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.

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. :)

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!!)

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.

vi·car·i·ous

adj. felt or enjoyed through imagined participation in the experience of others: a vicarious thrill.

As promised to all, including all zero of my readers, I am posting updates of my upcoming adventure to Alaska, with a short pit stop to Colorado, which is being vicariously experienced by so many, or so they say.

It's a ride, isn't it, this whole life thing that we somehow got stuck in. I have been in Indianapolis for almost 8 weeks, which is the longest stretch of Indy life I've had since before I went to college. It was easy to leave then after all my short visits, with only the 2 weeks of random hellos and how-are-yous and approximately 6 minute updates with the few people who remembered me (not including family, of course). I just wasn't home enough to have close friends here anymore, save for a few. I couldn't wait to get back to my own life. Now it seems I've made my own life here, as hard as I try to avoid it, avoid the investments, I mean. I guess regardless of where I am, investments in people and attachments to relationships are inevitable, and maybe that's a part of me I just have to get used to and live with. Yeah, that's pretty much the option. Anyway, now that I've actually started to like it here and started to figure things out, I have to bolt again. It came so fast, this leaving part. It's funny how time works, isn't it? It's the most common occurrence, for time to go by, and still we are always surprised by it. I mean, we brush our teeth twice or more a day, but it never shocks us. We never say, "Oh my gosh! I brushed my teeth this morning!!" But we always say, "Oh my gosh! It's Thursday! A whole week went by!" Well of course a week went by. A week always goes by. It just does that. So I guess maybe we should get more excited about life and say more things like, "Oh my gosh! I took a shower, just like I do every single day!" or "Oh my gosh! I totally pushed the snooze this morning!" or "Oh my gosh! I hugged my friend today!" or "Oh my gosh! I prayed this afternoon!" Hmm, I guess we'd actually have to do that last one to actually get excited about it...

Anyway, this church thing, I'm totally getting into it. I hope whatever church I find in Unalakleet is at least half as cool as Church 52. Seriously, talk about church family. This pretty much defines it, although I'm still not very good at meeting new people. (This is where I start to feel guilty about not being settled, because I don't meet new people because I figure it's not worth it because I'm not settled. It's an ugly cycle.) This morning at church I was going through the roller coaster of emotions about moving, oh, 5,000 miles away, give or take, because it was my last Sunday at C52. I was feeling a little terrified, a little sad, a little excited, a little nervous, a little (fill in the blank), etc. It was funny, because during worship I was like, "Okay, God, you know I haven't been very faithful with my prayer life, but I gotta tell ya, this is huge. I don't know if you knew this, but this is huge." Yeah, I know, but we all say dumb things to God sometimes. Anyway, I went on. "Seriously, God, you have to go before me. Go before me. Because I sure as heck can't do this alone, not without you. I have to know that when I get off that dinky aircraft you will be waiting there for me. You have to be there before me. Go before me. Go before me." And I just kept saying it. I thought it was great how Pastor Perry's sermon touched all over that "go before me" stuff. I was like, whoa, hang on, that's just crazy, because I just said the exact same thing. It was peaceful there. P.Pear (Pastor Perry: I just made that nickname up, just now) is pretty good at that sort of thing.

Mmm-kay. I'm going to give you some photos of some of my last days here. Limbo here in Indy wasn't so bad, and it has given me the right beginning to the next big thing.

Church 52 Family - nothing better (though there are some faces missing...)

This is my pastor, Pastor Perry, or what I thought was a semi-creative nickname, P.Pear. And no, I cannot explain this picture.

Kelli. Well, a lot has been said about this newly formed pair: "It's weird to see you without the other one..." "The two-headed monster speaks!" "Yes, you're little friend can come over." "We really are nothing alike, are we?" "Those two dictators get along really well." "We're deeply in like." Mostly, she's amazing, and I like playing Boggle, and she took my bear, and I eat her food, and we shared secrets. Shh.

And how could I forget the cutest baby in the whole world who spent my whole summer with me? My cousin Layla - (no, she's not my daughter, although watching her, I saw some frightening similarities between us: she likes to eat, she burps loudly, she's easily distracted, she whines for no reason sometimes, she's only affectionate when she feels like it, she decides when it's time to have a conversation, she hates to be alone, you can't tell her anything, she has blue eyes and blonde hair, and, of course, she's breathtaking and charming, minus the uni-brow, which we also share) - I love her to pieces. Also, she looks great in a mohawk.

Good day, and good night, and good morrow. This is what you get. That's all I've got. Leave me comments. I like to read them. :)