I realize it's been over a week since my last post. A week seems so long now, since I had been updating every couple of days. But a lot has happened since my last blog. I feel more like a teacher every day. Like I told my friend Janelle, this is my test year, to see if I really want to be a teacher or not. So far it seems to fit me just fine, although the responsibility and the work load becomes heavier by the class period. I appreciate the QSM (Quality Schools Model) and the Standards Based system, and I know why they do it, and I agree with it, but it is a huge challenge. This is not even a normal teaching job. My prep period is only if I come in early in the morning and/or stay late after school. During the day I have 40 minutes at lunch, which is usually spent hanging out with Janelle and Adrianna. Yeah, we're kind of friends.
I teach seven classes. My kids are great, and I pretty much have the same kids all the time, which is good, because I can get to know them. But every day I seem to be in a rush to figure out what I am going to do. It's a good thing I work well under pressure. That doesn't mean my lessons are necessarily good, but at least I am able to put things together. Janelle and I try to stay on the same track as much as possible, because it helps us both to bounce ideas with someone. I wish I had a picture of my classroom to show you. But then again, it's really not all that exciting.
I am reading "Freak the Mighty" with my Reading Extentions class (total of 3 kids, one of whom is gone for 2 months, 1 is gone just today until next week, so there's just one left...). When I was in college I took this Educating Exceptional Learners class, which actually turned out to be pretty helpful now, but my professor (Dr. Cathy Freytag) read this book out loud to us throughout the semester. As I'm re-reading this book, I'm hearing it in her voice. And then I remember how much I miss all the people that have been so important to me. This is a subject that has been on my mind quite a bit lately.
This seems a little depressing, this post. I don't really know what else to say. I am a teacher. I do what teachers do. This is my life now. It's really not depressing, I swear. I did have a cold a couple days ago, but I am better now. Being sick was a little sad. Now I am just teacher tired.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
on being domestic
Today was the first day of school. Now I am a real teacher - sort of. This week the high school kids are planning slash going on the high school leadership retreat, for which I am a chaperone. I get to spend the night with them at the camp grounds... should be pretty fun. I actually have to borrow a sleeping bag because, shockingly, I didn't bring one. (That was sarcastic - I didn't bring anything. It's really very sad.)
Anyway, things went fine. I think I'll be okay at this whole teaching thing, now that I have my own classroom. I keep thinking back to my student teacher days, all the stupid things I did, and all the right things I did, the things I loved, and the things I hated, and really I am just so glad that this is my very own room with my very own rules and my very own strategies and philosphy and style. I mean, I have the school's, too, of course, but no one will be standing over my shoulder every day, and that will be great.
So anyway, I felt very domestic today. After school I hung around and chatted with the fellow teachers and a couple of the students. We worked out some other things with the retreat (our job is never over... even when the clock stops), among other things. I took the dog on a walk like always, only it was raining outside, which made it not as much fun. She was already dirty, but gosh, then she was really dirty. There was a back to school bar-b-que (I wonder what the etymology of that word/phrase is) at 5 for the whole community, so I went to that. I'm playing the violin with my next door neighbor's daughter, perhaps giving lessons, perhaps just playing together - either way, it's good news for me, because I need to play! It should be fun. She's super quiet, so I'm hoping she'll start talking to me soon. She also rides horses - she spent the summer jumping, which is just cool. I saw pictures. Oh gosh I miss riding horses. Anyway, it was a good time.
And then, now this is the domestic part, I came home and I cleaned. I know, I can't believe it myself. But my house was (and sort of still is) just messy. I gave my dog a bath first. Yipes, she was dirty! And the gross thing is, she's got so much hair that a lot of sand and stuff just stays in there. Her bath was seriously, I stuck her in the tub, shut the shower door, and just turned on the shower to get her wet. She was like, get me the freak out of here. She was good about it, though. So I soaked her with the shower head, then turned it off so I could scrub her with soap, then turned the shower back on to rinse her off. Then I wrapped her in a towel and carried her to the living room and let her sit in my lap (which she loves) while she dried off a bit. Then I went down to my other neighbor to borrow a broom and a vacuum, and I vacuumed my whole house (well, apartment) and swept my kitchen. The dog sheds... so I also vacuumed the couches. I was so proud of myself. :) And then I gave the dog a really bad haircut - just because she has so much hair, it's ridiculous, and it makes it hard to keep her clean - but I couldn't get her to sit still a whole lot to make it a good haircut, so she looks a little silly. Her hair is shorter, though, and now she's just a little fuzz ball, so soft and clean and fresh. Well, for a little while, at least. But she's playing now, which is awesome. She is getting into playing with her rope toy that a neighbor gave to us. It makes me happy. :)
Anyway, I need to finish my laundry still, not that you needed to know that. But I know some people have been wanting to see my village, so I have a photo from my window.
That's my neighbor's dog. He's a malamut (sp?), and he is so freaking gorgeous. He's usually inside with her, so this is a rare moment. That light blue building is the district office. Behind it is the school. So I walk about 5 minutes to work every day. It's nice. That big road there that you see is the main road that goes all the way up and down town. Here's another photo to put it in better context.
That orange building is the same one that's on the far left side of the first picture, so the road that leads to it is the main road that goes south towards the mouth of the river. All the roads are gravel, though there's talk of paving them to help with the dust in the summer time. I don't know if it will happen before winter. It's also been raining a lot, so they may not be able to.
Anyway, this is a little boring and kind of pointless. Hope all is well with you all! Don't forget to write! :)
Anyway, things went fine. I think I'll be okay at this whole teaching thing, now that I have my own classroom. I keep thinking back to my student teacher days, all the stupid things I did, and all the right things I did, the things I loved, and the things I hated, and really I am just so glad that this is my very own room with my very own rules and my very own strategies and philosphy and style. I mean, I have the school's, too, of course, but no one will be standing over my shoulder every day, and that will be great.
So anyway, I felt very domestic today. After school I hung around and chatted with the fellow teachers and a couple of the students. We worked out some other things with the retreat (our job is never over... even when the clock stops), among other things. I took the dog on a walk like always, only it was raining outside, which made it not as much fun. She was already dirty, but gosh, then she was really dirty. There was a back to school bar-b-que (I wonder what the etymology of that word/phrase is) at 5 for the whole community, so I went to that. I'm playing the violin with my next door neighbor's daughter, perhaps giving lessons, perhaps just playing together - either way, it's good news for me, because I need to play! It should be fun. She's super quiet, so I'm hoping she'll start talking to me soon. She also rides horses - she spent the summer jumping, which is just cool. I saw pictures. Oh gosh I miss riding horses. Anyway, it was a good time.
And then, now this is the domestic part, I came home and I cleaned. I know, I can't believe it myself. But my house was (and sort of still is) just messy. I gave my dog a bath first. Yipes, she was dirty! And the gross thing is, she's got so much hair that a lot of sand and stuff just stays in there. Her bath was seriously, I stuck her in the tub, shut the shower door, and just turned on the shower to get her wet. She was like, get me the freak out of here. She was good about it, though. So I soaked her with the shower head, then turned it off so I could scrub her with soap, then turned the shower back on to rinse her off. Then I wrapped her in a towel and carried her to the living room and let her sit in my lap (which she loves) while she dried off a bit. Then I went down to my other neighbor to borrow a broom and a vacuum, and I vacuumed my whole house (well, apartment) and swept my kitchen. The dog sheds... so I also vacuumed the couches. I was so proud of myself. :) And then I gave the dog a really bad haircut - just because she has so much hair, it's ridiculous, and it makes it hard to keep her clean - but I couldn't get her to sit still a whole lot to make it a good haircut, so she looks a little silly. Her hair is shorter, though, and now she's just a little fuzz ball, so soft and clean and fresh. Well, for a little while, at least. But she's playing now, which is awesome. She is getting into playing with her rope toy that a neighbor gave to us. It makes me happy. :)
Anyway, I need to finish my laundry still, not that you needed to know that. But I know some people have been wanting to see my village, so I have a photo from my window.
That's my neighbor's dog. He's a malamut (sp?), and he is so freaking gorgeous. He's usually inside with her, so this is a rare moment. That light blue building is the district office. Behind it is the school. So I walk about 5 minutes to work every day. It's nice. That big road there that you see is the main road that goes all the way up and down town. Here's another photo to put it in better context.
That orange building is the same one that's on the far left side of the first picture, so the road that leads to it is the main road that goes south towards the mouth of the river. All the roads are gravel, though there's talk of paving them to help with the dust in the summer time. I don't know if it will happen before winter. It's also been raining a lot, so they may not be able to.
Anyway, this is a little boring and kind of pointless. Hope all is well with you all! Don't forget to write! :)
Saturday, August 18, 2007
same thing we do every night, pinky: blog.
I have some pretty cool pictures this time.
Things are getting busier. The kids start school on Tuesday, as I might have mentioned. Today is Saturday, and the teachers had to go to work. Truth is, we probably would have gone to work anyway. Most of us are probably going to be back there working tomorrow afternoon, along with our work day on Monday. There is a lot of work to be done. But, it is normal to be feeling this roller coaster, being appropriately overwhelmed. It's good perspective, or so I've heard.
I'm not finding it hard to keep a personal life outside of school. I feel a little guilty about work that I'm not getting done, but it is so beautiful outside, and I love walking my dog, and I love hanging out with my people. Today started out kind of crummy, rainy and gray, but the sun came out, and now it's just gorgeous. It's 7:37, and it's still gorgeous, and it will stay gorgeous until 11ish, probably. It was supposed to rain tomorrow, but now it's saying that it will be sunny and in the 60s, which kind of stinks (as we, the teachers, were saying to each other) because we have so much work to do, but if it's nice outside, we won't go to work. We'll just see.
Last night we had a bonfire on the beach - me, Jake and Janelle and Daniel, and Adrianna and Dan. It was so much fun! We had a little trouble getting the fire going because it was so windy, but once we got it started (well, Dan got it started while Jake was on his way to get lighter fluid) it was an awesome fire. We made hobo dinners with hotdogs, potatoes, carrots, and onionis. And then Adrianna and Dan had this dessert recipe from their camp. You cut out the middle of an apple, fill it with peanut butter and chocolate chips, wrap it tin foil, then slow cook it on the coals. It was amazing. I think some of our apples were overcooked, so we'll have to do it again. We all decided that that was okay.
This is Janelle and I hanging out on the beach. I tell you what, with this whole teaching in Unalakleet thing, she is a freaking life saver. Plus, she's super fun to be around. We're pretty tight, her and I. (Kelli says I'm getting "all familyfied" - which is just fine with me.) It's crazy, we hang out with her and Jake, and their so easy to talk with, we don't even realize how late it is, so Adrianna and Dan and I are over at their house super late because we're all just talking and hanging out... or playing Wii...
Adrianna and I at the cookout. She's a good friend. We are sharing this first year teacher slash first time in Alaska experience together. It's pretty fantastic. We are the youngens.
Um, this is us preparing food - sideways. Janelle was messing with my camera. She only got one picture out of the deal because she was pushing the wrong button. hahaha. (I wonder what would happen if she read this...)
Anyway, after the bonfire last night we went back to the Snyders' house and played with Dan and Adrianna's Wii. If you've never played Wii before, I highly recommend it. It's pretty much one of the funnest video games I've ever played, right up there with Guitar Hero and Crash Bandicoot. And if you play video games, you too can use not-words such as "funnest." :)
Today was an alright day. I actually am really starting to feel better about the year. Janelle and I are collaborating for 2 of my English classes and her only 2 English classes (the rest of the day she is teaching music), so we're always bouncing ideas off of each other. Then Carrie said she really wanted to have themes going on for each quarter, so that helped Janelle create an outline template for what she'll do for the year, and I, of course, stole the template (collaborated the template), and now we have a much more solid direction. That might mean we have to redo our lessons for the first unit... but the first week of school is going to be introductions and classroom processes, etc. etc. etc. No teaching, really. And then we'll go on the high school retreat that week. Should be a good time.
Today was really gorgeous outside, like I said before, so I decided to take a long walk with Starr (Kelli thinks I should add and extra R on the end to make it more unique, which I think is a brilliant idear) out on the tundra, since when I'm out of the village she can go off the leash, which she loves. She never has me out of her sight, so I'm not too worried about her running off or anything. There aren't really any trees out where we went, and we didn't go too far, so it's not like it was dangerous (Dad), and I didn't get lost. Anyway, we went out past the bridge at the edge of town, then we took a path up a hill. The view was amazing.
That's my village down there. If you click on any image you can see it bigger, just so you know. These are small, so it looks kind of lousy. But it's really fantastic. I love the patterns of the rivers around here.
Starr ran around like a mad dog. I think I might have worn her out a little. That's okay, though. She enjoyed being outside and getting dirty and smelling things. Now she's napping on the couch slash the floor slash in my lap. She's got a short attention span. She loves attention, and can get a little demanding actually. She has bursts of energy, loves being outside, likes to nap during the day, can stay up pretty late if you let her, and hates getting up in the morning. So yeah, we work out, the two of us.
Just a photo to close. That's my girl Starr on the beach at the bonfire. I realize this is long, so I'll close. But just so you all know, my finger is just fine. :) It was just a little infection, and although painful, nothing too serious. Not in hindsight, anyway.
Things are getting busier. The kids start school on Tuesday, as I might have mentioned. Today is Saturday, and the teachers had to go to work. Truth is, we probably would have gone to work anyway. Most of us are probably going to be back there working tomorrow afternoon, along with our work day on Monday. There is a lot of work to be done. But, it is normal to be feeling this roller coaster, being appropriately overwhelmed. It's good perspective, or so I've heard.
I'm not finding it hard to keep a personal life outside of school. I feel a little guilty about work that I'm not getting done, but it is so beautiful outside, and I love walking my dog, and I love hanging out with my people. Today started out kind of crummy, rainy and gray, but the sun came out, and now it's just gorgeous. It's 7:37, and it's still gorgeous, and it will stay gorgeous until 11ish, probably. It was supposed to rain tomorrow, but now it's saying that it will be sunny and in the 60s, which kind of stinks (as we, the teachers, were saying to each other) because we have so much work to do, but if it's nice outside, we won't go to work. We'll just see.
Last night we had a bonfire on the beach - me, Jake and Janelle and Daniel, and Adrianna and Dan. It was so much fun! We had a little trouble getting the fire going because it was so windy, but once we got it started (well, Dan got it started while Jake was on his way to get lighter fluid) it was an awesome fire. We made hobo dinners with hotdogs, potatoes, carrots, and onionis. And then Adrianna and Dan had this dessert recipe from their camp. You cut out the middle of an apple, fill it with peanut butter and chocolate chips, wrap it tin foil, then slow cook it on the coals. It was amazing. I think some of our apples were overcooked, so we'll have to do it again. We all decided that that was okay.
This is Janelle and I hanging out on the beach. I tell you what, with this whole teaching in Unalakleet thing, she is a freaking life saver. Plus, she's super fun to be around. We're pretty tight, her and I. (Kelli says I'm getting "all familyfied" - which is just fine with me.) It's crazy, we hang out with her and Jake, and their so easy to talk with, we don't even realize how late it is, so Adrianna and Dan and I are over at their house super late because we're all just talking and hanging out... or playing Wii...
Adrianna and I at the cookout. She's a good friend. We are sharing this first year teacher slash first time in Alaska experience together. It's pretty fantastic. We are the youngens.
Um, this is us preparing food - sideways. Janelle was messing with my camera. She only got one picture out of the deal because she was pushing the wrong button. hahaha. (I wonder what would happen if she read this...)
Anyway, after the bonfire last night we went back to the Snyders' house and played with Dan and Adrianna's Wii. If you've never played Wii before, I highly recommend it. It's pretty much one of the funnest video games I've ever played, right up there with Guitar Hero and Crash Bandicoot. And if you play video games, you too can use not-words such as "funnest." :)
Today was an alright day. I actually am really starting to feel better about the year. Janelle and I are collaborating for 2 of my English classes and her only 2 English classes (the rest of the day she is teaching music), so we're always bouncing ideas off of each other. Then Carrie said she really wanted to have themes going on for each quarter, so that helped Janelle create an outline template for what she'll do for the year, and I, of course, stole the template (collaborated the template), and now we have a much more solid direction. That might mean we have to redo our lessons for the first unit... but the first week of school is going to be introductions and classroom processes, etc. etc. etc. No teaching, really. And then we'll go on the high school retreat that week. Should be a good time.
Today was really gorgeous outside, like I said before, so I decided to take a long walk with Starr (Kelli thinks I should add and extra R on the end to make it more unique, which I think is a brilliant idear) out on the tundra, since when I'm out of the village she can go off the leash, which she loves. She never has me out of her sight, so I'm not too worried about her running off or anything. There aren't really any trees out where we went, and we didn't go too far, so it's not like it was dangerous (Dad), and I didn't get lost. Anyway, we went out past the bridge at the edge of town, then we took a path up a hill. The view was amazing.
That's my village down there. If you click on any image you can see it bigger, just so you know. These are small, so it looks kind of lousy. But it's really fantastic. I love the patterns of the rivers around here.
Starr ran around like a mad dog. I think I might have worn her out a little. That's okay, though. She enjoyed being outside and getting dirty and smelling things. Now she's napping on the couch slash the floor slash in my lap. She's got a short attention span. She loves attention, and can get a little demanding actually. She has bursts of energy, loves being outside, likes to nap during the day, can stay up pretty late if you let her, and hates getting up in the morning. So yeah, we work out, the two of us.
Just a photo to close. That's my girl Starr on the beach at the bonfire. I realize this is long, so I'll close. But just so you all know, my finger is just fine. :) It was just a little infection, and although painful, nothing too serious. Not in hindsight, anyway.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
exhaustion setting in
A few notes:
We have teacher work days today, tomorrow, and Saturday, and Monday, and the kids start on Tuesday. Why does everything happen so fast? Sometimes I wish the world would just stop moving.
Remember when I said my finger was swollen? Yeah, the infection was pretty deep, and my friend Jake had to cut open my finger and squeeze (literally squeeze my bruised and swollen finger) all the puss out. I was sitting at their dining room table groaning, almost wailing, nearing tears - I can't tell you how much it hurt. There are no words. I think I'm going to quit biting my nails. So the pain kind of put me in a strange mood for the day, and I just felt bad. Janelle and I were working together in the morning again, and although she was mean to me all morning (in jest, of course), she made up for it by sitting with me while I soaked my finger in hydrogen peroxide for 20 minutes-ish, because that's how long it took for it to actually reach my infection. That's how deep it was in my finger. Anyway, it feels a whole lot better now. There is still a little swelling, but I'm just glad I didn't lose my finger. Sorry, Kel, I didn't take a picture of it. But it was nasty looking, I tell you what.
I am feeling very tired. Last night I went to be kind of early. I think I will tonight, too.
I got a package from my dad today. He sent me mixed nuts, Chips Ahoy, Sour Patch Kids, granola, English muffins, and I think a few other things. Guess what I've had for dinner so far? Mixed nuts and cookies. Last night? Cold lima beans and Cheez-Its. I am patiently waiting for my grocery box to get here. Although, mostly I just don't feel like cooking. I miss the old days of free food...
This will be a picture-less post. Nothing new to report, and I don't so much feel like putting anything up now.
It's good to be talking with Pete - good guy, good friend. I finally got to talk to Kelli, which was great. Lots of people are emailing, which is awesome. Some people are not emailing. Not so awesome.
My dog is great. She doesn't like to get up in the morning.
We have teacher work days today, tomorrow, and Saturday, and Monday, and the kids start on Tuesday. Why does everything happen so fast? Sometimes I wish the world would just stop moving.
Remember when I said my finger was swollen? Yeah, the infection was pretty deep, and my friend Jake had to cut open my finger and squeeze (literally squeeze my bruised and swollen finger) all the puss out. I was sitting at their dining room table groaning, almost wailing, nearing tears - I can't tell you how much it hurt. There are no words. I think I'm going to quit biting my nails. So the pain kind of put me in a strange mood for the day, and I just felt bad. Janelle and I were working together in the morning again, and although she was mean to me all morning (in jest, of course), she made up for it by sitting with me while I soaked my finger in hydrogen peroxide for 20 minutes-ish, because that's how long it took for it to actually reach my infection. That's how deep it was in my finger. Anyway, it feels a whole lot better now. There is still a little swelling, but I'm just glad I didn't lose my finger. Sorry, Kel, I didn't take a picture of it. But it was nasty looking, I tell you what.
I am feeling very tired. Last night I went to be kind of early. I think I will tonight, too.
I got a package from my dad today. He sent me mixed nuts, Chips Ahoy, Sour Patch Kids, granola, English muffins, and I think a few other things. Guess what I've had for dinner so far? Mixed nuts and cookies. Last night? Cold lima beans and Cheez-Its. I am patiently waiting for my grocery box to get here. Although, mostly I just don't feel like cooking. I miss the old days of free food...
This will be a picture-less post. Nothing new to report, and I don't so much feel like putting anything up now.
It's good to be talking with Pete - good guy, good friend. I finally got to talk to Kelli, which was great. Lots of people are emailing, which is awesome. Some people are not emailing. Not so awesome.
My dog is great. She doesn't like to get up in the morning.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
music in the background
Let's try this photo thing again. There are some people I want to introduce to you. And plus I think the photos are just good enough to go up. You might agree.
The little guy here is Daniel, Jake and Janelle's son. He loves Dan, the guy he's handing his hat to. In the back there is Janelle. She's great.
This week is pretty busy. It's teacher inservice, so all the teachers from the district are here. It's mad crazy busy. Let's see - since the last update... Monday we had a breakfast with just Unalakleet teachers, so I got to meet everyone, which was cool. We had a session with this guy who was talking about humor in the classroom. It was pretty funny, but some of it was so dumb I was laughing at the guy and the stupid stuff he was making us do. Oh well, we got some stuff out of it. And then I got a dog, and a lot of people called me crazy, but I don't care. She's cute, and pretty, and she's so mild tempered, so mellow. She loves to cuddle and kiss and lay down next to me on the couch. She loves attention. Her name is Star. She's 3 years old - she was abandoned, so I took her. But she was already house trained, so she doesn't poo on my carpet or anything. She loves to take walks and be outside, so I'm trying to spend as much time with her as I can. She's pretty small, but very hairy. We think she has pomeranian mixed with sled dogs, which are just mutts anyhow, so she's a super mutt. But I love her. :)
This is post bath time. She was so dirty! She knows how to sit and lay down, and mostly she'll come if there are no pressing distractions. But as soon as she comes over she expects you to rub her belly, so over she rolls right against you.
Today was a little more eventful, sort of. At least, it's fresh in my mind, so I have more stories to tell. We all had a particular place to go, some for training in the reading programs. I thought as a first year I'd be in that, but no, I was in the unit design station, which meant I just had planning time. I walked into the assigned room and saw no one I knew. I was like, dang. So I sat down kind of by myself. I didn't really know at first what we were supposed to do in there, so I was just like, mmm, I feel dumb. And then, like fairy dust, Janelle walked in. I was like, ahh, sigh of relief. I think I had this really dumb excited look on my face when I saw her. I was like, "Are you in here???" She's like, "Uh, yeah, I think I am." I'm like, "Oh thank God..." We will be teaching the same thing anyhow, so we needed to collaborate anyway, so it was good work time, and good bonding time. There were some super duper obnoxious people in that room. We were both like, are you kidding me? I can't even focus. But we joked, and giggled, and tried to focus, and were basically productive.
BUT, okay. Last night my left ring finger really started to hurt. But I tried to ignore it and just went to sleep. Today it was like, throbbing. It hurt so bad. It looked like there was a blood blister underneath it, and the top section of my finger was all swollen and red and stiff, and it hurt! I was like, what the world is going on here? I mean, you know when you have an owie, and you just can't focus on anything else except for that little pain that won't go away, so not only was I dealing with my ADHD, which I can usually control pretty well, but I had this bizarre owie that would just not leave me alone. Anyway, long story short, Jake looked at it and took a needle to it, opened it up a little, put some hydrogen peroxide and some ointment on it, topped with a band-aid, and lo and behold, it still freaking hurts. I'd go to the clinic if it got worse, but health insurance doesn't start until September 1st, and no, I'm not going to pay to have someone look at my finger. And no it's not gangrene, and no we're not going to amputate it.
So after my rendevous at the Snyder house, got my finger worked on, chatted with Janelle a bit more (which is so easy to do), I decided I wanted a peaceful alone night with my dog and my computer and perhaps a book and maybe even a movie. I saw Adrianna and Katie (my two friends that are actually my age), and we talked for a little while, laughed about today, joked about the apartment building becoming a dorm hall because we can be a little young and obnoxious (woops), and now I am glad to be a little bit antisocial for an evening. :)
Anyway, I have a lot of work to do, which I should really try to do tonight.
I miss you all, good friends. One last picture to close. It's from a while ago. This was my first fishing trip up river with Perry (one of the middle school teachers) and his 2 kids. They live right next door to me. And all 7 of those fish? They're in my freezer. It's great. :) I caught 2 of them, at least...
Talk to you all soon!!
The little guy here is Daniel, Jake and Janelle's son. He loves Dan, the guy he's handing his hat to. In the back there is Janelle. She's great.
This week is pretty busy. It's teacher inservice, so all the teachers from the district are here. It's mad crazy busy. Let's see - since the last update... Monday we had a breakfast with just Unalakleet teachers, so I got to meet everyone, which was cool. We had a session with this guy who was talking about humor in the classroom. It was pretty funny, but some of it was so dumb I was laughing at the guy and the stupid stuff he was making us do. Oh well, we got some stuff out of it. And then I got a dog, and a lot of people called me crazy, but I don't care. She's cute, and pretty, and she's so mild tempered, so mellow. She loves to cuddle and kiss and lay down next to me on the couch. She loves attention. Her name is Star. She's 3 years old - she was abandoned, so I took her. But she was already house trained, so she doesn't poo on my carpet or anything. She loves to take walks and be outside, so I'm trying to spend as much time with her as I can. She's pretty small, but very hairy. We think she has pomeranian mixed with sled dogs, which are just mutts anyhow, so she's a super mutt. But I love her. :)
This is post bath time. She was so dirty! She knows how to sit and lay down, and mostly she'll come if there are no pressing distractions. But as soon as she comes over she expects you to rub her belly, so over she rolls right against you.
Today was a little more eventful, sort of. At least, it's fresh in my mind, so I have more stories to tell. We all had a particular place to go, some for training in the reading programs. I thought as a first year I'd be in that, but no, I was in the unit design station, which meant I just had planning time. I walked into the assigned room and saw no one I knew. I was like, dang. So I sat down kind of by myself. I didn't really know at first what we were supposed to do in there, so I was just like, mmm, I feel dumb. And then, like fairy dust, Janelle walked in. I was like, ahh, sigh of relief. I think I had this really dumb excited look on my face when I saw her. I was like, "Are you in here???" She's like, "Uh, yeah, I think I am." I'm like, "Oh thank God..." We will be teaching the same thing anyhow, so we needed to collaborate anyway, so it was good work time, and good bonding time. There were some super duper obnoxious people in that room. We were both like, are you kidding me? I can't even focus. But we joked, and giggled, and tried to focus, and were basically productive.
BUT, okay. Last night my left ring finger really started to hurt. But I tried to ignore it and just went to sleep. Today it was like, throbbing. It hurt so bad. It looked like there was a blood blister underneath it, and the top section of my finger was all swollen and red and stiff, and it hurt! I was like, what the world is going on here? I mean, you know when you have an owie, and you just can't focus on anything else except for that little pain that won't go away, so not only was I dealing with my ADHD, which I can usually control pretty well, but I had this bizarre owie that would just not leave me alone. Anyway, long story short, Jake looked at it and took a needle to it, opened it up a little, put some hydrogen peroxide and some ointment on it, topped with a band-aid, and lo and behold, it still freaking hurts. I'd go to the clinic if it got worse, but health insurance doesn't start until September 1st, and no, I'm not going to pay to have someone look at my finger. And no it's not gangrene, and no we're not going to amputate it.
So after my rendevous at the Snyder house, got my finger worked on, chatted with Janelle a bit more (which is so easy to do), I decided I wanted a peaceful alone night with my dog and my computer and perhaps a book and maybe even a movie. I saw Adrianna and Katie (my two friends that are actually my age), and we talked for a little while, laughed about today, joked about the apartment building becoming a dorm hall because we can be a little young and obnoxious (woops), and now I am glad to be a little bit antisocial for an evening. :)
Anyway, I have a lot of work to do, which I should really try to do tonight.
I miss you all, good friends. One last picture to close. It's from a while ago. This was my first fishing trip up river with Perry (one of the middle school teachers) and his 2 kids. They live right next door to me. And all 7 of those fish? They're in my freezer. It's great. :) I caught 2 of them, at least...
Talk to you all soon!!
fishing, etc.
It certainly has been a crazy week. But I have a few pictures this time to show you what I mean. I've been trying to get pictures - I know I've been really bad about it because I don't want to seem so touristy, you know, like who is that white chick taking pictures all the time? But I have a few that I've taken with the people I've been spending so much time with. They are pretty much great people, and I love them.
Thursday I went fishing - Jake took Adrianna (a fellow new teacher), Dan (her boyfriend), and me out on the boat. It's a pretty fantastic view, if I do say so myself. I love going out on the boat. I caught a couple silvers and grayling (which I kept, because freakin I caught it and freakin I want to keep it), Jake caught 2, and oh yeah, Jake's friend Sie (sp?) caught 4, which is the daily limit on silver salmon, the big catch here. They gave the 3 of us new kids all the fish, so I went home with 4 more, which is great. It was a lot of fun to hang out anyway.
This is Adrianna on our way up river. It was such a beautiful day, nice and warm and sunny, but it gets chilly on the boat, so that's why we are all bundled a bit. Plus, we're both from the midwest, so I think we get colder easy...
This is a view of the mountains that are south of the village. The picture doesn't really do the view any justice. It's really beautiful, especially when you're up on the hills that are north and east of the village, but sadly, I have no pictures from that.
Anyway, it was a good time. On the way back Jake let me drive the boat. It was so cool! I have a picture of me driving, but for some reason I am having a bit of trouble downloading all of my images from my camera to my computer. Oh well, it's just me in a driver's seat of a boat, driving.
Well, like I said, this week has been crazy. We've had new teacher orientation every day, and every evening I seem to be doing something. Monday I don't remember what I did, Tuesday was something that I don't remember - probably just hanging out with other new teachers, or something. There's always something to do with someone, like every time I walk out of my apartment. Anyway, Wednesday was berry picking, Thursday was fishing, and that brings me to Friday. I don't have any pictures from Friday, but it was a good time. At least, I enjoyed myself.
Jake and Janelle Snyder are pretty much on my list of favorite people now. Janelle is the music teacher at the school, though she also teaches a bit of high school English (and has been), so her and I will be working together, which is great, because I really like her a lot. Her husband Jake works in the district office in the technology department, or something like that. And then they have a son, Daniel, who is a year and a half, and he is so dang cute. Anyway, Friday they wanted to take the boat out to fish again with me, because they are just great people. When I went over to their house they were still working on getting their flooring done, which was taking a while because Janelle was doing it alone with Daniel around during the day while Jake was at work, blah blah blah. Anyway, so I helped them finish the kitchen and most of the hallway, so Janelle felt much better about leaving, which was a good thing. I really wanted her to go with us. So we went out on the boat, and we chatted, and we laughed, and we fished, and they each caught a fish, and I got nothin'. I was like, Jake, where are all the dang fish? And he was like, they're in here! And I was like, quit lyin' to me. Oh well, two more fish is still good - since they let me keep all the fish they get. It's all a part of this community living thing. I totally love it. We got back to their house and Janelle was like, I want to start flooring the living room. But then she sat down, and then I sat down, and then we started talking, and I think we talked for like, and hour or more while Jake did pretty much everything. We were kind of tired. I had already taken a nap that day - the week had exhausted me. But it was really nice - I like talking with her, and we seem to get along really well. She makes me smile.
Saturday (well, today) was an awesome day. Jake and Janelle wanted to go on a picnic at "the bridge." So around 11:30ish they came and got me, Adrianna, Dan, and Shelley, another teacher, we took 3 four-wheelers out to this bridge over North River that's like, probably 5 miles out, maybe 6, over and through the hills. We built a fire (well, the guys did, and they totally used lighter fluid, which is totally cheating), cooked hot dogs, Shelley brought homemade chocolate chip banana bread which was amazing, we snacked, we fished, we chatted, and it was great.
This was our site at the river where we picniced. There were about a million dead fish right next to the river - the humpies, or mucklucks, or whatever you call them, who had spawned and then died. It was so disgusting. But this is nature, the good, the bad, and the ugly. It was weird, we're like, watching for bears... hahaha. This is totally the life.
We didn't catch anything today, which was kind of a bummer, but I'm not totally upset. I had a really good time. Janelle taught me and Adrianna how to drive a four-wheeler. Adrianna drove there, I drove back. It was SO cool. I mean, I have a lot to learn, obviously, but we totally loved it, it was ridiculous. Janelle was sitting behind me teaching me while I'm driving, and she's like, oh I think I'm getting motion sickness. haha. I'm like, let me know if you need to vomit. I lurched a lot, so I'll have to get better with that. She was probably thinking, why am I doing this? But I had a good time, so I don't care. :)
Well, I'd like to upload more photos, but there seems to be an issue, probably with the internet.
Anyway, when we got back home, while we were thanking them for the picninc, Jake and Janelle mentioned that they were going to spend the afternoon flooring. They are putting down hardwood floor all over their house, which isn't bad, just time consuming, unless you have many hands. So we were like, we could totally help you with that. Janelle was so cute, her face was like, really?? So I hung out in Adrianna's apartment for a couple hours, played with their Wii, got wireless hooked up for the both of us, dreamed about getting a four-wheeler to share between us, played online, and then walked in the rain down to the Snyder's. They ordered us pizza for dinner, which was so cool of them. And then we spent like, three and a half hours getting their living room and Daniel's bedroom floored. But we finished, and it was so cool. We were all very exhausted, and now I've stayed up late to blog just for you.
It was really nice to spend a day with friends and have fun, so I am in a happy place. I apologize that there aren't a whole lot of pictures up - my computer is being funny. I'll try again later. I hope to hear from you all soon!
This is the community outhouse. Don't worry, they'll have something to cover the door and window during the winter.
Just joking. :) Little cabin in the woods down by the river. I have my own toilet.
Thursday I went fishing - Jake took Adrianna (a fellow new teacher), Dan (her boyfriend), and me out on the boat. It's a pretty fantastic view, if I do say so myself. I love going out on the boat. I caught a couple silvers and grayling (which I kept, because freakin I caught it and freakin I want to keep it), Jake caught 2, and oh yeah, Jake's friend Sie (sp?) caught 4, which is the daily limit on silver salmon, the big catch here. They gave the 3 of us new kids all the fish, so I went home with 4 more, which is great. It was a lot of fun to hang out anyway.
This is Adrianna on our way up river. It was such a beautiful day, nice and warm and sunny, but it gets chilly on the boat, so that's why we are all bundled a bit. Plus, we're both from the midwest, so I think we get colder easy...
This is a view of the mountains that are south of the village. The picture doesn't really do the view any justice. It's really beautiful, especially when you're up on the hills that are north and east of the village, but sadly, I have no pictures from that.
Anyway, it was a good time. On the way back Jake let me drive the boat. It was so cool! I have a picture of me driving, but for some reason I am having a bit of trouble downloading all of my images from my camera to my computer. Oh well, it's just me in a driver's seat of a boat, driving.
Well, like I said, this week has been crazy. We've had new teacher orientation every day, and every evening I seem to be doing something. Monday I don't remember what I did, Tuesday was something that I don't remember - probably just hanging out with other new teachers, or something. There's always something to do with someone, like every time I walk out of my apartment. Anyway, Wednesday was berry picking, Thursday was fishing, and that brings me to Friday. I don't have any pictures from Friday, but it was a good time. At least, I enjoyed myself.
Jake and Janelle Snyder are pretty much on my list of favorite people now. Janelle is the music teacher at the school, though she also teaches a bit of high school English (and has been), so her and I will be working together, which is great, because I really like her a lot. Her husband Jake works in the district office in the technology department, or something like that. And then they have a son, Daniel, who is a year and a half, and he is so dang cute. Anyway, Friday they wanted to take the boat out to fish again with me, because they are just great people. When I went over to their house they were still working on getting their flooring done, which was taking a while because Janelle was doing it alone with Daniel around during the day while Jake was at work, blah blah blah. Anyway, so I helped them finish the kitchen and most of the hallway, so Janelle felt much better about leaving, which was a good thing. I really wanted her to go with us. So we went out on the boat, and we chatted, and we laughed, and we fished, and they each caught a fish, and I got nothin'. I was like, Jake, where are all the dang fish? And he was like, they're in here! And I was like, quit lyin' to me. Oh well, two more fish is still good - since they let me keep all the fish they get. It's all a part of this community living thing. I totally love it. We got back to their house and Janelle was like, I want to start flooring the living room. But then she sat down, and then I sat down, and then we started talking, and I think we talked for like, and hour or more while Jake did pretty much everything. We were kind of tired. I had already taken a nap that day - the week had exhausted me. But it was really nice - I like talking with her, and we seem to get along really well. She makes me smile.
Saturday (well, today) was an awesome day. Jake and Janelle wanted to go on a picnic at "the bridge." So around 11:30ish they came and got me, Adrianna, Dan, and Shelley, another teacher, we took 3 four-wheelers out to this bridge over North River that's like, probably 5 miles out, maybe 6, over and through the hills. We built a fire (well, the guys did, and they totally used lighter fluid, which is totally cheating), cooked hot dogs, Shelley brought homemade chocolate chip banana bread which was amazing, we snacked, we fished, we chatted, and it was great.
This was our site at the river where we picniced. There were about a million dead fish right next to the river - the humpies, or mucklucks, or whatever you call them, who had spawned and then died. It was so disgusting. But this is nature, the good, the bad, and the ugly. It was weird, we're like, watching for bears... hahaha. This is totally the life.
We didn't catch anything today, which was kind of a bummer, but I'm not totally upset. I had a really good time. Janelle taught me and Adrianna how to drive a four-wheeler. Adrianna drove there, I drove back. It was SO cool. I mean, I have a lot to learn, obviously, but we totally loved it, it was ridiculous. Janelle was sitting behind me teaching me while I'm driving, and she's like, oh I think I'm getting motion sickness. haha. I'm like, let me know if you need to vomit. I lurched a lot, so I'll have to get better with that. She was probably thinking, why am I doing this? But I had a good time, so I don't care. :)
Well, I'd like to upload more photos, but there seems to be an issue, probably with the internet.
Anyway, when we got back home, while we were thanking them for the picninc, Jake and Janelle mentioned that they were going to spend the afternoon flooring. They are putting down hardwood floor all over their house, which isn't bad, just time consuming, unless you have many hands. So we were like, we could totally help you with that. Janelle was so cute, her face was like, really?? So I hung out in Adrianna's apartment for a couple hours, played with their Wii, got wireless hooked up for the both of us, dreamed about getting a four-wheeler to share between us, played online, and then walked in the rain down to the Snyder's. They ordered us pizza for dinner, which was so cool of them. And then we spent like, three and a half hours getting their living room and Daniel's bedroom floored. But we finished, and it was so cool. We were all very exhausted, and now I've stayed up late to blog just for you.
It was really nice to spend a day with friends and have fun, so I am in a happy place. I apologize that there aren't a whole lot of pictures up - my computer is being funny. I'll try again later. I hope to hear from you all soon!
This is the community outhouse. Don't worry, they'll have something to cover the door and window during the winter.
Just joking. :) Little cabin in the woods down by the river. I have my own toilet.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
deep in love
Right now, it is 10:12pm, the sky is blue, the sun is out, and the temperature is 59 degrees.
Today was the first day of orientation for all the new teachers in the district. I've met a lot of people, and been totally overloaded with information. But overall, it's been a good day. Honestly, I can't imagine a bad day here, other than missing my people.
I really need to start taking pictures of the village, and of everything around the village.
Tonight after dinner one of the other teachers here took a few of us berry picking. It is blueberry season, and apparently they are "big" right now, as in size. But not gonna lie, they are very small. And all the berries here grow right near the ground, so it was an interesting experience. We drove up a long dirt road into the hills, then hiked up through a swampy hill to where the berries were growing, and went at it. I found a really good patch, like, every time I turned around there were more. I was picking them by the handful. It was great. I felt very close to nature... haha. Like, the land is very good to us... Anyway, I got a bunch of berries, and then I got distracted by the view. I decided I wanted to get to the top of the hill, so I went on a hike uphill, but I felt like every time I got to where I thought was the top, there was more. But I finally made it, and it was breathtaking. We were seriously totally surrounded by mountains and hills. And from the top of our hill, we could look down and see my village, right on the coast. It looked like the edge of the earth.
Anyway, I went home with wet feet, a couple pounds of blueberries, and a smile on my face. I think I'm going to go for another short walk around town before bed, since it is still so beautiful outside. Now that it's not so cloudy it will really be bright. The sun doesn't really set until around midnight-ish, but even around then it's still pretty light outside. It will be day again around 3 or something, I think. It hasn't really bothered me, which I'm glad for.
I also learned this week that some villages, like, complete villages, don't have indoor plumbing, so the teachers use honeybuckets for toilets and shower at the school. Holy cow!! And then some of the new teachers with indoor plumbing are complaining about their housing? I'm like, did you even know what you were signing up for?
In summary, I am very happy here. And life is certainly grand.
Feel free to comment. All you do is click on the link that says "0 comments" and you can write under "anonymous" - although, write your name in the comment. In short, write to me. :)
Today was the first day of orientation for all the new teachers in the district. I've met a lot of people, and been totally overloaded with information. But overall, it's been a good day. Honestly, I can't imagine a bad day here, other than missing my people.
I really need to start taking pictures of the village, and of everything around the village.
Tonight after dinner one of the other teachers here took a few of us berry picking. It is blueberry season, and apparently they are "big" right now, as in size. But not gonna lie, they are very small. And all the berries here grow right near the ground, so it was an interesting experience. We drove up a long dirt road into the hills, then hiked up through a swampy hill to where the berries were growing, and went at it. I found a really good patch, like, every time I turned around there were more. I was picking them by the handful. It was great. I felt very close to nature... haha. Like, the land is very good to us... Anyway, I got a bunch of berries, and then I got distracted by the view. I decided I wanted to get to the top of the hill, so I went on a hike uphill, but I felt like every time I got to where I thought was the top, there was more. But I finally made it, and it was breathtaking. We were seriously totally surrounded by mountains and hills. And from the top of our hill, we could look down and see my village, right on the coast. It looked like the edge of the earth.
Anyway, I went home with wet feet, a couple pounds of blueberries, and a smile on my face. I think I'm going to go for another short walk around town before bed, since it is still so beautiful outside. Now that it's not so cloudy it will really be bright. The sun doesn't really set until around midnight-ish, but even around then it's still pretty light outside. It will be day again around 3 or something, I think. It hasn't really bothered me, which I'm glad for.
I also learned this week that some villages, like, complete villages, don't have indoor plumbing, so the teachers use honeybuckets for toilets and shower at the school. Holy cow!! And then some of the new teachers with indoor plumbing are complaining about their housing? I'm like, did you even know what you were signing up for?
In summary, I am very happy here. And life is certainly grand.
Feel free to comment. All you do is click on the link that says "0 comments" and you can write under "anonymous" - although, write your name in the comment. In short, write to me. :)
Monday, August 6, 2007
visual accompaniment - like a fancy duet
I now have a school issued laptop, which means wireless internet and unlimited usage, which means we have pictures today!
Let's start with a recall from Colorado...
This is my cousin David training the wild hummingbirds... He's that person in the family that no one talks about, if you know what I mean. Just kidding, David. He really is probably one of the funniest people you'll meet. And truth be told, we did get to experience the close hum of a hummingbird passing our faces, so that was cool.
This is my little cousin Luke. Isn't he the cutest thing? He made me smile the most, with his little one liners. He likes to skateboard, swing, and play in the park. He is single, but ladies, don't get any ideas. ;)
This is the rain coming in - doesn't it just look cool? We were eating outside, like we always were, so we watched it get closer and closer until it was time to finally go in. Pretty awesome, the sunshine and the rain...
This is the lake where we went fishing. That's my cousin Andrew fishing. No, we didn't catch anything. And no, I don't want to talk about it. But I did come away with some funny stories.
That's my Uncle Bob, slash fishing coach. He's super good at it. He likes to holler at you when you're on the phone, and laugh at you when you fail. hahaha.
My cousin Lynne and her niece (my cousin - I have a lot of cousins...) Ella (sideways, sorry) - pretty much beautiful. Pretty much, we're related.
That's me and my Auntie Ree (where my middle name comes from) at Helen Hunt falls in the mountains. It was so much fun being there with such a great family!!!
Looking at a mountain from the side of a mountain - this was my Colorado. Sorry if I bored you. I don't really care. This is my blog, dang it, and I'll do what I want. :)
Okay, but back to the present - Life in the Kleet. Unalakleet that is. And they do say the "la" there in the middle, they just say it so fast that you can hardly tell. I try to say it as little as possible so I don't get it wrong.
I'm moved into my aparmtent, which is nice. I have a few pictures of it, but they are kind of dull. It's small and perfect for just me. I don't have any pictures of the village yet, but I'll tell ya, it's beautiful, and it gets prettier every day I live here. Looking from the outside you might not think it so pretty. You might even say ugly. But I live here now, and I like it. The people are very nice. I went fishing and caught 2 fish (silver salmon - 1.5 feet about), but people have been giving me fish, so my freezer is getting quite full. I like it. And I like to fish. I have a lot to say, but my internet is annoyingly slow to type on, so this part will be short. I start work tomorrow. Today I have been moving into my new classroom, checking stuff out in here, all my books - it makes me happy. My room is pretty big, so that's nice. I have been walking a lot, and some people like to walk early in the morning before work, so I am going to try to go with them tomorrow, but we all know how much mornings do well with me, so we'll see how it lasts. Hopefully at least until cross country ski season, so I can keep up with exercise and not coop myself up in my lonely apartment reading and writing and watching movies and sleeping all the time. Anyway, the longer I am here, the happier I am about it. I think it will be good, good enough even to warrant a second year. But this will come in time.
This is my living room, looking from my front door. As you can see, I've already started to decorate... The kitchen cabinets are really ugly, the carpet smells old, and I love every square inch of it - well, except for the carpet and the cabinets. Let me show you the kitchen...
I don't know who said that was okay, but you know, whatev. Also, I have no microwave, so reheating equals baking. Oh, and those broken bowls are now functioning. And the sour patch kids down in the bottom right hand corner, those are running low, so you know, you can send more if you feel like it. I don't get to eat ice cream unless I want to pay 9 bucks a pint, so I need a new and cheaper indulgence. Sour Patch Kids are perfect.
Well, I should go - work to do, you know, and it needs to be an early night for me. Write to me!! Love to you all, dear readers. (Yeah, I've been reading way too much Jane Eyre... and I love it!!)
Let's start with a recall from Colorado...
This is my cousin David training the wild hummingbirds... He's that person in the family that no one talks about, if you know what I mean. Just kidding, David. He really is probably one of the funniest people you'll meet. And truth be told, we did get to experience the close hum of a hummingbird passing our faces, so that was cool.
This is my little cousin Luke. Isn't he the cutest thing? He made me smile the most, with his little one liners. He likes to skateboard, swing, and play in the park. He is single, but ladies, don't get any ideas. ;)
This is the rain coming in - doesn't it just look cool? We were eating outside, like we always were, so we watched it get closer and closer until it was time to finally go in. Pretty awesome, the sunshine and the rain...
This is the lake where we went fishing. That's my cousin Andrew fishing. No, we didn't catch anything. And no, I don't want to talk about it. But I did come away with some funny stories.
That's my Uncle Bob, slash fishing coach. He's super good at it. He likes to holler at you when you're on the phone, and laugh at you when you fail. hahaha.
My cousin Lynne and her niece (my cousin - I have a lot of cousins...) Ella (sideways, sorry) - pretty much beautiful. Pretty much, we're related.
That's me and my Auntie Ree (where my middle name comes from) at Helen Hunt falls in the mountains. It was so much fun being there with such a great family!!!
Looking at a mountain from the side of a mountain - this was my Colorado. Sorry if I bored you. I don't really care. This is my blog, dang it, and I'll do what I want. :)
Okay, but back to the present - Life in the Kleet. Unalakleet that is. And they do say the "la" there in the middle, they just say it so fast that you can hardly tell. I try to say it as little as possible so I don't get it wrong.
I'm moved into my aparmtent, which is nice. I have a few pictures of it, but they are kind of dull. It's small and perfect for just me. I don't have any pictures of the village yet, but I'll tell ya, it's beautiful, and it gets prettier every day I live here. Looking from the outside you might not think it so pretty. You might even say ugly. But I live here now, and I like it. The people are very nice. I went fishing and caught 2 fish (silver salmon - 1.5 feet about), but people have been giving me fish, so my freezer is getting quite full. I like it. And I like to fish. I have a lot to say, but my internet is annoyingly slow to type on, so this part will be short. I start work tomorrow. Today I have been moving into my new classroom, checking stuff out in here, all my books - it makes me happy. My room is pretty big, so that's nice. I have been walking a lot, and some people like to walk early in the morning before work, so I am going to try to go with them tomorrow, but we all know how much mornings do well with me, so we'll see how it lasts. Hopefully at least until cross country ski season, so I can keep up with exercise and not coop myself up in my lonely apartment reading and writing and watching movies and sleeping all the time. Anyway, the longer I am here, the happier I am about it. I think it will be good, good enough even to warrant a second year. But this will come in time.
This is my living room, looking from my front door. As you can see, I've already started to decorate... The kitchen cabinets are really ugly, the carpet smells old, and I love every square inch of it - well, except for the carpet and the cabinets. Let me show you the kitchen...
I don't know who said that was okay, but you know, whatev. Also, I have no microwave, so reheating equals baking. Oh, and those broken bowls are now functioning. And the sour patch kids down in the bottom right hand corner, those are running low, so you know, you can send more if you feel like it. I don't get to eat ice cream unless I want to pay 9 bucks a pint, so I need a new and cheaper indulgence. Sour Patch Kids are perfect.
Well, I should go - work to do, you know, and it needs to be an early night for me. Write to me!! Love to you all, dear readers. (Yeah, I've been reading way too much Jane Eyre... and I love it!!)
Friday, August 3, 2007
Much to Say
Sadly, I cannot post pictures today. :(
You'll just have to use your imagination.
I took a visit to Colorado to visit my family last week - it was pretty much the best thing in the world I could have done. I got to see my family - cousins even drove up from Texas to see me. :) It was good. We had a lot of fun, I got to meet my new cousins, who are SOOO cute!! Luke pretty much made me smile more than any other 3 year old in the world. We went up into the mountains where Uncle Bob almost gave me a heart attack when I thought he was going over the edge. He's also a really good fishing coach... hollering at me while I'm on the phone, "There's a fish over there!! There's one right there!! You're missing them!!" My cousin David also trains wild hummingbirds, as it were - too bad I can't show you a picture of that. And my Auntie Ree took us out looking for buffalo; when we couldn't find any we just went out for ice cream. I was okay with that. So anyway, we had some good times together. It was good to laugh and talk and be with family. I'm sure once I can post pictures I'll have more to say. Right now my mind is on other things...
THE KLEET.
I got into Unalakleet, Alaska on Wednesday after 24 hours of traveling (driving, flying, waiting in airports...). It was good to be there, but I was exhausted. My VP was there to meet me, along with a couple that I had been talking with through phone and email - Jake and Janelle. Janelle is a teacher, also, and we'll be working together. I like her a lot, so this is a good thing. They had me over for dinner, which was great, because the only food I had was a bag of pistachios. We had king crab and fresh silver salmon. It was amazing. I saved the pistachios for breakfast on Thursday. I did some unpacking, and then I crashed - I slept for 12 beautiful hours. And when I woke up I forgot where I was.
Thursday was my first full day here, and truth be told it was a little boring, although I did get some things done. I got a post office box, so if you want my address let me know. I'd be happy to give it to you, as long as you intend to send me something. Otherwise, not so happy. Just kidding. :) Anyway, I ate some breakfast - my pistachios - finished all my unpacking, got some decorating done, so my apartment looks a little more homey. It's great, I like it a lot. Then I went to the school, checked email (since I don't have a phone or internet at home), and got a tour of the building. I saw my classroom, and frankly, I love it. It's big, I have like, 5 or 6 computers, white boards, and well, I won't have a lot of students, so it's a really nice size room. Great for group work and moving around. My VP took me over to the post office and to the grocery store (everything is really expensive), so I got a little bit of food. I went on home again and had an English muffin for lunch. I kind of bummed around the house for a while, then decided to take a walk. It's really pretty, even though it's gray and rainy. the ocean's to the west, mountains to the south, hills in the north, and the river is on the east side of town. Just passed the river is flat. It's still pretty green here, which is nice. It's a cute little fishing town - hopefully I'll do some fishing today and/or tomorrow. I went to the general store and got some super glue so I could fix my bowls - the only two I have both broke on the way up here. But I think they'll hold up just fine with the super glue.
Around dinner time I got hungry again, which was really annoying because I don't have a ton of food, and what I have needs to last me for a while, until what groceries I order (which needs to happen today) get here, probably two weeks from now. But I made up some Ramen noodles, and I thanked God that I had any food at all. I took another walk, met a really nice lady on my way home, and we chatted for a bit. She told me not to date anyone from here, and I said, okay, I promise. And then she told me a little about the village and where things were. I hope I see her again. She has 3 kids, so I'm sure I will see her around the school. Later in the evening I got really hungry again, which again, was really frustrating. I tried to drink water, but I needed substance. I was thinking, "If I keep eating today, what will I eat tomorrow?" But I said to myself, Karis, you should really eat something. So I put an English muffin with margarine and pineapple on top in the oven to bake, at a few pineapple slices, and put the rest in the fridge. I have to conserve. While I was cooking my neighbor from next door came over and gave me half a loaf of rhubarb bread. I don't really like rhubarb, but the bread was amazing! It was like a little blessing, because I was thinking, what in the world am I going to eat for breakfast? And there you go, this morning I had a slice of rhubarb bread, and it was very good. Oh, the pineapple English muffin was also, surprisingly, really good. I'll have to do that again. And Chris (sp?), my neighbor with the bread, also noticed that I play violin, since I have it sitting out, because I love it so much, and she wants me to give her daughter some violin lessons. She also is letting me borrow a pot until I get one of my own, which makes me smile, because now I can make rice and beans. Now I need to go buy beans. They are very nice people. Everyone here is very nice. :)
I went on another walk around 10pm, since it was still light out. Nothing was really going on. There were a lot of kids out messing around. Mostly today I tried to do some lesson planning, but I'm spending a lot of time alone, so my motivation is at an all time low. I'm sure that will change soon enough. Well, let's just hope.
Anyway, I realize this is long and without visual aid, but I hope to change that soon. Thanks for reading. I love hearing from people, so don't hesitate to comment!!! :) More Alaska fun to come.
You'll just have to use your imagination.
I took a visit to Colorado to visit my family last week - it was pretty much the best thing in the world I could have done. I got to see my family - cousins even drove up from Texas to see me. :) It was good. We had a lot of fun, I got to meet my new cousins, who are SOOO cute!! Luke pretty much made me smile more than any other 3 year old in the world. We went up into the mountains where Uncle Bob almost gave me a heart attack when I thought he was going over the edge. He's also a really good fishing coach... hollering at me while I'm on the phone, "There's a fish over there!! There's one right there!! You're missing them!!" My cousin David also trains wild hummingbirds, as it were - too bad I can't show you a picture of that. And my Auntie Ree took us out looking for buffalo; when we couldn't find any we just went out for ice cream. I was okay with that. So anyway, we had some good times together. It was good to laugh and talk and be with family. I'm sure once I can post pictures I'll have more to say. Right now my mind is on other things...
THE KLEET.
I got into Unalakleet, Alaska on Wednesday after 24 hours of traveling (driving, flying, waiting in airports...). It was good to be there, but I was exhausted. My VP was there to meet me, along with a couple that I had been talking with through phone and email - Jake and Janelle. Janelle is a teacher, also, and we'll be working together. I like her a lot, so this is a good thing. They had me over for dinner, which was great, because the only food I had was a bag of pistachios. We had king crab and fresh silver salmon. It was amazing. I saved the pistachios for breakfast on Thursday. I did some unpacking, and then I crashed - I slept for 12 beautiful hours. And when I woke up I forgot where I was.
Thursday was my first full day here, and truth be told it was a little boring, although I did get some things done. I got a post office box, so if you want my address let me know. I'd be happy to give it to you, as long as you intend to send me something. Otherwise, not so happy. Just kidding. :) Anyway, I ate some breakfast - my pistachios - finished all my unpacking, got some decorating done, so my apartment looks a little more homey. It's great, I like it a lot. Then I went to the school, checked email (since I don't have a phone or internet at home), and got a tour of the building. I saw my classroom, and frankly, I love it. It's big, I have like, 5 or 6 computers, white boards, and well, I won't have a lot of students, so it's a really nice size room. Great for group work and moving around. My VP took me over to the post office and to the grocery store (everything is really expensive), so I got a little bit of food. I went on home again and had an English muffin for lunch. I kind of bummed around the house for a while, then decided to take a walk. It's really pretty, even though it's gray and rainy. the ocean's to the west, mountains to the south, hills in the north, and the river is on the east side of town. Just passed the river is flat. It's still pretty green here, which is nice. It's a cute little fishing town - hopefully I'll do some fishing today and/or tomorrow. I went to the general store and got some super glue so I could fix my bowls - the only two I have both broke on the way up here. But I think they'll hold up just fine with the super glue.
Around dinner time I got hungry again, which was really annoying because I don't have a ton of food, and what I have needs to last me for a while, until what groceries I order (which needs to happen today) get here, probably two weeks from now. But I made up some Ramen noodles, and I thanked God that I had any food at all. I took another walk, met a really nice lady on my way home, and we chatted for a bit. She told me not to date anyone from here, and I said, okay, I promise. And then she told me a little about the village and where things were. I hope I see her again. She has 3 kids, so I'm sure I will see her around the school. Later in the evening I got really hungry again, which again, was really frustrating. I tried to drink water, but I needed substance. I was thinking, "If I keep eating today, what will I eat tomorrow?" But I said to myself, Karis, you should really eat something. So I put an English muffin with margarine and pineapple on top in the oven to bake, at a few pineapple slices, and put the rest in the fridge. I have to conserve. While I was cooking my neighbor from next door came over and gave me half a loaf of rhubarb bread. I don't really like rhubarb, but the bread was amazing! It was like a little blessing, because I was thinking, what in the world am I going to eat for breakfast? And there you go, this morning I had a slice of rhubarb bread, and it was very good. Oh, the pineapple English muffin was also, surprisingly, really good. I'll have to do that again. And Chris (sp?), my neighbor with the bread, also noticed that I play violin, since I have it sitting out, because I love it so much, and she wants me to give her daughter some violin lessons. She also is letting me borrow a pot until I get one of my own, which makes me smile, because now I can make rice and beans. Now I need to go buy beans. They are very nice people. Everyone here is very nice. :)
I went on another walk around 10pm, since it was still light out. Nothing was really going on. There were a lot of kids out messing around. Mostly today I tried to do some lesson planning, but I'm spending a lot of time alone, so my motivation is at an all time low. I'm sure that will change soon enough. Well, let's just hope.
Anyway, I realize this is long and without visual aid, but I hope to change that soon. Thanks for reading. I love hearing from people, so don't hesitate to comment!!! :) More Alaska fun to come.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
