Since then, we have also started playing Tic Tac Toe on the bedroom window and writing on it. Over the weekend, I saw the next note. "Rob Loves Christine". So sweet! I just wish I could figure out how to play hangman on the window, when we do it in passing...
The "I Love You" was the first note he wrote on a window for me. He left it in my craft room. I have since drawn on the window as you can see. It was very sweet and unexpected. Since then, we have also started playing Tic Tac Toe on the bedroom window and writing on it. Over the weekend, I saw the next note. "Rob Loves Christine". So sweet! I just wish I could figure out how to play hangman on the window, when we do it in passing... He is always doing little things to make me happy. He has been buying Christmas decorations at the store each time he goes. Maybe just a glittery bow or some ornaments, but it is very sweet. He actually does not care about decorating for Christmas and never buys decorations. He just does it because I was sad about having no decorations. Now we have the tree from my mom, lights, and cards. Hooray!
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My boyfriend has a Benjamen Franklin quote for every situation. That is awesome and sexy!
Friday was another culture night, focused on culture crafts for the little kids, like beading and sewing. Lots of native dancing and I had a good conversation with a native man who helps teach children cultural dances. An elder woman was laughing because my boyfriend was talking about getting a sewing machine since I want to quilt, and then we could sew the traditional clothing from cut cloth. She said that was the lazy way to do it, but that she sometimes uses one as well when she has a lot to do. I would hand sew a quilt and be like Dr Quinn Medicine Woman, but I would be down for using a sewing machine. Plus now I think it would be cool to sew SCA costumes one day. I guess when my boyfriend was returning the 4wheeler keys and hanging with the guys two doors down last night, he was going on and on about how wonderful I am. I know this because one of the guys came up to me today just to say that he hears all sorts of good things about me from my boyfriend and that he gets little hearts in his eyes when he talks about me. It was sweet =)
I learned more about the dried fish everyone here eats that makes me kind of sick smelling it. I guess they take Poke fish or other little fish the locals catch and hang them up and smoke them with fire made from beach drift wood or blackberry bushes. This technique was in that Civilization video I watched and the America Before Columbus Video. Yes, I watch too many National Geographic movies now. Anyways, they do this in the summer and dry and slice and smoke the fish. Then they store it in seal oil for the winter and just take pieces out from the oil every day and eat it. The oil keeps it from spoiling. It also makes the fishy smell very strong. I cannot even get myself to try it. I do not like smoked fish anyways. Now i just wonder if they hunt seal in the summer or if they buy seal oil. I have only seen a walrus. I finally put my ice walking shoe thingies on my boots and grabbed a pair of shoes to change into at work (because here in the Arctic you have to prepare for the elements and end up changing when you arrive somewhere because of all the layers and such). It was snowing in the morning and in the afternoon, the dirt road is slick from all of the 4 wheeler traffic. So today, when I am all prepared for the ice, it is all giant mud puddles instead of snow and ice. Yuck! It has been snowing a tiny bit on and off the last two days. Barely anything is sticking and it is not too cold. However, I have been getting a taste of how wicked that wind from the Bering Sea can be! Holy cow! I need a face mask! It almost blows you over sometimes when walking to school. The school and our apartments are maybe 50 yards from the sea. I have been told the wind can get so strong that it lifts up your kitchen linoleum. Thank goodness the walk is only 1/3 of a mile, shorter if you cut across the tundra. The weather is one huge reason why I would prefer to work at the school. The clinic is maybe a mile away, same with the government offices. I would be overrun with joy if I got hired at either of those places, but walking to work each day in the winter would be rough. I think I want to pick out a heavy parka soon online because I am a tad wimpy when it comes to the cold. But my layers do keep me warm when needed! Of course the parka I want is $450...
The kids were insane last week because of the PFD's. Half the village is drunk I guess. You have kids exhausted, upset, hyped up on junk food, coffee and soda, high on pot or huffing gasoline and half of them just not showing up for school. The ones who show up are so exhausted they just sleep on the floor, or they are so upset and worked up because of bad stuff at home they they are just mean and disrespectful. One of my fave 8th grade girls who is always so nice to me and does her work was so mean to me on Friday. She openly defied everything I said and just kept telling me "No". A girl had her dad called during class because she just kept responding with "what?" to every question or instruction and just took the school laptop into the hall to use it. When her dad wanted to talk to her she just hung up the phone and started crying in a corner. I had to send a kid to the office and he got suspended because he was causing such a disturbance and making girls cry. I saw 3 middle school boys who were high on something in my class. Kids are finally getting suspended for chewing, but I would say 75% of the middle schoolers chew tobacco and they get it from their parents. At the moment, my boyfriend is very very sick. Like 104 fever that won't break, coughing and wheezing, visibly shaking, etc. He worked today before the fever was that bad, but came home very sick. I did get him to eat soup and a sandwich and drink some juice, but otherwise he has been asleep since 4pm. So at the moment I am banished to the downstairs level to try and avoid getting this illness. I know of two teachers who have similar coughs and such. Boo. I do not feel great, but I am alright. Nothing wrong with my lungs. Just trying to avoid contact with germs. It is a bit lonely being downstairs alone though, but I have lots to entertain myself with. But It sucks that I cannot sub for him tomorrow because I am already scheduled with the high school kids. I would love to talk about Colonial America, even if the kids in general are sort of out of control.I am worried. Maybe it is the flu. Unsure if flu shots will come to the village. Sometimes the government brings them and sometimes not. If not, then I have to try and get one in Anchorage if I go in December. We have the clinic if needed, I guess. I am hoping tomorrow is better. He did not sleep much last night because of coughing, and was moaning in pain in his sleep. Still is.
One of my original plans was to discuss the Love aspect of my move in this blog. Instead I have been focusing more on the culture shock of moving here and my journey. I am unsure of what direction I will continue on since I just write what my mind tells me to =) Plus I actually have three blogs/journals I write in, focusing on different things and different audiences. Sometimes I forget to write things in all three.
Anyways - We have a good life here and are both very happy. Our home is the prettiest I have been in so far. We get along great. He always makes sure I am happy and does small things every day to make me smile. We pass notes in the hall between classes if we have different lunch breaks. We walk hand in hand to school, especially when there is a sunrise or sunset. We talk about summer plans often and are deciding what to do. The only issue I have with my boyfriend is that he likes to keep the house so cold! I am always cold anyways, so if I think it is actually too cold, I put on my winter hat and gloves and very dramatically walk around until a window is closed. LOL Half serious. Though we did have an Eskimo boy say that it was too cold in here one day.... Though if I am here alone I am running the heat and closing all windows so he feels too hot. I plan on getting an electric blanket and maybe my own little heater come winter. It is a funny debate, though. We are very much in love and he tells me every day how happy he is with me and how wonderful of a person I am. I will make a real post tomorrow. I am so exhausted from this week. Those teenagers have run me ragged! 3/4 evenings I have fallen asleep while reading or something around 5pm. Only for 20 minutes, but still. I rarely nap or doze like that. Not a bad week, it is just hard work keeping them in line and trying to teach them about the Columbian Exchange while getting through a 90 minute movie and 65 question worksheet. One class finished and every kid who turned in their work got a 100%! So the majority of one class actually listened to me! I feel proud. Of the ones who did not turn work in; one never turns anything in and the other I believe crumpled it up in a tantrum. But I could be wrong and it could appear Monday.
My boyfriend comes back tomorrow morning instead of today because of flight issues and such. He has to stay the night in Bethel. Yuck. And I am unsure if he can get internet and cell service because he is staying with some guy and cell service in Bethel sucks. So I am kind of in the dark about when the flight comes in tomorrow. Today was day one of substituting for my boyfriend while he is in Anchorage. He is the person who was selected to go to this training about the new evaluation system and then train the principals and staff here in the village, plus some of the school board people who travel a lot and are here for a week or so. It is a good training to go to, he just was not ready to leave the village so soon, especially right before midterm grades are due. I mean, it is two plane rides to get to Anchorage. You spend half the day traveling and with the weather, flights are always delayed. But it is paid for. We both wished that I could have gone, but tickets to Anchorage are around $1000 round trip at this moment. Plus guaranteed sub teacher work/pay for me is a god reason to stay. I make over $100 a day AFTER taxes just working at the school. I think subs for teachers make more. I have mostly subbed for the aides so I have not seen a pay stub yet for what I make subbing for a teacher. But the aides prefer to sub for their teachers for the extra money and stop talking to a teacher if they are passed by for the opportunity. This applies to elementary school mainly because the second floor barely has any aides working in the rooms despite needing them for some students.
My boyfriend and I did not get too much of a goodbye today. He came in the morning to show me what to do with the kids for PE then flew out. But even just hugging and kissing in a chaste manner caused a ruckus from the sixth graders. I mean, I am already asked 50 times a day when we are getting married or girls wanting romantic stories. The kids are obsessed. But you cannot get them started because then they never stop. I confiscated a sharpie marker in gym class from a student and forgot to give it back at the end of the day. He came by my house looking for it. That is how it is here. Kids just come by. I also had girls come by wanting to draw pictures for me. Possibly for money, I am not sure. Kids come by selling crafts. Adults come by selling crafts. What I really want is being sold by a teacher and it is carved chess board made from whale bone with ivory pieces. But is is $1500. My boyfriend and I both drool over it though. The crafts the native teachers sell cost more than the people who come to your door. The day went pretty well for the first half. Kids worked, no one called me a name, no one asked me a sex question. I did lose one 7th grader and did not notice until the special aide teacher came by, asking me what I wanted done with the student having a melt down by the stairs. Oops. I needed the tech guy to fix the projector, so when he had the door open, a bunch of kids tried to run out to the hall. That is how she snuck out. I would not let a kid go to the bathroom and wash off a giant jaw breaker he dropped on the floor during the movie. He responded by knocking all of the papers off of the table. I took away the bathroom pass for one class because they would not settle down and do the movie worksheet. If the kids are good, they get skittles at the end of class and sometimes students who are working get them during class. All morning most students got skittles. The kid who knocked my papers down did not get any. Kids who were really tardy did not. If the kid did not do much work they got maybe one depending on if they were quiet or disruptive. Actually one 7th grade was perfect the entire hour. In the afternoon, one the grade class got no skittles for anyone because as a whole, the class would not settle down. I could not keep kids in seats and they wanted to run around during the movie or sit in the window. Tomorrow I might start adding more names to the detention board. It was funny because I had 7th graders wanting to stay in my class for another hour because sometimes the special ed kids can go work elsewhere if they are having a rough day. So I had kids keep coming back. The last 6th grade class started off doing well and got skittles. Part of this was because I sent a problem child downstairs to work. He came back and then everyone went nuts. I had kids trying to steal batteries from the remote, trying to take stuff from the desk, kids stealing other kids homework, etc etc. So I denied them skittles as an entire class. This led to papers being crumpled up and thrown, trash thrown in general and whining about how mean I am. They actually were so upset that they did not finish cleaning up. Each class earns check points that go towards a pizza party. They need 100 checks. If a class is nice and cooperative with me, they will get 10 points automatically. If not, they get zero. I seriously have to keep everything in my pockets. I cannot leave out dry erase markers or pens or the remote. They write on desks daily so need to keep pens away from them. They start writing on the board if they get a marker. And now i guess they steal batteries. I am better with discipline, but when it is 3/4 of a class, you cannot send the entire class to the office. I was chosen for the librarian job. Unfortunately, I need to re-interview in ten days for it, because the Council decided that they did not think the job was posted up in the village for ten days, so they do not think locals got a fair chance at it. So in ten days we start over. It is okay, though. I work every day doing all sorts of things.
My boyfriend just found out last night that he needs to fly to Anchorage on Tuesday for a training through the union on the new Teacher Evaluation system. I know that the proposed way of doing evaluations is causing huge issues with teachers and is one of the Union hot topics currently. So barely any notice and he will be gone 3 nights. I am going to sub for his classes though since I know what is going on in each class almost as well as him. LOL Of course that means I get all of the feisty 8th graders. But they have enough of a routine going on in class that they know what they should be doing. And there will be movies involved as well. I know the 6th graders just from helping out in class and helping the ones who have reading problems. Should be interesting. It also means for three days I get to be asked non-stop when I am getting married and how my boyfriend better marry me, and how they are all going to tell him that. Silly boys. Actually, one was telling my boyfriend that. They are way too interested in our personal lives. But it is a village of 1200 people. There is not much else to talk about. I got a random pay check today! Of course it was just for 7 hours (or one normal school day), but yay money! And now I know what I make per day after taxes. And.... OMG no state taxes!!! So if I am paid once a month then I will get a full month pay October 15. That works, since I need to buy Christmas stuff starting next month.
My boyfriend wanted to have a date night yesterday since it seems we have been busy the last couple of days, and had not spent too much quality time alone (always kids around or been at friends houses, or working). Considering where we live, the usual options are: Taking the Honda to the beach, going for a walk, watch a movie. It started raining heavily so we watched 127 Hours, uninterrupted, no electronics allowed. It was nice. Then he had a two hour Union meeting. Not as much fun. I have learned some Union info though because I have listened to phone meetings and the Union President is over here every other day it seems. That guy is a talker. But that is the guy whose wife wants me to help with the Preschool stuff. I can really see why teachers need a Union, though. Random tidbit - I have to fly 500 miles to Anchorage, just to see the new Hunger Games when it comes to the theater!!! Still no job news. I think I am at the top of the list for both jobs, but the school needs to send the list through two different boards for signatures. So who knows when everything will be done. I will be working on the school website as soon as the Tech guy gives me a log in for the school website. I may have to star from scratch. But I can access the website the school and teachers use from home, so I can use my own laptop. Or do it in the library if I get the job. I have been working in the library most days, but am so busy entering hundreds of books a day into the computer system, that I have zero free time there. Once the boxes of books are gone and shelves organized, the library job will be pretty laid back. It is just that no one has done anything since April, when the old librarian was carried away in handcuffs. Man, I hope it works out for me. I have so many ideas of how to make the library better and how to maybe get kids more excited about books. |
AuthorI am a Colorado native who moved to Alaska for love and adventure. This journal is going to track my journey. Archives
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