Eve, Leslie, Heather, and Tim at the beach.
Tim and I survived our first week of school! It is so nice to start the year out knowing the kids, the faculty, the village, and the culture. I feel like things are so much more doable this year. We were still busy and still worked 13-hour days all week, but I felt like I was keeping my head above the water, rather than gulping for air.
Tim now teaches 7th and 8th grade as well as high school. I have always thought that he would make a great middle school teacher. His personality just seems perfect for the kids. I was so happy when Tim told me after school on Monday that he loved the middle school students.
We have been adjusting to a new principal and counselor, but I think the change is going to be really good. The kids are a bit nervous about the new staff as well, but I tried to reassure them as much as I could.
I’m not going to go into detail about the school week, because we just worked all day long, but we did play pretty hard this weekend.
Tim now teaches 7th and 8th grade as well as high school. I have always thought that he would make a great middle school teacher. His personality just seems perfect for the kids. I was so happy when Tim told me after school on Monday that he loved the middle school students.
We have been adjusting to a new principal and counselor, but I think the change is going to be really good. The kids are a bit nervous about the new staff as well, but I tried to reassure them as much as I could.
I’m not going to go into detail about the school week, because we just worked all day long, but we did play pretty hard this weekend.
Kaitlyn, Leslie, and Heather at the beach.
Friday, we invited some other teachers over for dinner and games. Tim made his famous pizza. I think it was his best yet. Mike brought over some muktuk (whale blubber) to share. I’d never tried it cooked, so I gave it another shot. I took one bite and couldn’t control my gag reflex, so I just through the rest away. We played one of our favorite games: Bang! At 10:00 pm, we all headed to the beach. Dale had set a net earlier that day and we were all going to help harvest the fish. The tide was still too high when we arrived, so we waited at Dale’s house until midnight and then went back out. The depth of the water at the net was still deep. Dale, Michael, and Greg went out to get the fish and they were wet up to their armpits (yes, in the Alaskan ocean in the middle of the night). I purposely volunteered to gut the fish so I didn’t have to go in the water.
Is it a whale?
We found what we think was a whale washed up on the beach, but it was extremely small. We couldn’t figure out what kind of whale would only be 3 feet long even when it was a baby. Who knows?
Saturday we slept in and took a sweet time getting to anything productive for the day. I finally finished organizing our furniture. We bought a treadmill, so we had to do some major rearranging to make things work. I feel so much better now that my house isn’t torn apart with a treadmill in the middle of one of the rooms.
Saturday we slept in and took a sweet time getting to anything productive for the day. I finally finished organizing our furniture. We bought a treadmill, so we had to do some major rearranging to make things work. I feel so much better now that my house isn’t torn apart with a treadmill in the middle of one of the rooms.
Billy's first experience holding a fish; I'm not sure he likes it.
Earlier this week Tim’s 4-wheeler “blew-up”. He was driving back from town and the machine just shut down in the middle of the road. He got it started again, but it sounded awful, perhaps a piston is blown or something. Anyway, he felt really horrible, because there was next to no oil in the machine when he checked it. But, he had changed the oil right before we left Togiak and we had seen no signs of a leak. This made me particularly paranoid about my own 4-wheeler because I hadn’t ever changed my oil and I don’t know how long it had been since the last owner had changed it. So, Saturday afternoon was spent changing oil in Tim’s 4-wheeler, my 4-wheeler, Heather’s 4-wheeler, and Michael’s 4-wheeler. (Perhaps, Tim’s mishap made more than just myself nervous.) It was my first time changing the oil in a 4-wheeler and my mind is at ease now that it’s changed.
Saturday evening we had a potluck at our neighbor’s, Eve. She invited the entire faculty. There were 17 people in her little apartment. I love teacher potlucks.
Saturday evening we had a potluck at our neighbor’s, Eve. She invited the entire faculty. There were 17 people in her little apartment. I love teacher potlucks.
