The Airport

It was -3 when I took Avery to the airport at 7:30 this morning. He is off to Fairbanks for the Tanana State Wrestling Competition for 6-8 grades. This morning in Fairbanks the kids were saying that it was -19 without windchill. It is usually pretty significantly colder in Fairbanks than it is here in Bethel because Fairbanks is so much closer to the Arctic Circle. I am so excited for Avery to get to go to this competition and I am hoping that this will motivate him to continue to excel at wrestling. I'm also glad for him to be getting out of town for awhile. Him and I both are starting to go stir crazy being always stuck in Bethel. We're so used to being able to hop in the car and go somewhere, but here if you want to go somewhere you have to hop on a plane to do it...and that gets expensive. I'm also looking forward to a kid free weekend to relax and have no responsibility. AND...it's great that they flew with Alaska air because Avery will earn points for his airline milage plan that we can save for later flights. YAY!Bethel has the 3RD BUSIEST AIRPORT IN THE STATE OF ALASKA!The airport here is interesting and unlike anything I've ever seen. This is a picture of the Alaska Airline terminal. It is one big room. Starting in the far left corner there's the bathroom, then the check in desk, then the line where you go through the metal detector and get your carry ons xrayed, and, finally, there is the baggage claim. Only one plane, called a jet here, comes in at a time. There are three jets a day that come and go between Bethel and Anchorage through Alaska Air....one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one at night. The plane brings in a load of people from Anchorage and picks up a load from Bethel. So, you have the people leaving and the people coming in all in this tiny little space. Sometimes the plane from Anchorage is half cargo. The plane we originally came here on was half cargo.

In addition to the Alaska Air terminal, there are countless buildings that house smaller airlines. Each of these individual airlines have their own building that they use to manage their company and conduct business. They all share the same runway. Most of these fly to and from villages. Some of these airlines are passenger, some are cargo. Some are public, some private, some charter. They fly people, supplies, mail, and even sled dogs. They fly whatever need to be brought in or taken out of the regional villages. Only one other airline that I know of goes to Anchorage from Bethel and that's Era Aviation. I've flown with Alaska Air twice and Era once. The Era flight was quite an experience(see blog post from october). I've dropped mail with other air carriers and picked up my mattresses and dresser that my landlord had flown in from Anchorage. Avery has flown with several of the smaller airlines for wrestling.

It's just so different than what we're all used to in the lower 48. It's almost like our little airport in Van Wert except there's MUCH more air traffic and building and the runway is longer and paved...but imagine the VW airport times 10 bigger and busier.

In other news...
Just three short months and I will be home for the summer. I cant wait, but am still wondering what to do about a job and a car....oh, well, I guess I'll figure it out soon enough. I think I'll work on that next week during spring break. One week of Spring Break, one more week in the third quarter, then 9 more weeks to go and school will be out and I'll be on my way home.

Next week is spring break. I really wanted to get out of town, but would rather save my money for this summer. And with Avery leaving to Fairbanks, I figured he's already getting out of town for awhile. I need to get some things done around here anyway. My wing at school is getting remodeled this summer which means I have to move out of my room before the middle of May. I've been slowly working on cleaning out all of my cabinets, but there is so much stuff that I dont know what to do with it all. And some of the supplies and equipment are so old that they arent really usable anymore. I found stuff from the 1960's in my room. I think I'll be doing some major cleaning of my room before the end of the year. My room, if you remember from a blog post when I first moved here, was the "junk" room....the place where people stuck all the stuff that they thought they might use someday. Time to junk some of this stuff. Science is a discipline that is always changing and moving forward...time to do that. Time for some new supplies.

Sunlight and weather...
We're up to 10hours and 18 minutes of sunlight and gaining 5 minutes and 39 seconds tomorrow. The sun has been shining brightly each day and is rising higher and higher all the time. It has been above zero at some point in the day every day for about two weeks now. I hope the weather stays nice for spring break so the kids can burn off some steam and be ready to get back to work for the last 10 weeks of school. Those 10 weeks will be a long haul I'm sure. I figure by the time I leave in May, we'll be up to about 16 hours of light. I cant even begin to describe how much I appreciate the extra sunlight. It's wonderful.

For fun...
We went to a production of the musical Little Shop of Horrors put on by here in Bethel. Students from BRHS filled the 9 or 10 roles in the play. It was great! It was so much fun and the students did such a great job. I didnt get any pics because my camera was still out of batteries. This was the third play I've been to since moving here and, by far, the best.

Well, I think that's it for now. Miss everybody, please comment so I know I havent been forgotten.