Maktak: It's What's for Dinner

Here I am freaking out about my student potentially cutting her finger off while chopping up some frozen maktak, which is whale skin & blubber.

crabbing & beluga whale watching

The week before last, the school was visited by our school counselor, Barnabas. One day after school, Adrienne, Barnabas, and I went out on a snow machine and drove around for awhile. I thought it was going to be a short excursion so I didn't bring my snow pants. Big mistake. We got adventurous and went off the beaten path, which resulted in the snow machine tipping over. I bruised my knee pretty badly, but no major injuries, thankfully. We tried pulling the snow machine backwards while it was in reverse, but to no avail. So, we pathetic inexperienced snow machine drivers were humbled when some men in the village came over and pulled the snow machine out onto open space with ease and smoothness. I'm glad they pulled our machine forward instead of backwards because it allowed us to have an amazing afternoon we would not have otherwise experienced. I felt like totally naive tourist, but hey, that's part of the fun. We got to see a few people digging crabbing holes and pulling fresh blue king crab out of the strait's icy waters. It was amazing! We also hung out with a couple of men for awhile as they were looking for beluga whales at the edge of the ice. Keep in mind: I had no snow pants. I was wearing flimsy jeans. I was dying. It was so cold, and I had to bail out a little early and hitch a ride back with one of my students. I tried to tough it out, but when you can't feel your feet or hands, it's probably a good idea to head on indoors.

I tried pulling a crab out, but he swam away. C'est la vie.

Watching for beluga.

I love this picture because it shows how big the islands are. They can be deceptively small from a satellite's view, but the cliffs really are sheer and steep.

Becky, one of the teacher's aides, was kind enough to boil a crab for us and let us eat it for dinner. We sauteed it in garlic and butter, and it was delicious!

I'm not sure of the proper procedures in taking the shell off of a crab, but we used scissors. Is this normal?

 Barnabas & the clean plate. The crab was too delicious!

I didn't bring my camera, so all the pictures you see were taken by Adrienne. Great pictures, huh?

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.

polar bears, snowmachining, quinoa

 Finally! A polar bear. He was beautiful, and he was exploring the village garbage dump. Not quite as picturesque as a polar bear nuzzling cubs or standing on hind legs, but still amazing nonetheless.

We think this is the trash bag from the school kitchen. Leftover salmon. The bear's got good taste.

I watched him at a safe distance, as you can tell.

 Two of our lovely eighth-graders.

 Icicles on our house.

 This is the snow drift next to our house.

 Snowmachining on the strait!!! Heck Yeahhh!!!!

 

A couple of the students snowmachining. I love watching the dogs chase snowmachines. I want a dog so badly!

Roommate & I, right before snowmachining. I kind of felt like Randy from A Christmas Story. It was "I can't move my arms now!" kind of weather. Never was I more glad to have my polar bear and beaver fur ruff. Keeps my head nice & toasty.

Adrienne and I are attempting to do the Eastern Orthodox fast for this semester, which means we are Vegan and oil-less on Wednesdays and Fridays and then for the months of March and April. It's going to be hard, especially in Alaska. On Wednesday we had quinoa (keen-wah) for dinner, and it was yummy.