A weekend of experiences

THis was a good good weekend. Friday night after a great nap--we headed over to Alison Z's for dinner. She made us baked Ziti (Yum). After Ziti Karen came over and invited us to take a steam. You see after my first experience, I have not tried steaming again. Friday though I decided to give it a try--and this time it was very enjoyable. In Yupik it is called Maqi. I am starting to enjoy it because it a something that is commonly done around here. I like the opportunity to be able to try new things while I am here.

On Saturday I decided to try skiing for the first time. I gave up after an hour due to be lonely and also being hungry. I did have a good time though and I am proud to announce that I only fell twice.

Saturday night was a typical family night in the village. This time though we watched the movie 127 days. it was rather gory and I could not watch the bloody part at all.

Lots of people have been asking about my summer plans. This summer I am leaving Alaska around the end of May. I will be in Ohio for about 3 weeks and then heading to New York for the summer. I will be an assistant group leader, and I am pretty excited for that. I will be leaving camp around the 1st and headed back to Ohio before I come back to Alaska.

Northern Lights

Just a quick blog to say that I hope everyone enjoys their Friday. I am so happy for Friday night nap tonight and to just relax and not do too much this weekend.

On Thursday night, we heard that we may be able to see the Northern Lights. Around 10 pm we took a little family four wheeler ride down by the river to see if we could see them. It was beautiful. There was a greenish haze in the sky. Although the activity level was only a 3 or a 4 it was still pretty neat to see the lights.

While out there, I learned about the different stars in the sky and was able to see different groupings I never was able to before. It was super cool!

Thats all for now. I think a nap is in order for this girl.

top shooter

As you can tell from the title, yesterday was quite the exciting day in Quinhagak. You see I have never shot a gun before in my life. Yesterday Jim asked us if we wanted to all go out and shoot in the tundra, so we all gladly said yes. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty nervous about it all, but all in all it went pretty well. We set out three different boxes with little orange targets on them and begin taking turns. I was third up in the group and did not know what to expect. I was confused because I was not able to see anything out of the vision thing and just had to keep moving it until I could. Jim was a good teacher explaining everything and I was able to hit some boxes.

It has been Allison's idea to have a Top Shot Quinhagak, although I do not think this will be happening, I will have to admit we all look pretty good firing away.

Alicia

Allison

Alison

Jon

Jim

Steph

After shooting at the boxes, we found other items to shoot at for target practice--And we all were quite successful!

On another note---I am officially staying in LKSD another year! Signed my contract yesterday for the upcoming 2011-2012 school year!

That's all for now =)

spring break continued

Well we are back at it---school is going strong and all of us arrived safely back into the village last night. I def need to take the next few days to catch up on some sleep and unpack my things still.

Last blog mentioned our trip to Fairbanks, that ended on Tuesday and we flew back into Anchorage. In Anchorage we went shopping at two different malls as well as went out to eat a few times and just explored. It was nice to be out of the village with friends just doing things at our own pace. Before leaving Anchorage, I finally got to eat at the Moose's Tooth which everyone talks about when mentioning Anchorage, so I was pretty excited. It's a pizza place in Anchorage that is pretty nice---quite enjoyable.

After Anchorage, it was to Bethel for some quality time and relaxation. The senior high basketball team was in Bethel for the district tournament. There were 8 boys teams and 8 girls team there and a 3 day tournament. It was very exciting to watch the team-On Friday I watched Quin v. Kong. This was a very exciting game and good for the boys because they had played them earlier in the season and only lost by one point, so winning this time, was big. On Saturday we headed back to the gym to watch Quin v. Tununak. This game also was very exciting and went into overtime!--basketball is big around here and there were people from all different villages there to support the different teams.

It's hard to believe that it is already March---soon our contracts will be due for next year, the state testing, prom, graduation----and it will be time to end this chapter of my first year of teaching.

That's all for now---

downtown Anchorage I think

another new animal for me to see on the trip

Fairbanks

So I thought I'd blog a little this morning, since I woke up kind of early, and am just sitting here relaxing. Yesterday the girls and I traveled to Chena hot springs in Fairbanks. I have not heard much about hot springs, so I really did not know what to except. We hoped in the car around 8:00 am and were on our way!

When we arrived we soaked in the springs for a bit---there was one outside with rocks that was probably the hottest, and then there was one that was kinda like a hot tub and also a swimming pool. After soaking we headed to lunch and then for an ice tour. The ice tour was beautiful---I don't have too many pictures, because my camera was dying--but I will upload some more once we all share our pictures.

After the tour our bodies were freezing because it was only like 20 in there. I forgot my mittens, so by the end I was struggling. We decided to go straight into the outside hot springs--it was a little hotter than we remembered and we were loud yelling it's burning, it's burning--it got so quiet as everyone was just looking at us, but def a funny time.

Finished the night off just relaxing and hanging out---Here are the pictures:

Alright on to Anchorage now, where the real shopping will begin!

There's a moose in the parking lot!

So spring break has began---we got into Bethel after much delay---thats part of the thing out here--when trying to get out of the village you just have to go with the flow--I used to stress out about it, but now I know it is nothing that I can control. Around 6 all four of us were in Bethel ready to fly into Anchorage.

After Bethel it was time to fly to Anchorage, once we got into Anchorage we waited for our shuttle and arrived at our hotel. Then we only had one thing on our mind---real food. The girls and I were hungry, so we went to the OUTBACK---it as delightful--we were able to indulge in some fatty greasy food. I had a burger with bacon and some french fries. How delightful!

Today we were all getting ready when Alison yelled that she saw a moose in the parking lot. A moose in the parking lot????? NO WAY! We all ran to the window, camera in hand--A REAL MOOSE THIS WAS SO EXCITING--This was my first moose sighting ever! Thanks to Jim and his teachings, I am learning what animals look like and can successful identify some of them, so it was exciting to see one of those animals. At first we were just taking pictures from the window, but we went for a walk and got even closer, it was so cool.

So those are the exciting things we have experienced thus far, stay tuned for more. We are awaiting our shuttle to take us to the airport then off to Fairbanks!

birthday...quinhagak style!

Well yesterday was a birthday celebration--You see I just love birthdays so it was the one thing I was looking forward to all week. I awoke to phone calls and texts wishing me a Happy Birthday, def. made me feel very happy! Here are some pictures to document my 25th birthday in Quinhagak, Alaska.

At school Steph's class made me birthday cards---they were so stinking cute--by far some of the best birthday cards I have ever received. Steph told her class things that I liked so each card was personalized with something that I like: giraffe, dancing, music, snow machines---they were great!

After school, Al cooked up a fiesta. We had a chicken dish that she makes, homemade

guacamole, cheese and crackers, burritos, corn, and CAKE--It was fun. The gang came over

and we played just hung out and laughed and had a good time. THEN after dinner something

great happened--we got Jim to play a game with us. You see Jim always refuses to play games

with us, but yesterday was different---yesterday we got a game in---he would only play one

round with us, but one round is better than none.

It was def. different not being at home and being able to go out to eat and be with family, but you know what I had fun with my new friends/ Quinhagak family.

Well that's all for now. Spring break starts today after school, so I should have tons to tell when I return from the trip. The weather here is super windy and rainy today (not a good combination). We are hoping we are able to make it to Bethel so we can fly to Anchorage. It is so funny when you think about it how much we have come to rely on the weather here. The weather tells me if I am able to visit with friends, if I get mail or not, if the store will have new food or not and other things like that---

That's all for now from Quinhagak!