Thus Far

Woah. Where to begin?

I left Colorado on August 5 for Alaska…and that was the last time I ever saw the sky anything but light.  It is sunny about 20 hours a day right now.

Thank goodness my sister, Veronica, joined me on the trip here. She kept telling people it was for “emotional support.” That kept pissing me off…I had decided it was for fun- and fun alone.

We had a great time in Anchorage. We went to a furrier and tried on fur coats, and we did the tourist thing through the shops. We ate at a sweet café, Snow City Café. We played around and enjoyed each other’s company. It was so nice to have that time.

Then we got to Kotzebue. The first night was a blur. We got off the plane where the school district had a big sign and about a third of the plane went there for their ride. Veronica and I went to Dave Mason. He is the Middle High School principal here in Kotzebue. He took us home to his wife Linda Mason. I was to be staying with them; either temporarily or permanently was not determined. After I had just enough time to put my luggage down on the bedroom floor I was rushed off to The West House. The West House is one of the larger houses in town. The West family was making Pike for dinner. And that is was we ate, with about twenty other teachers and such from the area. That was fun, and overwhelming right off the plane.

That night I was offered a place to live in teacher housing with two student teachers, another 1^st grade teacher and two little kids (Fiona and Skyler).  SWEET..so add that to the list of thigns to do (move, find a bed..etc.). Then I went to bed at the Masons, at about midnight to a light sky. Then I woke up on Sunday morning for some berry picking on the tundra with some teachers I had met the night before. It was really cool to be out on the tundra. It is like walking on a giant sponge., literally. And there are berries and other plant life everywhere. We picked tons of delicious blueberries. They were so fresh and yummy! Colorado blueberries will never be the same to me. About half way through the berry picking I realized why Veronica came along—“emotional support.” It hit me. I am here to stay.

Sunday was mostly a day to “get settled.” Mostly that just meant I got really scared and wandered around town and from motion to motion wondering what this year would bring.

I spent the rest of Sunday walking town, watching football and eating free food from the school while I played on my new MacBook the school gave me while I am here. I started to feel better. Then on Monday I was given my classroom, my schedule, my classlist, and a lot of inservice information. This was followed by a group of teachers from a surrounding village armed with air mattresses and sleeping bags. They will be sleeping in my classroom all week for the district inservice and thus I cannot set up my classroom. I am forced to sit and think about how much I could be doing, but can’t. The good news is that I have a few giant Teachers Edition textbooks to read through in the next week, a new apartment to move into, a P.O. Box to get, an Alaskan I.D. to get and a lot of phone calls to return that I can work on until the teachers get out of my classroom.

Some background knowledge on my district- the Northwest Arctic Borough School District. This is a district in Northwest Alaska. It is comprised of 11 different villages, or 10 villages and one “town.” The town is my town, Kotzebue. It is the largest and has a bank, two stores, three restaurants, a DMV, a handful of apartment complexes, a few houses, a lot more trailer and mobile homes and a national forest (one tree!). It also has an airport where all ten villages must first fly to in order to later go to Anchorage, Fairbanks, or anywhere really, including the inservice. So for the district inservice the week before school starts each village flies in every teacher and sends them to Kotzebue school(s). They sleep on air mattresses in the classrooms and from there we inservice. It is kinda fun. We get free breakfast, lunch and dinner all week from the school and snacks during break times!

All this free stuff and fun inservice does not make us new teachers feel less overwhelmed. It makes us more overwhelmed. I am scared to death. How the heck do I do this? Not only am I living north of the arctic circle, away from friends and family and daylight- I also have to teach 1^st grade!?! YIKES! This will certainly be an adventure.