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