Pink Rings

This is Kokhanok at 4:30. One of the strange things and it's visible in this picture is a pink ring that appears in the horizon just before the sun rises and after it sets.

For a classroom oddity, I was teaching the finer points of how to give a oral presentation when suddenly the room is stinking of Tag Body Spray, a group of girls are shouting, the boys in the corner are freaking out and I can see one of them shuffling in his pants. I go over, ask for the spray and he says "No" . Meanwhile, the girls are opening the windows, cold air and snow is drifting in and this young man and I walk into the hallway. I ask for him to hand the spray over and he finally does. When pressed why he started spraying, he explained - rather proudly, like he was doing us a favor - that he did it to mask a fart.

Hooray. Something that should be noted is that the girls screeched, ran and hid themselves from a product that is advertised to attract women.

Walk with Mitzy

Mitzy and I went out for a walk yesterday and we went out on frozen lake after frozen lake. It's a bit surreal at first as you can see the rocks below you but the ice is more than a foot deep and the locals are already driving their Hondas out in search of game. In the last picture, you can see a beaver dam. What's really cool about it all is the bubbles that form under the ice.

Thanksgiving

The Student Government hosted thier annual Thanksgiving Dinner for the village on Wednesday. The kids and myself made 16 pies, 10 turkeys, stuffing, mashed potatos, and gravy enough for 160 people. Afterwards, the school band hosted a dance which lasted until 11:30. The singer had just returned from the Athabaskan Fiddle Festival where he won "Best Rookie" of the year so he was pretty proud to be back in town, playing.

Today the staff is going to have its own Thanksgiving - which is great as I'm going to introduce some family recipes and keep the spirit going.

Lutefisk has Competition

Ed's wife tonight threw an authentic Eskimo dinner complete with baked salmon, dried salmon, seal blubber, seal meat and something else I couldn't quite understand. The texture was a little off but I could keep it all down.

Ice Flows

The ice flows have started to form on Lake Iliamna. We had to make a special annoucement to the kids that they couldn't go "berg-jumping" but that didn't stop their teachers....

The days are already becoming shorter and shorter. Monday, sunset was at 5:45 and today it was at 5:15. Oh, something unique to being up here, now matter what the temperature is in my room - it's too hot for my students. Granted my room is usually around 80* (only room on the second floor, in fact I have the hottest room in the district), but if it came down to 55* they HAVE to have the windows open. Nevermind snow is piling into the room or the temperature outside is 2*, they'll still say "It's hot". Curiously, they'll never take off their coats. Urgh.

I was talking to another teacher across the lake and his room was hovering around 65*. Despite this they were still opening the windows.

Puffy Coat

Here's Kimmy & I out in -5*. Granted, we look a little cheesy with the caribou antlers but hey ... we're here.

Now the story behind my coat is a big circle of sorts and one I'm proud of. My Dad owned the coat in the mid seventies while he worked in Fairbanks. When I was growing up it hung in the closet. The few times I tried to take it out to reenact a few scenes from Star Wars ended up in a quick "Shawn....put that back" by Mom. So...there it sat. Finally, last night, I put it on while I was heading out to a community meeting.

A big circle back up to Alaska.

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BBBBRRRRRRRRR

Today was our first day with temperatures under 0* but we're cheating as that's taking into account the wind chill. I drove down to the coast to see what was going on and it was a mess of 6-8 foot waves and ice on everything. The surf had the appearence of one large slushy slurpie and the rocks are now well covered under a foot of ice. Grass stems are even coated.

It snowed hard on Friday. Kokhanok recieved over eight inches in five hours. The kids loved every minute of it - mostly after how they heard that Mount Vernon would shut down on account of a few inches.

We didn't have a sled, or an intertube but we made due with a punching bag.

Up Came the Moon

My friend Jared called today inquiring when he could visit and what the scenery would look like when he got here. I have to be honest to everyone reading \ viewing this blog - the pictures here don't come close, not even remotely close to what this all looks like.

Case in point, Kimmy & I climbed back unto a hill where we were at on September 1st. The mountains had fresh layers of snow on and I even went so far as to walk on a frozen lake ( wait until I post the footage on youtube ). The clouds parted here and there and with their seperation came sunlight that reflected back seamless ridges flowing from mountain to mountain. If that wasn't enough to deal with ... the moon came out.

Round this Way

Ed's dog, "Bear" (imagine the sight that is made when she's lost and Ed is hollering for her), and I went for a little ten mile hike today. It was made easier on account of the bogs, lakes, streams were all frozen due to the temperature... a lovely 11*

We went in the direction of Kokhanok Falls which is directly east of the village. We came upon an eerie sight: a collection of cabins all mingled alongside a lake. It was as if their owners had gotten up and left. Outhouses still had fresh toliet paper, wood was freshly cut and stacked and the dirt runway was cleared. Everything had a rightful place and was immaculate. Stranger still, no one has ever mentioned this other community. Whoever they are, I wouldn't mind meeting them. Who wouldn't want to meet the owners of a wood heated hot tub?

This picture of Bear is her standing on 8 inches of ice.

Halloween

Kids from the age of twenty to four were knocking on our door asking for candy. Several times I had flash backs of when my Gpa would take me out but the kids were charming - several times the same mask would show up at our door but on a different kid. Of course, the next day every single one of them were wired but atleast they were sharing with their teacher.