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

First bah-lizzzzzz-ard of the yeeeear.

Today was our first blizzard. It wasn't near as intense as I was thinking. I can still hear the wind whipping about outside my apartment though. Seeing that all of our houses are on stilts, I feel like I should be concerned. Then I remind myself that houses and people have been here for years, and life is still happening out here, so I must be safe.

As I was thinking about the blizzard and looking around, I realized that before coming up here I had this idea of the people here were almost 'sub-human.' I mean they live in the arctic so they must never get cold, right?!??! They would sweat at 50 degrees and run wild and free in short sleeves at 20 and then at 0 think about putting on a coat... obviously. I was wrong.
My eskimo friends and kids get cold just like I do! Seriously - who would have thought?! At 30, each child grabbed their coat, wore their boots and a beanie hat just like I would! At 10 degrees with the wind blowing we went outside and they complained just like I did! It was then I realized that wait! these people get cold just like I do!
I know this seems obvious to so many people, but it was a huge realization to me.

So the blizzard - Jenny and I got to test out all of our cold weather gear and we were warm and cozy. I might look like one big puffy burnt marshmallow, but at least I'm a warm puffy burnt marshmallow!

One week and one month until I'm homeeeeeeeeeee where no burnt marshmallow look is necessary :)
Cristina

So you had a bad day.

You would think that after the day I've had I would have gone to bed the second I walked in the door, but alas, it's almost midnight and I'm still awake and only thinking about dreaming. It's been one of those days where I woke up knowing that absolutely nothing would go my way. I woke up exhausted already, with the red eyes to prove it. I was doing the 'wow these jeans really shrunk in the dryer' stretches when my jeans ripped. Thank you second pair of jeans for staying strong until I could find myself to a close Express. Then I was late to work and the day with the kids was long. I came home ready to just lay on the couch and watch bad television until.............. the satellite doesn't work. hmmmmmmmmm.

The roomie and I called our local satellite expert, Brian, the seventh grade teacher, who said his was working fine. We did some inspecting with Brian outside in the 6 degree temperature only to realize that our coax cable had been cut. Twice. Once right by our apartment and once right by the satellite. Obviously whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing. As if the gods were speaking, my new neighbor walks by and we tell him what's going on. He was like, well that's pretty funny because I just got city cable today. Wait a minute!!! We put two and two together to realize that the moron cable guy cut our line going from the satellite to install our neighbor's cable. I couldn't believe it! WTF!!! Who does that?!??!??!?

So after I'm livid and convinced my day can't go any worse, Jenny and I sit down to watch Frost/Nixon. I, of course, burn the popcorn, but I still have high hopes for the movie. No kidding - during every climatic part the movie stopped. The dvd was bad. And then we didn't even get to watch the last two chapters because the dvd would NOT PLAY. I was just like... seriously? seriously? I'm going to bed now. Right now.

But I'm still awake. So I'm going to bed now where I will hopefully dream about a better day tomorrow. And life in around 40 more days because then I'll be getting off a plane in sunny South Carolina!

I will sleep good tonight, in a nice, warm comfortable bed with no one beside me. For all of this I'm grateful for though, and I have to keep reminding myself this - because a lot of my kids will sleep on the floor tonight maybe sharing a blanket with their multiple brothers and sisters in a cold house. It's sad, but it's reality here.

peace, love and lots and lots of hugs,

Cristina

poop in the shower

Why yes friends, you read that right.
Jenny and I experienced something tonight that we have never experienced. ever. poop. in the shower. and we laughed.
So about a month ago our toilet broke. It was no fun at all... the toilet simply would not flush. When this happened tonight, I didn't think twice about it. Nothing to drastic was in the toilet, so we would just tell the maintenance guy Chester in the morning. We went about life as normal in the apartment until.....
I'm exhausted. I'm beyond exhausted and it's 9:15. I can barely stay awake so I decide to succumb to eyelid pressure and stop reading to wash my face. My face soap hangs out in the shower, so I pulled back the shower curtain to grab it and screamed. Needless to say I was no longer tired. There was water in there! And not just some water - A LOT of water. Like four or five inches of water. And it was not clear my friends. No not at all. It was not a pretty sight. So I started yelling for Jenny all while laughing. I mean seriously... who does this happen to?!
Great. So now not only do we not have a working toilet, our shower doesn't work either. Welcome to the village life my friends I keep repeating in my head. I try to think clearly... my old apartment - the one we're linked with - I still have keys and there is definitely a bathroom in there, so we're safe. So I find myself in my parka, pj bottoms and boots ready to take the 100 feet walk to the door next door in the 1 degree temperature. I'm in and I'm stoked. We're freeeeeeeeee!!! I turn on the light, turn the corner and scream again. The toilet is in the shower!!! How does this happen?!
How is there poop in one shower and a toilet in another??
And why do these things only happen to me?!?!??!
Jenny and I have not laughed like this in a really, really long time. I'm bent over cracking up. I call my native friend, Alice, who laughs a lot and says, "Oh, I guess your vacuum is frozen." Apparently this is a somewhat common problem out here. The good news: it can be fixed quite easily - and only takes about 30 minutes to 'thaw out.' The bad news: The high was 7 and the low was 1. There will be plenty of days when the high is -30. Not good if the thing's freezin' at 7. hmmmmmm....
So needless to say I called Chester who told me not to worry - we'll be shower clean and clear tomorrow. He'll contact the city guys and they'll take care of it.
Oh yeah - there's a toilet in the other shower because it was leaking and he had to order another. So apparently the shower is an ideal place to store it for now....
So I always have pictures that kind of go with the topic, but I figured you would be happy if I didn't take or share those. So I'll leave you pictures of the cutest Halloween kiddies ever:
and yes, I was a 'glowing pregnant mom-to-be.' The kids were stoked - I"m not sure if they were more excited about my make believe baby or my straight hair. Oh mom - you would be so proud!

Here's a picture of the class the day before Halloween. We're just precious I know!

Three scary witches proved to be quite the entertaining photo.

Yep.. that's me as an expecting mom. Looks realistic, right? Look - beggars can't be choosy out here in the bush!

So I'm the pregnant one, obviously.. and Jenny's the cat.. and apparently Michelle went as someone from Kiss. I don't know... I don't really ask to many questions when it comes to her... but it's Halloween and we look good. Right.....

The last one I'm leaving you with is of Rainbow Bridge at sunset. Gorgeous... I know...

Hope everyone had a super fabulous Halloween! We did the best we could to celebrate... and had a good time!

Cristina

tales from Noatak

I'm back! from Noatak that is....

We had teacher inservice there from Thursday - Saturday. On Thursday morning everyone certified from five different schools across the district loaded up on chartered flights and flew over to the great village of Noatak to get their learnin' on. It actually wasn't half bad besides the fact that it was one large slumber party. Fortunately for us the district also flew over lots and lots of air mattresses, so we were slumber partying in style. Jenny and I were friends with one of the new teachers there, so she hooked us up with our room because we found out that two Selawik ladies snore. And they apparently dont' just snore, but they snore loud. So we set up shop right across the hall and kicked it there for a couple nights.

I got to drink milk! Like real milk, not the shelf kind from a carton! It was beyond exciting. Apparently it was flown over at the cheap price of $13 a gallon... so yes, it was a big deal that it was there. I have never appreciated the taste of a brownie and milk until Friday night. It was delightful.

So as you've read, it's been a hard life out here in the classroom for me and I've been struggling a lot. This inservice came at exactly the right time. It was such a great experience for me to be able to meet and talk to other third grade teachers across the district and share idea and hear their stories. It was a little hard for me at first. After hearing about some people's classrooms, I quickly came to the conclusion that no one's was quite like mine when it came to behavior. Everyone only had at the maximum 15 kids.... and they listened! I couldn't fathom a classroom like that. And then we had to pull up an assessment that the district had us give the students, and while most people had one or two students that were well below average, I had nine. NINE! So not only am I teaching a huge class size compared to my fellow teachers, but I'm also teaching an insane amount of kids third grade curriculum that can't even read. It's been a tough go these past few months.

I was pretty upset about this and feeling more and more overwhelmed... and then we had sharing time. I know that sounds pretty funny. We were all sharing our thoughts and things we do in the classroom, and my group just kept telling me how incredible I must be as a teacher. And then the trainer would mention things, and I would tell stories from my room and the people in the room would be impressed with certain strategies I've incorporated to help the kids. I learned so much last year, and finally having the chance to put it into practice is apparently paying off. I had seasoned teachers coming up to me and telling me that I must be doing something right. It was so great to hear. I felt so empowered, and I haven't felt like that in months. I finally realized that I am really good at what I do, and I needed to be reminded of this so I can walk into my classroom again tomorrow.

I'm about to go to bed now, but I'm trying to hang on to my sense of empowerment and positive outlook for as long as possible tomorrow. Just because I'm feeling like I can handle whatever's thrown at me tomorrow, I know that tomorrow will not go as smoothly as I would like. Just because my outlook's positive doesn't mean my kids have changed their discipline at all. But I'm still here and I'm still standing, so that must mean something. So come on tomorrow, I'm ready to put everything from this weekend to practice, get my kids in order and get one day closer to heading towards that little place I like to call home.

Just wait. I hope tomorrow's blog isn't about how I went to school all excited and got everything thrown back in my face....

And I bought my sister's birthday present today. Her birthday's on Wednesday, so it'll be late, but it's a priceless gift so she can wait. I swear she better be thrilled about it or I'm going to reclaim it at Christmas. I'll tell you what is after she gets it in the mail. And you'll laugh. It's that good.

So here's to another day of learning. And being empowered.

Cristina

So here's a few more food for thought pictures from the tundra:

I'm making an 'ice angel' here. My buddy Kevin who teaches 3rd grade in Buckland and I went and played on a frozen pond. It was fun but goodness it sure was cold.

I walked all over like this calling myself the 'Alaskan Southerner.' Look at that argyle with the snow pants. Priceless! It's quite the rage for alaskan southerner's. Bring it on mother nature! You can take a girl out of the south, but you sure can't take the southerner out of the girl :)

Talk about big - umm this is a whale bone and it is huge. I know whales are big... but.... I was definitely impressed by the size of this thing.

Well that's all for right now. More pictures to come.... and some with my kids in them. Woohooo!

Kivalena: it's falling into the ocean. and that's a problem.

Dear Lower 48,

I am writing feeling more refreshed than I have in days. Seriously. One would think that being a chaperone to five high school girls for an overnight high school volleyball game sleeping on a classroom floor would be beyond exhausting, but not after the week I had. The trip was a lot of fun and the perfect ending to a week that I wish had never begun.


For the past couple weeks my classroom has been in constant turmoil. The same kids will not listen and constantly try and walk around the room and out into the halls without permission. The same three children got sent home early every single day the entire week. I found myself so overwhelmed that I was always yelling at the kids. Finally on Wednesday I reached my breaking point, basically tried my hardest not to have an emotional breakdown and reevaluated my life out here.

So why the constant turmoil? To break it down quickly, here we go: A couple weeks ago one of our stores got broken into and $200,000 was stolen. There was that much money in the safe because PDF's - the money people get back for living in Alaska - were coming out and most people in the village cash the checks at the store... so the store was stocking up. They ended up taking about 12 people into custody with intentions of arresting only a few - but of course the ones who weren't going to get arrested were found with weed on them, so everyone is in prison now. Well the money was stolen from my teaching aid's grown children - so she quit because her family is now shunned throughout the village. Well that was great because I desperately need help in my classroom because there are daily fist fights among the students and I'm not comfortable with it just being me in there... but I'm once again left with no choice, so that's stressful for me and the students. And she was one of my problem student's Ahna - grandmother - so I thought that it was his mom that was the mastermind behind the stint. I know that having your mother hauled off to prison and your family shunned would have a dramatic effect on a child, so I was giving him the benefit of the doubt.

While I was doing that another child's behavior was getting out of control. Finally, on Wednesday, I had had enough. We ended up calling his parents and his dad came in to observe his behavior and then meet with me. All throughout the conference I kept saying to his dad, "His behavior has drastically changed in the past couple of weeks. Has something happened in the past couple of weeks that would cause this?" Well his dad just kind of shrugged it off and promised to work with him more. After the meeting I was talking to a teacher and she was like, "Well his mom did just get hauled off to jail for stealing the $200,000." I was like WHAT?! I thought it was (the other kid's) mom! She was like.. no... it was his. Great. I felt like such a jerk. If I would have known that I would have approached the conference quite a bit differently.

Then, while I'm reveling in that, another teacher walks in to tell me that our principal, who I absolutely think is fabulous, and his wife, who I absolutely adore even more, have resigned. As if the intensity and emotions throughout the village aren't enough to handle, now we have this thrown on us. I came home Wednesday night feeling exhausted, defeated, and questioning why I chose this career path.

I spent Thursday regrouping, reflecting and remembering why I chose a life out here. It was really, really good for me. I greeted my students Friday morning ready to kill them with kindness. While it didn't work as well as I would have liked, it's definitely a work in progress. And I hope it works. I can't handle being the teacher I was becoming. Constant yelling, constantly stressed. I had to stop and take a step back.

Friday afternoon I flew out of town and chaperoned the volleyball team to Kivalena - a village that could fall into the ocean any day now. It was a lot of fun and great mental break. We laughed a lot, ate total crap food and watched a lot of football.

Sports games are completely different out here than the lower 48. First off, multiple teams fly out to one village and compete that night and all the next day. You sleep on the floor in a classroom and hang out when you're not competing. It's interesting to say the least... There were three teams and the first night the team played two games and the next day we played two more. I got to walk around quite a bit and take a lot of fun pictures. Here are quite a few:

The sunrise was so pretty... this picture does not do it justice. It should be noted that this picture was taken after 10am. Yes, the sun was rising after 10am....

Do we look tough or what? We climbed the huge rock mountain and made it to the ocean and back. That's right - we're tough.  And Kivalena is falling into the ocean... that's why there are so many rocks.

So I'm not the best artist, but I thought it was be fun to draw a little bit of home in the dark sand up here in the Arctic.

I miss everyone all over the globe :)

and

football

and

happy hours

and

SIT hugs

and

so much more.

but I'm starting to

get homesick, so

I'm done now.

Cristina

Columbus Day? not here that's for sure.

                                                                                                      

Hi Lower 48,
I'm incredibly tired and I feel like I've done nothing but yield to exhaustion all weekend. I can hear the sound of four wheelers outside my room zooming by on the boardwalks. It's funny how the sounds of the village are so different from the sounds of the city. Four wheelers cruise by at all hours of the night and they are so loud with their lights shining into the window. In the winter it apparently shifts to the sound of snow-go's - aka snowmobiles).

Another week is about to begin and once again I have spent hours and hours preparing for the week and I find myself wishing for one more day. I would gladly accept Columbus Day as a day off simply as an excuse to catch up in the classroom. I had no idea life out here was going to be so much work. I have no idea how I'm going to start, much less finish, my capstone, but it has to happen. I will not be a graduate student any longer come May.

I finally sat down and looked at my kids benchmark scores for the beginning of the year. They were depressing to say the least. Our school district wants all kids to be in the 75 percentile - meaning they can read 113 words on their assessments with no errors. The 50 percentile should be reading 83. I have one child reading 83 - everyone else is lower. Way lower. I have two that refused to read even one word and multiple children reading below 10 with errors. My administration is behind me 100 percent, but they and the district office keep pushing new things on me - they don't know regular math facts (1 + 5 = 6), so I need to add math facts, they don't know sight words, so that's something else to add and the list goes on and on and on. Since third grade starts testing, my class is being watched very closely. I'm okay with this because it means I can get a lot of help when I need it (like begging for an aid even though they only have to give up to second grade teachers aid's), but I'm a little overwhelmed at the moment. Seriously. I am not super teacher... but I'm trying. I know that by May I'll have this all figured out (as much as possible at least) and I'll be closing my door for the summer. Never fails, right? But I'm going to try my hardest until then I guess. And I'll come home exhausted and anxious and I'll need the entire summer to recover from this year...

We watched Brothers and Sisters tonight and once again I felt the rush of homesickness. I love it out here, I really do, but sometimes not being able to do the simplest things - sit around a table, gather, sip wine and laugh with my family and friends makes me so homesick I want to cry. I know I'm doing what's right for me right now, but that doesn't mean that I hate missing out on moments that everyone's experiencing without me. Needless to say, the holiday season is going to filled with lots of hugs, laughter, and wine.

A quick story and then I'm off to dream...  Jenny wanted to play Bingo with her kids, so she created the boards and everything. Well they played one game and a kid got mad at her because they didn't win. Apparently the child was so mad that they threw their card down, jumped on their chair and started yelling "Stinky Pink! Stinky Pink! I hate you Stinky Pink!" (She goes by Ms. Pink at school). And then of course more children in her room started calling her that. Seriously! How funny is that?! I would have laughed out loud if that would have happened to me. Well Jenny had been trying to teach rhyming words, so she turned this into a teachable moment and talked to them about how stink and pink rhyme. Got to love those 'teachable moments' that are definitely not found in the curriculum. And you best believe that Jenny now has a new nickname here at the apt. Good times. Good times.

Speaking of which - how cool is this? We only have PO Boxes here, there is no mailman or anything... so there are no streets. It's so small here (village of 900) that it doesn't really matter, but lots of times you need a street address along with your PO Box for things - so we get to make them up! So far I've lived on 11 Boardwalk Drive and 4 Polar Bear Express. I change it everytime it's required. The Boardwalk Dr. one I got so excited when the dude asked that my mind went blank and it's all I could think of, so I was prepared for the Polar Bear express one. There most definitely are no polar bears in these parts, but I was definitely amused. Oh, so if you ever want to send something, my address is simply: PO Box 224 Selawik, AK 99770 If you want to make up your own street for me, go for it.. just make sure the PO Box is on there. Also, you basically have to send stuff in the flat rate boxes or else I will never, ever see it. It takes regular parcel post at least three weeks, sometimes a few months to get out here.... Oh I have a phone number too! It's 907-484-2568. Feel free to call anytime - we don't have an answering machine yet, so call until you get Jenny or me, and please remember that we are four hours behind you!

And with that said, goodnight Lower 48. I'll see you in December. Until then, I'll keep posting and looking up - there's word of Northern Lights here in next few weeks.

Cristina

Here's a few pictures of Stinky Pink at her finest:

ummm... so who says we don't know how to have fun out here in the arctic? yes, this is Jenny putting on a fashion show for all to see in her newest fashion attire from the one and only Cabela's.... the snowsuit. bring it on mother nature - she is ready to snow-go it up!

Sending hugs and love from the place that's warmer than out west in the lower 48.....

Cristina