Cool Alaska Experience Number.... I Lost Count

Lying on the frozen tundra at night in the zero degree weather, staring up at the amazingly clear night sky. I may have gotten frostbite on my cheeks from the wind... I really don't care =)

It's Snowing.... Inside?

It's not actually snowing in Scammon Bay right now, but the wind has kicked up and made a mess of the snow that's already here.

I woke up on Saturday morning to this:

And thought to myself ?!?!?!?!?!

Then my sleep addled brain registered 'wow, it's cold' (I know, I'm astute at 6am) and noticed that it was in fact so cold that our thermostat wasn't even registering the temperature on our main floor. Ever the investigative, inquisitive mind, I opened our arctic door and saw this:

Over the next 5 hours, this dusting of snow evolved into a full on four foot snow drift INSIDE of our home. Our heat downstairs did not come back on, and our neighbors were forced to seek refuge in our home as their pipes had frozen and heat was out both downstairs and upstairs.

This morning I woke up to a much warmer home and went about the business of excavating the snow from the entry. 156 gallons of snow later (I used a 13 gallon trashcan to carry the snow through our living room and toss it out the back door), we finally were able to reach the front door. We still can't open it due to the large snow drift covering the outside, but at least now the snow won't be melting and flooding our living room

Some other wind storm damage included a burst pipe and broken window at the school. To my knowledge, school is still on for tomorrow.

Oh Alaska, what will you bring next?

Kickoff Klassic

Talk about a stressful start back to school!!! We've been back in school for exactly four days and already the work is non-stop because basketball season has finally started and we kicked off the season by hosting a seven school tournament.

Everything began on Tuesday when the first visiting team, Aniak, arrived. Never the school to miss an opportunity, we started right in with two exhibition games that evening.

The remaining teams (excluding Tooksook, who was weathered in due to extreme low temperatures) began arriving Wednesday afternoon for the tournament. The interesting thing about sports in rural Alaska is that the visiting teams sleep in the school. Not really a problem for a weekend visit, but when classes are still going on? Talk about a huge juggling act of kids!!

To top it off, student council had the pleasure of opening and operating the student store during all of the evening games. Why is this important, you may ask... well, it wouldn't be except I volunteered to sponsor student council... whoops.

So for my entire first week back, my day looked something like this:

8am: Make sure the visiting teams are up and out of the room
9am-12:30pm: Teach
12:30-1pm: Run home and start something resembling food for hospitality room
1pm-3:30pm: Teach
4pm-12am: Student store, crowd control, admissions, cash count... whatever else needs doing
12am-1:30am: Prep for the next day
2am-7am: Sleep

It's no wonder I ended up sick as a dog after everyone left.

So the final verdict: Tired? Yes. Exhausted? Yes. Unprepared for next week? Yes. Totally proud of my students? Heck yes. In love with my job? Absolutely.

Bring it next week! I can take it.

And in case you're wondering, Scammon boys and girls ranked first =)