planes, kids, and CARIBOU

Today my friends is an exciting blog, oh the stories I shall share with you today—I can’t sleep so I’m sitting in the hotel (I’m in Bethel) feeling all important with my laptop on my lap sipping on some tea with some music lightly playing in the background.

So I never wrote about berry picking that was on Sunday…what a fun time…I knew that this would be much like fishing and if I didn’t find the perfect berry, I would in-fact becoming over berry picking as well! So the girls and I set off (looking pretty darn good I might add) to collect some berries…my favorite part of the trip was when Steph asked Rachel to bring her weapon…weapon to berry pick? Oh yes I’m in Alaska I remember and there are scary bears who may try to eat me…but Rachel had us covered. So we picked and we picked and we picked some more…my poor fingers were aching. I took many breaks where I just sat on the tundra. Ate about 338749348394839 berries and thought I was going to vomit. I may have eaten more then half of the berries I collected. And you guessed it after about an hour, my legs were sore, my teeth were turning a purplish blue, and a had one heck of a belly ache. So berry picking was a great time, but much like fishing. If I’m not finding marvelous things I am done…goal for next time..FIND RASBERRIES…they are oh so delicious, really hit the spot

Alright this week has flown, I am slowly starting to get into the swing of things I believe. This week has been one of the toughest weeks on me personally thus far, but I believe that these things happen for a reason. My math class is going well and I was happy that one day this week I got 10 out of the 16 in my class to turn in their homework, I was so proud! It is fun implementing my own teaching strategies and trying to think about every single student in my classroom. These are all things I had to sit through and hear about in boring lectures for 4.5 years. And now that I get to try things on my own..I LOVE IT.

Monday Steph’s parents came to Quinhagak to visit! Sipped on some hot chocolate (and I may add this was the best hawt chowlate ((people here think I have a funny accent)) I’ve ever had. Jim thought we were making fun of him, but it’s the small things here you begin to love. It was soooooo good! Roomie and I were talking about it for days!

Later in the week, we did our part as citizens and registered to vote in Alaska. I felt so important, got a sticker and all! Doing the small things makes me feel like part of a community, and something bigger.

We also let children visit our house. Visiting the teacher’s house is a HUGE thing here, its equal to me getting to go tanning, those who know me know I love my tanning. So anyways we let some children into our house. The first thing we always do is introduce them to Gill, because hey he’s one g-o-o-d looking fish. Then we got out all our paints, markers, crayons..and ladies and gentlemen it was Picasso time. We had a great time creating beautiful pictures for our fridge (pictures to come) After pictures—I always give a piece of candy and they are on their merry way. It makes me realize the small things you can do for people to make them happy. The children love the chance to just sit and get to know us. We don’t have to do anything big, just be ourselves (charming and witty of course) and take time to get to know the children in our village

So the best part of this blog is going to be about my trip to Bethel…So Thursday at 11 am my principal told me that there was an opportunity for me to go to Bethel for training, I said okay thinking this baby wouldn’t be until a few days and that would give me time to mentally prepare to leave my roomie. So I told him okay and he responded with Okay you leave at six. SIX I THOUGHT? OOH NO I HAVE TO LEAVE ALLISON—So I spent the afternoon writing some sub plans and preparing myself for a night away from the person I’ve been with non-stop for the past month. We did our routine mail run, our routine after school snack overload , I packed, and then we waited. The three of us (Gill, myself, and Allison) had some quality music and bonding time before I left.

If any one knows me, going to Bethel on a small plane alone, staying in a hotel, and then trying to find my way around Bethel is WAY out of my comfort zone, but I am proud to say I am doing this now as I speak. This truly is an experience where I am pushing myself to do things I normally wouldn’t want to do.

So I get to the airport and I see the smallest plane I have yet to be on. I instantly want to pee in my pants. I tell myself that I’m 24 and I should be able to do this. So I climb in, it’s only me I thought so I said If I freak out there will be no one there to judge me. BUT WAIT…The pilot informed me we needed to taxi over to pick up the caribou. And then he goes I hope it doesn’t smell to bad. I didn’t know what this meant and I was as scared as a little bug about to get squished so I just smiled. I don’t think I actually knew what that meant. So we taxi over, I’m looking nervously. I see a big tarp that is all covered up. And THERE IT IS. A BIG OLD SCARY SCARY DEAD CARBIOU. IT HAS HAIR, BLOOD, AND ALL. At this point I think I am going to be sick. I ask the pilot what on earth this is and where it’s going to go. Right next to you he replies. Again I thought this was some sick kind of joke, and my friends were going to pop out yelling April fools. So they haul this caribou into the side VERY close to my seat and I get a look. I was mortified. I wanted to walk to Bethel, not ride next to this dead animal. On a positive note it was confirmed I had no one to impress so if I freaked out like a baby, the caribou wouldn’t judge.

So the pilot gets back in and I must have had this look on my face like I was going to hurl. He said are you okay? I was like yes I think I am just super creeped out that there is a dead caribou next to me. At least it doesn’t smell he replied. YUCK YUCK YUCK! The ride wasn’t too bad and the pilot kept looking back at me to ensure I was okay. WHEW that was one heck of a trip!

I have a few more stories about this trip but I am running short on time.

So this leaves me with some thoughts I’ve really been pondering the last few days. The word I’ve been thinking about is embrace. The last few weeks and before I left people kept telling me how proud they were of me. Proud of what? I have been asking myself this the last few couple of days, because I felt I wasn’t truly embracing the moment. I feel that now I owe it to myself to truly dive in and get to know everything and anything about this experience and the people around me. I am committed to getting to know my surrounding so I can walk away from this with a new understanding and appreciation for life that is different from my own. I am going to try new things (which I think I am doing a good job of) and try to look at the positive things..which is an aspect I have always needed to look at. I am going to be more confident. If I am confident about this experience, my teaching, etc it can only be good!

Alright enough of all of that!

MISSS YOU ALL =)