My NEW home!

The picture above was one I took yesterday morning while waiting to leave the hotel we stayed at for the last day of in-service in Bethel.  It was a beautiful morning with the sun rising through the fog. 


Our last day of in-service in Bethel was good.  One even that I thought was really cool was the fish cutting.  Three of the women that work for the district showed us how they cut different fish (silver, king salmon, and I can't remember the third).  This is a big part of our students lives and is done in families. Here are the beginning (left) and ending (right) pictures.


So after in-service concluded at 3:15, we all headed out to our villages.  My flight left Bethel at 4:30pm.  I was a little apprehensive leaving, especially if you asked any of the people I rode to the airport with! Haha..I was repeating my mantra of the trip, "everything will be great!" :)

The ERA(airline) terminal is pretty small and when it is time to board they announce over the intercom that you need to meet your pilot at the door.  Once you meet your pilot (ours was Kevin), you walk out to the plane.  So the pilot, Jeff(the one other new Kwethluk teacher), two women(one was carrying a baby), and myself headed out.  

There were at least 15 planes lined up on the runway of varying sizes.  The largest probably held 20-25 passengers and the smallest held 2.  Being my awesome self, I decided to take a couple pictures of the runway and all these planes.  As we were walking I picked out one smaller plane that I thought looked cool (and we were approaching) to snap a photo of.  Well, it turned out that was our plane! I could not believe that we were going to FLY in that small of a plane.  

The picture on the left is where the pilot sat and the picture on the right is the emergency procedure card.  There were 3 rows of 2 seats each.  The ride went surprisingly well (as nervous as I was) and kind of felt like a small roller coaster going up and down.  The best thing was that our flight lasted 10 minutes! It would have been shorter, but we had to circle around once because there were people (on their way to pick blueberries) walking on the runway.  Absolutely one of the coolest experiences of my life. Here are some pictures I took on the flight.

The first three are over Bethel.

These (I believe) are of the Kuskokwim river.

You can also see mountains in the distance on the last pictures. Not sure which mountains though.

Then, my first glimpse of Kwethluk! The orange building is the school (I am pretty sure).

 I live closer to the left side of this picture (which I think is the south side of town).

The picture above (I'm pretty sure) is where the Kwethluk river (which is right out my front door) meets the Kuskokwim river.

After we landed, Jeff and I rode in to town with Yogi who is one of the janitors at the school.  On the way we saw many people out blueberry picking! After a little chaos, I figured out where I was living and had some help carrying my stuff across the boardwalk (can't get to my house with a car!).  I got pretty lucky because the picture below is the view out my front door! This is the Kwethluk river.

And here is the front of my house! It's actually a duplex that used to be the school.

We have 3 bedrooms, one bathroom, a large living room, a kitchen/dining room, pantry, 2 storage closets and a large laundry room with a freezer.  So after I made it to the house it was finally time to unpack!! I was so ready to be done moving around.  My journey had begun almost a week ago (last Thursday) and I was glad to get settled. So here are the before pictures of my stuff in my room.

I stopped for a short snack break when I unpacked a bag of Twix! 

And here are the results, well close enough! :)

Below is Cooper, my roommate's dog. He tried to help too!

I got pretty much everything unpacked and had a great night's sleep in my own bed with my own covers!

This morning I woke up and came in to the school to get a look at my classroom.  I also made a stop at the post office! I finally have an address which is:

PO Box 145

Kwethluk, AK 99621

(I will be accepting any baked goods (or store bought goodies :) ) , but please no alcohol because that would get me fired!)

For those that are curious, the Kwethluk mascot is the Kings! Also, I have a picture of the gym.

I didn't take any pictures of my classroom, but they will be coming! So stay tuned. I am finally ready to leave my classroom for the day and get some supper at home.  Have a great night!

P.S. I apologize for the length of this post. So many exciting things to report on! :)

Swanson's 1st Avenue...not exactly Saks 5th Avenue

Well today was my first official day as a LKSD teacher! Today we had a full day of learning about everything in LKSD from the culture to nonverbal cues to instructional frameworks and everything in between. We got to yuraq, which means "dance" in the Yupik language.  After lunch, the teachers were taught Yupik words for "yes", "no", "sit", "quiet", "what?", and "hurry'. I am not sure that I remember all six, but it has been great just being exposed to the language.  Lastly, we learned how to use the Rubicon Atlas, which is a great curriculum map resource for all teachers in the district.

After the in-service a few of us headed to Swanson's which is one of the local grocery stores (I believe there are 3 in Bethel!).  I had heard a little about just how expensive the groceries are in Bethel, but I had to see it for myself and thought you should too!

Let's start with some staples.  Fresh grapes (2 lbs) are $8? 30 rolls of toilet paper are over $30! Hawaiian sweet bread below costs over $5. White bread is over $4!

 After looking at what I would "need" for food, I decided to look at what I would "want" for food.  I love my salsa and chips, but salsa here is almost $7.50!

For breakfast, I enjoy bagels which were $6 for a package of 6.  I figured I could settle for some cereal, which costs around $4 back home.  The Corn Pops here are $9! And if you want to splurge for breakfast, a package of pancake batter is over $10 and the syrup is $8. I didn't even check the cost for butter.

I also found spam (which I would never eat, no offense Tara) that is $4 a can and ice cream (which I would like to eat everyday) that is $16 for a gallon!

It's hard to imagine having to pay this much for groceries all your life! I know food costs have gone up quite a bit in South Dakota over that last few years, but I can't imagine paying these prices all the time! I have to say I was quite lucky to be in a place that was easily accessed so costs weren't as expensive.

My last picture, which I found to be interesting, is the sign outside of Swanson's. The picture is blurry, but below Swanson's it says "Making You #1 in Bush Alaska." Today's experience in the grocery store helped to open my eyes to the high costs of living out in this area, and to realize how lucky I am to have lived where I did. Maybe it makes you think too. :) Good night!



"It's easier to put on slippers than to carpet the whole world." AlFranken

I felt that this quote was quite appropriate for how I felt throughout the day today (or maybe more how I should have felt)!

This morning was an early one. I work up at 4:15 to leave by 5:15 to catch the plane to Bethel. Jeff dropped me off and I have to say that even though I've only really known Jeff and Terry for a couple days, I feel like they are such a comfort and my Alaskan parents. :) I am so thankful to them for this weekend and making sure I had everything I needed. It was actually quite hard to tell them goodbye this morning.

I arrived at the gate around 6am and the flight was scheduled to leave by 6:40. Well, the weather in Bethel hasn't been very cooperative for flights this last week and our flight was delayed 3 times due to fog.  The last delayed boarding time was 7:45.  At that time, we found out our flight had been cancelled and that we were being bumped to the next flight which left around 12:30. 

During the delay, I did get to meet a group of new Lower Kuskokwim teachers who are wonderful! I have to thank them for keeping me positive throughout the day as well. I also happened to meet my roommate who heard me introduce myself to the other new teachers and came and introduced herself and her dog Cooper!

So we waited.......about 4 hours for our next flight. It gave us a good opportunity to get to know each other. 

The flight left for Bethel on time and I sat next to a teacher from the Lower Yukon School District who had her 2 year-old son Chan with.  Chan provided much entertainment to the entire plane when he decided he was too warm to keep wearing his Spider-man t-shirt and decided to take it off for the rest of the flight!

We arrived in Bethel around 2pm, relieved to finally be at our destination. It was quite a bit cooler when we got off the plane (by staircase).  When I walked into the terminal to claim our bags, I was surprised to find that all three pieces of my checked luggage (1 tub and 2 large suitcases) did not arrive with me in Bethel.  After all the delays, luggage delay seemed to be the cherry on top!

I have to say at this point in my recollection of today's events, that it was not exactly easy to keep a positive attitude with everything going on.  This is where Al Franken's quote applies.  I overheard my new friend, Julia talking about this quote and thought to myself that it is very true.  It is much easier to put those "positive slippers" on than to change everything around you.  Especially when life around cannot be changed.  I think that this whole experience will help me by teaching me patience and how to better go with the flow of life, even when it's not in my plan! :)

As I described in my earlier posts, Bethel's landscape is not very similar to that of Alaska.  A couple of us took a walk along the Kuskokwim river tonight before we went to pick up our bags to take our mind off things. So...here is Bethel!

The above pictures are all along the edge of the river including seagulls, huge crates, barges, and banks of the river.  I also saw a Polaris store where I'm thinking I'll get my snowmachine! :)

We are staying at the Long House tonight which is really the only hotel in Bethel. They have mostly bed and breakfasts.  Outside the Long House I saw this poster for the Kuskokwim 300 which is a dogsled race like the Iditarod.  I hope that I'll get to see this someday!

This is a really long post and I apologize if it's too long. Today was quite an eventful day! I have to say that my first impressions of Bethel were not the most positive, especially with all that I went through to get here but this last picture helped me to put my "positive slippers" on and I know that things will be great out here in the bush!