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