Feeling like an Alaskan

Apologies for how late this post is, it has been trickier to keep up with this blog than I had thought.  I find that I have been a lot busier than I expected to be.  I also have pretty much just been following the same routine all week so there hasn't been too much exciting to post.

Things at school have been going great.  My students are working so hard and doing a great job academically.  Last week we took the NAEP test and a consultant came in to administer the test.  One of the groups was given a set of fraction strips to help them with the test and they were so excited to tell the proctor that they knew exactly how to use them.  I felt very proud!

I have also made some awesome friends here.  Most of the teachers are my age and we spend a lot of time hanging out after school and on the weekends.  Since there aren't a ton of things to do, we generally just have dinner and watch movies.

The weather hasn't really been too bad either.  We have had some really cold and windy days, but once I have my gear on, I don't even notice it!  Today the weather was -10 with the windchill at -35.  It sounds awful, but surprisingly it's not.  We have also had a lot more snow lately.  By my house we have drifts about 4 foot high.  I went over to my neighbor's apartment the other day and I couldn't even walk on the ground the snow was so high.  I had to climb onto the pipe box and walk across!  It worked though.

The other crazy thing about living here is shopping at the store because everything is so expensive.  I bought a bag of chips for $10 and a 1 liter bottle of ginger ale for $4!  At least with the prices being so high, I am not likely to go there often and buy a ton of junk food.  I really do try to watch what I am eating.  We are so lucky to have a farm from Washington state that delivers organic produce to us here in the village.  That is also expensive, but worth it.

Here are a few updated pictures from my adventures around and about the village and at school.  As always, thanks for reading and keeping up with me on facebook!

That's a snow drift behind me!

This is the snow drift that is behind me in the previous picture.  It's about 4 feet high.

Beautiful sunset on my walk home from school.  We have very long sunrises and sunsets here.

Busy times in St. Michael!

It has been quite some time since I have posted an update.  I have been really busy and despite living in a town of only 400 people, it seems as though I am always running around doing something!  I have really been settling into a routine here and started to acclimate to the lifestyle.

This past weekend, I worked at the concession stand for our basketball games on Friday night and Saturday morning.  I have to say, it was a little bit sad how much junk food we sold to these kids and their parents.  Ice cream cones, nachos, popcorn, candy, chips, and pop.  And this is what they were eating for dinner!  The next morning, one of the kids came up to the booth with her grandma and her grandma asked "What do you have that's breakfast-y."  Well of course we don't have anything breakfast-y so she settled for M&M's and a caffeine free pop.  The kids do eat a lot of junk food.  There is a really nice selection at the store and a decent amount of produce, but they really want the chips and pop.  Thankfully, they do get breakfast and a hot lunch at school.

As I have said before, everyone here loves basketball.  The whole town comes out to watch the game and cheer on the players.  Our boys' team has won 2 games and our girls' team hasn't won yet, but I give them a lot of credit for getting out their and playing their hardest each game.  This is the first year in 7 years that our school has had a girls' team they don't have much experience yet.  It's really fun to see everyone come and support the teams, win or lose.

Our Little Dribblers playing against the middle schoolers before the high school game.

Go Storm!

Surprisingly, my social calendar has also been pretty full lately!  Every day after school, a few of the teachers and I do an exercise video in one of the classrooms.  This is a really fun way to burn off some energy at the end of the day and catch up with my colleagues.  I also have been hanging out with some of the other young teachers here and we cook and watch movies together.  Yesterday my friend and I went over to the 5th grade teacher's house and we made homemade noodles.  They were delicious and it was a great way to spend the afternoon.  I was definitely nervous moving up here that I would be bored or wouldn't have anything to do, but life here has actually been great!  I have been able to work on my homework for grad school (7 more weeks!) and still spend a lot of time with my friends.  I know it has been less than a month, but I don't even feel like I miss eating out or shopping...yet.  I am sure once March and April come around I will be missing those things.

I am hoping to maybe travel somewhere in March for my spring break.  I am not really sure where I want to go though.  I will definitely stay here in Alaska, but I want to go somewhere really unique since I may not get the chance again to be in Alaska.

Well this post has been quite long.  I will try to be better about updating more frequently so there is less to talk about.  Thanks for reading and for keeping up with my mini updates on facebook!

Walking home from school

Making noodles!

The finished product

Jessica and Michael posing with our finished noodles

Oh, Alaska

This is St. Michael, AK:

1. I was still at school today and my roommate sent me an email: "Be prepared to pound on the door, the lock is frozen shut."

2. A friend and I were going together on an online order and the company doesn't ship to PO Boxes.  So, we just made up an address instead: 811 Reindeer Way, St. Michael, AK 99659.

3. We are having a steak party tomorrow.  At school.  In the home-ec room...which is also the office of the counselor who works in 2 villages and lives in her office (the home-ec room) when she is St. Michael.

4. Unalakleet is the major village here in Bush Alaska and most planes and all of the mail goes through there.  We received an email from our principal: "The post office in Unalakleet is scheduled to close. We don't know why.  Steps are in place to reopen it soon."

It's a crazy place, but it is definitely an adventure I will never forget! :)

Week 1

I finished my first week here in Alaska and it has been surprisingly uneventful!  My students are very well behaved and really cute.  I am already starting to figure out their personalities and have some great ideas for the upcoming weeks.  Today we had our class council which was a great opportunity to discuss some of the things we need to work on for next week.  Things have been so busy that I haven't really had a chance to go over procedures since I had to jump right into content.  The kids have really done a great job adjusting to a new teacher and I have really enjoyed getting to know them.

The weather has also been quite mild.  We had a blizzard the other night but by morning the weather had really cleared up.  The wind hasn't been bad and the temperature has pretty much been in the teens and 20's.  There have been a few days where I have been walking to school and someone has passed me in their Honda (an ATV) and picked me up so that has been really nice.  The walk is really not bad though.  Yesterday I was walking with one of my students and she didn't want to walk on the road so we went "by tundra."  We did have some really bad wind and snow when I was walking home this past Wednesday.  I just bundled up, followed the lights, and made it home OK.  I was very proud of myself.

The big sport here is basketball.  There was a girls' game tonight and tomorrow is the boys' game.  The really cool thing is that since all of these villages are so far apart, they actually fly the teams from village to village to play.  I am planning on going to the game tomorrow so I am looking forward to seeing what that will be like

So far I have really been enjoying it here.  I am already planning to rearrange my classroom and will hopefully be doing that tomorrow.   I am sure some people are curious to see more pictures of the village.  However, it has been difficult to take pictures because the only time it is light out I am at school.  Once it starts to get lighter, I will take more pictures of the village.  I did take some pictures of the kids today and they are quite adorable! If you have any questions about my experience, please let me know and I will try to answer them!  Thanks for reading! :)

One of my favorites :)

Lost Luggage and Miniature Airplanes

Ok folks! Here is the post you have all been waiting for.  I made it St. Michael and am settling in just fine.  I haven't really gone anywhere in the village except for my apartment and school, but I am sure that as time goes on I will be able to explore a bit more....although there really isn't too much to explore!  I really can see from one side of the village to the other, so I guess I don't have to worry too much about getting lost.

Speaking of getting lost......I had a near panic attack in Anchorage when my luggage did not arrive.  My flight from Pittsburgh connected through Denver and we landed a bit late.  I almost didn't make my connection so I was definitely worried that my bags wouldn't make it.  I was right to worry.  I have giant purple suitcases and as I was standing in the Anchorage airport at 11pm local time (3am Eastern time) I saw every color suitcase drop onto the carousel, but not mine.  To make matters worse, when I called United Airlines to find out about my missing bags, they had no idea where they were!  I thought that was what those bar codes are for!  Apparently not, they are just for decoration.  Finally I found out that my bags were in Seattle and they MIGHT be placed on a flight to Anchorage the next morning.  Luckily I had a hotel so I went there and waited and my luggage did arrive in Anchorage and I picked it up before I headed to St. Michael.

The ride to St. Michael sure was an adventure as well.  When I checked in at Era Alaska Airlines, they not only weighed my luggage, but also asked how much I weigh!  I wasn't overly thrilled about that, but I told them and didn't even lie!  I figured it was better to tell the truth than to lie about my weight and end up in a messed up airplane.  I do have pictures of the plane I took from Anchorage to Unalakleet; however, I wasn't thinking and took them on my phone rather than my camera.  I will try to find a way to get them onto my computer and post them here.  My plane into Unalakleet was not too bad.  There was about 16 seats, but they were not full.  I also had a delicious chocolate chip cookie and some tea so I was good to go.  There was a lot of turbulence during takeoff, but once we got to cruising altitude it was fine.  I then took another plane from Unalakleet to St. Michael.  This one only had seats for 7 people and all of our luggage was just stacked in the back of the plane.  It was only a 20 minute flight from one side of the sound to the other and if I had to guess, we were only about 5-6,000 feet up.  I actually didn't feel nervous on it at all!  When we landed my principal picked me up and brought me to my apartment.  Overall, it was a pretty easy day, especially once I got my luggage.

Now I am here and have my classroom all set up.  I will take some pictures of my class and post those the next time around because this is already really long.  I have a bit more work that I need to get done here in the room before I head back to my apartment.  For now, here are a few of the pictures I have taken.  They aren't too exciting, but I will make sure I take some more!

My kitchen.

My bedroom

My apartment building

The view of my school from the porch of my apartment.  I will be walking to and from every day.

A view of the village during my walk to school.

Tomorrow is the big day!

Tomorrow is the big day when I leave for Alaska.  I can't believe how quickly these few weeks have flown by since I decided to go on this adventure.

Thankfully, I now have a phone.  Some of my awesome friends went digging through junk drawers and I was able to get a phone that will have service there.  This was one of my mom's biggest concerns so I am so thankful that we were able to find one that will work in my village.  I will not be using my old phone number, so if you try to call or text me at that number, I won't be able to respond.  The best way of keeping in touch with me will be email or facebook.  My email address is kbresz@gmail.com.  I also will be able to skype: kristie.bresz.

I am just about finished packing.We ended up packing an entire suitcase of food including a cooler with a ton of frozen foods.  I have stuffed shells, stuffed peppers, pierogies and even a small turkey breast! :)

I can't wait to get there and start to figure everything out.  I am really looking forward to getting into my classroom and meeting my students.  I promise a lot more pictures will be making their way here soon, but here is a last picture of me as I get ready to go with my goggles and face shield!

Help!

I am in need of an old AT&T phone to take with me to St. Michael.  There is only 1 tower there and it won't work with any smart phones. I am looking for an old flip phone so that I can use their month to month plan. I would definitely return it to you when I get back from Alaska. If you have one, you would make my mom's day! :-)