School Trip - Part 1 (Anchorage Zoo)

Seven students, my principal, and I are currently on the school trip, which is taken every year as a reward for students with good attendance and good behavior. This year, we are doing several things, which I will share with you as the trip unfolds, time-permitting. So far, we spent a few days in Anchorage for shopping where the students were able to go to Old Navy, Wal-Mart, GAP, and other places. Most bought clothing for themselves, although some chose to spend their money on video games and movies. Regardless, Anchorage certainly has a lot more clothing-shopping options than Nome and especially more than Diomede. It was cute to see the girls all pick out purses, shoes, and make-up. The students also went to H2Oasis, an indoor water park, which they loved. It's not very often that native Alaskan kids get to play in the water in the villages - too dangerous and cold.

We also visited the Anchorage Zoo. It was rather chilly, but it was great for the student to see the animals up close.

When the students saw the seals, they instantly knew what kind of seals they were: ring seals. The student you see above jokingly said to everyone, "Anybody hungry?" It cracked me up because seal is certainly a favorite food of Diomeders.

Although we've seen polar bears near the trash dump by the school, we were amazed to see these bears up close. They were lazy and sleepy, and understandably so. I turned to one of my students and said, "I bet we're the only people here that have eaten polar bear before." I'm pretty sure that's a safe bet too.

 Moose.

 Wolverine.

 "Arctic" turkey. Well, just a white turkey. I had never seen one before.

 Magpie.

 The students had never seen so many of these animals before!

 Check out the claws on this grizzly!

 How cute is this otter!

The wolves were rather frightening -- pacing back and forth in their individual cages.

Unalakleet, Part 1

This morning was my last in Unalakleet. We spent a total of nine days there. Currently, I am in Nome. We will do more grocery shopping, and we will eat out a lot since it will be our last chance. Normally, we would fly to Diomede via helicopter, but from what I am told, new regulations require passenger-service helicopters to have two engines. Therein lies our problem. We anticipate finding a two-engine helicopter by Christmas time, so hopefully our holiday travels will be much quicker. So, since we cannot go by helicopter this year, the Diomede crew will travel by sea. Last year Diomede staff traveled by crab boat as well. If you haven't read the story, check it out here. As you know, fellow teacher Adrienne and I are new to the Diomede staff, but thankfully, the rest of the staff have traveled by crab boat before. They can help us get through it. The nice thing about going by boat is that I can buy all the food I want in Nome and get free shipping. Pretty nice deal, if you ask me.

Since my boat adventure isn't till Friday, I'll leave you with some pictures of beautiful Unalakleet. I thoroughly enjoyed walking around this town and getting to know the Unalakleet staff. Kira, Tim, and Derek generously opened their apartment to us so that we didn't have to spend all our free time at the school. Even the tech guys are friendly and don't hate helping computer-illiterate people with their computer problems. We had several people offer their washer and dryer to us Diomede teachers too. (Unlike the other school sites, we did not get to fly to our site for the weekend nor could we go to our site before new teacher training or inservice; thus, we had to say a lot longer in Unalakleet than most.) Everyone has been very friendly and hospitable. I think though one of my favorite things about Alaska so far is how everyone waves to you when they drive by on their ATVs.

fireweed

The beautiful new high school in Unalakleet...

musk oxe

native style

Kira's $800 parka....

My new friends -- Sonia from L.A., Jessie from Cleveland, TN, (yay!), and Kira from Vermont!

This is one of two restaurants in Unalakleet, Peace on Earth. A pizza was around $35, so we decided to go to the Igloo, another restaurant in town, which sold bowling alley food. A burger & fries was approximately $15.

I have a lot more pictures of Unalakleet, but the Internet is really slow here in Nome. So, they will have to wait...or you can just check Facebook.

moose meat

(photo credit: Adrienne)

I can't emphasize to you how much I love Alaska so far. Everything about it is beautiful and unique. The air is crisp and fresh. Adrienne and I have walked around Unalakleet a lot so we know where most places are now. We've picked berries out in the open tundra, explored the remains of a crashed plane, petted dirty native dogs, took pictures of very expensive cereal, looked at drying fish, touched the skin of a musk oxe, visited Kira (school counselor in UNK) a million times at her apartment, met our mystery housemate and fellow teacher Willis, tried to lean on the wind, and talked to kids who might have been drinking beer (but we're not sure). We also visited a "baby puppy" that Adrienne was in love with named Dink.

Dink's owner shot a moose this morning around 7 a.m. about 30 miles upriver. He said it was the biggest one he had ever caught. I use the word "caught" specifically because natives say they "catch a bear" or "catch a moose"...the way we would say "catch a fish" or "catch a cab."

He dragged the moose out of his boat, wrapped it up in the blue tarp, and hauled it off with his ATV. He said that he'd hang it up for a few days and let the blood drip. That makes it tender. I asked him how long that meat will last him, and he said it'll last a whole winter. I'm pretty sure that Adrienne and I need to catch a moose for Diomede now.