Monday, November 26, 2012

Dreams

I often have dreams about being back home in Minnesota. I dream about teaching preschool again and working with everyone I used to know. I dream about all the places I used to go and things I used to do. In each dream it is as if I had left Nome to go home without finishing the year here. Every ending is the same in that I feel misplaced in Minnesota. I feel like I do not belong there and I regret coming home and leaving Nome. I obviously am in the right place here in Nome teaching Kindergarten with all these wonderful people. I love where I am every day even when it gets difficult and the kids are being mischievous. I definitely do not regret coming here and taking this opportunity for myself. The one thing that hurts most is being so far from Kevin. I can handle being away from my family because I get to talk to them often and I am still connected to them. Kevin is different, I cannot call him. I do not hear his voice here. I see him out of the corner of my eye and I imagine him here with me. He would have loved this place. He loved Grand Marais and being this close to the ocean feels very similar to that small great lakes town. I cannot visit him here. I cannot talk to him here. That is the hardest part of this adventure. I am so far away from him and I have never felt further. My heart is aching for him to be here in this new place with me. 

Saturday, November 24, 2012

The next holiday on my list...

So Christmas is coming up super fast already this year! Sadly I do not have a super awesome teacher supply store up here to get my kids fun gifts like I did last year. It is a complete bummer. Maybe they will just have to wait for their presents until after I get a chance to come home and get them things. That might be exciting for them, but they will also be bummed not to get something before Christmas, don't you think? If someone gets a chance please send candy canes for my kids! I would also love to share a bucket of popcorn with my kids! I also need cotton balls for art projects. While you are out I also need a few cans of shaving cream, not for my legs but for art projects so it doesn't matter if it is the super cheap kind from the dollar store or not because it will still work! It needs to be the cream kind, not the gel that turns into foam. If you happen to visit Jo-Ann's take a peek if they have any cute little crafty kind of things we (or just me) could do. They usually have buckets of foam sticker pieces that can be made into something or foam snowflakes that we can glitter glue. My class loves art projects and they are really very good so we can use anything! Oh and jumbo popsicle sticks and yarn. Mom I know you have tubs of yarn in the basement so send some my way if you get a chance :) Thanks everyone!! My kids will love you for these artsy gifts :) 

If you are shopping for me for the holidays here's my list :D
*Subway giftcard
*Walmart giftcard
*Amazon giftcard
*Barnes and Noble giftcard or Half Price Books giftcard
*Wool socks
*Knee high socks
*Scary movies-a lot have come out on DVD and I haven't seen them because the theater up here is waaaay behind and only shows 2 movies a month
*Camelback backpack with a water pouch inside that I can use when I go snowshoeing or hiking on the beach
*small desk that I can assemble in my bedroom at my nome home
*Down vest (they are all the rage here and I don't have any)
*Cotton long sleeve shirts in any color (preferably not striped) 
*sweater dresses
*thick tights (preferably footless)
*leggings

thanks for loving me enough to let me venture out into the world!

Survival of the Alaskan Woman

I have officially made it a whole week without Kayla being here to take care of her own dog. 7 days with a puppy and only two more to go. Tuesday he bit me and I had to go to the ER. They could have given me stitches but decided to wait it out and see if it started to close on its own. I also got antibiotics that made me throw up at school in front of my kids. AWESOME! Not. He refuses to walk with me and sits on the frozen street. I have tried dragging him but he doesn't give in so I give up and walk back home. He pees outside and I bring him in and he pees on the carpet. He tore a leg off our living room coffee table, ate the garbage, ripped down a shower curtain, ate a shampoo bottle, ate my mail I was going to send to my mom, attacked my cat, ate a kitchen chair and lazy boy chair. Such a menace! While taking care of him I have been taking care of the 3 large dogs that live downstairs while my landlord is out of town. Too many animals to take care of! All by myself in this big old house and so many animals that always need attention. Children I can handle. 17 children I can handle. 3 dogs and a puppy, I cannot. 

My thanksgiving was pretty good regardless of the animals that have taken over my life lately. I talked to a bunch of my wonderful family home in MN that I haven't talked to in a while. Then I went to a friends house with a bunch of other teachers and local people. We had turkey, moose, collard greens and bacon, garlic baby reds, yukon golds mashed with goat cheese, pumpkin cream cheese and gingersnaps, corn bread, stuffing, and my homemade cinnamon honey bisquits. It was a lot of tastey food and I was very happily full. I left before dessert because I had dogs to feed and let out but I socialized for 4 hours. It was great to leave the house, meet new people, and share a delicious meal. I was much to full to eat dessert anyway. My mile walk home freed up some room so I had a little bit of chocolate fudge ice cream :) I was still in my food coma until 10 this morning though. I went for two long walks today to make up for my full tummy. Got my sweat on all bundled up in a dozen layers! The temperature is definitely dropping daily. I find it odd that it is warmer at 6 in the morning than it is when the sun comes up. Today was a whopping 4 degrees. Still no snow. It has been in the forecast for the last few days but there is nothing floating down from the sky. Very disappointing. 

More notes to come soon :) xoxox

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving

Hey everyone! I hope you all have a good holiday! I will be having party moose with a  bunch of other teachers and people from town. I hope you all eat chocolate cake and delicious buttered bisquits for me!

Monday, November 19, 2012

Fare thee well

She came. She ate. She's flying home! Kimmy was here for 5 long days. We slept all day Thursday because she was exhausted from flying overnight and I was exhausted from not sleeping Wednesday night because I was so excited to see her. Friday we went to school and checked out the town. We went out to eat and had a delicious meal together at Bering Sea Restaurant. I had the chili cheese burger and she had chicken fingers of course. We sat and we watched tv together for a little bit and she went to bed at like 8. Saturday we power shopped a rummage sale and a few other local hot spots. I got a ton of great new native pieces I am very excited about. Sunday we took a drive to Council. Kimmy got to see musk ox in real life! I saw a whole lot of Alaska I haven't seen before. I am glad to have great friends like Leonard and Jess to take me on these adventures! My kids absolutely loved having Kimmy in our classroom. They crawled all over her for two days and she even got invited to some sleep overs by some of the little rugrats! Too funny. They piled on her when it was time for them to go home and gave her hugs and kisses. We went for a great beach walk after school and went to dinner. She arrived safely to the airport and made it through the security and everything fine. Her plane is flying over my house right now at approx. 9:06 so she should be on time to Anchorage and Denver and be in Minnesota early tomorrow morning. Watch out MN Kimmy the ginormous is returning! I was so happy to have a part of my family here with me in my Nome Home. It felt like normal life all over again. It was a great 5 days :)





Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Taking over Nome

Kimmy is coming! I am beyond excited and smiling ear to ear. I don't think that I will be sleeping tonight because I am so anxious. She is at the airport right now waiting with my cat. Minneapolis to Seattle to Anchorage to Kotz to Nome!! She will be here right away in the morning and I am taking the day off so I can pick her and my kitty at the airport. Then we will be going home so kimmy can sleep and then we are going to explore. My toes are tingling with anticipation! AHHH 

Monday, November 5, 2012

Pamyua

Saturday was very exciting! I went to a concert at the NES (Nome Elementary School) and watched the most entertaining show I've seen so far being in Nome. A Yupik band was in town for their last stop on their tour. Yupik is a native eskimo language that is similar to Inupiaq which is spoken most often in Nome. Yupik comes from a bit more south of here but the band was amazing! I have no idea what they were singing but it was so good! A lot of the songs have dances and such that go along with them and these people were great. Pamyua has 4 singers and then a few instrument players. Some songs are acapella and others have guitar, drums, and piano to go along. They are definitely worth looking up on youtube to watch and listen to. The music gets in your bones even if you have no idea what they are saying. Check them out!

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Baby beluga

The word throughout Nome is that Beluga whales are hanging around Cape Nome and making their way Westward to Nome. My roomie and I walked a few miles down toward where the whales should be, but we did not see them. No whales for me to see and I was so disappointed. However, the sea is freezing and we were able to walk out on the Bering! It was so cool. The waves literally froze in their wave so the ice and snow looks amazing. I only walked out 10 feet (if that) because I do not want to fall into the super cold Bering Sea water. There were some natives out about 100 yards drilling holes in the ice and looking for artifacts below in the dark cold water. I don't know what kind of artifacts they are hoping to find, but they were pulling out some little things. There has also been 5 really large ships off the coast of Nome and I don't know what they are or what they are doing. Usually it is just a Coast Guard ship or a research vessel but now there are 5 and they have been out there for three days. Makes me curious! For those of you wondering, the temperature this morning was a balmy 3*F and it is slowly climbing and now it feels about 25*. The wind is non existent today though so it feels amazing! The wind is what makes it unbearably cold and I get wind burned cheeks and nosey. Today is delightful though! 


9 more days till Kimmy comes!