Gone Fishin'

This last week was busy busy, getting my classroom all set up, since school starts on Tuesday. I told myself I'd actually have some fun this weekend, since from here on out I'm sure I'll always have some papers to grade or something of that nature. Friday night after school, Basil (the maintenance man at school) asked in a very Yupik way, if Max wanted to go fishing. He did that by mentioning he might be going, and then after a 30 minute conversation, Max said he'd love to go. Basil asked who else might want to come along, and I chimed in that I'd love to go if I wasn't intruding on a man trip. Basil sheepishly told me that he'd love for me to come along, after a bit of joking around saying it was guys only and that women can't fish up here. We'd be going out on the river fishing for something I think is called a chee-fish (that might be in Yupik, Max says they're called white fish) at 1:00 the next day.

Since people around here run on "native time" Basil called at 1:30 and we were out on the river by 2:00. Sara and Anthony joined us, and the 3 of us hadn't fished since we were kids, and the 4 of us had never been out on the Yukon. Talk about taking a bunch of newbs out! Basil took us about 30 minutes up the river so that we could gather an herb called Iyuk, which he likes to turn into a tea sort of concoction. We gathered a ton of it, and then headed a little further up to start fishing, while Basil fired up his Coleman stove and boiled some Iyuk for our tea. After a little casting refresher, my roots caught on and I was casting like a pro, and I think I might be hooked. Well, I was only hooked once in the literal sense, but I like fishing. My dad will be thrilled to hear that.

By the way, it's been foggy and rainy for like 2 weeks straight with just a few breaks in the weather, and today it is raining like crazy... but yesterday was absolutely beautiful. ALL DAY. I got a good sunburn.

These are the three MOOSE we saw while out on the river.
One bull and two cows. Those things are seriously huge. 

Moose again. 

The Yukon, from Basils favorite Iyuk patch. 

Fishin' in the sinking mud. 

No, that's not a baby's hand. Those moose tracks are enormous. 

We fished for about 5 hours. My arm is sore today. 

So proud, that little guy is in our fridge. 

The mud up here is no joke. 

While we were out we also saw another bull moose,
Which we mistook for a brown bear for a few minutes...
and we also saw a bright orange fox, chasing ducks! 

Pilot, from the river. 

Basil's two huge fish. 

Unfortunately I didn't catch anything, but I'm hoping we'll get to go again before the river freezes up. I'm determined!

Happy Sunday... we're back in my classroom again and I'm going to continue attempting to write my weeks lessons plans. My room looks good though, it's about ready for some kids! 

TWO MORE DAYS!

See ya on the other side!