Saturday, March 26, 2011

Spring is here!



We had approximately ten days of beautiful sunshine, but for the past few days we've had lots of snow and clouds. The other morning, the steps from my house to the school were covered in two feet of snow which meant that I just had to...roll my way down to school. Thankfully, the janitors at the school shovel the snow off our steps everyday so that a pathway is open for the afternoon trek back up to the house.

Today is sunny and beautiful, but freezing. It's actually zero degrees right now. Just a few days ago it was in the upper 20s. You never know what kind of wind will come and how it'll affect the temperature. I am so thankful for the sunshine though. Even though it streams through my window when I'm trying to go to bed, I love it and thank God for it. It's hard to believe that spring is here when it's zero degrees outside, but when the sun is shining? Yeah, I believe it.

As of today...

Sunrise: 8:47 a.m.
Sunset: 9:37 p.m.

Every day gets longer and brighter. 




Thursday, March 17, 2011

week in Nome

We've had beautiful weather for almost two weeks. This is a picture of the plane we took to Nome. It seats about nine or ten people.
On the way to Nome...


Funny girl.
The ice can be blinding.
I sat behind the pilots.


On Sunday night we went to St. Joseph Catholic Church to watch eskimo dancing, and there were several Diomeders there participating. It was really fun! I only danced during one song and very badly.


Diomeders.
These two were very impressive!
The girls were addicted to the smoothies at Airport Pizza. Ain't no smoothies out on Diomede...
This is the beautiful NACTEC house where the students from the district's villages stay during their sessions.

The middle schoolers from Diomede, Shaktoolik, and Gambell.
Homework time!
I should work so hard. :)
The simulators in the NACTEC house. Pretty cool!
I love the art in the NACTEC house!

At NACTEC, the students have to make their own meals.

This is me and one of my students getting the lettuce ready for tacos!


YUM!
Signing each other's T-Shirts. It was cute...like it was camp!

 I love this picture. This was somewhere in between Nome and Diomede.

 And finally, Little and Big Diomede.
 The north side of Little Diomede.
Little and Big Diomede.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

a walk on the strait

Adrienne.

The trash dump. The polar bears like to look for munchies around here.



The dead walrus.
I just felt like taking a rest. 

Cuties.