Monday, December 23, 2013

Smooth Travels

On the last day of school, I had this little puppy wander in my classroom. I am on the second floor, and we cool off the room by propping open the fire escape door.  So he found his way in, snow covered and all.  It ended up belonging to one of my student's so I called the dad to pick it up.  But I let him stay by the door until he came.


 We made moose burgers for our last night in the village.  Moose has hardly any fat, so I used an egg to help the patties stick together.

The morning that we left the village, it had snowed almost a foot.

Getting on the caravan plane in Alakanuk.


snow plows




The guys helping a teacher's dog get on the plane.

Happy to make it out on time!

See the heart in the tundra?

Mountains near St. Mary's


Frozen tundra




Landing in St. Mary's





This cargo plane was being unloaded and loaded as we arrived.


The Dash-8 plane came to drop off passengers from Anchorage and pick us up.

The plane full packed full of teachers ready to go home for the Holidays.

Before we left, they had to deice the plane.

This is was our view on the way to Anchorage, and it also symbolized how I felt inside!

After we checked in at the hotel we went to Wal-Mart and "pushed back" (push your cart to the back of the store where they package and ship your food out to the village) some groceries, so hopefully by the time we get back our boxes will be waiting for us at the village post office.

That night we walked to the mall (with another teacher from our village) because our hotel was downtown.


Christmas lights in the park!

Beautiful LED lights.

We flew to Seattle the next day and were greeted by Rudolph in the airport.

Yum.

We are grateful for our smooth trip home, especially thinking back to our experience getting home last year: click here. All of our flights were on time, and we had no problems with our travel plans.  We are now home soaking up time with family and friends!

Friday, December 20, 2013

Christmas at School

Last night we had a Christmas Program at the school.  Elementary classes performed songs, dances, and skits for the community.

I got to cuddle with my little buddies.

The two kindergarten classes danced to "Santa Claus is Coming to Town."


The two first grade classes dressed as snowmen and recited a poem.

The little girls always want Nathaniel to hold them, I don't know what it is... it must be the beard.


The whole community showed up to show their support.


It's easy to make new friends.



The 6th grade performed a funny skit.

The "youth group" from the village prepared a skit.

My high school classes helped make the backdrop decorations this week.

 I made these bows by cutting 4 strips of paper, twisting them, and stapling them together.

 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
  We are going to Missouri for the two week break, hopefully we have smooth and safe travels!