Crossin' em off the list!

There are so many things that I want to talk about on the blog that I have taken up making a list of blog topics. Since I have not found time to blog much lately, that list is getting pretty long. This post is dedicated to crossing things off my list.

Spring has sprung! It has been above 40 everyday for a week now and Bethel has become one big mud puddle(although it's snowing right now). I havent left the house without wearing my mud boots for days. The land on three sides of our house is like a lake and the driveway is a foot deep with the grossest, goopiest mud ever. I have had to turn around and go a different way several times when driving around town because the road is either so deep with mud that I'm afraid I'll get stuck or there's a huge trench down the middle of the road where the melt water has washed a 5 foot canyon into the road. It's treacherous. I'm more worried about getting stuck in the mud than I ever was of getting stuck in the snow. I'll post pics soon!

We saw two ducks out Avery's bedroom window the other day...another sure sign of spring. The tundra is showing itself through the snow in huge clumps now and the trees are starting to bud. Everybody says that we will miss the best time in Bethel when we leave for the summer.

The days are officially 15hours34minutes long now, but the amount of visible light is 17hours19minutes, so it's basically light out from about 6am until midnight now. The really strange thing about the sunlight here is that it doesnt seem to range much in intensity. The sun at 7am, noon, 5pm, and 11pm is about the same. Bedtime seems to keep getting later and later every night. AND we're still gaining 5minutes33seconds each day

I bought my first kaspeq at the Cama-i festival. A kaspeq is a traditional native shirt worn mostly by women, but traditionally by men too. The most obvious characteristic of the kaspeq is the big pocket on the front. They are handmade and have specific patterns depending on the tribe, region, or family of the person making it. The people from each tribe/region/family have a specific pattern for the pocket of the kaspeq. We learned in our culture class that people from different region can recognize where a person is from just by looking at their kaspeq. The stitching on the trim of the pockets, hood, and sleeve is also specific to the family, kind of like a family crest. To see pics of many different kinds of kaspeq's, go back and look at the pics that I posted from Cama-i.

Latest read...

Mutant Message Down Under by Marlo Morgan. This book is about a woman's experience with a group of Aboriginal people in Australia. She is taken on a "walkabout" with the Real People and shown their ways and secrets. During her three months in the Outback, she witnesses things that are hard for most of us to imagine...the use of pure energy to heal, telepathic communication, and complete willingness to give yourself over to the will of the world. It is an extremely interesting perspective on the world, our place in it, and how everything we do has an impact. This book makes a powerful statement about what we are, what we could be, spirituality, energy, and how we should treat our planet. We are a bundle of energy and we can use that energy in many ways. We have been mutated from our original purpose; from our original life style. Great read, but only for the open-minded!
Avery sleeps with his eyes open...it's really freaky! The picture says it all. He is weirder than words can describe.Bailey is so big! She's been a really great dog. She's crazy as can be. She's alot of fun and alot of work.

Spring parent teacher conferences were back in March. I really like that there we have conferences in Spring too. It's really important to be able to talk to parents during second semester, not just first semester. Kids start to get antsy during the second semester...hard to imagine, right? So, the numbers are in...about 50% of parents showed up to represent their kids. About the same amount as for fall conferences, but this time their were no bribes. This is a great number for parent teacher conferences, I've never had this many parents for conferences in the Lower 48.

Ok, that's 5 topics crossed off my list...

BINGO!

Unfortunately, I didnt shout it as that title might imply. I did go play at the invitation of Chandra and her Yup'ik grandmother-in-law, Cecelia. Here's Chandra showing off her brand new Kaspeq. For an explanation of what a kaspeq is and to see what my kaspeq looks like, you can read all the posts I've written about them here. Kathy...I know what you're thinking right now...and when you steal this picture, I totally expect that you will AT LEAST leave me a comment :) We only played three rounds out of the 22 rounds that they were playing because we wanted to get home early since it's a school night. So, we stayed for about an hour. It was the first time that I met Cecelia, so that was nice. The Bingo hall was pretty much packed. Here are the cards I played...

this was a small "T" to win...i was 1 away on the top left side
this card was a large "X" to win...I was 2 away on the bottom left side
This card was a small picture frame (all the numbers that would create a box around the center). I needed 1 more in the top left to win...bummer. This card was worth about a $500 jackpot.
No luck this time. We're going to try again on Saturday, but this time we're going to play all the games and make a night out of it.

Another bonus to going to bingo? They have fountain pop...that's right...fountain pop! There are now four places in all of Bethel that you can get a fountain pop...the snack bar at the AC (grocery store), Brothers Pizza place out by the airport, Subway, and, yep, that's right, the bingo hall. ahhhh...how refreshing. I totally enjoyed my fountain Dr. Pepper while playing bingo tonight.

In other news...
Avery is doing awesome in school. He just switched out of 7th grade math and into pre-algebra today and he's really looking forward to it. He starts wrestling soon and has already gotten the paperwork to start fundraising for Push-up-athon. So, if anyone wants to donate, just let me know. All the money raised goes toward student travel to the wrestling competitions in other villages and towns around Alaska. Any help you can give would be appreciated.

Weather update...
It's been rainy and overcast these last few days. And a bit chilly too. I think rainy season is upon us. We've had highs in the 50's and lows in the 40's for several days now and drizzly rain everyday.

Sunlight update...
The sun rose at 7:45am and set at 9:42pm for 13hours and 57minutes of daylight. Twilight is at 6:59am and dusk is at 10:28pm for a total of 15hours and 28 minutes of visible light. Tomorrow will be 5minutes and 33seconds shorter.

Remember that you can check weather and sunlight info on the right side of the blog. It updates in real time.

Latest read...
havent seen this for awhile. I know. I havent been reading, but I finally got through a book that I started back in Ohio. I got halfway through it before I had to return it to the library before leaving for Alaska. Then when I got here, I had to request it through interlibrary loan and it took a couple weeks to get here. So, anyhow, I finally finished reading "Skeletons at the Feast" by Chris Bohjalian. It was a book about several people intersecting lives during WWII in Nazi Germany. It was based on the actual dairy entries of a Polish person trying to make it west through Germany. It is a wonderful account of the events of the war and gives a very personal feel to it, rather than just a textbook description, but it is a little dull. SoSo read, but if you like Holocaust reading then you would probably love it. Enjoyable enough to finish. Satisfying ending.

What else? Not much right now. Time for bed. Good night.

Adventures in Sewing

We had to sew a qaspeq for our culture class. A qaspeq is a traditional shirt that the Yup'ik women wear. There are men's qaspeqs as well, but they generally only wear them when they dance.
I had a hard time with the sewing. I've never used a sewing machine before so this was a new experience for me and I struggled with it in the beginning. After I got the hang of it, it was fine, but even then I didnt enjoy it.Sewing is definitely not a hobby that I plan on taking up soon. I made my kaspeq blue and yellow for our school colors (blue and gold). I didnt follow the traditional pattern. Usually it would only have one fabric, but I used two.I have a new kaspeq to wear and it turned out really nice. I have to wear it tonight for our cultural performance. We will be singing, drumming, dancing, and displaying all of the artwork that we've completed this weekend. Fun!

Stebbins dancers

These dancers were one of my favorites. The dance uses many of the same hand motions as other native dances, but these dancers are more energetic and upbeat. You can see, they move their feet and lower bodies, not just their upper bodies, esp the guy in the red qaspeq. A kaspeq is a traditional shirt worn by the native people of Alaska (more on that in another post soon).

I believe this dance is about taking a steam(bath). You can see motions for washing in the dance. Notice...when the dance is over there is just enough time to wipe the sweat off your brow before the drummer starts the dance again. This is typical for all native dances that I've seen. They dance the same dance over and over, progressively getting more and more expressive and exaggerated in their facial expressions and hand motions. The drummers control the pace of the dance. Also, the dance usually starts off with a slow version and then has a fast version of the same dance right after.

The other science teacher in the classroom next door(she's native) said that she thinks this dance has something to do with subsistence and hunting. That over the head motion is when they are unloading their pack. And that wavy motion is the river.


She says that these dancers are Yup'ik dancers that have a Inupiaq influence. The Inupiaq are a group of native Alaskans that live up North, mostly above the arctic circle. On the map below, the arctic circle would run just south of Kotzebue. (I'm going to Kotzebue next week, more on that later). She says you can see the Inupiaq influence in their dancing and mukluks(native boots).
That's all for now...Enjoy!

Major workout!

Controlling a 700 pound machine is not an easy feat. After a full day of riding, I feel as though I've worked out every muscle in my body. When I got home from church this morning, Chandra was waiting for me in the driveway-snow machine in tow. My neighbor was out with her checkin' out our new machine. He and his friend mentioned riding over to Kwethluk, a village about 15 miles upriver, to deliver some supplies to the friends wife who is a teacher there. After much begging and pleading on my part, he finally agreed to let us tag along on our new ride!

He said they were leaving in a couple hours which gave us enough time to have lunch and go gas the snowmachine up for the ride. After lunch, Chandra and I drove over to her place so that she could get all of her winter gear on before we headed over to the gas station. On the way there, I finally managed to dump us off the machine. I hit the edge of the trail wrong and we tipped right over on our side, right in a mud puddle. The machine landed on my foot, but, thankfully, neither of us was hurt. We were going really slow when it happened. Chandra was not too pleased about getting back on the machine with me, but she did and I managed to keep the machine upright for the rest of the day. Hey, I'm learning...besides, Chandra's NEVER going to let me hear the end of it. To see what I mean...click here.
Here's Avery on our new machine. We are out on the river at the beginning of our ride. You can see Bethel in the background. I let him drive it for a few hundred yards and he did a great job. Remember, you can click on the pics for a better look!
Here's a view of the wide open trail on the river heading upriver toward Kwethluk. This is the way we took...up and around the bend to the left.
There were 8 of us that went for this ride. Me and Avery on our machine, Chandra on the back of my neighbors friends machine, my neighbor and his friend on his machine, and another of my neighbors friends and a girl that was getting a ride to Kwethluk on his machine. Notice...Chandra decided not to ride with me!
A few times on the way there and back, we rode through some trails that went through the trees pretty tightly. It was really neat lookin. This pic is from when we stopped so a rider going the other direction could pull to the side to let us through. These trails were super bumpy and we learned that our new snowmachine needs some suspension work.
There's Chandra on the back of the snowmachine behind us...just look for the pink helmet.

We spent most of the ride on the open river. I'm thankful that our neighbor let us ride with him because I cant tell any of the scenery apart...yet! On one stretch of open river, we got the snowmachines up to about 65mph. Let me tell you, riding that fast is a major rush. If you hit a bump, you bounce way up. Avery LOVED it. Every once and awhile, I'd purposely hit a bump and catch some air for Avery. Have you ever heard the expression "stuck in a rut"? Well, I know how that feels now. Sometimes there are major ruts dug into the pack snow from previous snowmachines and if you get stuck in one it is really hard to get out. I learned alot about riding today.
In this pic, you can see the snowmachine trail on the river. We followed some very heavily used trails much of the time. Today was a beautiful day for riding. Sunny and about 13 degrees. I was hot with all my gear on. The snowmachine that we bought has hand warmers and they do a really great job.
Here is our entourage stopped for a break. We would stop every 10 minutes or so to make sure everyone was together. Those guys have new, fast machines and would speed way ahead. Sometimes, it made me nervous that I would loose them and get lost. We had just come from the groove in the trees where the tracks lead to. I had a real great time today riding. We were out for about 4 hours and put about 45 miles on the snowmachine. It ran really well and seems like it's going to be a great machine for first time riders like Chandra and I.
My whole body aches all ready. I cant imagine what it'll feel like tomorrow. I'll be sore from head to toe. Or should I say from my thumbs to my toes?

I have so much to write about and a very busy schedule coming up. I am chaperoning the band kids to Kotzebue this week/weekend for the regional band competition. I will be gone from Wednesday until Sunday. There's so much to do to get ready to leave, though, that I dont know if I'll be blogging for the next couple days. I think I will have internet access and be able to post while I am there. I am so looking forward to getting away for a few days, seeing a different place in Alaska, getting a change of scenery, being above the arctic circle, hopefully seeing the Northern Lights, and just getting out of Bethel for awhile. One of the other first year teachers is coming over to stay with Avery while I am gone. I think it will be a nice little break for him, too. We spend SOOOOO much time together!

Because I have so much to share on the blog, I have resorted to making a list. I'm a list maker, I cant help it. Here are some upcoming blog posts to look forward to...

Your Homework
Kuskokwim Ice Classic
Avery sleeps with his eyes open
More Cama-i festival
Steam Baths
Boy Scouts
My First Kaspeq
The Village of Kwethluk
Kotzebue-Above the Arctic Circle
Couples Apart
Spring Parent/Teacher Conference
Aurora Borealis (hopefully)