The snow finally started to melt in UNK, and we saw lots of things that we have not seen in a very long time. Things such as: the sun, the ground, my porch chair, out my window, and people wearing regular clothes outside as opposed to parkas and snow pants.
And then, of course, it was my birthday. Happy Earth Day! On April 22nd I turned 25 years old, which means that I can now rent a car without all the extra hassle. It really was a festival this year. Judie and Sissy made me a Kuspuk, which is lovely, and in the traditional Unalakleet style. Sissy threw me a slam bang party with all the fixings. (I still don't have the pictures from that...) And I had dinner with Adrianna and some other friends. It was a really great week!
Moving on... During the week of August 27 - May 1 I was lucky enough to travel with BSSD high school seniors who are UAF bound to visit the campus in Fairbanks. We left the warming temperatures of Unalakleet (somewhere in the 30's I think) to the sunny summer weather in Fairbanks - it pretty much hovered around 70 degrees and clear skies all week! Unfortunately I didn't plan very well, so most of my clothes were tailored to UNK spring, so it got really hot. BUT, it was totally worth it. I think it made it harder to be in the cold of home after that.
Vanessa was the leader of the group. I'm so glad she asked me to go! We had a great time getting to know each other better. So many laughs!!
We hung out with our BSSD students and some graduates who are now at UAF. I really like being with students in an outside-of-school setting. It's fun to get to know them as regular people and not just as students. :) Of course, I was always the responsible chaperone.
We visited the museum at UAF, and there were a few really cool things to look at, like Mammoth bones (I love Wooly Mammoths!) and sculptures. There were also some Saber-Toothed Tigers and other pre-historic remains. I think this is pretty cool - I pretty much love dinosaurs, although I haven't done much about that until recenetly (foreshadowing).
Moving on, that very weekend we returned was prom, which is a very big deal. I'm not much of a dresser-upper, so I had to borrow a dress from Sissy. And since prom was at the auditorium at the other end of town, Adrianna (my hot date) and I had to walk down, which meant we had to figure a way to protect our nice clothing from the mud.
I wore pants underneath with rubber boots, and when I got there I wore flip flops. Pretty classy, huh? Anyway, here's me with Adrianna and Janelle at Prom 2009. I was even wearing make-up, and A did my hair, and I wore earrings and stuff - I felt so prissy.
Thanks, Sis, for letting me wear your dress!! She made an appearance in the middle to watch the crowning and pick up cake decorations for her mom, Judie, who is the ultimate cake-maker ever anywhere.
Alright, so prom ended, and we had one week until graduation, and then one more week after that until school was out. Needless to say, it was pretty chaotic. Plus, I was trying to pack up my house to move it all to Koyuk, clean up my classroom for the next teacher (Adrianna!), and organize all that I wanted to take with me and leave behind - I threw a lot of stuff away. This is the one good thing about moving so much - it helps me keep my life simpler, with less stuff.
A few other events that I partook in during the last 3 weeks I was in town include...
The first picnic of the season! Sissy and Judie and Adrianna and I went out to the beach to build a fire and eat brats. Mmm!! God bless the Germans for inventing brats. It was a beautiful day, even if it was a little windy.
One minor anecdote... When we got there, we of course unpacked the car, and Adrianna and I had brought our backpacks so that we could hike back from the bonfire, practicing our packing and hiking skills, getting used to carrying the weight and using our packs. So we took them out of the trunk and put them on the ground right behind the Jeep so we could get to the rest of the stuff. Sissy realized she had forgotten some things, though, and decided to go back to get them. As she pulled out, she inadvertently backed over our packs (A's was brand spanking new), then pulled forward over them again! And it gets better. When I packed my bag, I put in things like, a tent, clothes, survival gear, stuff that I would put in there anyway. Adrianna weighed hers down with canned food. So when Sis ran over the packs, she was left with some surprises inside...
Like a completely flattened can of artichokes. Now her brand spanking new cool backpack has the sweet aroma of artichoke juice forever soaked into the fabric. But this did not keep us from having a good hike back home after dinner. :)
We did other fun outdoor things, like hike up Army Hill...
And the last day of school the school has a picnic for all the students, so the high school actually went back to Army Hill, only it was much clearer than the day we had hiked up.
You can kind of see town if you look closely, but that's all the ice on the ocean that's starting to go away. It was gone, but a lot more came in from farther out, but it's warming up. Break-up and melting is happening, and before I left we were able to walk on the beach again, which was so nice! It even smelled like beach, which the cold takes away during the winter, so it kind of smelled like fall again. :)
The week after school, I stayed in town for CASC, which is the committee that goes through our standards and curriculum and makes revisions and changes and updates based on the needs that teachers see. I was on the Reading CASC this year, which was great because I got to work with amazing people, some of my favorite people actually. We had some good laughs, good talks, and of course, got lots of work done.
One great thing that happened was the official signing of the Lease Agreement between me and Jenna, the "Yurtlord" as she calls herself in the contract. (We had plans to fill it with figurative language, but lost time.) She is the wonderful woman from whom I will be renting the yurt. It's getting all pimped out, and basically it will be a rockin' place to live next August.
I spent a lot of time with friends from around the district and in Unalakleet. I tried to get around to everyone so that I could say goodbye properly, make sure I see them before I no longer live there. Of course I will be back there to visit, hopefully often, it will still be very different. I think the worst is that I've made some friends recently, and now I'm leaving, so I feel like I am sort of just missing them. But all is well, and one fortunate thing about BSSD is that distance friendships are somehow maintainable because we are so spread out.
One person in particular... Katie! On more than one occasion we have been traveling through Anchorage around the same time, even though she lives on Little Diomede, which is quite a ways farther out. But anyway, she's a good friend, and so much fun to hang out with! She came through ANC on the 23rd, the same day I came in, so we spent the day together.
After I picked her up from the airport and we checked into the hotel, we did the only natural thing anyone would do as soon as they got into town after a long year in the village: we looked for a tattoo place.
Well, Katie didn't get a tattoo. But I did! I already wanted one, so it's not like it was totally on a whim. But what it is that I got is a little different than I had originally planned. This decision is due to some new friendships I have formed... not a bad thing, just totally unexpected. But I am happy with it! And I think it's a pretty awesome tattoo. (Am I allowed to blog about this?? I know my bosses are reading this...)
Yeah, I got a pterodactyl on the small of my back. So it's not like it's on my face and everyone has to see it all the time. And yes, it hurt, but it was totally fate. Katie and I searched and searched, and everywhere we went they were either closed or booked. We had kind of given up on getting it done that day, although Katie was much more positive than me. As we pulled into the parking lot to go to Bear Tooth for dinner she said, "When God closes a door, He always opens a window." And as we parked, she looked up, pointed in front of us, and said, "Tattoo!!" And so it was, a tattoo place had just opened right in that very spot just two weeks ago. We went inside and asked if they took walk-ins, to which the guy replied, "Yeah, he'll be done with her in about 5 minutes, and then we can take you." It was fate, even though I don't believe in fate, really, but if I did, this would have been a sign. (Lately, with everything working so well, even around all the things that aren't working, my non-belief in 'fate' is really being tested...) I showed him the pictures from the children's books I had picked up so he could see the design I had in mind, and this is what he came up with. Pretty sweet!
So why a pterodactyl, you may ask? The line of the century, something I will never forget, the advice given to me while being convinced that it was a good idea, "It's just a tattoo." Okay, NO one says that. But I like dinosaurs, and even though pterodactyls are not dinosaurs (they are flying reptiles, thank you Alex), they are prehistoric, and they are cool, and no one gets a pterodactyl on their back. I mean seriously. I was going to get the trinity, pretty simple, you know, Mind, Body, Spirit, pretty classy. I was told, though, "EVERYone gets the trinity. That's so normal!" So if I do get that, it will be later. For now, I have a prehistoric flying reptile stamped forever on my skin, and I am totally okay with that. I think it rocks.
(I hope I don't get in trouble for writing about this.)
Anyway, I'm hanging out in Anchorage for the week. It's really nice and warm and sunny here, which is great!! I even got sunburned yesterday. :) My first one of the year! My face has more color, and even though I've eaten pizza every day since I've been here, I think I look healthier. I love the sun!
I'm off for a bike ride. I'm sure I'll get plenty of comments (right??). Take care! I'll try to update more frequently... :) I love summer vacation!
