How Time Flies..

Hello again! I apologize for not posting last week. Our first quarter ended last week and I was finalizing my grades all day last Sunday which left only enough time to plan for the upcoming week.  It is amazing to think that I am one fourth complete with my year. And how the time has flown!!

The last two weeks have been filled with volleyball practices and lots of time in the classroom.   Unfortunately I haven't been spending as much time as I would like with Raisin, but luckily he has a best friend to play with at home!

With all of the time I've spent at the school, I decided to take a day completely away from the school last Saturday. I was very productive at home! I vacuumed, did laundry, and baked an apple crisp :) I can't say it was as good as my Grandma Ila Mae's, but I was pretty impressed with it. I got to share my apple crisp with two of my volleyball players on Saturday night when they stopped over to say hi.  We had some tortilla soup and apple crisp! It is so amazing to make the connections with students and see how incredible they are both in and out of school.

This last week was quite busy with Parent-Teacher Conferences on Wednesday and Thursday nights.  It was also spirit week! We ended the week with Kings Day on Friday. The social studies teacher and I dressed up in black and blue volleyball knee pads and wigs! Kwethluk also hosted a wrestling match on Friday and Saturday.  There were three teams that came:  Nunapitchuk, Napaskiak, and Bethel Gladys Jung.  Kwethluk placed 2nd and had 3(I believe) 1st place individuals. I got to help out by running the scoreboard and was so incredibly proud of our students who wrestled!

Four of our high school students traveled to Wasilla this past week to attend AASG convention for student government.  Our student council president and I were talking about what she would get to do on the trip and she was very excited to go to Starbucks. I jokingly said she should bring back a drink for me.  She laughed and said she wasn't sure she'd be able to get the drink through airport security.  I was pleasantly surprised when I answered a knock at my door this afternoon and saw the student standing with a Starbucks cup in hand for me! :) I guess it will be my turn to bring Starbucks back for her over Christmas!

I feel like this blog has been a little random, so I'll finish with the weather! It has been much cooler this past month.  The Kwethluk river (which runs in front of my house) is beginning to freeze up and I was surprised to see how much ice is on the river.  Many people have begun to talk about snomachines and getting excited for the snow! Considering it is almost November, I'm sure the flakes will soon be flying.

I would like to add in a quick thank you to Bev and Lyle and Patrice for the packages I've received in the mail the last couple weeks. The tortillas are much appreciated and Raisin loves his new toys and treats!

Today I glanced at the calendar and realized how quickly my first year is going. I feel like the first quarter is a blur and cannot imagine how soon it will be Thanksgiving (in 3.5 short weeks!) and Christmas! Before I know it, I'll be flying home for the break. I will say that my first 3 months in Alaska have been an unforgettable adventure that has opened my eyes to a completely new and exciting part of the world.  I have learned so much about my students and their culture as well as myself. I can't wait to see what the future holds for me here up north!

Bye for now :)

Volleyball opener

Hello again! It has been an eventful week for me in Alaska.  I am up at the school right now putting together my lessons and finishing up grades from last week, but figured I could spare a few minutes to share my newest adventures with you.

After a productive 3rd week of practice, the Kwethluk Kings Mixed 6 volleyball team traveled to their first games in Aniak, AK.  You can see where Aniak (green B marker) is in comparison to Kwethluk (green A marker) on the map below.

The 7 players and 4 adults flew out of Kwethluk at about 4:30pm on Friday.  The eleven of us fit into two 6-seaters for the 45 minute flight to Aniak.

I snapped a few photos on the way.

 

Loading up the first of our two planes.

Above you can see the girls were all smiles as we started out.  Unfortunately the 45 minute flight was a little bumpy and none of us felt well when we arrived.

Below, you can see some of the landscape we saw on the way.  On the left are mountains that you can see from Kwethluk, not sure what they are called.  The picture on the right is of a huge lake(Whitefish lake I think) we flew over shortly before we landed in Aniak.  You can see that ice is forming on the edges of the lake.  The great thing about bush planes is that they fly low enough for you to see the ripples on the water.
 








The scenery in Aniak is much different from Kwethluk.  It is surrounded by mountains and they have many many more large trees.  You can see the village in the picture below.

 Shortly after we arrived in Aniak, their volleyball coach picked us up from the airport.  Aniak is in a different school district than Kwethluk. They are in the Kuspuk district.  There were two other teams that played in the tournament, Tuluksak and Akiachak.  Those schools are both in the Yupiit school district.  We were the last team to arrive in Aniak, and as soon as we had eaten supper provided by the school we suited up for our first volleyball match!

The gym in Aniak (and school in general) is much newer and bigger than ours.  You can also see that the Aniak high school mascot is the Halfbreeds.  I didn't believe my volleyball players at first when they mentioned that to me last week, so I decided to google it.  Here is an article that I found: Aniak Halfbreeds

Our first match was against Aniak, which we lost in 2 games(we played best out of 3).  Garret(my co-coach) and I could tell that the kids were nervous for their first game, but saw some glimpses of success throughout the match.  We played Tuluksak right after that and the kids tried again to shake the nerves of their first games.  Unfortunately, we didn't play to our potential and lost to Tuluksak in two games.  The tournament was double elimination, so we were done the first night with games.  Although the kids seemed a little frustrated(as were the coaches) we felt that it was a good beginning to the season and gave us a list of things to improve upon. :)

After the last match of the night, the kids played some basketball and volleyball in the gym.  The night became much more exciting when the Akiachak coach came and told us that the Northern Lights were out that night! It was incredibly cold outside, but the view was worth standing in the frigid temperatures.  Seeing the green lights dance across the sky was an unforgettable moment and allowed me some time to reflect on all that I have been able to experience in these short two months since I've been in Alaska.  

I tried to take pictures and video of the Northern Lights, but it didn't turn out so I found some pictures of them online.  Here is a link to some pictures of the lights from that night from other towns in Alaska.

We woke up Saturday to a clear sunny day and planned to watch volleyball rather than play because we had been eliminated from the tournament.  However, the one team we hadn't played yet wanted to play after they won the championship, so our kids suited up for one more match.  Our third match started off a little shaky, but by the end of the 2nd game(which we ended up losing) the kids had gotten over all their nerves. After our last match, we packed up to fly home.  Our plane left at 1pm and we enjoyed our less turbulent ride home to Kwethluk.  

The ride home was much nicer and some of the kids even slept!

Here are a couple of pictures of the scenery on the way home.

 
We arrived in Kwethluk around 1:45 and were shuttled from the airport to the school.  After an exciting weekend of firsts, I was exhausted and went home to take a nap and watched a couple movies last night.  

Today is another chilly, but beautiful day in Kwethluk and I hope to get my lessons and grading done so I can head home for the night and relax with Raisin. He has been up at the school with me patiently waiting (and napping) while I work.  

Hope you all have had a great weekend and are ready for Monday! :)

New friend!

Happy Saturday! Hope you are all enjoying a lovely fall weekend.  I had been scheduled to travel to Bethel for a New Teacher Inservice, but due to weather I was lucky enough to stay in Kwethluk for volleyball practice yesterday and attend the inservice via VTC.  This week has been another crazy one.  The biggest news though is my newest friend!

Yes, I now have a puppy! Raisin(not sure about the name yet) was outside the school all day on Tuesday and one of the other high school teachers brought him in at the end of the day.  She planned to find him a home.  I held him for 10 minutes and decided that I couldn't let him go. Rachel took him to the vet for me and we found out that he was born in the middle of August.  He has been wonderful so far and was very quick to find out where the food is! He chows down and licks the bowl and follows me around the house. 

Other than that big news, we completed our 2nd week of volleyball practice and I am already starting to see big improvements in our players! The kids are getting excited for our first matches next weekend in Aniak! :)

After an exciting and busy week I am ready for a weekend off. So I am going to head home for the night! Have a great weekend!

 

FIRST Snow!

Hello again to all my faithful followers! I have been crazy busy in the great north with volleyball starting last week as well as trying to get all the other day-to-day stuff done. I'm sure you're all busy as well.

I wanted to share with you the excitement that I woke up to on Saturday the 29th of September! SNOW!!!

 Although the snow is gone already it stayed around for a good part of the day on Saturday. I was told that the snow won't really stay until the end of October.  But it was pretty exciting thinking about being able to ride my snowmachine!

In other news, our school did a Community Mentor Day on Friday at school.  The high school and junior high students were asked to invite a community member that they admire to shadow them at school on Friday. The turn out was great and it was so nice to meet the adults that support our kids. We also celebrated that night with a party for the students and their mentors. We played basketball, video games and volleyball until 11pm at the school.  The kids had a great time and it was nice to see the students in a fun atmosphere without the pressures of homework and other classroom standards.

My first week of volleyball practice went well and I have a wonderful co-coach that knows the kids and volleyball even better than I do! I think the kids are enjoying practices and are really looking forward to our first games in Aniak the weekend of the 12th.

I will leave you with some more pictures of the snowy day and a quote from a Dove chocolate wrapper I found on Friday.

 

"Open your eyes to all the love around you."

I hope you are all enjoying the fall season and beautiful colors and take time to appreciate the sights and sounds around you where ever you are.

Bye for now! :)