Region Music Festival Day 5

Sunday morning we slept in as late as we could stand to on the hard floor of classroom 331 in Kotzebue. Reluctantly, we woke, showered, and packed all of our belongings. We boarded our flight out of Kotzebue at around 2pm and said goodbye to the little arctic village.

After a brief stop in Anchorage, where an amazing friend of mine brought me two bags of dog food to take home with me (thanks Ryan), we headed back to Bethel. We got to town on the evening jet at around 9pm. After an entire week, I'm still playing catch up...with lesson planning, laundry, sleep, grading papers, blogging...everything. The end of the year is swiftly approaching and there is so much to do in so little time.

I had a great time at the music festival. It was great to see Kotzebue, to spend time getting to know the 13 girls I chaperoned, to gain a reinvigorated appreciation for vocal and instrumental music, to get out of Bethel for awhile, to become friends with our music teacher, and to see the enthusiasm of the students for their musical endeavors. I'm looking forward to the trip to Anchorage in a couple of weeks with the 4 kids that made it to state.

With the recent snow machine trip, visit to Kotzebue, and invitations from people to do things; I finally feel like I'm starting to experience some of what Alaska has to offer. And, while I'm very much looking forward to going to Ohio for the summer...I'm also starting to look forward to coming back to Bethel for another year of life in bush Alaska.