We Made It!

Well, we're here, and all is wonderful.

The village is beautiful, there are a ton of trees, and we've got a nice view of the Yukon River from just about everywhere.

Looking down on the town from the airstrip, at dawn.

The 360 degree view from the airstrip above town

The people are all really nice, and we've met lots of people around the village. We get stares, because we (and the other new teachers) are the only new people in town, probably this year. The returning teachers haven't reported yet, so thus far it's just us 4 newbies in the school and the janitorial staff and office manager. All of those people are Yupik people, and they have been teaching us about the culture and showing us around. Our matenience guy, Basil, is probably going to take Max and I fishing soon. We've spent a lot of time walking around town and going to the store just to make ourselves known and to meet new people so that once school starts it's not quite as overwhelming.

I've been working in my classroom a lot, and it's starting to come together.

This is how it looked before I started working, it's come a long way since then. 

I'll post pictures of the final product soon! 

This is the view outside my classroom window

The fireweed is EVERYWHERE. So pretty! 

Today is mine and Max's 7 year anniversary, so we decided to get out and about and see the surrounding area. We went with our neighbors Sara and Anthony who are also new, and Sara is the new school councilor. We went berry picking up on the tundra hill above the airstrip, and it was a perfect and beautiful day! It only rained a little bit, and we got a ton of blueberries! They're wayyy better than the ones back home, and they grow really low to the ground and each plant has about 4 berries on it, that are way bigger than anything else on the plant.

Another view from the airstrip, looking toward the Yukon

Picking our dessert

Happy 7 years, Love! 

Everything is so wonderful, it's so nice to go home at the end of the day and disconnect without having texting, data, internet, or TV. I'm sure we'll get sick of it eventually, but for now it's a breath of fresh air and we're both getting a lot of reading done and we're getting used to just sitting in silence and looking out the window every now and then. 

This next week will be busy busy! I've got new teacher training on video conference all week. I hope I'll have some more time to work in my classroom! Well, I think that's all I've got the energy for, for now! I'll try to write more regularly!