Another Sunday of Football...

I am here at the school watching the Lions (!) pasting the Broncos 45-10 at this point. We have hit on the strategy of pointing the webcam on the other end of the Skype connection at the television set. It isn't perfect, but it is pretty darn good. We may get TV at some point, as there is apparently a hookup to a satellite dish coming to our housing building, but that is still speculative at this point.

November looms over the horizon, and the weather is following. Chilly and ice/snow. We await the freezing of the river. Tomorrow is Halloween, and we will have the necessary silliness to go along with the day. I am not sure whether or not to post pictures, as I am not into an excessive amount of self-humiliation. There will be trick or treating tomorrow, and a carnival Tuesday night. I am not expecting lots of concentration from students this week. We shall see if I am correct in my prediction...

The Rest Of It...

The speech contest was a success, at least as far as spending some time with some of my students was concerned. We got through two nights of sleeping on classroom floors without too much incident (I borrowed an air mattress from the District Office), except for the sleepwalking situation that took place on our second night there. One of our guests in the room apparently got up, rolled up his sleeping bag, and proceeded to leave the room. He went, fortunately, to his sponsor's room, and they must have directed him back to us, because he was there in the morning. I was so tired at that point that I slept through the entire thing. Some chaperone.

I took my kids to lunch at our favorite Korean restaurant in Bethel, and they got to learn the use of chopsticks. One practiced on french fries, which strikes me as truly international in nature. She described that later as one of her favorite moments. I like that.

The kids did well, especially considering that at least two of them had never done such a thing before. I thought it gave all of us a nice break and a chance to do something different. I may be taking high school kids to the competition in November, which will be interesting and different.

Now we are ready for yet another shortened weekend, as we have a contracted work day tomorrow. It often feels as if we have no time that is not work time, and a number of people are beginning to show the strain. I like this job, but it is hard to do it and maintain a personal life, considering the number of side projects that both my wife and I have going at any given time. Oh well, there is always Christmas.

Halloween is next week, and we have a number of festivities planned. Our carnival will take place Tuesday night, and we will have a costume judging on Monday. Then there are parent-teacher conferences on Wednesday and Thursday. The following week is shortened by a Friday inservice, and the week after that is high school speech, which has the capacity to take another Tuesday and Wednesday out of the week. Thanksgiving is the following week. We will be hurtling towards the holidays very soon, and I am beginning to wonder where the time went.

The weather has turned towards winter, and the river was clearly beginning to freeze when we viewed it from the air yesterday morning. Soon we will get out the snowmachines, and we will begin to have several months of mobility. These are exciting times to be sure.

I Have The Keys...

It has been a long time since I had the time available to do a long piece here. I have explained our internet situation, and we spend so much time at the school that I am often loath to stay there longer just to write. At the same time, this feels so nice as a change of pace. It makes me anxious for the advent of true broadband in these parts, which is supposed to be approaching soon.

I am sitting in the lobby of Bethel Regional High School, and it is a little after 9 pm. We have concluded the second round of the junior high school speech competition for this school year. We have another day of competition tomorrow, and a dance here tomorrow night. I got to do some judging tonight, and thought that was pretty pleasant. My kids are wandering around the school somewhere, but I can summon them with a text message, and they have open time right now. We will start getting them ready for bed at about 10 pm.

We were chartered to come over here at 9 am, but the weather out here can be very tricky at this time of year. Our site secretary is also the agent for the small airline that we use for school travel. When he hadn't come for us by about 9:30, I went over to his office. He informed me that there was a weather hold in place for Bethel. No surprise, really. There was a fair amount of fog about, and that is often a complicating factor in Delta air travel. What it meant from a practical standpoint was that I ended up teaching my reading class while wearing insulated bib overalls. It was a little warm, but not bad overall. I also had on a pair of Swedish running shoes with carbide spikes in the soles. They come in handy for the ice that has already formed on the boardwalks, but they are not gym floor friendly. I was looking in at my PE class when Joe came down and said that the plane was coming.

I took three of my students over here. I am not sure why more of them don't want to come. It is a pretty low-pressure contest as these things go, and the kids seem to be having a ball over here. The four of us piled our bags into a trailer, and we hopped into the trailer or on to the four-wheeler and rode out to the airport with Joe. It was an adventurous ride-I knocked over one of those orange construction cones with my foot on the way. I have always wanted to do that. We loaded into the plane, and the pilot told us as we got under way that the ceilings were tricky still at Bethel. We apparently were cleared to take off, but we might have to fly around a little before they would let us land. No problem.

The plane took off into a bracing wind. We got a little sideways, but not bad for out here. The crosswinds can be a bear in SW Alaska. As had been suggested, we headed upriver, and pretty quickly banked off to the right and back over the tundra "behind" Napaskiak. As we flew over the myriad sloughs, creeks, and pothole lakes that are typical features of this area, I thought of what a shame it is that my job and probably my own laziness keep me from seeing more of this. I resolved to begin doing things differently. Who knows, maybe I could get an invitation from someone to go out to the tundra sometime. It occurred to me that we would need to take the snowmachine out this winter and explore more-gas prices be damned! Meanwhile, we came back around and saw our village from the air. Several times. Several more times. I seriously began to lose track of how many more times. The glory of the tundra was beginning to fade with repetition. Still we flew onward.

Onward in a circle, that is. Sometimes, I would think that we were on a tantalizingly different heading, and that this would be the time that...but, no, that was not to be. I kept looking to the back seats to see how my students were faring. At first, I thought that we were going to have a need for multiple airsickness bags. Although I did pass them back as a precaution, they were not ultimately employed.

The flight from Napaskiak to Bethel is a short one. We can see the control tower of their airport from the runway of ours. We can stand there and watch planes take off and land. The trip usually takes about five minutes.

One hour and fifteen minutes after takeoff, we ultimately landed at Bethel.The longest five-mile flight that I ever took. There was such a backup that it took us close to ten minutes to cross the main runway to come to the terminal. But when we did, there was good old Ross waiting to pick us up. He was helpful like he always is, and reminded me again of what an asset he is to the Lower Kuskokwim School District. We made it over to the District Office, and we have been hanging out ever since. I have gotten to see some familiar faces that I have not seen in a while, and even munched pizza with our superintendent in a judges meeting. Two of my kids have made it into the third round for tomorrow, and for some reason, they entrusted me with the keys to the place. I locked up the high school tonight. I just hope that no one gets sick in the middle of the night, because I have the keys to the van as well.

I am laying on an air mattress in a science lab classroom as I finish this piece. We have another full day tomorrow, including a dance, and then we return to PKA on Thursday morning. It is a nice break, and a chance to spend some time doing something a little different. Just what the doctor ordered. That, and maybe another steam this weekend. A guy can dream....

And Grades, Too...

One more item to the list for the weekend...our grades are due Tuesday morning. That is the same day that I am scheduled to fly to Bethel for the speech tournament. This weekend is gonna be a doozy...I am sitting in my classroom, which has been appropriated as a team room for this weekend's wrestling tournament, which begins in approximately 75 minutes. It will be unavailable for me until the teams leave tomorrow afternoon, and that puts a further crimp into my weekend of work. Oh, well, no point in complaining. This is the lot in life of a teacher in the Bush. Our time is not generally our own. Nothing, or very few things, happen here unless we put them on. My biggest adjustment in this regard has been the very long weekend nights that are spent staging the events. We have only started this process because basketball, the Holy Grail of Delta sports, has not begun yet. This is just the warm-up...

It Is Sticking (a little bit)...

The snow has stayed this time. We were discussing cultural context in reading class this morning, and I contrasted my old feelings about snow when I had to drive in it (fear and loathing), and my feelings about it out here (fun! freezing rivers! freedom to travel!!!).

We have crossed the hump of another week, although I did get a little testy with the kiddies in writing class. They seem to go into stall mode in that class more than any other. I need to come up with some better ideas for organization in there. Maybe some spiffy technology can help...there are some cool things out there.

This will be one of those weekends without a lot of rest available. Our local wrestling tournament is Friday night and Saturday. I need to get sub plans ready in addition to our usual thing, because I am taking some kids to the speech tournament for junior high next week. I will be gone Tuesday and Wednesday, and will not get back until some time Thursday. Lots to get in order. Lots of fun to look forward to at the same time.

And that is that for the time being. I am going to split and go home to put the roast into the oven. I suspect that tonight we may go visiting after dinner. Something about baby clothes that need to be delivered...

Snow Is Here

We have been getting little snowfalls on and off for about the last week. They do not generally last out the day. Last night, I was up at about one a.m. for the usual pushing-sixty reasons, and I noticed that it was extremely foggy outside. The fog was actually thick snow, and this time it stuck. We shall see how long it lasts today, but there was some speculation between my wife and I about how long it will take before the first snowmachine makes its appearance. The daylight is shrinking by the day, and soon the darkness will be the predominant theme of the day. Of course, for those that know this area, the darkness will never rule completely here. At the winter solstice, there will still be about five hours of daylight. We do not have the long spell of complete darkness that characterizes places like Barrow. It also makes it easier to sleep in on the weekends.

Friends from back home often ask us how we tolerate the darkness. I find the long hours of daylight that come with spring more of a challenge to deal with on the whole.

I am sitting here listening to a Yup'ik lesson being run during my prep period. It is focused on the qasgiq, or men's house, where all of the men in the villages used to live in the old days. I have a student that just showed up after a long absence. The year flows on...

Inserviced Again...

We did it again today, but this one was much more productive...I got some grading done. Not much more to say on that subject. We are making some fitful efforts to figure out when it is that we want to go to Anchorage over the holidays, so that we can take advantage of the discounted fares during the PFD sales run by Alaska Airlines. Time is getting short...we need to buy before next Monday. I would also like to get our accommodations set at the earliest opportunity.

It was a beautiful, sunny day today, and the frost was determined to stick around, and it was doing so even when we went home for lunch at noon. There was ice on the boardwalk in the shade as late as this evening. Winter is showing signs of creeping over the horizon.

We are at the school watching the Monday night football game over Skype. It is a pretty good solution, and we are even able to project it on to the smart board with the overhead projector. Heck of a deal that is...

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the week in earnest. It is a short week, and a number of them are going to be in the next month. It is a weird schedule, and it will break up the month of October and some of November as well. We will finish the first quarter of the school year for all intents and purposes at the end of the week. Tempus fugit...

Glad That That Is Over (for now)...

All done with inservices, at least for nearly 48 hours. My lesson plans are nearly done. I have been trying to find a college football game to listen to on the iTunes radio, but it will take a little more dedication to get there.

The good news about today's session is that there are only two more such sessions to endure, and then we are done for the year with the local inservice phenomenon. We front-loaded them on purpose, so that we would not have any to deal with during winter semester, when things tend to be frantically busy anyway, and we are getting kind of crispy. They do make the fall semester kind of an endurance contest, though. They are just no fun. No other way to describe it.

My mood improved after lunch, and now I can relax here on the internets for a little while. Monday's session will probably give me some time to catch up on grading and grade entry, which is important with the end of the first nine of weeks of school coming up a week from Tuesday. We have another Saturday work day in three weeks, but that will mark the end of October, and Christmas will be on its way. Of course, Thanksgiving will provide a welcome interlude as well.

The kiddies seem to be coming along promisingly, although some days they are just unfocused as hell. What am I expecting from junior high kids, right? I plan on taking three of them to the junior high speech contest in two weeks. That will provide a nice break from the routine.

All else is well-the weather is showing definite signs of trending toward the wintry-snow is in the forecast for the week, and I have pulled a heavier coat out for the chillier conditions. I wonder when we will be able to get the snowmachine out and head out on the frozen Kusko...

Inserviced...

Another weekend, another inservice...another one on Monday...eight hours in a room with a computer. I think that people who read this blog with projected dreams of Alaskan adventure do not realize how many of our waking hours are spent in this building, doing "activities" of various sorts. The child-centered ones make sense. The adult-designed ones sometimes leave most of us wondering who came up with this idea.

My suspicion is that much of what goes on these days is dictated to our supervisors from very far away. It often seems to be possessed of no idea whatsoever of the realities of this place. It seems very detached indeed.

We are here for a half day of paid attendance. The rest of the day's work activities, lesson planning and the like, will come on our own, "free" time. My wife is back from Bethel. I am glad that she is here to share, and the boss is making breakfast for us. Some creature comforts await us, and I am grateful for that...

I Miss Autumn...

I make no bones about the fact that this is the toughest time of the year for me to be separated from the place that I grew up. The fall colors, especially in Northern Michigan, where I have lived for 25 years, are spectacular. The football games are dramatic, even when the teams have been kind of stinky. I miss tailgating at U-M stadium with my friends and siblings in the crisp air. The fall traditions are harder to part with for some reason, and there is nothing that is remotely like that here. I find myself feeling very alien, for some reason.

On the bright side, we did Skype with the kids, and they turned the webcam towards the TV set and we watched the formerly sad-sack Detroit Lions beat the Dallas Cowboys at the end of a dramatic comeback. It was fun, and we are planning to do it on a more ambitious basis next Monday night, when they play the Chicago Bears. We may even put it up on the projector in my classroom. The Tigers managed to hold off the Yankees in New York, and have the series tied coming back to Detroit. So that is a positive.

Still, this is when homesickness bites the hardest. We are not planning to return to the Midwest at Christmas time due to the serious expense of the trip. It will be nice to stay in the village with friends, but it will be a long time before I see Cadillac again. The funny thing is that it took a long time for me to adopt Cadillac as my hometown, despite the length of time that I lived there. Sometimes it takes absence to make the heart grow fonder...

Saturday...

No scheduled work this week (that is next week), but we are over here doing lesson plans and stuff. The truth of it is that I did some of my plans the other day, and I finished them off today while listening to a football game from back home. It was a pleasant respite, and my lesson plans are done for the week now. I am just hanging around waiting for my wife to get done, and playing on the internet while that happens. I am making some lazy inquiries about getting a satellite dish, but there doesn't seem to be much interest in the group effort, so we may decide to simply go it alone. I am still slightly intrigued by the idea of NFL football at 9 a.m.

I think that dinner approacheth, and guacamole is on the horizon. If you have ever had my wife's guacamole, you will understand what a treat that is. The whole steam thing is still hovering around out there somewhere, but I kind of feel like spending some time with my bride, given the fact that she is taking off for across the river in a few days.

The temps are chilly and brisk, but the sunrise this morning was spectacular. I need to get home to see the sun shine off the fresh snow on the mountains to the east. I love the view from our living room. Very pretty, indeed.