cOOkIeS!!!!

hello lower 48....
today might have been one of the best days ever... and not because a first grader complimented me (I think) when he said that I looked like an eagle flying. It might have been the best day ever simply because I got great music AND great homemade cookies all in one package. If you want some incredibly delicious oatmeal raisin or oatmeal butterscotch cookies - you know how to find me. The only problem is that by the time you get here, they will probably be all gone. but i'll eat one in your honor if you let me know....

so my buddy craig from the WEL program sent me out the new Eric Hutchinson cd and the cookies - with chocolate I should add. It was glorious. And the cd was in this super fun artistic case that he drew and painted and everything.  when i picked it up from the post office i was seriously skipping home. (and it should be noted that it was maybe 30 degrees today and windy - freezing cold). i kept waiting for someone to ask me what happened? why was i so giddy? but alas, i was home and got to tear into the cookies seconds later. so here's a pic of my buddy craig and me....
so what else has been going here? hmmmmmm... i would like to say that life has been so busy with crazy exciting bear fighting adventures or i've been freezing my igloo and plan to hibernate for the winter or something... but instead i've been objected to 'no child left behind' nonsense because my school is under strict watch by it and i've been simply trying to keep my head above the water.
my classroom is getting better though - i only average sending two students to the office a day as opposed to five - and i have a teacher's aid, so another set of eyes is much appreciated.
the weather here is starting to get so cold - as in it snowed the other day and now there's frost everywhere, but it is breathtaking. absolutely breathtaking. today i was walking to the post office and store and crossed over the infamous 'rainbow bridge' here in selawik. i looked to my left to see the mountains in the distance completley covered in snow. it incredible. the light was hitting the side of this one mountain, so it completely lit up. i wanted my camera, but then realized that there was no way it would do it justice. that's how i feel about the sunrises and sunsets out here too. i think i've mentioned it, but they are by far the most brillant colors i've ever seen in the sky. i love it.
here are some pictures, but i'm telling it - it does not do it justice for out here....
Awhile ago I went on that amazing boat ride and saw the prettiest rainbow ever. once again - the pictures don't do it justice, but I got the pics from one of the lady's on the boat with Jenny and me, so here's a few.... the mountains in the background, the rainbow, the perfect sky. Here it is:

No justice, but oh so pretty!

I'm going to put on my pj's and crawl into bed soon - but big news! I'm going to graduate from SIT in May. I'll be back in New England before you know it... back to the Bratt. It looks like writing my capstone on global warming from the cultural perspective is going to be a go, so I'm stoked. it's funny though - here i am in nowhere alaska, and sometimes, it just seems that when you allow yourself to follow your intuitions, it almost seems like you end up exactly where you were meant to be.

i'm off to rest - hanging out with third graders all day with very little sleep the night before means i'm exhausted....

oh and here's to great music, delicious chocolate and lots of good cookies.

Cristina

First Snow Day

This morning I woke up and contemplated getting out of bed for a full two minutes before deciding that there were lots of third graders who would be disappointed to find out that Ms. Cristina wasn't making her usual appearance for the day. So I woke up and walked into the kitchen to start my morning coffee when I noticed that it had rained throughout the night. There were lots of little splashes decorating my window and cleaning the spit on it that a child had left for all to see. Spitting is a huge part of the culture - I have never seen so many people spit all the time. Boys, girls - it doesn't matter. Everyone spits. Anyways - at this point in time it's pitch dark outside. And I'm not talking about your regular run of the mill dark - it's black. I've never seen a place so dark in my life. And apparently it's even that dark right now. By 7:30 though the sky had lifted a tiny bit and there was some light peaking through - showing me that it wasn't actually rain that had hit my window, but a light dusting of snow was sprinkling the porches and boardwalks of Selawik. I was giddy. until I remembered that it was still Sept. and then I got giddy again.

A lot has happened since I last posted. I've celebrated a birthday, I've visited another village, I've got some kind of grasp on my classroom. I'm going to try to catch you up the best I can over the next few days, but life out here is exhausting. I have never worked so hard in my life. Specials like music, art, chinese, spanish - they don't exist out here. It's simply classroom or gym. Each week I get a 30 minute break so they can go to gym twice a week. Besides that - they are mine. It's hard! Anyways, I'm making the best of it, but it means I come home each night with my feet hurting, I'm tired and I have to plan for the next day because I am not willing to go into my classroom unarmed with mounds and mounds for them to do. I've done that before and I've realized that 22 students with nothing to do equals nothing but trouble!

My birthday was actually super fun. Darren killed a moose three days before, so we had us some good ol' fresh moose burgers. Delicious. They were tasty. I do have to hand it to that boy - he sure does know how to cook. We went all out and had all the fixins'... from tomato to onion to cheese to french fries! Each of the things I just named are true delicacies in these parts, so it definitely was a celebration. Just look at that spread. Are you jealous? Or simply hungry?

I'll talk about Noorvik tomorrow. yep, I'm going to try my hardest to say something each night. It might be every other night, but it's got to be more regular than every few weeks....

There's Darren (not the best picture) being the famous chef he is. His mooseburgers were glorious. Along with the salmon he's made us, omelets, ummm... caribou spaghetti. I'm sure there's more, but needless to say - he's quite the cook.

I'm tired and about to go to bed to face yet another day of 22 3rd graders expected to learn something from me... but I leave you with this. I have a magnet on my fridge that says: "One of the hardest things to realize," she said "is that our 'someday' is right now." And all I can think about is that my everyday is most people's 'someday's,' but their everyday's are my someday's. And I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Sending warm wishes each of your ways,

Cristina

PS: It's a few day latera nd I never wrote anything about Noorvik. So Noorvik's the next village over - and it's like the Hilton over there while I'm staying at the Motel 6. It's not very nice - the houses are rough, the kids in the school system go through a lot just to get there every morning, but it's still 'home' for now. And I like it. But here are some of my absolute favorites...

Yes... it's early September in this picture - I'm with two new teachers (from Noorvik) I met at inservice - Benji (4th grade) and Nikki (1st grade).

See, I told you it was pretty there. It's pretty here too, but a change of scenary is always nice....

And here's a little one just to make you smile. And yes. that's a moose. although it's not alive, so if i don't see one here - i'm still convinced my theory will be true - moose are actually extinct. i've lived in montana and vermont and been to maine twice - where all states claim to have moose.. but alas... i have not seen them with my own eyes. so it's simple - they don't exist if i don't see them here, right? hmmmmmm

i'm off to go hang out with some moose. or some gossip girl. but who's watching? i'm in alaska!

cristina

Culture Camp Pictures

It's a holiday, so I'm ready to head home from school and chill out for awhile before preparing for tomorrow's actual lesson. I did want to leave you with a few images of last week's culture camp. It was a great experience for both me and the kids... and most definitely a bonding trip for my class as a whole. Like I've said in older posts - we berry picked, scaled and cut fish, berry picked some more, and jumped on the tundra. Oh we also stared at caribou through the binoculars. That was incredibly exciting as well... and ate eskimo pudding, moose and caribou. Delicious!


Enjoy the pics... my third graders are definitely a handful, but in these pictures they're most definitely disguised as "cute."

yummm blueberries. I'm telling you - I doubt those made it to her bag. They are that good.

Dried fish = it's how so many people eat fish out here and it's absolutely delicious. My mouth is watering just staring at it now. Community potluck is this week... there will be plenty. Come one, come all :)

FOOOOOOOD

As many of you know, fresh anything is hard to come by out here unless you've either just killed it or picked it from the tundra. That's right - there's a lot of hunting and berry picking going on right now. The blueberries are now out of season which is a huge disappointment. I promise you I had never tasted anything so delicious as a blueberry picked straight from the tundra. On Thursday afternoon at culture camp, the kids and I were berry picking and I was more like 'berry eatin.' It was a fabulous afternoon to say the least. Now there are cranberries everywhere, and while I didn't really think that I liked cranberries all that much... I was wrong. These are delicious! 

The problem with food here is that everything is expensive. Everything. That's a Gatorade for over $4. ONE GATORADE! And cereal for over 7... and this isn't even in my village - it's in the happening town of Kotzebue, the first place I was. Out here things are even more expensive! I recently bought a small bottle of French Vanilla creamer for $4.75 and thought I was getting a deal. I also got three bananas for just over $3... and I thought that was a steal because they were actually yellow! Anything that is cold or bulky is crazy expensive, but we don't really have a choice out here... eggs will set you back 6.45 a dozen, yogurt is $1.35/container, a Dijourno's pizza - $18!!! Chips are anywhere from $7-9. I still can't believe the prices, but it all makes sense. It has to come from far, far away and it's costly to ship bulky and/or cold items. I have provided a few pictures for your viewing pleasure though....

So note the fruit tray. Yes, it says $41.26. Insane! And AC's - the store where I took that picture... they had that tray out for us on an inservice day - and get this - I grabbed a piece of pineapple and it was so gross. I was telling my friend about it later that night and she said... "Cristina, that wasn't pineapple you goof - it was yellow watermelon." Yellow watermelon! Who has ever heard of such a thing. No wonder it tasted weird...

So what have I eaten that's taken some guts? Well at Culture Camp we had some caribou soup that so beyond delicious and moose meat and rice. We also got to have some delicacies - fresh from the guts fish eggs (left -apparently it was initiation) and eskimo pudding (I think that's what it's called-above) fish eggs with smashed cranberries. yummm delicious. It really was delicious though. I've provided a few pictures for your viewing pleasure. 

And big news! Tiffany, Chuck's wife (Chuck and Tiffany are around my age with two little boys - Tiffany's an aid and Chuck's the PE dude around here), just asked if Jenny and I would like some caribou meat because Darren and Chuck killed a moose this weekend! wooohooo! Apparently they saw a bear, but didn't shoot it which was kind of bummer. But moose. delish. Looks like my birthday dinner is coming together. I can't wait for those boys to get back tonight and share with us the stories of the weekend. 

What else have I had? I had some incredible salmon the other day - and there's more in the freezer. And of course moose meat soup and a moose meat burger. Yum. And it should be noted that I'm always shocked by everyone's kindness here - Happy, my principal, and his wife gave us the salmon to cook up and Tiffany just offered us the caribou meat. Who does that in the lower 48? Love it!

So all are invited anytime to come out and eat some delicious fish eggs with smashed cranberries or caribou stew. Just hop on a plane... it'll only take you about two days to get here :)

Jenny Pink: the new roommate

So I have a fabulous roommate named Jenny Pink and you guessed it: her favorite color is most definitely pink! We get along really well... and living together means our rent is crazy cheap, so that's an added bonus as well. She teaches first grade right across the hall - and by teach - I mean she spends a lot of time simply chasing them around all day. At times both of us feel like professional babysitters because of the lack of discipline these children have had over time. She's a lot of fun though - graduated from Eastern Michigan last year, first year teacher... we laugh together, she spends a lot of time crying about the craziness that is life and we watch a lot of One Tree Hill - her favorite show. I'm much more into now than ever simply because the eye candy is so fabulous on it.
A lot of people have asked if there are a lot of people out here my age and you guessed it - the answer is pretty much no. I normally just hang out with Jenny and another guy, Darren, when I have free time. Darren's pretty awesome - he makes delicious food - I heart his omelets and just the other night he showed up with porkchops and ice cream. Now one can not begin to fathom how great it is to have someone show up at your door with ice cream until you think about how rare it is to actually have ice cream out here. I was seriously having dreams of Marble Slab and Ben and Jerry's at Christmas when voila! there he was with a quart. Magic. I know. It also helps that he's pretty fun to look at, is smart and has an awesome sense of humor, but alas friends, there's no love connection there. We laugh way to much for that. Oh yeah - the lady that lived in my old apt before me apparently had a thing for penguins and he needed a toothbrush holder, so we dressed it up and made it pretty for him. But seriously - the penguin set was just a little to funny.. I mean I know we're in the arctic and all, but really? Really? Is that necessary?
There's also another girl here around my age named Michelle. She teaches 6th grade and is pretty nice, but she doesn't come around all that often.
So what do three 20 something's do in the tundra for fun when the most you can drink is a Coke? Well now - the other night we did Mad Libs and on Friday night we engaged in a few happening games of Bullshit. It is kind of nice though, you know, to realize that you can go back to the more simple things and just laugh.
So that's the friend's update. I'll be discussing the food delicacies in just a second...

Looking back to see forward (my first entry)

I've thought about this blog everyday since setting foot in Alaska. I've wondered what to say, what to talk about, and how to explain this experience to you, friends and family who have no idea what life is like out here. I find myself questioning if I will be able to paint a picture of life out here in bush, Alaska so you have some idea what this experience is like. I'm not sure how I'll do, but for now - this is the start...


I sent this out in an email the other day. Apparently I had a lot to say, and still there are so many thoughts in my head. I think these words do a decent job of showing some of the differences between here and the lower 48.... and the differences of life here as opposed to life elsewhere: I'm sitting here at school wondering when I'll finally be one of those "I've got it" teachers where everything falls into place. Today two of my students were sent home due to bad behavior. Who sends a student home because they are bad?! One child walked up to another child and clocked him... I mean right out punched him - and I didn't even send him to the office! He wasn't even one of the children that got sent home for bad behavior! That's how bad the bullying is here. It's taken me awhile to adjust, but it's life here 'in the village.'


I was not prepared for this life. Everything here is different. All of those classes I took at in Vermont could have never prepared me for life out here. It's harvesting season, so parents are more worried about hunting and collecting berries for the winter than making sure their child can read. I have 22 students - 2 are complete nonreaders, while 2 read at an almost at level level. The others are at a late first grade/early second grade level. And I teach third grad! Not focusing on reading puts a lot of pressure on me as a teacher. Third grade marks the first year kids are tested - so with two that can't read a word and about five that can only read a few words - and most reading at a first grade level, the pressure is on for me to succeed as a teacher (by myself and the school district). Everyday I go home exhausted. Good thing there is absolutely nothing out here to focus on besides school... and scrapbooking of course :)

Stunningly beautiful here? I get asked that a lot. Well I'm in the tundra, and it's flat, muddy and windy out here. There are no cars - only boardwalks that people use to cruise around on in their ATV's (or Honda's as they say out here). The other day I went for a boat ride and left the village for awhile - and saw some of the most amazing sights I've ever seen before - including a huge herd of caribou (huge for me, apparently they are only spotters out now, the real herd of 377,000 will be coming through in a couple of weeks). I do have to say though, there is something stunningly beautiful about the fact that these people have lived here for so many years and how they've managed to do so. The picture I've posted is one that I took of the tundra while flying in a 9 seater commuter plane. 


I like it here though, a lot, in the sense of this is the 'true' Alaska - the untouched Alaska - and that's the part that makes it beautiful. Plus, come winter, the northern lights are going to dance all across the sky making -60 just a little bit warmer.


It's gorgeous outside - you only need a sweatshirt today - so off to gather as many cranberries as possible. Let's hope I don't eat them all up before they make it into bucket!


Oh yeah - and for those of you that aren't aware - I'm four hours behind eastern time.... and it's starting to get dark here around 11:30pm. It was way after midnight when I first got here three weeks ago...


I miss everyone! 


Smiles, love and lots and lots of hugs,


Cristina