Noorvik wrasslin' tournament (well... part of it)

Hello Lower 48,

I spent this past weekend in Noorvik chaperoning three girls for an elementary/middle school wrestling tournament. When I was asked, I jumped at the opportunity - since it was a big tournament, it meant that friends from inservice the first week of school would be there so I would get to see some good friends and share battle stories - but quickly realized it meant spending the entire weekend surrounded by kids. As you might figure, weekends are a safe haven for me... a time spent regrouping and keeping my sanity. This did not happen and yesterday afternoon I finally found my bed and spent a few hours in peace and quiet reading, sleeping and simply listening to the silence. It was something I hadn't heard in awhile and had forgotten how much I appreciated.

Chaperoning is an odd thing - you spend all your time with the students, you sleep on the floor, you eat cafeteria food, you get no work done.... and I love it. I go to a new village, I see new classrooms, I talk to people from all over the region, I get tips on how to make my classroom run more efficiently, and I get to spend time with new kids and know them a little better. I really do think it is the greatest thing ever, even if I wake up with my back hurting just a little bit.

Getting to Noorvik proved to be quite the task though. We were supposed to leave at 1:00, so I was prepared to get geared up and head down the hall around 12:30. At around noon a person came over the loudspeaker and said "If you're going to Noorvik for the tournament this weekend, your plane lands in four minutes. Get to the office immediately." One of my third graders was wrestling (she took first by the way!) and jumped to her feet. Well I scrambled around... I had all these great ideas and plans for my kids and I wasn't going to have time to present them to them... so finally I'm all geared up with no adults in the room. Well they send someone down and out the door we go on the sno-go. Heading over to the airport in about -27F weather flying on a sno-go meant it was the first time I had a brain freeze from simply breathing. My body was so warm.... my face freezing. My head hurts now just thinking about it. This is a picture of a sno-go with the sled behind it. We cruise around on these now that it's winter.

We stood at the airport (well on the gravel landing strip where airplanes land) for about 20 minutes in the cold and decided that it was a fluke call and loaded back up on the sno-go. I was able to go in and get my class settled before we were called again. I felt so much better about heading out... and my kids did quite alright on their turkey project I must say!

I got on the plane and sat co-pilot. Seriously! It was the coolest thing ever. I didn't fly the plane or anything, but I sat up there with my headset on and chatted with the pilot about anything and everything. I of course got my picture taken.... and felt like the coolest kid ever. I was a pretty scared the entire time my leg would hit the controls or my foot would hit a brake or something, but I proved smarter than I realized and was able to avoid any major castrophes. It was pretty freakin' awesome.

So many more stories from my trip from Noorvik, but I must sleep first. Wow... I'm stopping before we even get there. That's how you know it was some adventure.

Peace, love and hugs, hugs, more hugs,

Cristina