. Like I said, I never thought I'd leave PA but the fact that I've done it and I am across the entire country has shown me that there is so much more out there and there's so many people out there that I would of NEVER gotten to meet or things I would of NEVER gotten to see. I have a lot of opportunities that have come from my time in Alaska and you never know what the future holds but I'm so glad that this opportunity fell in my lap and that so many people pushed me to come to AK in the first place because taking that chance for that three month position through Kutztown got me here today. This sounds like a bunch of cheesy ramblings, I know, but it's been on my mind a lot lately so I thought I'd ramble on to all of you. : )
Although that post did get lost, I wanted to at least post that I was still alive and well since I've been neglecting my blog much more this time around. But in my crazy, chaotic life, I still find plenty of time to think about everything... too much thinking time if you ask me. : )
Things have been relatively normal here in KMO (which is what Manokotak is referred to around here and for the planes). Being busy with school and school work and then going home to entertain and be with Macy have pretty much become my routine. Now that I have this crazy dog, I don't know what I'd do without her. I really do love her, even if she's slow on the potty training.
This past week we had a shortened week due to our inservice day on Friday. Meaning, the kids had off Friday but we did not. Our day was spent meeting with others in the district and getting our paper work organized and doing other odds and ends.... a little overwhelming at times since this is my first year but I'm managing, thanks for awesome co-workers who put up with all of my dumb questions!
Friday during the day we had a pot luck lunch in my classroom since we all had to be here anyways. Got everyone together and we all got to socialize. Then after our long day, LeEsia and I took the four wheeler out for a spin and got rained on.... but it was fun even still. I have to add that Macy was in her crate from 7:15-3:30 without being left out at lunch for the first time and had NO accidents! I was so proud. : )
After our four wheeler ride, we went into the school where there has been a Spiritual feast all weekend. It's a series of pot lucks followed by church services throughout the entire weekend. There are a lot of people from different villages here this weekend as well. We went in and were walking by when they invited us to eat with them so we did. I got to eat things like spawned salmon, raw salmon, some other type of salmon, moose spaghetti, aqutak (the berry dessert I wrote about when I was in Port Heiden) and so much more. It was nice to be there interacting with so many of the locals. Then LeEsia, Katrina and I went to the service they had after the pot luck. It went until about 10 pm but we didn't stay that long. They had the same thing both Saturday and today. The only difference was that on Saturday they had a funeral at the school during the day for a village member that passed away. They have all of these things at the school because it's the only place in the village that everyone can fit. We took our weekly town trip to the store and the post office Saturday morning and then Saturday evening all the staff came over to my apartment for Aurora's 2nd birthday party! I was fun and Aurora is such a cutie. She loved all of her gifts.
This week I also got the opportunity to try otter. We can put that as the first thing I've tried that I don't like. The high school science class skinned it and got it all ready and then the next day, they joined up with the home ec class and they cooked the otter with some help from one of the native aids. They brought some down to me during the day and I took one smell and knew it wasn't going to be as great as I was imaging. But I tried it anyways and it wasn't for me.... too oily, fishy and just had a very odd taste. I was a little disappointed that I didn't like it but it's okay. Still one of those things I can say I tried and what other place in the US can say that they do that during school?!
I've had quite a bit of thinking time lately and for some reason in between the chaos of my classroom, the extra stuff outside of the classroom and my time with Macy, I've thought about how lucky I am to be here. I was looking through some old Alaska photos as well and that may have had a hand in those thoughts but I really am so lucky to be up here. This is one amazing state that I've had the chance to live in! I NEVER thought I'd leave my hometown, let alone the state of Pennsylvania and to end up in Alaska of all places. I thought I'd grow up, get out of college, move back home, eventually marry someone around my hometown and stay there because that's what I always wanted. And don't get me wrong, I still want to be close to my family because I couldn't imagine staying this far from them forever. But, now that I'm here I can't imagine not having these experiences and not meeting the awesome people that I've met. I can't count the number of people that have said to me "I've always wanted to go to Alaska" or "Alaska has been a dream of mine" or "I would love to live in Alaska one day" and here I am. I'm living that dream that a lot of people have. I'm doing what I love in an absolutely amazing place. Not just the way it looks but the way of life. It's so much different than back home but a good different. Am I homesick? Yes. Do I miss my family and friends? Yes, a lot. Am I upset because of the things that I miss at home? So much. I am missing get togethers with my family and friends, holidays with the family for the first year ever and to top it off, I had to tell two of my very best friends that I could not be in there weddings and I couldn't even come to their weddings because I'll still be in Alaska... which absolutely killed me. But am I thankful that I'm here? Of course. Sometimes I forgot where I am... I get up, go to school, do some extra things and repeat, day in and day out but when I really stop to notice the millions of stars in the sky or the gorgeous views or the fact that people here use four wheelers instead of cars and they hunt for their food all the time, I can't imagine not being here right now. Like I said, I never thought I'd leave PA but the fact that I've done it and I am across the entire country has shown me that there is so much more out there and there's so many people out there that I would of NEVER gotten to meet or things I would of NEVER gotten to see. I have a lot of opportunities that have come from my time in Alaska and you never know what the future holds but I'm so glad that this opportunity fell in my lap and that so many people pushed me to come to AK in the first place because taking that chance for that three month position through Kutztown got me here today. This sounds like a bunch of cheesy ramblings, I know, but it's been on my mind a lot lately so I thought I'd ramble on to all of you. : )
Just a little throwback to the last visit in AK before I went home for the summer. One of the pictures that got me thinking about all that... such a gorgeous, gorgeous place and the picture just don't do it justice.
Macy and I leave in 2 months from today to come home for Christmas. We can't wait to see you all from home. : )
