Tundra Fest!

Yes, I know that it's been a very long time since I've posted. I wish that I had more time to actually post about my time here. I have a lot that I've been wanting to share so this could be quite a post. 

Last weekend was Tundra Fest and it was a great opportunity for me to learn more about Chevak. Tundra Fest was Friday, Saturday and Sunday and there were different events to watch and participate in each day. Friday night started with a potluck where members from the community brought food to everyone to enjoy. There were a lot of new foods there that I have never tried before and I was a little nervous to get ahead of myself that night...but I did try something new. 

This was one of the new dishes that I tried. Seal meat and rice. I was very hesitant at first because of some food allergies that I had, but I figured that it couldn't hurt to try. I was surprised that it wasn't fishy (not even at all) and it was actually pretty good. I think that the next time I have the chance to eat seal, I won't be hesitant at all. 

That night was also the first night for the Yuraq (Eskimo dancing) and OH MY it was so AWESOME! I couldn't stop watching, it's nothing like the dancing that you'd see now and days there was so much emotion behind each of the dancers/drummers that I felt like I was really apart of the story they were telling (and I had no idea what the story was they were telling because it was all in Cup'ik) it was emotional for me as well! Here is some photos and video clips from the Yuraq (These pictures/videos are from both nights of the Yuraq)

 

 

Also, on the first night there was a bird-plucking competition! Stephanie and I had decided that we were going to try our luck at it. We both knew that going in we weren't going to do very well, but we just wanted to have that experience. I was hoping that it wasn't going to be as hard as I initially thought..boy was I wrong! I finished second to last (only beating Stephanie by a short period of time) It was definitely an experience that I won't forget..

The finished product...like 10-15 minutes later. The woman that won was done like 8-13 minutes BEFORE I was. Maybe I'll get the chance to practice sometime again! ; ) I was pretty proud of myself!

OHHH and yesterday I found out that some fans (the dancing fans the native ladies are using in the pictures. They are made with Caribou) have already been made for me! I wasn't expecting to get them so quickly! But I'm SUPER excited to get them and maybe next time I'll get to participate in a yuraq : )

Akutaq and Berry Picking

This has been yet another busy week here in Chevak and it's only Monday! Professional Development is underway and there is a lot of information to gather. It's a little over-whelming but I'm thankful that all the people seem to be really committed to helping the new teachers! 

Today, after lunch one of the village elders came to speak to us. It was very interesting. He is the older elder that is left in Chevak. He used an interpreter (He only speaks Cu'pik) to give us encouragement and to help us realize just how much support we'll have during the school year. It was very comforting! 

Also, today we got ALL our literacy materials. Let me tell you there is a TON! Just when I thought that I had my classroom almost completely set up, there is so much more now that I have to find a home for. Tomorrow the presenter is going to come in my room and go through all the components with me! That makes me feel better because otherwise, I'd probably just sit there for who knows how many hours trying to figure out all the components! I was also excited to hear about the leveled library...might be something that I'll have to check out sometime soon! 

Okay, now for the exciting news! 

I have officially eaten Akutaq (eskimo ice cream)! This particular recipe (pictures below) had

• Cristco
• Instant Potatos
• Berries 
• Sugar

And I'll have to say it wasn't terrible (my pictures might depict otherwise) it had a very funky texture and it definitely wasn't something I would have expected "ice cream" to taste like. It's definitely nothing like traditional ice cream...

 This is what the Akutaq looked like!

 Here we go...

 Still a little unsure...

 Wasn't a huge fan of the texture! 

I also got the chance to go berry picking today. I probably should have stayed and working on my classroom but it was just too gorgeous outside to stay at school. However, that's exactly where I'm at right now (ironic) Here are some pictures from that journey...

 On our way to berry pick! It was just beautiful outside!

 This is the old airport "runway" a lot of people ride their four wheelers on it!

 We were debating on whether this was the river...we decided it wasn't

 A view of the village from the old airport

 A dead crane. Zoe made sure to pay it respect before we went any further.

 The FIRST Salmon Berry

 Salmon berries and blue berries!

Me with my loot!

 We didn't get to stay out there too long. Mary and I both had work to do in our classrooms so this was all the berries that I got to pick!

 So gorgeous!

I'm glad that I choose to take some time to get out and do something! I'm excited for this weekend and the festivities that will take place. Kiddos come on Friday here comes some very busy preparation days...

Just A Little Snapshot

I've posted these pictures on facebook as well, but I wanted to have it documented on here! Who knows, maybe someone doesn't have facebook! There aren't very many pictures yet but I wanted to give you a little sample! 

 The view from the bush plane on the way to Chevak

 The weather was kinda cruddy but it wasn't a bad flight..

 A view of the village from behind the school

 The school and the playground

 Mary capturing some photos as well

 One of the churches in the village

 The Health Clinic

 So groceries are quite expensive! This P.F. Changs was over 20 dollars!!

 7 dollars for a bowl of noodles

 15 dollars for a jar of mayo! :S

 It's official! This is the name plate outside my door! This is also when it really hit me that I was going to actually be a teacher!

 What my classroom first looked like..

I've been doing a lot of work in my classroom so I'll be posting pictures when I'm done! One more week and the kiddo's will be here (yikes!!)

Damien...

Okay, we have this pretty awesome toilet in our apartment. I couldn't ask for a better toilet....N.O.T. I've officially named it Damien (like in the Omen) Let me tell you about Damien..
-Damien likes to not flush, sometimes he stops working for hours!
-Damien likes to suck all the water out of him making everything difficult
-Damien especially loves to growl. He growled at Mary this morning for like 10 minutes. 
you really never know what Damien is going to go next. I think that I may like the toddler toilet (it's not really a toddler toilet but it's practically on the floor for my kiddos) in my classroom better than Damien. At least he keeps life at the apartment interesting...

Today, I was able to work in my classroom for a majority of the day. I've worked in there about 6 and a half hours so far and I might even go back after I'm done with this. There is just so much to do that right now I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get it done. Thankfully, I was pretty focused today so I think that I've gotten a lot done so far. I think that I've gotten most of my centers set up and ready to go. I have a lot of stuff in my room that I'm not exactly sure what to do with. I'm thinking that I'll interchange them throughout the school year so that there is something new every week. 

I definitely have some more work to do. I'm making a list of things that I'll have to buy at some point for the room. 


Many teachers here are doing themes with their classes. I haven't decided if that is something that I'm going to go yet. At my school, they have Cup'ik immersion. So I'll have an AM group and a PM group. For half of the day they'll be taught in English and the other have of the day they'll be taught in Cup'ik. I'm trying to decide how I'm going to differentiate between the AM group and the PM group. Well see how what I come up with. 


Tomorrow if the first day of professional development. I'm sure that I'm going to be bombarded with fun facts and information! 


Hopefully, I'll get to post pictures soon! : )

Address

Okay, some people have asked for my address so I figured I'd post it! 

Falon Tardiff
P.O. Box 270
Chevak, AK 99563

You New Teacher??

Well, I've officially made it to Chevak and have been adjusting well! It was quite an adventure to get here so lets begin...

We left Anchorage a little after noon and got to Chevak a little after five. It was a day full of first-times!! First, I flew on a half-passenger/half-cargo plane on the way to Bethel. I had never been on a plane like that, but it wasn't really different from a normal flight. When we got to Bethel we shortly realized that we were in the wrong 'airport', once we got our luggage (which consisted of mainly coolers) we took a shuttle to the 'airport' that we needed to be at. The reason that I have "" on the airport is because it would look anything BUT an actual airport. There are no terminals, just a giant room that has everything a normal airport would have smashed into a small room. We had to wait about 2 hours for our flight to Chevak. It was a good time for me to realize that I wasn't in Anchorage/Palmer anymore. We got paged over the pa system that our pilot was ready to meet us at the door (oh, how easy) (a small side note..the pilot was heavenly pretty. However, he wasn't very nice) After there was roll-call we walked out on the runway to our 10 person airplane. Basically you just sit down and the pilot asks if your buckled and it's off you go. The flight to Chevak was pretty short, less than an hour. This in fact was my first time on a "bush" plane. I was very nervous that I was going to decorate the plane with whatever I had eaten that day! Luckily, that never happened and it was a pretty neat experience! : ) 

We got here and were very welcomed! The principal and his wife picked us up and gave us a run-down of the village as he took us to our apartment! It was nice to get to see everything that there is here. Most of our stuff was in the apartment when we got there, so it was nice knowing that we weren't going to have to hall all our stuff from the post office to the apartment. We spent some time un-packing and getting settled...when we got hungry. Ha. Ha. Most of Mary's stuff wasn't in the apartment yet so we realized that we didn't have any silverware. We called Amelia (who is also a first year teacher that I've talked with throughout the summer), she directed us to go see Stephanie (our neighbor : ) and also a first year Chevak teacher) well she wasn't home. We were getting frustrated and the hunger was getting stronger. I got a text from Amelia telling us that we could go borrow from another teacher. We finally were able to get some silverware so that we could eat dinner....and we were locked out of our apartment. No phones because we left them in the apartment and a handful of silverware in our hands. Thankfully, Stephanie came home so we were able to meet her and chat! About an hour later we saw the superintendent outside and he let us in! We could finally eat! The rest of the night we spent getting settled. 

The next day we ventured out in the village. We went to the clinic, the post office and the school. Many of the people seem to know that we are new teachers because everytime we walked by we heard "You new teacher?" It's very nice to know that people here are so friendly and welcoming! We got keys to our classrooms and were able to look around in them. I didn't know what to expect when I walked in (and Frankly, I was a little nervous because I didn't know if there was going to be anything in it) In my head I shouted "PRAISE JESUS" because it was PACKED with stuff. I even have fish!! :D I haven't really gone through much of the stuff in there (which I really need to get on) but I'm super excited and overwhelmed with everything that needs to be done! 

I'm really starting to like this place! All the people here seem to be fabulous (a Stephanie reference) and I'm excited to see what happens this year! 

Walking through the village I've gotten to meet some of the kiddos that I'll have next year. I get super excited when I tell them that I'm going to be their teacher next year. They're a little un-sure of me right now...but I am still excited! : ) I found out this afternoon that as of right now I have 28 kiddos next year! It'll be broken up into an AM and PM. I could end up with more because registration is still open so we'll see on Monday how many I end up with! I have a lot to do before they come on Friday...

There are a LOT of dogs here. There is one dog in particular that has taking a strong liking to my neighbors daughter...well the feelings are mutual. She even got named 'Maxine' and she is a gorgeous dog. She is just a little white fur baby blue eyed puppy. I don't think that I've ever seen a more well behaved dog. At first I didn't really want to pay too much attention to her because I didn't want to become attached. However, today when Stephanie came over to talk I couldn't help myself. I picked her up and we became friends (I'll post pictures of everything, even Maxine once I am on my own computer) I couldn't get enough of her. She snuggled and I wanted to keep her. We can't have animals in our apartments so she couldn't become my life-long friend. She really didn't have a home so she would sleep outside the door. I put a blanket out there for her so she could try and stay warm. I was really worried about her (I'll post later on why I worry about her) but Stephanie was able to find someone that wanted to take her! YAY!!! : D

I've been meeting so many people and gathering so much information that it's a little overwhelming but still so exciting! I can't wait to share stories with you....

It's time for me to fly...

I realize now that I never really told anyone that doesn't live in Alaska how Mary and I got our jobs. She wrote ALLLLLL about it in her blog (if you want to check it out here) I had almost forgotten our journey! It was a good reminder of how blessed we are! : )

The countdown has officially started! We are leaving in approx. 5 days :D :S As of right now I am super excited, I mean I'll have own classroom (which is what I wanted) and I have a pretty stellar roommate as well. However, I anticipate that come Monday morning, I will be more nervous than watching last years SuperBowl (GO PACK GO) I mean there are a lot of pressures with being a first time teacher. Not only a first time teacher, but a teacher out in the bush. I really have no idea what to expect. I know that there are going to be other teachers there that are in the same situation as Mary and I, but it's a little scary to think about. I know that I have nothing to worry about because God is ALWAYS looking out for me, sometimes I just can't help it though when my mind gets the best of me! 

One thing that has really helped this process is packing and shipping stuff. Let me tell you last week was hell. Monday, Mary and I (and our mothers) went to the local grocery store Three Bears (similar to a Costco, but not as big) We went with the mind set of buying enough food to last us until Christmas. I've decided it's pointless. I mean how can you possibly know what you're going to need/want for the next three months!? We ended up leaving the store quite a hefty list of things we'll need. Thankfully, the store is shipping it for us, so that was one less thing to worry about. 

Then it was on to packing. For those of you that don't know.....I HATE PACKING! I could think of so many things that I'd rather do than pack. Anyway, it became very stressful for me. I can never tell how much I'm going to need and want, so it took forever for me to go through things. I did however do a pretty good job (if you ask me) in the end...

 I fit everything that I think I'll need in 8 tubs total! Yeah that may seem like a lot but it's for a whole year! One tub is strictly school stuff: mainly children's books, some random supplies and books that I thought would be useful. Another tub (the big gray one) has our wii (that we scored at our going away party! Thank you Auntie Emily) and all the wii accessories that I could gather up! So, I guess really only 6 tubes were "personal" stuff ;) I am however finding things in my room that I forgot to pack so there might be another one :O

I was able to stuff ALL 8 tubs into my car. I'm pretty sure I would have gotten pulled over if any police officer would have seen me driving to anchorage this way. When I got to Anchorage there was another set of people shipping stuff out to their village (they had a TON more than Mary and I did) and they weren't very nice. I don't like when people make their comments about us teaching in the bush. I did end up letting them borrow my tape, since they had to buy more boxes due to their tubs being over weight (I was being the bigger person).

It has it's advantages. We had to send our stuff 2 weeks in advance so it would be there when we got there! Now I get to relax because pretty much everything has already been taken care of :D Hallelujah! 

The next time I post will most likely be from Chevak! Please keep Mary and I in your prayers as we start our adventure!