Happiness

I recently had a conversation with my mentor about how I'm beginning to realize that regardless of the situation or location, Max and I are able to be incredibly happy. This year has had it's ups and downs, and teaching has been incredibly difficult at times, but we have always been able to leave that at the school, and come back to our house that really feels like home, and simply be happy. Sometimes we forget we live in Alaska, and other times we just stare out the window in disbelief that we've actually done this, and that we live here. With that being said, we could probably be happy anywhere else too, and is part of the reason that we're in the process of deciding where in the world to go next year. It'll probably be somewhere new.

That was the first day my mentor, Todd, was here. The next night he was here was because of bad weather. He and another guy who was working at the school, Will, from Portland, crashed at our house, and Sara and Anthony came over too. We all had a wonderful time talking about life, books, the future, weddings, and we played a good game of Apples to Apples. It was so nice to have some company, and was wonderful to talk to someone from "the outside". I was thinking about how funny it is to invite someone into your house who you met a few hours earlier, but then I realized that it might be strange if there was another option, like a hotel in the village, but since there isn't, it's just the norm. We wouldn't have had it any other way, and it was such a wonderful opportunity to hear new perspectives, to network, and to help someone else out. Todd comes once a month, and Will said he will probably be out again before the end of the school year, so we've made new friends!

In fact, Todd has offered that we stay in his cabin near Denali on our way out in the spring, so we're now in the process of planning an adventure including touring around the Anchorage area, making our way out to Todd's cabin, visiting Max's uncle's cabin in Delta Junction, and finishing off this wonderful adventure with a ferry ride from Whittier to Bellingham. More on this later...

Anyway, when someone comes out here because they want to, one can generally assume that they're a pretty cool person. I don't think it's much of a coincidence that we all get along so well.

I thought it was a little ironic and funny, that we spent the week in language arts
writing about how we can make people who are new to Pilot Station
 feel welcome, and then I got to try this out with our visitors.
I didn't take them to all these places, unfortunately.
I was pretty impressed with this list my students came up with though! 

Today Max and I were talking about how incredibly lucky we are to even have this experience. Many people come and visit Alaska, and many people move up to "Alaska" and live in Anchorage, but it is quite the opportunity to be able to live out here in the bush. This isn't a place that many people can just come visit, because if you did there would be no where to stay. You also can't just move out here, there are no houses for rent or apartments. There is almost no feasible way to come out here and just live, unless you are a teacher and they think you're up for it. We always have the best conversations while we're out on a good hike, getting some sunshine and exercise.

Here are some pictures we took from todays adventure: 

Puddles

Our iced over runway

The trail up toward the tundra hill, and to St. Mary's

There was a "warm" breeze up at the top of the tundra hill.

@1:00 pm

This is what a beautiful, sunny day looks like

Life is GOOD. 

A White Thanksgiving and A Countdown Until Christmas in Oregon!

We're going to talk about this long weekend backwards, because that's how the pictures uploaded. 

Today we went on a walk because it was beautiful out, and we realized that the hillside of the village we live on NEVER gets sunlight this time of year, and probably won't until May. So we have to get out of the house in order to get some vitamin D. 

It is 9 degrees today, with a windchill that makes it feel like -6. When we got back from our walk neither of us could feel our cheeks. However, I got some new boots (Sorel Glacier Boots) and they are made for -100 degrees, so my feet were toasty warm the whole time. We walked out on the river a little bit, but don't worry mom, we didn't go out in the middle. We're still a bit scared of falling through, even though people are already zooming up and down the river on Hondas and Snow Machines.

Rosy cheeks and a frozen mustache

The frozen Yukon behind me

These holes in the ice are for catching
Arctic Lamprey Eels. 

Walking on the river

This is where the sun lies at high noon.

Our snazzy WARM boots

An ice flow from a spring coming out
from under the cliff. 

The cliffs

Frozen moose head

Max and his Moose-cicle

This is sunrise on the village, as you can see,
they get sun, we do not. 

I got caught eating pumpkin pie for breakfast

Now for Thanksgiving…

We cooked our first turkey ever, and as you can see we did not burn it, or the house down, so it was an overall success.

Fresh things up here aren't very common,
so with our turkey, we had instant stuffing,
instant mashed potatoes, a store bought
pumpkin pie, and some sparkling cider.
It was quite decadent, other than the mashed
 potatoes which were terrible. 

After we ate we lounged a bit, fought off the turkey sleepies, and then went for a nice walk up to the airstrip.

This is what the dump looks like when it is on fire,
and it smells 100x's worse than it looks. 

I am looking forward to these next few weeks, because we get to decorate my classroom all wintry, and do fun Christmas activities in class. Luckily up here, I think we're about the least religious people here, so Christmas is not banned, and I think it would be frowned upon for me to NOT celebrate Christmas with my class. This Friday is also an early release, so this week is essentially a 4 day week, then we've got 2 full weeks of school until break starts. 20 days until we fly out (if we're lucky) and 22 days until we are back in Oregon! 

Reflections are good for reflecting.

Today is one of the more beautiful days I've seen in Pilot. It snowed last night and is about 25 degrees. The river is starting to freeze up along the edges and there are huge chunks of ice floating down. I don't get out of the house during daylight very often now, as our day shortens, so I figured I better take advantage of today. 

The sun rise was beautiful this morning.
This is at about 10:30, out our guest bedroom window. 

I had a friend join me on my walk down to the river. 

A perfect reflection.

When I got down to the river today it was so beautiful I didn't want to leave, so I just kept walking. While out on my walk I realized that since the water is so much lower the cliff that usually keeps us from walking any further along the river was no longer submerged, so I walked around it and just kept on walking! It was awesome to see some new territory, and it was even more beautiful than where I had started… Here are the pictures from my discovery:

The shadows are blue.

Here are some pictures out our living room window of the river and the village. This place is so much more beautiful with a little dusting of snow. The houses are so bright and cheerfully colored, and when the snow covers up the mud it looks like a paradise. If only we didn't have those stupid power lines always photobombing my village pictures. 

I'm feeling really happy today. It could be the sunshine, or the snow, or just the fact that I got out of the house today and was able to be active and breath some fresh air.