Well, here we go again. A year ago today (August 1st) I hopped on a plane headed for Alaska. In fact I just landed in Anchorage 1 year and 30 minutes ago. What a day! When I got to O'Hare at 7:00 in the morning that day it was packed and when I got to Anchorage at 1:30 there was basically no one there. I rented a car, found my hotel and went exploring.
First I drove around the city checking out the local color. I went to some stores and I went to a big festival/flea market type thing. It was there that I ate my first Alaskan food, some kind of fish sandwich that was awful. Little did I know what was to follow food-wise. Then I got on the highway and headed south. Drove along, enjoying the scenery, taking some pictures that many of you have seen. At about 10:00 pm, it was still light but I decided to head back to the hotel.
The next day I got up early, drove to the airport, got on the plane for Bethel and instant culture shock. Just thinking about it now is... I don't know what it is, but it's something. Anyway, I'll probably add more to this story as we go along.
By the way, due to some uncontrollable circumstances I am not going back this year. I apologize to those of you who were planning to visit me. I know this was the year you were all going to come. Oh well, maybe next time. However, due to popular demand I may add more entries to this blog detailing some of my previous unpublished activities. Since the new Planet of the Apes prequel is coming out this week, we'll consider this a prequel to last year's blog.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Keyless in Seattle
O.k., so now I'm getting ready to go back to Alaska. Not, now now, but now then. This is like one of those movie sequels that is made years after the original but takes place "later that night". Simple plan really, less steps than the trip to Chicago. But as we have all learned there is no "simple" in Alaska.
Leaving on a Monday, the best option was to take the train to the airport. Less than an hour, less than $10, nobody has to take off work. The train is scheduled to leave Crystal Lake at 12:14. I'm going to drive there, leave my car and Jason will pick it up when he gets done with work tonight or possibly tomorrow. After running some last minute errands I have about 20 minutes to go 2 miles. As I get to the train station I find out my mom was right, there is no overnight parking. If the car is there after midnight I get a ticket or towed. Jason gets off of work at 11:30 and might not even be there tonight, so I decide to park at the other station. As I pull up to the parking lot, I see the train closing its doors so now I have to rush back to the original station and hope Jason gets there early enough on Monday night. I get to the other station, park the car and start to run to the pick-up point. As it turns out, I'm carrying close to 100 pounds of suitcases and stuff. I run and run and huff and puff until eventually the huffing and puffing wins out over the running and I miss the train. I drive to the airport, park in the long-term lot and hope Jason can get there soon ($19 a day). He did get there that night.
At the airport, I have a few hours to relax until the plane takes off. I relax a little too much and almost miss the plane. The previous sentence will be in effect for the next two flights; I almost missed the plane in Seattle and in Anchorage as well. All three times I was sitting in a nice quiet part of the airport reading, not paying attention to the time and eventually running to catch my plane.
I left Chicago on time and landed in Seattle at 6:00. I was not scheduled to leave Seattle until 8:00 the next morning (Tuesday), so I got a hotel room right across from the airport and decided to go sightseeing. After talking to the desk people we decide the best place to go is the Space Needle. There are all kinds of attractions there so off I go. (Yes, I know that I switch from past tense to present) The desk people tell me its a 10 minute walk to the (subway-type) train, 15 minute ride downtown, then get off the train and take the monorail to the Seattle Center. The 15 minute ride is actually 50 minutes; I admit, I probably misheard. I get off the train in downtown Seattle and I'm a little surprised. I don't know exactly what I was expecting but this wasn't it. Anyway, I walk around the block a couple of times, can't find the monorail, remember my incredibly poor sense of direction and decide to go back to the hotel. After another 50 minute ride back, it's now after 9:00 and I'm wet, tired, cold, and hungry. I go into the hotel restaurant, the bartender/waitress that I am wet, tired, cold, and hungry. She asks if I want a beer. After I get done eating I go up to my room and realize I don't have my phone. I retrace my steps and decide I must have dropped it in the garbage can with my newspaper. I talk to the manager, she calls the housekeeping person. The housekeeper puts on her gloves, starts digging through the trash and there it it, in my pocket. I apologize and go upstairs to bed.
Tuesday morning I get up and go to the airport. After going through security, I realize I don't have my keys (Keyless in Seattle, get it?) I check my pockets over and over but they're not there. I go back to the security people and tell them I must have left them in one of those little bins. The guy, who surprisingly was not happy about it starts digging through the pile of bins and there they are. On top of my carry on bag, about 2 inches away from my hand the whole time.
Seattle to Anchorage goes off without a hitch, other than almost missing the plane again. Spend a couple of hours in Anchorage and this was the closest to actually missing the plane, the doors were already closed as I got there. But I was able to get on and get going. After landing in Bethel the plan was to leave for Chefornak in about 2 hours. However, planes are on weather hold and we're not going anywhere. In Bethel I met up with most of the other teachers. Spend the night in Bethel, scheduled to leave the next morning at 9:00. At 9:00 we're told there is a weather hold but we do get out at 10:00 so it's not that bad.
At about 11:30 Wednesday morning we land in Chefornak...
Coming soon, part III: Somebody's Knocking at the Door
Leaving on a Monday, the best option was to take the train to the airport. Less than an hour, less than $10, nobody has to take off work. The train is scheduled to leave Crystal Lake at 12:14. I'm going to drive there, leave my car and Jason will pick it up when he gets done with work tonight or possibly tomorrow. After running some last minute errands I have about 20 minutes to go 2 miles. As I get to the train station I find out my mom was right, there is no overnight parking. If the car is there after midnight I get a ticket or towed. Jason gets off of work at 11:30 and might not even be there tonight, so I decide to park at the other station. As I pull up to the parking lot, I see the train closing its doors so now I have to rush back to the original station and hope Jason gets there early enough on Monday night. I get to the other station, park the car and start to run to the pick-up point. As it turns out, I'm carrying close to 100 pounds of suitcases and stuff. I run and run and huff and puff until eventually the huffing and puffing wins out over the running and I miss the train. I drive to the airport, park in the long-term lot and hope Jason can get there soon ($19 a day). He did get there that night.
At the airport, I have a few hours to relax until the plane takes off. I relax a little too much and almost miss the plane. The previous sentence will be in effect for the next two flights; I almost missed the plane in Seattle and in Anchorage as well. All three times I was sitting in a nice quiet part of the airport reading, not paying attention to the time and eventually running to catch my plane.
I left Chicago on time and landed in Seattle at 6:00. I was not scheduled to leave Seattle until 8:00 the next morning (Tuesday), so I got a hotel room right across from the airport and decided to go sightseeing. After talking to the desk people we decide the best place to go is the Space Needle. There are all kinds of attractions there so off I go. (Yes, I know that I switch from past tense to present) The desk people tell me its a 10 minute walk to the (subway-type) train, 15 minute ride downtown, then get off the train and take the monorail to the Seattle Center. The 15 minute ride is actually 50 minutes; I admit, I probably misheard. I get off the train in downtown Seattle and I'm a little surprised. I don't know exactly what I was expecting but this wasn't it. Anyway, I walk around the block a couple of times, can't find the monorail, remember my incredibly poor sense of direction and decide to go back to the hotel. After another 50 minute ride back, it's now after 9:00 and I'm wet, tired, cold, and hungry. I go into the hotel restaurant, the bartender/waitress that I am wet, tired, cold, and hungry. She asks if I want a beer. After I get done eating I go up to my room and realize I don't have my phone. I retrace my steps and decide I must have dropped it in the garbage can with my newspaper. I talk to the manager, she calls the housekeeping person. The housekeeper puts on her gloves, starts digging through the trash and there it it, in my pocket. I apologize and go upstairs to bed.
Tuesday morning I get up and go to the airport. After going through security, I realize I don't have my keys (Keyless in Seattle, get it?) I check my pockets over and over but they're not there. I go back to the security people and tell them I must have left them in one of those little bins. The guy, who surprisingly was not happy about it starts digging through the pile of bins and there they are. On top of my carry on bag, about 2 inches away from my hand the whole time.
Seattle to Anchorage goes off without a hitch, other than almost missing the plane again. Spend a couple of hours in Anchorage and this was the closest to actually missing the plane, the doors were already closed as I got there. But I was able to get on and get going. After landing in Bethel the plan was to leave for Chefornak in about 2 hours. However, planes are on weather hold and we're not going anywhere. In Bethel I met up with most of the other teachers. Spend the night in Bethel, scheduled to leave the next morning at 9:00. At 9:00 we're told there is a weather hold but we do get out at 10:00 so it's not that bad.
At about 11:30 Wednesday morning we land in Chefornak...
Coming soon, part III: Somebody's Knocking at the Door
Monday, January 10, 2011
Take me home, Alaska Air.
Ok, I'm back. In Alaska and online. I've got all kinds of stories to tell but I'll just do one at a time. Besides, it's kind of hard to type more than one story at a time anyway.
Way back in December the plan was to leave Chefornak and go back to Illinois for Christmas. Sounds easy enough, doesn't it? My original plan was to leave Chefornak after school on Friday, December 17th, spend Friday night in Bethel, leave Bethel Saturday night, leave Anchorage at 2:30 Sunday morning, land in Seattle, spend a couple hours there and leave for Chicago around 8:30 am. Then Jason was going to pick me up at the airport. What could be easier?
Friday December 17th. Morning. There is excitement in the air; most of us are leaving after school to head back to our home states. Unfortunately, there is something else in the air but we'll get to that later. It's a nice sunny morning but rumor has it that bad weather is on its way. There are 5 of us scheduled to leave at 1:30 and a couple more leaving at about 2:00. Early in the day I call the airline and change my Bethel to Anchorage flight from 8:30 pm Saturday to 9:00 am Saturday. I'd rather spend the day at the Anchorage airport than hanging around Bethel. This was the first change but NOT the last. At 1:30 we are all outside waiting for our plane to come in. The excitement that was once in the air has now been replaced by freezing rain. We get a call at 1:45 that our plane was less than 10 minutes away from landing but had to turn back to Bethel. They may come back later if it clears up. We leave our luggage out by the runway and head back to school. At about 4:00 we're told that no planes will be coming. We call all the airlines, schedule a 10:00 flight for Saturday morning and have a charter planned for noon if we can't get out at 10:00. I call Alaska Air again and change my flight to Anchorage back to the original 8:30 departure.
Saturday, December 18. After spending Friday night looking out the door every few minutes and seeing how much warmer it's getting, I'm ready to go Saturday morning. However, with the warmth comes the fog. No planes Saturday morning. It's still ok; I just have to get to Bethel before 8:00 pm. I have all day. All day comes and goes, unfortunately, no planes do. I briefly think about paying a local to take me to Bethel on a snowmobile but sanity prevails and I change my reservations again. We as a group are now scheduled to leave from Chefornak on the first plane Sunday morning. Assuming we get to Bethel, my new plan has me leaving Bethel at 2:00 pm, spending the night in Anchorage, leaving Anchorage Monday afternoon at 1:30, stopping in Seattle at some point and getting back to Chicago at 11:30.
Sunday the 19th. Phone rings Sunday morning "the plane will be here in about 15 minutes." Everyone throws on clothes, grabs suitcases and runs out to the airport. We're ready but not too optimistic. The plane comes and we go. Hooray! Of course now we're only in Bethel.
Bethel: We get there around 12:00, plane scheduled to leave at 2:30. At 1:30 we're told the plane is at least an hour delayed. Negative- sitting at the Bethel airport for another few hours. Positive- I'm not scheduled to leave Anchorage til tomorrow afternoon; I'm in no hurry. Plane comes-off to Anchorage.
Anchorage- As soon as I get off the plane I call Alaska Air and ask for any earlier flights. There is a seat available on the 1:30 am flight which cuts 12 hours off my trip. It's also a first class seat. "I'll take it!" Now I get to sit at the Anchorage airport for the next 10 hours or so. While there I saw two interesting sights displaying another positive and negative. I saw two girls/women being taken off a plane in handcuffs. Not sure what happened there. I also saw a group of people waiting by the arrival gates. All of a sudden a little girl starts running the wrong way, into the "Do Not Enter" area. Then the whole crowd starts cheering. One by one more kids start running into the Do Not Enter, and one by one soldiers returning home were coming out. People were cheering, waving flags, hugging, crying... I got goose bumps then and am getting them again. Very cool.
While at the airport I start to get tired but don't want to sleep because the plan is to sleep on the plane to Seattle. I get on the plane with sleep in mind, sit down my next door seat neighbor turns to me and says "Hi, I'm Mark. I like to get to know the people I sit next to when I'm on a plane." We talk for a while but I'm thinking "nice to meet you Mark but I want to sleep." I did find out he's an actor (not famous but still an actor). He was in the play of A Christmas Story and he played the bully. He wants to work for NASA and he reminded me of Zach (he didn't tell me the Zach part.)
Monday, Dec. 18th. Get in and out of Seattle with no problems. Of course, this being a Monday afternoon I now have no one available to pick me up at the airport. I get to take the train again. El from O'hare into the city, Metra from the city into Crystal Lake, Jason to pick me up in Crystal Lake. As much as it would be nice to be picked up at the airport, I have to say riding the train is not a bad deal. It's inexpensive and quicker. As long as you don't have a lot of luggage I recommend it. At that point, much like now, I just want to get home. One quick stop at Wal-mart to get some groceries and it's back to good old McHenry.
Coming soon: Keyless in Seattle, or my trip back to Alaska.
Way back in December the plan was to leave Chefornak and go back to Illinois for Christmas. Sounds easy enough, doesn't it? My original plan was to leave Chefornak after school on Friday, December 17th, spend Friday night in Bethel, leave Bethel Saturday night, leave Anchorage at 2:30 Sunday morning, land in Seattle, spend a couple hours there and leave for Chicago around 8:30 am. Then Jason was going to pick me up at the airport. What could be easier?
Friday December 17th. Morning. There is excitement in the air; most of us are leaving after school to head back to our home states. Unfortunately, there is something else in the air but we'll get to that later. It's a nice sunny morning but rumor has it that bad weather is on its way. There are 5 of us scheduled to leave at 1:30 and a couple more leaving at about 2:00. Early in the day I call the airline and change my Bethel to Anchorage flight from 8:30 pm Saturday to 9:00 am Saturday. I'd rather spend the day at the Anchorage airport than hanging around Bethel. This was the first change but NOT the last. At 1:30 we are all outside waiting for our plane to come in. The excitement that was once in the air has now been replaced by freezing rain. We get a call at 1:45 that our plane was less than 10 minutes away from landing but had to turn back to Bethel. They may come back later if it clears up. We leave our luggage out by the runway and head back to school. At about 4:00 we're told that no planes will be coming. We call all the airlines, schedule a 10:00 flight for Saturday morning and have a charter planned for noon if we can't get out at 10:00. I call Alaska Air again and change my flight to Anchorage back to the original 8:30 departure.
Saturday, December 18. After spending Friday night looking out the door every few minutes and seeing how much warmer it's getting, I'm ready to go Saturday morning. However, with the warmth comes the fog. No planes Saturday morning. It's still ok; I just have to get to Bethel before 8:00 pm. I have all day. All day comes and goes, unfortunately, no planes do. I briefly think about paying a local to take me to Bethel on a snowmobile but sanity prevails and I change my reservations again. We as a group are now scheduled to leave from Chefornak on the first plane Sunday morning. Assuming we get to Bethel, my new plan has me leaving Bethel at 2:00 pm, spending the night in Anchorage, leaving Anchorage Monday afternoon at 1:30, stopping in Seattle at some point and getting back to Chicago at 11:30.
Sunday the 19th. Phone rings Sunday morning "the plane will be here in about 15 minutes." Everyone throws on clothes, grabs suitcases and runs out to the airport. We're ready but not too optimistic. The plane comes and we go. Hooray! Of course now we're only in Bethel.
Bethel: We get there around 12:00, plane scheduled to leave at 2:30. At 1:30 we're told the plane is at least an hour delayed. Negative- sitting at the Bethel airport for another few hours. Positive- I'm not scheduled to leave Anchorage til tomorrow afternoon; I'm in no hurry. Plane comes-off to Anchorage.
Anchorage- As soon as I get off the plane I call Alaska Air and ask for any earlier flights. There is a seat available on the 1:30 am flight which cuts 12 hours off my trip. It's also a first class seat. "I'll take it!" Now I get to sit at the Anchorage airport for the next 10 hours or so. While there I saw two interesting sights displaying another positive and negative. I saw two girls/women being taken off a plane in handcuffs. Not sure what happened there. I also saw a group of people waiting by the arrival gates. All of a sudden a little girl starts running the wrong way, into the "Do Not Enter" area. Then the whole crowd starts cheering. One by one more kids start running into the Do Not Enter, and one by one soldiers returning home were coming out. People were cheering, waving flags, hugging, crying... I got goose bumps then and am getting them again. Very cool.
While at the airport I start to get tired but don't want to sleep because the plan is to sleep on the plane to Seattle. I get on the plane with sleep in mind, sit down my next door seat neighbor turns to me and says "Hi, I'm Mark. I like to get to know the people I sit next to when I'm on a plane." We talk for a while but I'm thinking "nice to meet you Mark but I want to sleep." I did find out he's an actor (not famous but still an actor). He was in the play of A Christmas Story and he played the bully. He wants to work for NASA and he reminded me of Zach (he didn't tell me the Zach part.)
Monday, Dec. 18th. Get in and out of Seattle with no problems. Of course, this being a Monday afternoon I now have no one available to pick me up at the airport. I get to take the train again. El from O'hare into the city, Metra from the city into Crystal Lake, Jason to pick me up in Crystal Lake. As much as it would be nice to be picked up at the airport, I have to say riding the train is not a bad deal. It's inexpensive and quicker. As long as you don't have a lot of luggage I recommend it. At that point, much like now, I just want to get home. One quick stop at Wal-mart to get some groceries and it's back to good old McHenry.
Coming soon: Keyless in Seattle, or my trip back to Alaska.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
The night the lights went out in Chefornak
Yes, they did, but we'll get to that.
It all started innocently enough. Last Monday I found out I was going to Bethel for an inservice. Kind of iffy on that; I didn't really want to go but I didn't really not want to go. On the one hand it was a chance to shop, shower (regularly) and avoid the honey bucket. On the other hand, it's kind of a pain to find a sub, make sub plans, get everything packed up, etc. The plan was I would leave after school on Thursday. I called on Wednesday morning to make my reservations. When it was time to pay they said, "don't give me your credit card number yet, it's supposed to be bad tomorrow, you probably won't even go." More of a reason to not want to go, or even plan to go.
I call on Thursday morning with the card number. Planes are flying but late. At this point it is in the teens temperature-wise with wind about 20-30 mph. At about 4:30 I get a call that my plane is in Kipnuk, the next village over and will be by me in about 25 minutes. Temperature is up a little, now in the high 20's/low 30's, wind blowing in the 40's-50's mph range. 10 minutes later I get a call that the pilot is turning around and heading back to Bethel. The new plan is that I will leave Friday morning on the first plane (10:30).
At this point I need to get something to eat. I didn't eat much during the day because I was planning to go out to eat in Bethel for my usual $30 two taco meal. Usually, if I don't have anything at home I go to the store, get some food, go home to get a can of Diet Coke and then come back to school to eat. I walked to the store with the wind now regularly in the high 40's with gust in the high 50 mph's. Luckily it wasn't too cold, still in the 30's. As I leave the store and the wind blows me down the ramp I decide to just go right home and stay there for the evening.
On the walk home I had to stop and hand on to a fence because the wind would have knocked me over. It was kind of cool actually. I get home, eat, do some crossword puzzles and settle down to watch Big Bang Theory and then 30 Rock. At about 8:45, right in the middle of 30 Rock, everything goes off; TV, lights, refrigerator, heat. In Illinois when this happens I usually just go to bed, so that's what I did. Ten minutes later I get a call from Jeff, one of the other teachers. He tells me that the power is off in the whole village and not to expect it back at least until it gets light out, which at this time of year is not until 11:00 am. I think about going to sleep at the school but it's still fairly warm, I'm not going to freeze to death so I bundle up-long underwear, flannel pants, two pairs of socks, 3 shirts, two blankets and back to bed. It was cold. I woke up 3 or 4 times and each time I was colder and had to readjust. My alarm rings at 6:45 and because I don't want to get out of bed, I hit snooze for an hour and a half until 8:15. Since I'm supposed to be at school at 8:15, I figure I should probably get up. Since all of my clean clothes are in my suitcase at the school waiting to go to Bethel all I have to wear is a pair of sweat pants and a T-shirt.
When I get to school, I find out the two people who know how to fix the electricity are out of town. We're not sure when they'll be back. Someone says they might stay away longer because they don't want to come back when the power's out. Our custodian hooks up a generator at my house and I get to pick up to two items that I want to use. I opted for heat and TV. My theory was "you can live by the light of the TV, but you can't watch the lights." We only had one generator so one of the other teachers had a series of extension cords running from the school to his house. As it turns out the power did go back on sometime that afternoon and I now have the generator at my house in case this happens again (I'm told it will.) I ended up not going to Bethel.
After those events, it has now gotten colder, pretty much 15 or lower since Saturday. Today my doorknob froze and I couldn't get in for about a half hour. My neighbor came over and finally got it open for me.
Now, I'm going to go home and watch Charlie Brown. Good Grief!
It all started innocently enough. Last Monday I found out I was going to Bethel for an inservice. Kind of iffy on that; I didn't really want to go but I didn't really not want to go. On the one hand it was a chance to shop, shower (regularly) and avoid the honey bucket. On the other hand, it's kind of a pain to find a sub, make sub plans, get everything packed up, etc. The plan was I would leave after school on Thursday. I called on Wednesday morning to make my reservations. When it was time to pay they said, "don't give me your credit card number yet, it's supposed to be bad tomorrow, you probably won't even go." More of a reason to not want to go, or even plan to go.
I call on Thursday morning with the card number. Planes are flying but late. At this point it is in the teens temperature-wise with wind about 20-30 mph. At about 4:30 I get a call that my plane is in Kipnuk, the next village over and will be by me in about 25 minutes. Temperature is up a little, now in the high 20's/low 30's, wind blowing in the 40's-50's mph range. 10 minutes later I get a call that the pilot is turning around and heading back to Bethel. The new plan is that I will leave Friday morning on the first plane (10:30).
At this point I need to get something to eat. I didn't eat much during the day because I was planning to go out to eat in Bethel for my usual $30 two taco meal. Usually, if I don't have anything at home I go to the store, get some food, go home to get a can of Diet Coke and then come back to school to eat. I walked to the store with the wind now regularly in the high 40's with gust in the high 50 mph's. Luckily it wasn't too cold, still in the 30's. As I leave the store and the wind blows me down the ramp I decide to just go right home and stay there for the evening.
On the walk home I had to stop and hand on to a fence because the wind would have knocked me over. It was kind of cool actually. I get home, eat, do some crossword puzzles and settle down to watch Big Bang Theory and then 30 Rock. At about 8:45, right in the middle of 30 Rock, everything goes off; TV, lights, refrigerator, heat. In Illinois when this happens I usually just go to bed, so that's what I did. Ten minutes later I get a call from Jeff, one of the other teachers. He tells me that the power is off in the whole village and not to expect it back at least until it gets light out, which at this time of year is not until 11:00 am. I think about going to sleep at the school but it's still fairly warm, I'm not going to freeze to death so I bundle up-long underwear, flannel pants, two pairs of socks, 3 shirts, two blankets and back to bed. It was cold. I woke up 3 or 4 times and each time I was colder and had to readjust. My alarm rings at 6:45 and because I don't want to get out of bed, I hit snooze for an hour and a half until 8:15. Since I'm supposed to be at school at 8:15, I figure I should probably get up. Since all of my clean clothes are in my suitcase at the school waiting to go to Bethel all I have to wear is a pair of sweat pants and a T-shirt.
When I get to school, I find out the two people who know how to fix the electricity are out of town. We're not sure when they'll be back. Someone says they might stay away longer because they don't want to come back when the power's out. Our custodian hooks up a generator at my house and I get to pick up to two items that I want to use. I opted for heat and TV. My theory was "you can live by the light of the TV, but you can't watch the lights." We only had one generator so one of the other teachers had a series of extension cords running from the school to his house. As it turns out the power did go back on sometime that afternoon and I now have the generator at my house in case this happens again (I'm told it will.) I ended up not going to Bethel.
After those events, it has now gotten colder, pretty much 15 or lower since Saturday. Today my doorknob froze and I couldn't get in for about a half hour. My neighbor came over and finally got it open for me.
Now, I'm going to go home and watch Charlie Brown. Good Grief!
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Happy Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving. My two main topics today will be food and thanking.
Last week there was a feast honoring an elder who died last year. It was held at the school as most events here are. Pretty much everyone in the village came and most of them brought food. There was a line of tables all along one wall and around the corner of the gym. Some of the food was what you would consider the usuals; mashed potatoes, salad, chicken, jell-o, etc. However most of it was local. I personally only ate two new things both of them coming from the same animal. Two different types of walrus meat-one was cooked and even had a little fur still on it and the other was a little chunk of raw kidney. I tried kidney the other day but spit it out. This time I actually ate it-just a bite though. There was a plate of hard-boiled eggs, nothing out of the ordinary there, but wait, these were not your ordinary eggs. We had a choice between sea gull or goose. Having watched the Cubs all year, I'm kind of used to goose eggs so I opted for the sea gull. They were all gone when I got to the plate so I took a goose. First thing-they're big! Second thing-I cracked it open and out oozed a real live dead goose. When the locals go searching for food they take any egg they can find. I was told it was treat and I should still eat it. I didn't.
Some of the other foods I didn't eat-kelp, fish eggs, beluga whale. I wanted whale but that was also all gone when I got to it. There were plates full of various fish and fowl but I didn't know what anything was so I just skipped it. Overall it was pretty cool. Everyone sat on the floor which is common around here. Most of the serving dishes didn't have utensils; people just reached in and grabbed or ripped off what they wanted. Those of you who know me well, know that is very difficult for me; but you know what they say, "when in Chefornak, do what the Chefornakians do."
Today was our village Thanksgiving feast. Kind of the same thing in some ways, different in others. It was during the school day and the whole village was invited. This time we had turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, regular Thanksgiving staples. The only thing missing was the pumpkin pie. Anyone that can get one here for me and have it still be edible will be greatly rewarded.
On Thursday the teachers are all getting together for our Thanksgiving dinner. I'm looking forward to it but it's also a little tough not seeing my family.
I also wanted to send out a couple of "thank yous." First to anyone who is reading this, thanks for reading. People back home that have run errands for me and taken care of my house; mom, Jason, Glor, Becky, Zach, Mandy, Catie I couldn't be doing this without you. A huge thank you to the people who have sent unsolicited boxes/packages. You can't imagine how good it feels to hear Nicole, the postmaster say "Tom, you have a box at the post office" when I wasn't expecting anything. Thank you; Karen and Dan, Uncle Ed and Aunt Elaine, Eydie and Tim from Osco, Mom. I hope I didn't miss anybody.
Quyana
Last week there was a feast honoring an elder who died last year. It was held at the school as most events here are. Pretty much everyone in the village came and most of them brought food. There was a line of tables all along one wall and around the corner of the gym. Some of the food was what you would consider the usuals; mashed potatoes, salad, chicken, jell-o, etc. However most of it was local. I personally only ate two new things both of them coming from the same animal. Two different types of walrus meat-one was cooked and even had a little fur still on it and the other was a little chunk of raw kidney. I tried kidney the other day but spit it out. This time I actually ate it-just a bite though. There was a plate of hard-boiled eggs, nothing out of the ordinary there, but wait, these were not your ordinary eggs. We had a choice between sea gull or goose. Having watched the Cubs all year, I'm kind of used to goose eggs so I opted for the sea gull. They were all gone when I got to the plate so I took a goose. First thing-they're big! Second thing-I cracked it open and out oozed a real live dead goose. When the locals go searching for food they take any egg they can find. I was told it was treat and I should still eat it. I didn't.
Some of the other foods I didn't eat-kelp, fish eggs, beluga whale. I wanted whale but that was also all gone when I got to it. There were plates full of various fish and fowl but I didn't know what anything was so I just skipped it. Overall it was pretty cool. Everyone sat on the floor which is common around here. Most of the serving dishes didn't have utensils; people just reached in and grabbed or ripped off what they wanted. Those of you who know me well, know that is very difficult for me; but you know what they say, "when in Chefornak, do what the Chefornakians do."
Today was our village Thanksgiving feast. Kind of the same thing in some ways, different in others. It was during the school day and the whole village was invited. This time we had turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, regular Thanksgiving staples. The only thing missing was the pumpkin pie. Anyone that can get one here for me and have it still be edible will be greatly rewarded.
On Thursday the teachers are all getting together for our Thanksgiving dinner. I'm looking forward to it but it's also a little tough not seeing my family.
I also wanted to send out a couple of "thank yous." First to anyone who is reading this, thanks for reading. People back home that have run errands for me and taken care of my house; mom, Jason, Glor, Becky, Zach, Mandy, Catie I couldn't be doing this without you. A huge thank you to the people who have sent unsolicited boxes/packages. You can't imagine how good it feels to hear Nicole, the postmaster say "Tom, you have a box at the post office" when I wasn't expecting anything. Thank you; Karen and Dan, Uncle Ed and Aunt Elaine, Eydie and Tim from Osco, Mom. I hope I didn't miss anybody.
Quyana
Monday, November 8, 2010
Chefornak to Chicago in 5 Easy Steps
OK, here we are again. It's been a while since I've been on here. I hope you all have been doing all right without me. My last post was October 10th, almost a month ago. Right now I'm sitting at my desk eating leftover Halloween candy.
Since we last met...
I left on Wednesday, October 13th to go back to Illinois for Becky's wedding. What a trip! I'm surprised I didn't run into Steve Martin and John Candy.
First, I almost didn't get to leave Chefornak. It was foggy and flights were being cancelled. [Alaskans get their PFD (Permanent Fund Dividend) checks in late September/early October. Basically it's a check that all citizens get every year, roughly around $1000. Alaska Airlines has a huge sale when the checks come out.] The importance of the last few sentences is; if I missed one flight there were no empty seats on any plane until Monday the 18th, two days after the wedding. At about noon KC, my principal calls me into his office and tells me to call each of the airlines that serve our village and make reservations with any or all of them to make sure I get out of here. I find a plane and leave around 1:30 and get to Bethel at 2:30. My plane is not scheduled to leave Bethel until 8:30. Having a few hours and not wanting to spend the $7.00 for a cab I walk from the airport to "downtown" Bethel, about 3 miles. Do some shopping, eat at Subway and walk back. When I get there, I'm told that because of the returning fog, my next plane will be late and may not come at all. After sitting in the airport for 2 more hours, the plane comes in at around 9:30. At this point, I've been gone for 8 hours, walked 6-7 miles and have travelled less than 100 miles. The plane leaves for Anchorage at 10:30 and I sit next to two people (a man and a women) both chewing tobacco, and spitting into their empty Pepsi cans.
I get to Anchorage around 11:30 and wait for my next plane. I'm scheduled to leave at 12:45 to fly to Seattle. While waiting I buy an $8.00 Big Mac meal. This plane leaves on time and I get to Seattle around 5:00 their time. The Seattle airport has trains that take you from one terminal to the other. Being impatient, I just hop on the first one which results in having to take two more to get me back to where I'm supposed to be. I'm there for a couple of hours, enough time to eat at Starbuck's (just a donut) and on to the next plane, leaving at 7:00 for Denver. Get to Denver, get myself a personal pizza from Pizza Hut and head for the next plane. This plane (big and very nice) takes me to Chicago. As I was traveling I noticed the physical appearance of both the airports and the people improved as I moved from Bethel to Anchorage to Seattle to Denver, but then it stopped when I got to O'Hare (no offense intended).
After getting off the plane in Chicago I had to run to catch to CTA train. Took that to Jefferson Park. Got off the train there and waited for the Metra to take me to Crystal Lake. When I got to Crystal Lake, my car was waiting for me with a full gas tank (thanks Jason). It was now 6:00 pm (3:00 Alaska time). In the previous 26 hours I had been on a total of 5 planes and 5 trains in four different states and four different time zones with less than 4 hours of sleep.
Even with the hassles I'm glad I went back.
Here in Chefornak there's not a whole lot out of the ordinary going on. I worked at the Halloween carnival last weekend. I was in charge of the duck game. My biggest problem was telling the older kids that they couldn't play. Sunday was Halloween and the oddest thing was many of the adults go trick or treating without kids. Kind of interesting to hear a knock on the door, open it and see a 40 year man standing there with a bag for candy.
Ice skating is the big activity right now, although they just call it skating. There's only a short window that it's possible to skate. The few weeks after the ponds freeze until there is too much snow. I haven't skated but I've been out there. The kids like to hang to my coat while I pull them around. I've had as many as 12 hanging on all yelling "Run faster!" Hah!! that's what I say.
This weekend was the time change "Fall Back". They don't do it here until Sunday afternoon. That way they don't have to change their schedule for church. Clocks stay the same and then when you get home from church you move them back.
ALASKA LIFESTYLE NEWS
Last Tuesday I helped clean blood off of a seal skin. The seal was caught and skinned over the weekend. The skin was then brought to the Preschool of all places. There, the kids (and I for a short period), cleaned it and hung it to dry.
Of course the big news is..... I used my Honeybucket for the first time. It was a Saturday night, I woke up around 3:00 am and thought I have to go. I sat there and thought about getting dressed and running to the school, then I tried to convince myself it was gas, then I hoped it would just go away. None of the above. In the words of Forrest Gump, "that's all I have to say about that." Other than I used it again last week. Still don't like it but it does come in handy.
Since we last met...
I left on Wednesday, October 13th to go back to Illinois for Becky's wedding. What a trip! I'm surprised I didn't run into Steve Martin and John Candy.
First, I almost didn't get to leave Chefornak. It was foggy and flights were being cancelled. [Alaskans get their PFD (Permanent Fund Dividend) checks in late September/early October. Basically it's a check that all citizens get every year, roughly around $1000. Alaska Airlines has a huge sale when the checks come out.] The importance of the last few sentences is; if I missed one flight there were no empty seats on any plane until Monday the 18th, two days after the wedding. At about noon KC, my principal calls me into his office and tells me to call each of the airlines that serve our village and make reservations with any or all of them to make sure I get out of here. I find a plane and leave around 1:30 and get to Bethel at 2:30. My plane is not scheduled to leave Bethel until 8:30. Having a few hours and not wanting to spend the $7.00 for a cab I walk from the airport to "downtown" Bethel, about 3 miles. Do some shopping, eat at Subway and walk back. When I get there, I'm told that because of the returning fog, my next plane will be late and may not come at all. After sitting in the airport for 2 more hours, the plane comes in at around 9:30. At this point, I've been gone for 8 hours, walked 6-7 miles and have travelled less than 100 miles. The plane leaves for Anchorage at 10:30 and I sit next to two people (a man and a women) both chewing tobacco, and spitting into their empty Pepsi cans.
I get to Anchorage around 11:30 and wait for my next plane. I'm scheduled to leave at 12:45 to fly to Seattle. While waiting I buy an $8.00 Big Mac meal. This plane leaves on time and I get to Seattle around 5:00 their time. The Seattle airport has trains that take you from one terminal to the other. Being impatient, I just hop on the first one which results in having to take two more to get me back to where I'm supposed to be. I'm there for a couple of hours, enough time to eat at Starbuck's (just a donut) and on to the next plane, leaving at 7:00 for Denver. Get to Denver, get myself a personal pizza from Pizza Hut and head for the next plane. This plane (big and very nice) takes me to Chicago. As I was traveling I noticed the physical appearance of both the airports and the people improved as I moved from Bethel to Anchorage to Seattle to Denver, but then it stopped when I got to O'Hare (no offense intended).
After getting off the plane in Chicago I had to run to catch to CTA train. Took that to Jefferson Park. Got off the train there and waited for the Metra to take me to Crystal Lake. When I got to Crystal Lake, my car was waiting for me with a full gas tank (thanks Jason). It was now 6:00 pm (3:00 Alaska time). In the previous 26 hours I had been on a total of 5 planes and 5 trains in four different states and four different time zones with less than 4 hours of sleep.
Even with the hassles I'm glad I went back.
Here in Chefornak there's not a whole lot out of the ordinary going on. I worked at the Halloween carnival last weekend. I was in charge of the duck game. My biggest problem was telling the older kids that they couldn't play. Sunday was Halloween and the oddest thing was many of the adults go trick or treating without kids. Kind of interesting to hear a knock on the door, open it and see a 40 year man standing there with a bag for candy.
Ice skating is the big activity right now, although they just call it skating. There's only a short window that it's possible to skate. The few weeks after the ponds freeze until there is too much snow. I haven't skated but I've been out there. The kids like to hang to my coat while I pull them around. I've had as many as 12 hanging on all yelling "Run faster!" Hah!! that's what I say.
This weekend was the time change "Fall Back". They don't do it here until Sunday afternoon. That way they don't have to change their schedule for church. Clocks stay the same and then when you get home from church you move them back.
ALASKA LIFESTYLE NEWS
Last Tuesday I helped clean blood off of a seal skin. The seal was caught and skinned over the weekend. The skin was then brought to the Preschool of all places. There, the kids (and I for a short period), cleaned it and hung it to dry.
Of course the big news is..... I used my Honeybucket for the first time. It was a Saturday night, I woke up around 3:00 am and thought I have to go. I sat there and thought about getting dressed and running to the school, then I tried to convince myself it was gas, then I hoped it would just go away. None of the above. In the words of Forrest Gump, "that's all I have to say about that." Other than I used it again last week. Still don't like it but it does come in handy.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Happy Columbus Day
It's Sunday the 10th. Happy birthday mom. It is cold today. The past few days it was pretty nice out but it's in the low 30's right now and the forecast is 30's and rain for the rest of the week. I've been told that our September and October are like January in the Seattle area. Not knowing a lot about January in the Seattle area, I guess I'll agree.
We've had a lot of people out sick the past couple of weeks. There is a stomach thing going around and people are experiencing what they call "wet poop". It's been kind of tough for my teaching because my classes have only 1-3 kids in each of them. So, if I'm missing 1 or 2, plans have to be changed. The first half of my day is spent pulling elementary kids out of their classrooms and working with them on reading, writing, math, speech and language. After lunch I teach three classes, high school math (one student, who has been in school less than 10 days throughout the first quarter of school) and a combination junior high/high school reading and writing (two students, one of whom is the same high schooler with the amazing attendance record). I like the mornings much more than the afternoons.
More name factoids:
We have twin 6th grade boys who have the same names, first, middle and last.
Some of the girls have the suffix Jr. after their names.
There is a high school boy whose name is "Steven 2". Not jr. not the 2nd, but 2. His father is Steven 1 and he is Steven 2.
My Yupik name (Raven) is pronounced something like this: Tulukaluch.
Our NYO team won its first competition this weekend. Go Shamans! We will host a tournament in the middle of November and I'll take pictures then.
The school water was on and off all week. If it stays off too long they have to cancel school. It was never off that long but it was still a pain. I wasn't able to wash all my clothes on Tuesday. And if your clothes sit in the water for any period of time they turn an amazing shade of brown, just like the water. It kind of looks like tea when it comes out of the faucets.
Heading back to Illinois this Wednesday for the wedding. I'll be gone from Wednesday afternoon until Monday afternoon. Out of the 5 days I'll be in airports or on planes for almost 48 hours. That's ok though, I'm still pumped.
Some of the things I'm looking forward to when I'm home: (besides seeing people)
Eating in a restaurant,
Walking barefoot
Getting a haircut
Paying less than $14 for a 12 pack of Diet Coke
Not using a honey bucket. (Although, I still haven't officially used mine. Yesterday I woke up at 5:00 in the morning, got dressed and ran to school.)
Don't really have anything else to add. I'm going to get back to work.
We've had a lot of people out sick the past couple of weeks. There is a stomach thing going around and people are experiencing what they call "wet poop". It's been kind of tough for my teaching because my classes have only 1-3 kids in each of them. So, if I'm missing 1 or 2, plans have to be changed. The first half of my day is spent pulling elementary kids out of their classrooms and working with them on reading, writing, math, speech and language. After lunch I teach three classes, high school math (one student, who has been in school less than 10 days throughout the first quarter of school) and a combination junior high/high school reading and writing (two students, one of whom is the same high schooler with the amazing attendance record). I like the mornings much more than the afternoons.
More name factoids:
We have twin 6th grade boys who have the same names, first, middle and last.
Some of the girls have the suffix Jr. after their names.
There is a high school boy whose name is "Steven 2". Not jr. not the 2nd, but 2. His father is Steven 1 and he is Steven 2.
My Yupik name (Raven) is pronounced something like this: Tulukaluch.
Our NYO team won its first competition this weekend. Go Shamans! We will host a tournament in the middle of November and I'll take pictures then.
The school water was on and off all week. If it stays off too long they have to cancel school. It was never off that long but it was still a pain. I wasn't able to wash all my clothes on Tuesday. And if your clothes sit in the water for any period of time they turn an amazing shade of brown, just like the water. It kind of looks like tea when it comes out of the faucets.
Heading back to Illinois this Wednesday for the wedding. I'll be gone from Wednesday afternoon until Monday afternoon. Out of the 5 days I'll be in airports or on planes for almost 48 hours. That's ok though, I'm still pumped.
Some of the things I'm looking forward to when I'm home: (besides seeing people)
Eating in a restaurant,
Walking barefoot
Getting a haircut
Paying less than $14 for a 12 pack of Diet Coke
Not using a honey bucket. (Although, I still haven't officially used mine. Yesterday I woke up at 5:00 in the morning, got dressed and ran to school.)
Don't really have anything else to add. I'm going to get back to work.
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