Kong's Post Office...

I just had to add this picture... notice the spelling error and that the zip code is incorrect. HAHAHA!!

Hunting: A final Kong adventure

Saturday Michele and I were invited to go hunting with Oscar Jr. and George! I figured that I needed another adventure before I left Kong so happily agreed. At 5:45 AM!!!!!!!!!!!!! Michele called me to wake up so we could head out! HOLL--Y! Although I was not totally impressed by the time… as I got going and saw the sun rising already I got pretty pumped. We went on 2 snowmachines (snow mobiles as they call them in the Lower 48) and headed out of Kong. We went to the sea shoreline and then followed it until we were about half way between Kong and Kwig. I could see the phone towers of each village almost equal distance apart. I told them if I was going that I did not want to go over a river or lake on the snow machine. Yea right! We passed over a couple of rivers in fact. It was scary at first but thrilling each consecutive time. It really wasn’t that bad- and I do trust the guys we went with to keep us safe. It feels a lot like a skidoo when you are on the water. When we got to our ‘parking spot’ we walked a little ways on the shoreline towards the sea (although you couldn’t see the water because tide was out and it was frozen…). We were just walking along and suddenly the boys would drop to the ground because they saw geese. Maybe it was too early but Michele and I were totally slap happy. We just froze and then started laughing and talked a good portion of the time. Probably drove those guys nuts out hunting! When we found a spot to ‘camp’ it was in a mud pit surrounded by snow and more mud (aka the shoreline). It was really chilly in the morning but still fun nevertheless. I had never shot a gun before so they taught me. The first time I tried I apparently screamed before I even shot it according to Michele… I don’t remember. Even though neither Michele nor I caught anything, we had a great time. Oscar caught 11 and George 7 geese. It was a great experience but I realized I’m not meant to be a hunter. 1. I didn’t catch anything. 2. I can’t sit still. They were like “ahh the birds saw you moving your head… your backpack is too bright… they can see your hat… lay down slowly… stay on the ground… stop moving… etc 3. I am a multi tasker. I can not just sit and wait for birds to come. As Michele pointed out… I would have been just fine had I brought Sudoku with me. I can’t even watch a movie without my Sudoku these days! 4. In an effort to sit still… I fell asleep about 3 different times while we were hunting.
All in all… it was a BLAST! No pun intended ;)
But seriously, it was just the adventure I was looking for and I got to go to the sea one last time before leaving Kong!

Community Goodbye Feast

This weekend some people from the community wanted to have a goodbye feast for all of the teachers who are leaving (Rachel, Patrick, Kristina, Michele, Daryl and Me). I’ve been told by a few people that this is the first time they have ever had a goodbye feast so it seemed pretty special to us. A couple of my sp. Ed. paraprofessionals (Jean and Betha-they’re so sweet!), and Oscar and Margaret worked together to plan the potluck from what I understand. I’m still trying to figure out if the feast was really to CELEBRATE the fact that we were leaving… I jokes ;) I’m very thankful for my friends here and appreciate their farewell meal—here are some pictures from the event:

Walrus!

My friend Glenn went to the sea last weekend and shared some pictures that he took with me at school on Monday. They were SO AWESOME that I asked if I could put them on my blog because everyone else should deserve to see them too. He gladly said yes. If I could figure out how to put videos on my blog (any help???) I would put the video he took too. They saw so many walrus- it had to have been at least thirty! Enjoy the pictures at least… and if you are ever around me with the computer you should ask to see the video because it’s really cool!

Surprise Visitor!

Chris made a surprise visit to Kong last weekend! I was sitting in the school office when he walked in with some flowers and boxes of goodies for all of us teachers.
Since the school year is winding down it was going to be his only chance to see the village and he chose a perfect weekend to do so. The weather was absolutely beautiful! Still a lot of snow on the ground but it was about 50 degrees while he was here (it has of course been colder since he left again). On Friday night Chris made a big spaghetti dinner for all of the teachers (well, the crew who always hangs out) and Sheila and Rod joined us. Saturday we had a big brunch (this never happens…) and we all took a walk into town to go to the post office and store.



We had rented a couple of movies on iTunes and decided to watch those after the walk but we were all so tired everyone fell asleep. That evening, Sheila had a salmon grill out. That’s right, she finally broke out the grill and it was sooooooo delicious as always! It was a wonderful weekend—I will miss these types of weekends in Kong. Sounds so simple but it was simply amazing ☺

Hired!

It’s official! I have accepted a job in Anchorage at Bowman Elementary as a structured learning classroom teacher for students with autism in grades 3-6! I was really hoping for this position and am SO EXCITED for next school year. I’ve talked to a few of the staff/team members (that’s right… there’s actually more than one special ed. teacher there) who I’ll be working with and it seems like a great fit for me ☺ From what I understand I will working with about 4-7 students and two paraprofessionals. I will have the same group of kids all day… I’m pretty happy about that too!
It’s sad and really going to be hard to leave my friends and students in Kongiganak next week… but I definitely have something to look forward to. I’m grateful for the awesome experience I have had out here and hope for many more to come!

Anchorage With Chris

Easter weekend Chris and I went to Anchorage to take the doggies to the vet and send them home. It was a quick trip and a lot of errands were run.. but still managed to take a few pictures ☺ Wanted to show a little bit of scenery around my new home! I love the mountains and am so excited to be able to see them EVERY DAY!



Next year I may have some pictures of Moose (the real moose… not my dog) in my backyard. I am renting Megan’s condo and moose like to hang out in the back. Although I did not see any moose on this trip… I saw lots of moose poo (again… not my dog’s).