A tale of 13 hour days and Shadow's (mis)adventure

“All great changes are preceded by chaos.” -Deepak Chopra

There has been no shortage of chaos in our lives lately!

Last week, our staff along with three other schools', gathered in Stebbins for a week of 13 hour inservice trainings. The staff not housed here in Stebbins got the pleasure of sleeping on cots in our classrooms all week.....a total of around 70 extra people living and working in our tiny school. This could have been an incredibly stressful and trying time, but it didn't quite turn out that way. 

Because our days were so long and we hosted so many people, the district provided plenty of food for us. 

Just for reference, here was our crazy schedule:

Breakfast 7-8am

Session 1: 8-noon

Lunch: noon-1pm

Session2: 1pm-5pm

Dinner: 5-6pm

Session 3: 6-9pm

All other things being equal, it's a pretty intense schedule. I can't imagine being away from home and family and sleeping on a cot on top of that. I was very thankful to have my own home and husband to come home to (though he was also often in trainings with me). Even so, I had no shortage of personal drama to deal with. Shadow escaped out of a window sometime on Monday. He's done this before, but this village is full of stray dogs and other dangers- there is a reason the only cats in the village belong to teachers and stay indoors. The first night I was pretty scared, but kept it pretty much together. By Wednesday, I was a hot mess. I managed to keep focused during actual trainings- there was plenty to keep me occupied- but coming home to a cold, silent home with untouched food and water bowls after a long, intense day was heartbreaking. Mike was incredibly sweet and supportive throughout the whole thing, as were my co-workers and admin staff. I was floored by how much they cared about me and a cat they'd never even seen. Everyone had words of support and gave me space and time to freak out when I needed to. My principal's wife was especially wonderful. She helped me spread the word to the village, make "Lost Cat" posters, hugged me when I cried and tried to cheer me up with cat stories of her own. The principal and facilities staff even ripped a panel off a building and crawled under to look for Shadow after a group of kids told us they had seen him. He wasn't down there at the time, but it was such a lovely gesture. 

Thursday morning, our friend Erick called us during breakfast. I went out to the loading dock behind the school to chat. Not five minutes in, Shadow appeared at the corner of a shed, meowing and looking a little ragged. He was completely fine, if a little dusty and hungry. I grabbed him and carried him home through the school. Most of my co-workers and other staff members from other schools who knew what was going on cheered and congratulated us on my way out. It was a sweet moment. 

Ever since, Shadow has been super-affectionate and happy. It is so wonderful to have him back. 

The rest of the day (and even now) I felt I could take on anything because my home was complete again. 

Whenever something like this happens, I look for the lesson I can take from it. What is it that life is trying to teach me? I learned that I can handle a large amount of emotional and mental stress with Mike's support, but that I really need both him and my kitty to feel strong and happy.  I also learned that I absolutely picked the right place to start my career. This group of people is irreverent, supportive, outgoing, super-smart and passionate about education. I have a lot to learn, but luckily I'm surrounded by some wonderful teachers :) It's going to be a fantastic year. 

And now, Shadow and Mike have a chat:

A tour of Stebbins

Some of you may have seen these already, but I thought I'd share some videos and pictures of our new home:

First, a quick video of the front of our apartment and the school. I have a super long commute:

The small blue building next to the long main school building is my classroom. I am in a portable this year. It's a nice little room and I can literally see it from my front door, so I'm not complaining.

Here's a better pic of our front door. The apartment to the right belongs to our tech guru. Convenient.

Mike and I went for a walk up the hill next to the town. It was pretty.

Here is a view down the main street. Nothing is paved out here.

The larger building on the right directly behind the red one is our village store.

....hmm. The power just went out (again) and wifi has been twitchy lately, so I'm going to wrap it up for now. Plus, it's almost time to pull the net and prep salmon again (it happens every day at 4). More as soon as I can.....

OMFG. What did I just do??

It was not until the moment that Ferno and Jim Tweeto led us over to a tiny 208B Cessna and we climbed over our giant coolers and bags containing all our food and clothing to find seats directly behind our pilots that it finally hit me:

Holy f*cking crap. This is the craziest thing I have ever done. 

As the tiny plane roared to life (suddenly it occurs to me why there was a pile of free earplugs in the office) and started climbing above Unalakleet and over the Norton Sound, I looked over to my husband, who was grinning like an idiot, clearly loving every minute of this, I realized: this MIGHT be the craziest thing I've ever done, but it is also hands-down THE MOST AWESOME.

. 
The view from behind the pilot.

A view of St. Michael, the next town over.

The Alaskan tundra and vast ocean that unfolded beneath us is breathtakingly beautiful this time of year. As we made our final approach to Stebbins, I could see the rows of small buildings that make up our new home. We landed easily and pulled up next to a white pickup. My principal, a friendly, gregarious man with a stellar reputation for taking care of his staff  (more about him later) stepped out to greet us and help us with our baggage. He gave us a grand tour, which took about 10 minutes, then dropped us off at our new home. We have a lovely two bedroom townhouse-style home. It is fully furnished, warm and spacious. We have a huge kitchen, plenty of storage and......OUR OWN WASHER/DRYER. After so many years of hauling my laundry everywhere, I almost cried with joy.

This is our front door. 

Stebbins itself is...hard to describe. Imagine a small town in the middle of the country. The kind with one general store. The kind that is small enough you might drive right through it without realizing you missed it. Now take away any lawn, trees and paved roads. Add a huge ocean on one side and tons of dogs, replace desert/crops/lawn/etc with tundra and any cars with ATVs and snow machines. Now imagine there's no running water (except in teacher housing) and your only way in and out of town is by bush plane. That's our reality.  I knew roughly what I'd be walking into when I signed the contract, but seeing it all laid out was a totally different thing. I would have freaked out a little because of the drastic change, but then I got a tour of the school.

This is our school. It is a beautifully kept building. I can see it from my front door.

Our school is beautiful. It is small (compared to some in the lower 48) but well stocked. The instant I walked in, I felt at home. Years of working with the PSC gives you a sense of what kind of environment you're walking into almost instantly upon entering a school, and this place felt perfect. 

I am really excited to get started getting to know everyone and diving into the curriculum (it looks like I'll be teaching middle school Math).

 For the time being, we're busy setting up our home and getting to know the town. It turns out AT&T has service up here, so my phone is working. Mike's is not- no sprint service here-but we have skype and gmail if you're looking to chat. 

Love you all, miss you, and more coming soon!

First days!

Alaska! It happened!
After months of ignoring/ freaking out, weeks of frantic panicking/ getting rid of everything/ shipping/ packing and one of the most emotional and stressful nights of our lives, Mike and I touched down in Anchorage at about 10:30am local time.
(Fact: all of Alaska is an hour behind, in the "Hawaii-Alutian time zone.")
Folks from my school district met us at baggage claim and drove us over to the University of  Alaska Anchorage, where all new teachers are staying while we buy craploads of food, clothes and supplies to ship to our respective villages. We dropped Mike and our baggage off, then delivered Shadow to a kitty hotel. The whole process took a while, but I got to go eat at the Moose's Tooth, a sweet pizza place not far from campus. Don't worry- I totally brought Mike half a pizza :)
I crashed out at 6ish and slept until 7am, which felt freaking amazing after being up for 30 hours straight.

Today has been filled with tons of shopping and eating. I got to have my very first reindeer sausage for breakfast (yum!!) and we stumbled upon our last chance for conveyer-belt Sushi for a while (they had sushi rolls with BACON on top. Weird but kinda good). We bought tons of heavy rain/ winter/ outdoorsy gear and did some food shopping. Our village only has one tiny store and it is neither well-stocked nor cheap, so the smart/ cost-effective way to get food is to load up in Anchorage. We'll ship some stuff, but because it will take weeks to arrive, we'll also cram our luggage full of food. Two of our suitcases are 60-quart coolers, specifically so we can bring perishables up with us. It looks a bit odd, but is essential.

So far we've both been enjoying Anchorage. It's a small but friendly and tidy city. Mike is stoked to go hunting/ fishing/ tromping around in the tundra. I'm hoping I'll have the time and energy to go with him :)
We leave for our village on Sunday, and will have a few days before the school demands anything from me. I am really looking forward to setting up our home and settling in. Everyone we've met from the district is very sweet and helpful. Things move at a different pace up here, but people are generally happy and laid back. So far, I'm a fan.

Pics coming soon.......some are already on FB.....