A Festival, a Job, and a Summer Vacation

I suppose I have a few updates to comment on. Mostly I will refer to that which affords me the most happiness right now. The first thing I think of: SUMMER!!! I am finalizing summer plans, and things are looking up. I do have my passport, and my tickets to New Zealand are booked and paid for. I'll be there for 34 days with my good friend Bec - I'll even get to see my other friend, Ants! We will be biking, siteseeing, cooking, and mostly just hanging out together, something we very rarely get to do! It will be nice to be with such a good friend for so long. She is fantastic, and I am so lucky to have her as a friend - and not just because it gives me an excuse to visit New Zealand, although that is certainly a perk!


I am flying into Auckland, but Bec lives down towards Wellington in Palmerston North. That will be my home for over a month! The plan: she'll pick me up on Friday morning from the airport, and we'll take a sweet 4-day road trip down to her place, since Monday is a holiday.

I did screw up my plane ticket plans, however - even though I made a sweet Excel chart of my flight times and expenses - and instead of being in L.A. for just one day, I'll be there for two days before flying out to Aukland. I was a little bummed at this discovery at first, feeling as though my plans had been foiled. But I'm sure I will make the best of it, regardless. I'm pretty independent, so I'm sure I'll have a good time regardless. I'm looking forward to biking the beach bike path and sea kayaking in the Pacific!

My post-NZ travel is not quite finalized, but I believe I will be in L.A. for a day with Bec, who is flying back to the states to visit camp (where we met and became friends). After, I will fly to NYC to visit my big brother and hoof it around the city for about a week (he won't need to entertain me the whole time, but it will definitely be good to spend some time with him). I can usually find my way around pretty well, although I have been known to find myself in downtown Manhattan instead of where I was supposed to be... wherever that was... haha. Woops. Anyway, I believe will see Father Dear for an overlap of Karl visits at this time, perhaps even Mother Dear. Then it's time for a road trip up to New Hampshire for Amanda and Andrew's wedding!! Christine will hopefully (HOPEfully) pick me up on the way and we will have a sweet college reunion at a sweet wedding, and my hope is to drive back down to Philly and Pittsburgh to visit with Kamorin and Christine. From Pittsburgh, I will then fly back to Anchorage and Unalakleet, where I will proceed to fish and pick berries and move into our new apartment and enjoy my Alaska life.

So basically, 2 weeks until school is over, and I am both terrified of not finishing what needs to be done, and stoked for it to just be OVER. And for summer to be started. It's pretty much all I think about. That and lesson planning. At least I should be thinking about lesson planning.

As for the right-now life in my world... Skiing is pretty much over, but we did have one last go around: Heidi, Adrianna, Nancy, and I all decided that it was too beautiful to NOT ski, so we went out together in the beautiful weather one Saturday afternoon. Nancy is basically a professional, and she became my personal ski coach for the day. I'm thinking of hiring her (for free...) next season to help me continue improving my new skate ski skills, which is pretty much the funnest new thing I've learned lately besides ski jouring. :)


My soon-to-be roommate - isn't she cute?


Nancy, professional ski coach :)


Heidi having a good time

Last week was very, very good. When it was Jake's birthday, he referred to it as "The Festival of Jake." Well, welcome to The Festival of Karis. On Tuesday April 22, 2008, I turned the ripe age of 24 years. I don't really know what to say about that. I think it's too big for me to think about. But I do love my birthday, although I've heard that this narcissistic tendency is supposed to end around age 11. Ach so. I love the 22nd of April, which is also Earth Day! So I hope you all loved your planet last Tuesday. :)

Anyway, Monday was good. I hung out a bit with Carrie, which always a positive ordeal. But Tuesday was quite a day - it was my day. I took my time in the morning, which I really enjoy doing. When I entered my classroom I was welcomed by happy balloons and a Happy Birthday message on my board for everyone to see. I wish I had walked in on Carrie as she sneakily taped balloons around my desk. She's pretty swell. :) Three of my classes sang to me, although my favorite was my class of 5 boys who pretty much yelled as loud as they could the Happy Birthday song. It was great. That evening Dan, Adrianna, and Carrie made me my birthday dinner, the meal of my choice, which was cheeseburgers, french fries, and a salad. It was basically amazing, and my belly was full for two days. Totally worth it. It was a grand birthday party eating and chatting and enjoying good company. Afterwards we all went back to the school for the talent show, which was really good. After only a year of music class, students have learned to read music, gone to contest, competed in solos, and our choir qualified for state. They are pretty impressive. Well done, Janelle. Seriously. :)

The weather has been beautiful. That Wednesday afternoon I hung out with Rita, who is awesome. We went on a long walk because it was gorgeous out. The sun was warm, the wind was light - it was heavenly. Friday was kind of a switch in that. It started out snowing. There was some sun there in the middle, so after school Carrie and I decided to go for a nice LONG walk, which was great. Up the hill, getting in shape for the summer type walk, it was nice. On the way back?? Blizzard. What the heck??? White out, wintery windy walk backwards to save the face from the cold weather blizzard. Crazy!

On Saturday afternoon I got a knock on my door from the Assistant Principal Conrad, who was selling King Crabs for his buddy in Shaktoolik. I decided to buy a couple - $10 each is pretty good. I open the door, and there he was, holding two giant aracnid-type shelled creatures. It scared the crap out of me. I put them in a box and stuffed that in the fridge to deal with later. I was planning for that evening - baking cinnamon bread to be exact. For the final Festival of Karis event, we had desserts and drinks at Dan and Adrianna's. It was kind of last minute planning, but we wanted to do it, so we did. And it was nice. :) Good people, good food, good times. After the crowds dispersed, A, D, and I all made our way over to Jamie's for another night of fun. It was a good evening of heart to hearts. I am learning so much, and finding a good family of friends here.


Rolling Sushi for my birthday - fun new skill taught by Adrianna, the master Sushi roller.


And this is our plate of amazing Asian food. We also had Wakame and Miso soup, and Chicken Lo Mein - pretty freakin' amazing dinner! I think we'll be making lots of this next year. :)

On Sunday, my kitchen smelled like Alaska. It smells like home. I had crab steaming on my stove, my first time cooking it ever. It was a little nerve racking at first, but I am okay with it. It tastes too good to not get over the grossness. Although the crab was freaking HUGE.


This is the 2nd and smaller of the 2 crabs that I made. It was also the better looking one when it was finished cooking. This is after I cut off the weird underbelly with all the juices inside. But it has a nice color, doesn't it?


My awesome plate of crab legs - yummy!! Dan, Adrianna, and I shared the joy.

After enjoying some crab legs, I took on the daunting task of taking out all of the meat, bagging it, and freezing it. My finger tips are officially vandalized - crabs are sharp. But I felt very Alaskan/domestic

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This past week has been pretty lame. The kids are checking out, I'm checking out, and also it's about time for graduation. Graduation!!! Drama, drama, but it should all work out in the end. Anyway, I'm trying to stay focused on the school that I have left to do. Although I've been wicked tired this week. It'll all be good. :)

2weeks2weeks
summersummersummerfun!
summersummersummercome!!