BSSD In-service

We flew into Unalakleet this past Monday and will be here until Thursday afternoon. Bering Strait School District is having in-service this week. I thought it was cold in Nome when we left, but it is freezing here! The breeze is what really makes it cold. I was glad I had pulled out and wore my winter coat, snowpants, and boots. BSSD has fifteen different schools, plus us at NACTEC. There are a lot of people! The school is full of air mattresses, pillows, sleeping bags, and suitcases. I am in a workshop on blogging. Today is the second day and it has been a great learning experience! I am working on setting up a blog for NACTEC. I hope to have students write about their experiences at NACTEC on the website. After it is all set up, I will add the link to my blog. Monday evening we had a BSSD first. A friend of mine, Lisie, and her fiance, Ben, decided to get married at the in-service. So, we had a wedding! Lisie and I both moved to Alaska and started working for BSSD at the same time. She was my first BSSD friend. She had a special seat for me during the wedding, right up front. They both listed people out they would like to have sitting up front, and I was the only one on her list, made me feel very special and important! After the wedding, there was wedding cake and ice cream. They both teach in Savoonga, which is located on St. Lawrence Island. Last night I went with some friends to Peace on Earth, a local pizza place. We had ice cream while we were waiting on our pizza. It was pretty good. They also have a ping pong table there, so we enjoyed challenging each other in that. Most villages do not have a restaurant, but Unalakleet is a larger village which houses the BSSD district office, so there are a few more things here than you would find in the other villages. There was also a group here last night, Pamyua. They are a Yupik musical group. They describe their music as tribal funk and world music. They were fun to listen to and watch. Well, I had better start paying attention here.

Lunar Eclipse

At 1:50am, I am in a deep sleep... The ringing of the telephone wakes me up and I think, who would be calling me at this hour? I pick up the phone and it is my mom on the other end of the line. Living so far from my family, I have a moment of panic thinking what happened? My mom immediately says, go look out your window, there is a lunar eclipse. I look out my bedroom window, but I don't see anything except the cross on top of Old Saint Joe's Church. Mom says, look out to the west. I stand there thinking, with my 2am brain, which way is west? After a moment it registers, I have been looking west. So, I proceed to go outside and look up and around west, north, and east. Still no luck... I go back into the apartment thinking, we should be able to see the same moon, where is it? I decide to walk to my front window, and there it is! South over the Bering Sea. And look... it is a lunar eclipse! For the educational side of things, a lunar eclipse happens when the earth gets directly between the sun and the moon, blocking the light that normally reflects off the moon. Me, who always forgets to have my camera out, actually thinks I should try and take a picture. I lay the telephone down and pick up the camera. I get a lovely view of the eclipse in the viewfinder. However, when I click for the picture to take, it doesn't turn out. I think, I hope the photographer for the Nome Nugget is up with a camera... With this spectacular sight occurring, my mind wanders back to August 1999, Romania. I was there, with Habitat for Humanity, and had the opportunity to experience a total solar eclipse. We were standing on the side of a mountain, surrounded by nothing. I remember seeing darkness, almost as a line, coming towards us very quickly. Then, being engulfed in total and complete darkness. This darkness lasted for a few minutes, then light began to come towards us. Thus far, the solar eclipse is one of the most beautiful, spectacular, awesome, and unbelievable experiences of my life. It is indescribable. Now the time has come for me to take one more peek out my window before heading back to bed for some sleep before morning. Good night and may each of you feel as blessed as I do right now, here in this moment, in this time...

Cripple Creek

Friday afternoon and evening was so fun! I went with some friends out to the Gold Mining Camp at Cripple Creek. We took ATV's and a Ranger and drove out west beach to get there. It is approximately 12 miles there and takes about an hour if you keep moving. On the way, we took our time, stopping several times. To get to the camp, we had to drive through a creek. I wasn't paying too close attention on the way in and I looked down and my feet were completely under water! Luckily I had on waterproof hiking boots, so my feet stayed dry. Upon arrival at the camp, there were still a few people out mining for gold. We talked with them for awhile before heading to the buildings. We had dinner of salad, spaghetti, garlic bread, and cake with the different miners. The miners pay to come out there and pan for gold. Everything is provided for them and they get to keep what gold they find. Also, there is a machine there that pans for gold, whatever gold it gets during the week is put together and then there is a draw for the gold, one lucky miner will win it all! A lot of people come up from the lower 48 to try their luck. After dinner, everyone gathered for entertainment and singing. We stayed until about 10pm, then we started back to Nome. The creek was deeper to drive through on the way back out. On the way back, one of the 4-wheelers got sucked into some soft sand and water. Luckily it was able to be pulled out and then it started right up. A good time was had by all! There is a very good article and photos in last weeks Nome Nugget about Cripple Creek.

Day at Salmon Lake

Yesterday was a great day! I went with my friends, Kim and Corey, their four children, and Corey's parents, to Salmon Lake, which is approximately 30 miles outside of Nome. They put out the net to catch some salmon (Red's). It is the end of the run for the red's. Did catch several of them though. Corey is going to smoke them, that should be very good! Can't wait to try them out. Also went driving further up the road, almost to mile 70! Saw lots of musk oxen. Then, on the drive back we saw three baby fox and their mother. They were playing in the road when we first saw them. We drove up to them very slowly. They finally went off the road and into the willows. Then, one little baby peeked out of the brush and came back out on the road right next to my truck. It looked at us for a bit, then turned and went back into the brush. Experiences like this is what makes me love rural Alaska so much! It was a wonderful day!

Summertime!

I made it back to Nome from Indiana. I really enjoyed visiting with my family and friends while I was home. The four weeks went by way too fast! After arriving back in Nome, I worked as a camp counselor for DAWN (Drugs Aren't Wanted in Nome) Camp. We had nine youngsters from grades 6-8. Camp was five days. We made rockets and launched them, painted rocks, made face masks, made greeting cards, went to Pilgrim Hot Springs for a day, as well as many other activities. It was a lot of fun, but I was ready to start sleeping in my own bed at night, instead of freezing in a tent. This past Tuesday evening, I went with some friends out on their fishing boat. We netted salmon, fished rock and reek with no luck, and just enjoyed the beautiful evening. The sun was shining, the water was calm, it was awesome! That was my first time out in a boat on the Bering Sea. Then, Friday and Saturday, I went with a friend of mine to Anchorage and Talkeetna. She is looking at possibly moving there, about two hours north of Anchorage. Wow, the tourists are everywhere! You can definitely tell it is summer! It has been a fantastic summer thus far!

Happy Summer!

I am so excited, summer break is officially here! We had a great group of students and they flew back to their villages this morning. It has been an awesome school year and it went by so fast! I am planning to leave on the 9:30am flight this Sunday, spend the day in Anchorage with a friend, and then head towards Indiana at around midnight Sunday. Should arrive in Indiana on Monday afternoon. I will be there until July 17, which is when I head back towards Nome for a few weeks of fishing, camping, and enjoying the midnight sun. Right now the days are about 22 hours from sunrise to sunset, which means it never gets completely dark! It has turned cold here in Nome. The beginning of the week was so nice, sun shining, 60 degrees... But, the last three days have been chilly. It is currently 42 degrees, breezy, and spitting rain. I was hoping to do some fishing this afternoon and tomorrow, but not in this weather. Although I should actually be grateful for 42 degrees, much warmer than it is throughout the winter time! Had lunch today at Fat Freddies with my co-workers, not the greatest place to eat at, but it is a piece of Nome's history. There is a great view of the Bering Sea out the window there. Didn't see any sea life today, the waves were too big. When I was there a couple weeks ago, I saw three seals playing in the water. Someone saw a polar bear Thursday, June 7, at mile 17 south of Nome, towards Safety. Here are the pictures of it from the Nome Nugget. Photos by George Feldham NOME VISITOR — (top photo) A polar bear strolled along the beach at Mile 17 near Safety on Thursday, June 7. (center photo) As soon as the bear spotted humans, he made a flying leap into the Bering Sea. (bottom photo) After his escaping from civilization, the bear may try to catch up with the arctic ice pack.

Anchorage Trip

I arrived back in Nome Saturday night after spending the last week in Anchorage. Not living on the road system makes it very strange going into the city. So many people, cars, buildings, etc. It is a lot to get used to. The tourists are everywhere this time of year! I definitely prefer living in rural Alaska, off the road system. While in Anchorage, I took two classes, worth 6 graduate credit hours total. There was a culture class and a history class. I have had a temporary Alaska teaching certificate and in order for me to renew it, I had to take these two courses. Very interesting classes, only problem now is I have to write several papers to finish out the class, but it shouldn't be too bad I guess. As for shopping, I didn't make it to Wal-mart, but I went to one of the malls a few times and also to Fred Myer (kind of like Wal-mart). I also went to Cold Stone Creamery, yum yum! Anyway, I am back in Nome, will work for one week, then head to Indiana on June 17 for 4 weeks. Summer is off to a great start!

Kougarok Road

Friday afternoon, after I got off work, some friends and I drove about 60 miles up Kougarok Road. We stopped and fished a few times along the way, unfortunately I didn't catch anything. There is still a lot of snow on the north side of the mountains. We saw lots of wildlife, a herd of musk oxen, several reindeer, a mama moose with her baby, lots of different birds, and best of all... a mama grizzly with two cubs! The bears were fairly close to the road so we stopped and watched them walking and then running away. Mama bear even stood up to look at us. I wouldn't want to be close to her! Of course I forgot to take my camera along, but one of my friends had a camera, so when I get the picture I will post it here.

Unalakleet Fun

I returned to Nome last night after spending a week in Unalakleet. After spending the days working, it was time for fun in the evenings. Monday night, three friends and I went fishing. We filleted the fish on the truck tailgate and then built a fire to roast marshmallows. While we were hanging around the fire, a fox came along and went over to the truck to begin eating the discarded pieces of fish. It was very cool to just stand there and quietly watch the fox. Occasionally it would look up to see if we were still keeping our distance, then it would continue eating. It was a great night getting up close with nature.