March Comes to a Close

Wow.  It's been 20 days since my last post.  My last post was the night I finally arrived in Unalakleet after another experience with Alaska Air Travel.

Working Weekend
Of the 14 early childhood teachers in the district 11 of us were able to come to Unalakleet for a working weekend.  This was the first time we had been together as a group since August when we went to Nome for training.  Of the 11 teachers, one lived in Unalakleet, one arrived the night before, I was the only teacher flying seat fare.  The other 8 teachers were on a charter.  There plane was supposed to arrive at 8:30pm on Thursday night.
Well, 8:30 passed and 9:00 came.  The Era building was empty and locked up for the night and there were no lights on out on the runway.  We were going to have pizza for dinner when they arrived at 8:30 so the three of us who were waiting, Julie, Heather, and I were getting kind of hungry.  Finally around 9:30 when Julie and I headed to the district office to make some phone calls to try to track down the plane, we saw the runway lights go on in the distance.  We got right back in the truck and drove back to the airport in time to watch the plane land and taxi toward us.  Unlike in St. Michael (where the runway is 2.5 miles outside of town) the airport in Unalakleet is right next to the village.  We drove out to the plane, loaded bags and teachers into the cab and the back of the pickup truck and headed to the five-plex where the district dormitory it.  While the newly arrived teachers took their bags inside the rest of us got to watch the most amazing display of Northern Lights that I have seen yet.  Julie said she has never seen Lights like that in Unalakleet since she has been there.  They were vivid green and stretched across the sky.  While we watched they began to dance and even began to look like the wavy picture we always see of the Northern Lights.  The best part came when the dancing Lights reached a point where pink showed through along with the green.  We loaded up in the truck again and I sat on the tailgate with four other teachers to continue watching the Lights on the way to the district office and to dinner.  We finished eating around 10:30 and by then the Lights were gone.  We didn't see them again while we were there but there were a few who tried--meaning they went outside every 10 minutes to check the sky...late into the night.

Sunrise over Unalakleet: 9:30am 

Snowdrifts around the Five-Plex.  See the window almost buried in the snow?  That's where Ellen and I stayed in August on the way to St. Michael.  The bottom of the window is about a foot above the ground, usually.

The other side of the snow drift.

Iditarod
The famous sled-dog race began the week before I went to Unalakleet.  Guess what...Unalakleet is one of the checkpoints on the Iditarod!  The first mushers would arrive in Unalakleet around midnight on Saturday night/Sunday morning....wait...I left Unalakleet on Saturday at 4:30pm.  Yep I missed it.  I was able to go see where the dog teams would come into Unalakleet and see the bags and bags of supplies that were waiting for the mushers when they arrived.  While I didn't get a chance to watch the sleds come in...this year...Donna, the ECE teacher in Shishmaref, stayed an extra night in Unalakleet just to see the mushers come in.  She took some great pictures on Sunday night.  (I should mention now that while we were in Unalakleet the temperature remained between 25 below and 15 below zero.)  She let me share her pictures on Facebook and I am going to share a few of them here.  Next year I hope to take my own pictures.

Here are the bags of supplies that were flown in for the dog teams.  Each one is labeled with a musher's name and number.

These are bales of hay.  When the dogs come in the musher will spread out the hay on the snow for the dogs so they can sleep and stay warm.

This is the slough (river) where the dog teams will enter Unalakleet and head to the checkpoint. 

Off in the distance there is the freighter that was in the water in August.  Now it is leaning sideways frozen into place.

Aliy Zirkle was the first musher into Unalakleet so she received some gold.   The mushers' first priority is to take care of their dogs.

The mushers spread the hay for the dogs, unharness them, feed them, then they talk to the reporters and the people who are watching.  

Spring Break
We passed the equinox which means we now have 12 hours of daylight, plus we had Daylight Savings Time begin.  While the sun is up for 12 hours we still have about an hour of light before sunrise and a hour of light after sunset.  So, it was getting light around 9am and getting dark around 11pm.  This lead to staying up until 3am (our latest time) and sleeping until 11am...for the whole week.  Nathan and I decided to just camp on the couches for the week.  We pushed our two full-sized couched together in the middle of the room so they made a boat shape and worked, did homework, watched movies, played video games all from our comfy camping spot in the middle of the room.  A wonderfully lazy week.  During this week we were able to enjoy another wonderful display of Northern Lights.  The reason for these colorful displays was the annual Spring Solar Flares--bad for satellite internet, great for Northern Lights.  (Temperatures ranged 10 below to 10 above)

The snow around my back door.   The wind blows so much through the playground that is sculpts the snow.

The snow blew into a big drift on the right side of our stairs.

Here is the snowdrift that I walk through to go to Bible Study.  The first time I walked through the drift I wasn't wearing my snow-pants.  

The icicles that formed on our roof.  The roof is metal so the snow will melt a little, form a layer of ice, and then slowly slide off the roof.

My new pizza creation!  Apple Crisp Pizza.  

Back to School
Monday started off a great week.  The kids were well behaved and attentive which I wasn't expecting after a week off from school and longer daylight hours.  We had 14 out of 17 students which was a pretty average number.  Tuesday arrived with 8 kids...9 of them were sick.  We had reached the flu/strep season.  We finished the week with 10 kids.  (Temperatures ranged from 15 below to 15 above and we received 8 new inches of snow)
This Week (Yay!  I'm caught up!)
We still have a few kids fighting various colds, flus, etc, but we are averaging about 14 kids again.  There are 7 weeks left of school for Head Start.  We are working on ordering gowns for graduation and next week I will begin my month of post-tests.  I will be re-tesing all the 3 and 4 year olds (now some 5 year olds) using the ESP and PPVT like in September to see how much they have grown.  I have the month of April to complete both tests of each child individually.  The ESP takes about 45 minutes each and the PPVT takes about 10 minutes each.  I am still working on my classes for recertification in Alaska and am enjoying them both.
This morning the sun was rising at 8am.  What a beautiful sunrise!

Alaska Travel....get used to it

This week my Wednesday evening routine was shaken up by an upcoming trip.  I would be leaving for Unalakleet for an ECE (early childhood education) working weekend at 3:30 on Thursday afternoon.  I have kids until 4pm so this trip means that I will be leaving from school.  I packed my clothes and gathered other things that I would pack the next morning.  Overall, by the time Thursday morning came around and I walked to school (carrying my travel bags) I felt very “in control”. 

I know that some of you caught on to the foreshadowing of that comment.

I had email Carolyn when I received my travel itinerary asking how mid-day travel works when I am teaching.  She told me just to stay at the school as long as I could and be picked up from there.  That’s what I did.  3:00 rolls around and I am finishing up the Head Start Newsletter for the 3s class and the 4s class.  3:25 comes and I am thinking how I haven’t received any calls from the big school about who was coming to get me.  3:30, 3:40, 3:50. 

4:00 I call the big school.  Liz answers the phone.  “Are you calling about your plane?” 

“Yes.”

“It will be here at 4:15.  Elias is going to pick you up at Head Start.  Tim tried to call you earlier.  Here he is.”

 Tim: “I called your house and Nathan said you left already.”  (I think: Yeah to go to work.)

“Nope, I’m still here.”

“Okay well Elias is going to get you.”

“Thanks.” (Now I am a little worried.)  I have time before Elias is going to come so I walk over to the house to put away some school things (next week is spring break!).  Nathan says, “You’re still here!  Tim called and asked where you wanted to be picked up.  I said you were already gone.”

“When did he call?

“3:30.”  (Now I am annoyed…but not going to panic).

I head back to Head Start and see that Elias is there.  I grab my bags and head out to the truck.  We pick up Albert and head to the airport where we wait, and wait, and wait.  This is nothing new.  Go with the flow. 

The plane arrives and Albert and I walk over to it.  I hand up one of my bags and overhear Albert ask, “Is this direct to Nome?”  (Red Flag)

I turn to the pilot who took my bag, “This is going to Nome?”

He said, “Yeah, where are you trying to go?”

“Unalakleet.”

“That’s not us.”  I turn to look at the truck driving away. 

The pilot continued, “We did have a plane go to Unalakleet but your name wasn’t on it.”  (Great.  Thanks Era!)  “There’s a mail plane that should be in Stebbins soon, maybe Hilarry (our village “travel agent”) could call them and have them stop and get you.”  He proceeded to talk to Hilarry and Hilarry said he would call.  The pilot also said that he would call to see if there was a plane nearby that could get me.  Neither gave me a definite answer.  This resulted in the plane taxiing and flying to Nome, Hilarry taking his truck (yep he had a truck) back to St. Michael, and me standing against the door of the building (not even sure what’s inside it) waiting for a plane to come—but not even sure if one was coming. 

Fortunately, unlike the beginning of the year, my AT&T cell phone works in St. Michael.  So I call the big school (it 5:30)…no answer.  I call Nathan and tell him what’s going on and ask for Carolyn’s home number.  I call Carolyn…no answer.  So I took advantage of the beautiful evening—sun was shining, no wind was blowing—and called Michelle, my sister, for a nice chat.  After talking to her, I called Tim and told him where I was. 

Yes, I’m at the airport still.

No, Albert and I were not on the same plane.

Yes, Albert was going to Nome.

No, I need to get to Unalakleet.

Call Hilarry and see if he found me a plane.

Tim tells me he’ll come get me.  I shouldn’t be at the airport by myself.

Within two minutes I hear a wonderful sound from the direction of Stebbins—yes is it ten miles away…over flat frozen ground…with no noise—the sound of a small plane engine.  Sure enough a dot appeared above the horizon, and got closer and closer and closer.  Within five minutes the plane was landing.  At that moment Nathan called, “Tim just called and said there is a plane landing any minute now.”

“Yeah, it just landed.”

“He said get on it.”  (I was planning on it even if it wasn’t the intended plane.  I was going to be very convincing.)

So I got to ride on my smallest plane yet.  Two pilots and me…all the seats were full.  Single propeller…loved it!  My own personal taxi to Unalakleet. 

We flew over the ocean…completely frozen and covered with snow.  Unlike other trips I have been on this time the pilots didn’t stay right along the shore.  We were at least four miles out (it is hard to judge from a plane).  As we got closer to Unalakleet I saw the first body of water (liquid water) that I have seen since early November before the bay froze.  Just one little strip of water moving slowly between banks of ice at least four miles out on the ocean. 

After arriving three hours late I was still the first one here.  Everyone else was on a Charter that arrived at 8:30pm.  Dinner:  Pizza from Peace on Earth! 

Alaska Travel Lesson:

            Yes wearing all your winter gear for the plane ride can be bulky, cumbersome, and can make you hot and uncomfortable (especially in Anchorage), but when you are stuck outside waiting for a plane you don’t know is coming at 10 below for 40 minutes when the sun is beginning to set, you are very thankful that you put on those extra layers!

Fun in February

As March begins, third quarter ends, and Spring comes--in the form of longer days-- I am taking a few minutes to reflect of the month of February.  

We made phones with tin cans and string.  The kids had a great time playing with them, but we had to remind them to pull the string tight.  Staci is watching while Kyra and Matilda use the phone. 

Lennie and Logan are having fun talking in the phone.

The boys "win" the girls in the daily bathroom race.  
Front to back: Clarence, Logan, Chris, Zach, Paul, Lennie

Showing off how we walk in the halls.
Front to back: Nadine, Clarence, Chris, Logan, Zach, Paul, Lennie, Leandra, Tennille, Kyra,  Matilda, Staci, Christine and Teacher Cecelia.

Nadine was able to trace the marker lines left on the board to re-write the Daily Message.

Having fun in Gym.  The kids love having their pictures taken and a few of them thought it would be cool to run at the camera for a picture.  So we did it as a whole class.

A beautiful Friday morning...

....turned into a beautiful day!  Nathan and I took Katie's honda for a ride outside of St. Michael after I finished work.  

Looking across the frozen bay at St. Michael.  Look closely and you can see some of the buildings.  

Looking away from St. Michael across the frozen tundra.  What a beautiful day!