Window #2 [Almost] Bites the Dust

This isn’t me feeling sorry for myself.  I’m not that person who exaggerates my self-deprecation or creates dramatic scenarios for myself.  The truth is, it seems to me, things happen to me.  I try to fix the blinking sound from the truck, and thinking that it’s the break light, I pull on the break release, and the handle comes off.  This is my life.  This is how things generally go for me.  I get to 9.5-minute miles in my running, and I get tendinitis in my heel.  I nearly die keeping my yurt warm, my axes continually break, and my dog died exactly one week – 7 days – before I returned home after 12 weeks of summer vacation.  The ski race that I busted my butt to organize was interrupted by a blizzard that appeared 30 minutes before we started and ended with the last skier.  Literally, the sun appeared as she was making her slow way to the finish line.  I have photographs to prove my point.  My life is a series of grossly ironic mockeries.

Anyway, as it were, I live in a yurt.  This is by my own choice, so I’m not complaining about the lifestyle that I lead.  I like it, in fact, and I would do it all over again.  I would do it better, but I would do it again.  Anyway, I came home one day my first year in the yurt to a busted window.  You may remember this, faithful readers.  These windows, I should note, are held on by Velcro, which doesn’t exactly hold up all that well in 40 mile per hour wind storms.  In any case, I covered up the window with the canvas flap, and it has remained that way ever since.  No more midnight peeks out the window to see the Northern Lights since it was, actually, the north window next to my bed that blew off and shattered into frozen clear plastic pieces all over my snowy yurt yard.

For the past week I have been really excited to welcome in the south winds, which as a rule are much warmer than the harsh Alaskan winters’ north winds.  It generally means a change in season, bringing in the warmer weather, not to mention my yurt is much more protected on the south side, so this is the time of winter when it is much easier to keep my place warm.  I relax a little more, even during storms, because it is 99% of the time exponentially better.

Tonight, however, as I sat in my chair eating dinner and watching a movie – my favorite lazy past time – I heard a terrible, no good sound, a sound I recognized, a sound I dreaded.  “Bad, bad sound,” I cried in a panic.  “Really bad sound.  Not good.”  I threw on my Xtra Tuffs and ran outside to see yet another window in the process of separating from the Velcro on the yurt.  I quickly went to reattaching it, and in attempts to lower the extra canvas window cover, I realized that my hands were freezing.  I ran back inside, threw on a hat and gloves – having to bolt lock the door each time I shut it because it would have blown open – and returned to the flapping canvas cover.  Upon attempting again to attach it to the yurt, I realized that the wet Velcro would not allow for any such attachment.  This was not just a strong south wind – it was a strong south-wind blizzard, blowing in warm, wet snow.  Defeated, I rolled the canvas back up, only to find that one of the straps had ripped in the wind.  So now I not only have a scarcely attached window, I have a barely hanging on canvas cover that will flap whether it’s rolled up or not.

Someone please tell me that this is what it looks like all of the time for everyone, because I don’t think it does.

In retrospect, it’s all very funny.  Type 2 fun, we call it – not so fun at the time, but fun to talk about later.  I think, when a person deals with this sort of thing all the time, things changing and breaking and going awry without any control on my part, s/he has to have a good sense of humor.  Otherwise I might go crazy.

Anyway, I’ll include a few photos of some of the enormous amounts of snow we’ve been getting.  It’s pretty incredible.

Mantra: Adventure Every Week

So far, 2011′s mantra has been true.  I really have had an adventure of some kind every week.  Three for three!  We’ll start at the beginning.

Winter Break was good – I spent time with the bestie and family, and the rest I spent in Anchorage with friends.  I find it serendipitous that I am allergic to Christmas trees, because it’s not actually something I really care all that much about.  Holidays aren’t really my thing.  It was nice just to celebrate being together without all the kitsch and hype.  Anyway, New Year’s Eve I was back in Koyuk and literally slept all the way through the loud and boisterous celebration that I am certain went on for at least a couple hours and not that far from my yurt.  Snow machine train, hollering, and gun shots to welcome in the new year took place all over the village, and I slept soundly, recovering from my vacation, enjoying the warmth and zen peace of my yurt.

The first week of school I was asked to accompany the 8th graders to NACTEC, Northwestern Alaska Career and Technical Center, which is a place students in BSSD can go to learn about career opportunities.  It’s a really great chance for them to experience life away from home as well as learn about careers once they graduate from high school.  Anyway, it’s in Nome, so with light duties I spent the week with my kiddos.  Bonus: my good friend Katie works at NACTEC, so we got to hang out a bit.  And since there were so many chaperones, we actually each got some time off, so I got to hang out with my good friend Erin who lives in Nome, also.  Bonus!  AND, as if there could be any more good, besides the sushi I got to eat, there is a pool in Nome, and I got to go swimming.  I’m not a big fan of getting wet unless it is functional, and doing laps is definitely a function I enjoy.  The week was a success.

That weekend there was also an Arts Committee meeting in Unalakleet, so I traveled straight from Nome to UNK.  That’s a lie – the plane had to stop in Brevig Mission, White Mountain, Shaktoolik, and then Unalakleet.  Since it was an evening flight, there was one point in the air where we could see the lights from four villages at one time: Elim, Koyuk, Shaktoolik, and Unalakleet.  Plus the moon was gorgeous.  Ah, the bush!  Nothing like it.  Anyway, the meeting was productive, and the bonus of being in UNK, of course, is that Sissy and Judie live there – bestie time!!

Alright, so on the outdoor adventure.  Usually I pay people to haul me wood for several reasons.  I don’t have all the means to do it, and I don’t necessarily have the time or energy to do it.  But I thought to myself, Karis, you should at least try to haul your own wood.  So I was determined on Sunday to take my machine and get at least two trees.  I drove out of town a little ways (not too far because I didn’t have much gas), parked, and snowshoed out until I found a tree that was tall enough and dead enough.  I cut her down with the chainsaw, took off all the branches, thanked the Earth and the forest for providing me with warmth, and dragged her back to my machine.  Then I had to go back and get my stuff.  And by that point, I was dehydrated and exhausted.  One tree is good.  I think I’ll just continue to hire people to haul wood for me.

The following week and weekend was more of a musical and social adventure.  I hung out with a lot of people, more than usual, and I liked it.  I guess I really am an extrovert.  I know – no surprise there.  Anyway, good reminder to myself that I really do need to keep myself involved socially.  Also, the premiere of “Flying Wild Alaska” was on Friday night on the Discovery Channel.  Check it out.  Just a little view of life in the bush.

Alright, so on to the even cooler stuff.  Because I was an Alaska State Writing Consortium Fellow last summer, my personal and professional network of educators in the state grew tremendously.  I was asked to go to Barrow to do a one-day training at the high school for one of their Saturday in-services.  What an honor!  Also, what a trip.  Because there are no direct flights from Nome to Barrow, it took about 24 hours for me to get between Koyuk and Barrow, just one way.  Wednesday night I went to Nome and spent the night with Katie (yay!!), and the next morning I went on to Anchorage for a few hours, hung out with my good friend Mariko, then went on to Barrow with my cohorts Nancy and Cinde.  We discussed our thoughts and ideas and fears and hopes and whatevers.  We got all caught up on each others’ lives since last summer, and generally enjoyed the company.  And then it all began.

Barrow was -40F when we arrived.  It pretty much stayed that way the whole time we were there.  But it wasn’t windy, which really, a standing cold temperature is much easier to handle than, say, 0F and 15mph winds.  So it really wasn’t that bad.  Then again, I didn’t spend a whole lot of time outside.  Anyway, Friday morning I went to the high school and Nancy went to the middle school.  (Cinde went on to the village of Wainwright to do an in-service there.)  I spent the day in classrooms observing teachers and talking with them during their prep time.  (That’s right – prep time during the day!!)  It was really good, really interesting, I learned a lot, I took in a lot, and it was exhausting.  The principal is fabulous, really supportive, really with it, really genuine.  Honestly, I can’t say enough good about her.  So that made a huge difference in my time there.  Anyway, I spent the day mentally preparing for Saturday’s presentation.  I was really grateful that Nancy was there with me.  Back at the itinerant housing where we were staying, we debriefed together and helped each other really plan what we were going to do.

I’m not a great sleeper all the time anyway.  Being in a new place can sometimes make it hard to get to sleep and stay asleep.  Unfamiliar noises (snoring from someone I don’t know) and unfamiliar surroundings can really mess a person up.  Add that to the stress I was feeling about the next day… I nearly woke up Nancy when I shot up in the middle of the night just to tell her that I had forgotten to get napkins for the bagels I bought for the teachers.  “Nancy! Nancy! I forgot to get napkins!”  And of course, how ridiculous is that?  So I snickered quietly, thought of all the other things I had to do in the morning, and finally fell asleep.

The presentation went fine, of course.  I’m always fine.  For a first full-day thing, I think I did okay.  Average overall, but really, okay.  I’m fine with it.  So that is that.

Anyway, begin the travel home.  I arrived in Anchorage around 8:30pm Saturday night, and Mariko picked me up again.  We went to the store where I ran into an old friend from Houghton (who aptly reminded me that I hadn’t blogged in a while), and as I reached in my pocket to grab my Fred Meyer rewards card, I found the keys to the itinerant housing in Barrow.  What a Karis move.  I’ll have to mail those back on Monday.  Jeez.  Anyway, it was a perfectly chill night with friends, chatting, watching a movie, sleeping soundly.  Well… kind of.  Again, not the best sleeper.  As I learned from Kim, I’m a bit neurotic when I sleep.  Whatever.

So here I am, back in Koyuk, where the windchill has dropped the temperature to -55F.  No comment.  I am glad to be home, though.  Sorry there are no pictures.  I totally forgot to take my camera to Barrow.  Although, it was dark pretty much the whole time we were there, so it’s not like there was much we could see.  Next time, maybe.  Next time.

Cheerio, friends!

Yurt, Season 2

It is time for a long overdue post.  Although, I have to be honest: I kind of hate that I am doing this.  Not the blogging part, don’t get me wrong.  I like to blog.  Blogs are neat.  But in order for me to blog, I have to be online, which means I have to be at the school because I don’t have internet access at home – a feature I very much appreciate – and I have very much loved not being at school and being at home.  Because of that, this blog has taken quite the back seat, very low on my priority, because I can’t do it at home.  My point is, the fact that I am blogging right now means that I am at the school right now, not at home, and that is exactly why I am blogging.

Let the adventures of the-yurt-has-a-mind-of-its-own-and-I-have-absolutely-no-control-over-it begin.

My wood stove is still waiting on a part to come in, so it is temporarily out of service.  I wasn’t too worried about it (until now) because the monitor plus the energy-efficient electric heater have been working so well.  But here I am, at the school, taking advantage of its warmth because, one, I am too stubborn to ask for help, and two, my yurt is cold.  My monitor currently reads, “EE 22,” a code that is not listed on the side of it.  “EE 2″ means “Failure to ignite,” which might indicate that the oil drum is empty, but I know for a fact that it is not, in fact, empty.  “EE 12″ means something like, “High <something> switch engaged,” or something.  Well, I don’t know what that means, although whatever it is could have happened while I was messing around trying to fix it.  Anyway, for lack of a better translation, I have deduced that “EE 22″ is code for “I hate you.”

This is my conundrum.  My long-term problem is, of course, that my monitor hates me and is broken.  But I am supposed to go to Nome tomorrow, and I don’t really want to deal with this kind of problem the day before I am going to turn it off anyway.  I decided, then, to just solve my immediate problem, which is that I am cold.  Therefore, I packed my sleeping bag and sleeping pad, packed my bag to leave for tomorrow, and hiked back to the school to spend the night, grumbling all the way, and then, of course, laughing.  Because this is just so ridiculous.

The good news is, it gives me a chance to post some pictures, which I have not done for a while.  The truth is, there isn’t much to post.  Life in general has been good.  August was crappy, September was recovery month, and November has brought me back to pretty much completely normal again.  Days are getting shorter, but I don’t mind.  I mean, I’d rather there be sunlight, yes, but that is beyond my control, and it is just part of living in Alaska.  And I don’t mind that.  So here we are.

Oh!  In exciting news: I have received the Learning in Art and Culture Fellowship Award from Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT which grants me a fully paid four-week writer in residency program, which includes room, board, and studio time.  I am, of course, responsible for the travel to get there, but it’s totally worth it.  For four weeks in June, I will be a writer!  I applied with a colleague and friend in the district, and from what I understand, she has also accepted the honor.  I am very excited.

This is all there is for now.  As much as you may enjoy these little updates, with all due love and in all sincerity, I hope I don’t have this kind of opportunity again.  Cheerio!

A view at the mouth of Koyuk River

The sky towards the south

Old school – back when Christine and I were roommates

And together again, when I went down for her wedding – CHRISTINE GOT MARRIED!!!!!!!!

Circular, Dude.

I forgot to mention an important event that took place while I was still in Juneau: ZIP LINING!  Amy was pretty dead set on going, so it was because of her that we were able to get in at all, though we have some friends to thank for our reduced price!  (I think I still owe her money, actually…)  Anyway, I was a bit torn on the issue because it seems very touristy, and is it really green?  Being in a forest doesn’t make a person ecologically considerate.  But this zip lining company did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself, of keeping the forest healthy.  All of the stands in the trees were built before being attached to the trees, then were attached in the winter so they could bring them in on smaller machines, which means no trees had to be cut to make paths.  Because there is so much snow, they were able to reach the height necessary without the use of heavy machinery.  Also, the zip line travels the path of the river, which means a trail for the line itself was already made.  This makes the whole thing pretty, comparatively, non-invasive.  Frankly, even amidst my skepticism (which, I believe, will never go away, no matter what the circumstances), I was impressed.  Alright, so enough of that.  The zip line itself was pretty cool!  We took turns taking pictures of each other, learned techniques for spinning, going faster, slowing down, doing some ninja moves, etc.  Jolly good time!  Fortunately, Amy brings her camera everywhere.  I took my camera, but it fell out of my pocket while I was zipping across the second line, down down down onto the rainforest floor.  One of the guys was super nice and went after it once we finished the course.  Luckily, my camera still works!  He even took a video for me to show me that it works.  Pretty sweet!

Amy looking excellent in her helmet and harness

Me hanging on for dear life, apparently

But I got used to it – super fun!

Amy being her adventurous self

The view from the zip line – gorgeous!

On to the next thing.  I spent a couple days in Anchorage hanging out with some good buddies of mine, which is always a spirit-reviving time for me.  I am now back in Koyuk, and work has officially started.  The first week of our contract, we were all flown into Unalakleet to meet the new superintendent as well as some new district office staff members.  Usually this is a pretty productive time, but this trip I was mostly just glad to see everyone.  I spent some quality time with my bestie, Sissy, and Emily (a fellow Koyuk teacher and good friend) and I were introduced to a new game, The Settlers of Catan, which we are now in love with, which I now own, and I am stoked to play it with people here!  It’s the kind of game where I don’t even care if I win because I just enjoy playing it.  Hard to explain the game itself – it’s just cool.  It’s kind of like Risk, only less time consuming and more friendly.

This is the tree that’s growing out from under the yurt.

In other news, I am now tenured, which is pretty spectacular.  I mean, it doesn’t mean a whole lot, except that it looks really good on my resume.  I am back in the classroom, teaching away.  This is our first week, and so far I think things are going pretty well.  Being a fourth year teacher in the district and a second year here in Koyuk, I am feeling fairly confident in what I do.  I have high hopes for the school year.  It’s nice to feel established in my place of work.  Besides, we have an awesome staff.  This year Koyuk has a new principal.  I didn’t really know him before, so we are all still learning how to work together.  So far so good.  We are pretty fortunate, though, because we only have one new teacher, and all of us get along really well.  As far as my classes go, my schedule is great.  I have three writing classes, two reading classes, and one film class.  The film class is an elective and kind of an experiment for me.  I hope it goes well!

Because it rained so much this year, my yard is completely overgrown.  I planted potatoes, but I don’t think they grew – they were probably overtaken by all the other bushes and grasses!!

However, the plus side of this is that the blueberries are really big this year.  And I love me some tundra blueberries.

The yurt is coming along.  I’m taking too much sweet time with the wood situation.  However, a wood stove guy came out, so she is officially fixed now!  I have fixed the wood shed (all by myself, thank you) and hauled enough oil to last a good long long while and kept the kitchen area surprisingly clean – dishes are clean, I’ve tried a few new recipes, and despite not having gone grocery shopping for the season yet I am fairly healthy and well-fed (thank you, Full Circle Farm).  In other news, Jenna sent out a guy to fix the wood stove, so I am completely safe now.  I stuck around to see how the whole thing works, what he did, what I can do in the future to stay alive.  Very interesting, wood stoves.  Anyway, I am glad that it’s done, and I feel much better about things now.   Though, it’s still pretty warm enough out now that I haven’t been using any heat in the house.  It’s chilly in the mornings, but not unbearable.  I’d rather save the heat sources for when I really need it, not for when I “thneed” it.  (I love that my students still remember this term from the beginning of last year when we read The Lorax.)

All in all, life is just fine.  The school year is looking up, plans are being made, and things are being done.  I am still running, mostly for two reasons: to prove that I can run the 5 mile Fun Run in Unalakleet (and hopefully at least compete with some other folks) and so I can still fit in the bridesmaid dress I bought for Christine’s wedding in October.  Both worthy causes.

Cheerio, friends!

Juneau Deux, plus Anchorage

We’ll get it out of the way first.  As many of you may have heard, a freak accident took place in Koyuk this week.  A dear friend was injured, though she seems to be recovering pretty well.  And my dog was killed.  No sentimentality necessary.  I miss her dearly, and that is that.

As far as my second week in Juneau is concerned, it’s slightly more uplifting.  We finished up art projects and I sewed my very first kuspuk (kuspaq? different spellings, I’m never sure), which was very exciting!  Don’t look too closely… it’s not perfect.  We had a little show for the community, displayed our art, did some musical numbers, singing, dancing, drumming.  Kind of weird – not really my thing – but mostly fun.  Sometimes I feel badly for not being more sad at the end of these things, you know, when people are crying because it’s the end and they are saying goodbye, and I think, gosh, did you really come here with expectations of being best friends with everyone?  I got lucky, having Amy and Kim S. around, plus one of our instructors was really super cool and I am really glad to have gotten to know her better.

So events, adventures – that’s what the blog is about, right?  Well, Wednesday kind of knocked me off my feet a little.  But concerts must go on, freak accidents or no.  It was probably a good thing that I had things to do, keep me busy, no moping and feeling sorry for myself.  Amy and I were able to borrow a friend’s car, which made life so much easier.  A band called “Trampled by Turtles” was playing downtown Wednesday evening, and another guy from the district is a huge fan and came to town for it.  So Amy and I bought tickets and hung out with him and another friend, listened to some great music, danced a little (more like jumping around to the beat).  Good fun.  Thursday was the performance, lots of sewing and painting and preparing, and it went really well actually.  And then Friday, Amy was dead set on going on the zip line before we left.  So she scheduled herself for Friday afternoon.  We drove out together, and we had met the guy before (a girl who is a friend of a friend of a friend, or something like that, works there with him), and since they weren’t full he let me slip into the group for free.  I mean, I had to pay $20 for the water charity benefit thing, which is awesome.  And then we zip lined from tree to tree in the rainforest of Juneau.  It was really cool.

This is one painting we did – draw a subject, magnify one part of your drawing and draw that in the next square, then magnify one part of the second drawing and draw that in the next square.  Then paint.  We used water color, which was the first time I’d really done that.  Hard to repeat the same color.  In case you can’t tell, that is a crab.

I’m running through this week quickly.  Saturday was the triathlon, but I never could find a wetsuit (which is required), so I didn’t end up doing it.  Oh well, I trained, I could have done it, I’m not going to let it get to me.  No point in that.  I did go to the start of it, was kind of bummed, but oh well.  A friend (the instructor I mentioned before) came by to watch, as well, and we chatted for a bit while we watched people transition from swimming to biking.  Really incredible how fast some of those swimmers were.  Seriously, 9 minutes for 750 meters???  Is that even possible?  Anyway, I biked the course that morning before the race.  It wasn’t bad, pretty straightforward and simple, all road biking of course, and not really any serious serious hills.  So yeah, after Lorrie left, I went and ate a wheat-free waffle instead of running.  Mwahaha.  I was satisfied.  Then I watched movies and napped all day.  That’s okay with me.

This is a self portrait traced onto silk screen with gutta (guda??), then painted with water color.  The gutta acts as a barrier, so the product ends up similar to a stained glass window.  The idea is to actually hang this in a window so the light can shine through the silk and add a luminous effect.  Um, it’s kind of hard to keep the color even on large sections, like one’s face.

Sunday I flew to Anchorage.  I’ve been here, hanging out, catching up with friends, running errands.  One super duper lucky thing… Christine, a roommate from college and a dearly dear dear friend is getting married, and she asked me to be in the wedding!!!  I’m so unbelievably excited, of course.  But I had to get a dress.  She has two stipulations: it has to be floor length and in the color “blue velvet” from David’s Bridal.  Jenna, being the most wonderful and awesome person she is, drove me all the way down to the only one in town so I could get a dress.  I told the lady at the store the color and my size, and she went to go look for dresses.  The weird thing about this type of shopping is that I don’t actually feel much like I’m shopping.  I kind of just stand there while they bring me stuff.  It’s like, the lazy woman’s way of finding what you want.  Anyway, she brings out this dress and tells us that one, the color has been discontinued, two, this is the only dress they have in that color left, and three, it’s in my size.  Major, major fewf.  I try it on and it fits pretty stinking well – not that I’m an expert in dress fitting.  The woman showed me some shoes, as well, and I was like, “Yeah, I’m never going to wear these again,” as she holds out a pair of white pumps (which can be dyed to match whatever dress you choose to wear).  She looks at me (I was wearing blue jeans, old tennis shoes, I think I brushed my hair once that day, and my green rain jacket from REI), and she says with the most perfect face ever, “I know…”  Jenna suggested Payless.  My suggestion?  Flip flops from Old Navy.  Jenna did not approve.  I didn’t get shoes yet, though.  That will come, I’m sure.  I also suggested wearing my Extra Tuffs, the Alaska state shoe, but I think they’d be too noisy.  Plus, I think Christine would kill me.

The original sketch of our self portrait, we traced with permanent marker and painted with, yes, water color.  By this time I had gotten pretty comfortable with this media.  I decided to do something a little different.  See if you can recognize what the background is supposed to be.

Anyway, now I am back to Koyuk.  Things to do, you know.  I need to ready the yurt for the winter, among other things.  Maybe sleep all the way through the night, settle back into my own space, that sort of thing.  Wood chopping, water hauling, and honey bucket here I come!  Cheerio, friends.

Juneau, Part One

I’m not too keen on being in school now.  I’ve been looking forward to this class, and now that it’s here, I’m like, daaanngg iiiiiit, I have to go to schooooooollll!!  Fortunately, my teachers are great and the work is actually pretty fun.  Even though there is homework, and even though I know that I’ll be headed to work in just a couple weeks, they’ve made it easy to be there.  But don’t believe for a second that I’ve let school be the only thing I’m doing here.  Week one of two has been exceptionally Juneau-tastic.

Last week while Shon was here finishing up his first semester in his Masters program, he was housesitting and borrowing a car, which meant I got a house (not dorms) to live in, AND I got to hang out with Shon, AND I got to meet more people.  Bonus!  So, lots of hanging out and good times.  Although, let’s be honest, there was a fair amount of hanging out on the couch…

Still, we got out and about downtown a bit.  (Left to right: Amy, me, Edmar, Shon)

My friend Amy is here – she teaches in Brevig, so we’ve gotten to be friends through the district, and it’s been super to be here with her and become even better friends.  We’ve had lots of photo shoots.  First, kayaking is awesome, though they actually only had one kayak, which meant basically, get in the boat for a few minutes, take some fun pictures, and switch.  Um, here’s me, because this was the best picture.

And of course, since we went all the way down there, of course we had to go swimming.  Well, I knew it would be cold, so I wasn’t too excited about the idea.  But Amy went in, so of course I had to, because really, I mean, really.  She did it first.

And of course the water was freakin’ freezing!  Fortunately there was a fun log to climb on and sit out of the water.  There were some other ladies down there, which was cool.  Nice to chat, have some laughs with them.

Me looking like a monkey…

and Amy looking super cute.

Um, not sure if I mentioned this, but there is a glacier here.  There is a GLACIER here.  John, another teacher in the district and a friend, passed through Juneau to head down to the fair in Haines (a pretty big deal, I really wanted to go, but I didn’t make it sadly).  He’ll be back up later on this week to hang out.  While he was here, though, we hung out a bit while Shon did school stuff.  By the way, the glacier is not the best place to look for berries.  But it is gorgeous.

John and I walked around the area, chatting, looking aimlessly for berries, watching for bears.  We found a nice beach with a gorgeous view of Mendenhall Glacier.  When I looked over, I saw all the tourists had stopped at the parking lot to get photographs, while we enjoyed our private little beach.  Suckers.

There’s a glacier behind us!!

Plus a beautiful waterfall (what waterfall ISN’T beautiful?) and icebergs.  (Refer back to Carrie… what is it about waterfalls??)

Last Friday our class went on a field trip.  We started at Auke Rec, an old Tlingit village site.  While roaming the beach, I found a beautiful, perfectly dried sea urchin!!!  Since then, I accidentally left it at the house we were housesitting (I also left my travel coffee cup in the car Shon borrowed… no one is surprised).  But at the time, it was so cool!!  I was very excited.

Then as a group, we took all the berries that we had picked and made akutuq (Eskimo ice cream).  Yum!!  Reminds me of home.

Yummy berries!  Blueberries, plus some other ones.  These are a bit different than the ones we pick up north – bigger, higher bushes, a bit different tasting.

We also explored more on the beach during down time.  The barnacles were huge!!!!

Yeah, I love exploring.  Thank you, NOLS, for teaching me everything I know about sea life, and hence instilling a deep love for all of it.

Onto more photo shoots – there was this great tree stump.  The goal was to take on the same shape as it.  Lots of Vogueing involved.  Work it, ladies.

Um, hard not to smile when you are climbing.  Don’t worry, I got my turn to climb, too.  As if I wouldn’t.

More glacier shots.

I’ve also met some other great folks in the area who I hope to continue to hang out with down here.  Pretty cool people!

Anyway, it’s been a great time thus far!  The triathlon is coming up, and I’m trying to get in gear for that.  Amy is kicking my butt, thank goodness, because I’ve lost some motivation.  But things are starting to fall into place.  Should be alright.  It will be great, it will be worth it, I’ll be glad I did it.  Alright, now you’re all updated.  Thank Amy for all the photos of me.  I haven’t had many lately because I’ve been the one taking the pictures.  Now you know what I look like again.  Ha.

TA Take 9: Vancouver is Expensive.

Seriously, and we thought London was expensive.  The tax here is unreal.  I mean, London is expensive, and I’m totally flat broke, which means that anywhere is expensive right now.  Still, expensive here!!  But anyway, I arrived in Vancouver, British Columbia yesterday somewhere in the early afternoon.  I knew that I had about a day layover here, but I was still vacillating over whether or not I should try to save some cash by staying in the airport or if I should really get a place to sleep.  First, though, I went to Air Canada to see if there were any earlier flights to Alaska.  Frankly, I am pretty anxious to get back.

No cake.  So I ate, talked to Shon, did some searching, and decided to check out the hotel in the airport.  But for $200 or more a night, it was definitely not an option.  I decided, finally, to go ahead and make my way to the hostel in the downtown area.  I took the Sky Train, and walked the wrong way, of course.  Then I walked the correct way, gained some pretty swollen ankles along the way, and proceeded to have the most disgusting hostel experience ever.  Welcome to American Backpackers Hostel in Vancouver.  The mattress was a big foam pad with stains on it, the sheets were maybe clean, the towel was stained, and the pillow… let’s not even go there.  It was worn thin fabric stuffed with chunks of old foam (I think).  The showers, the toilets – the thing is, there’s potential here, like it could be a nice place, but it just isn’t.  It’s an old building, kind of rustic, which is cool.  I don’t mind hardwood floors and creaky doors and that sort of thing.  Who cares if there are posters everywhere or sad internet cables or even paint chipping off the benches and chairs?  I can deal with the occasional smell of pot and tobacco and sight of alcohol.  And every hostel has metal bunk beds.  But honestly?  This was gross.  Alaska Backpackers, you are definitely, definitely my favorite hostel.  American Backpackers???  Definitely the WORST.  My standards aren’t that high, and I’ve been to my fair share of hostels worldwide.  Word of advice: if you land in Vancouver, stay somewhere else.

Also, there was this dude there that I swear to you had THE most annoying laugh in the entire world, and he laughed a lot.  Oh my gosh.  You know the clown on The Simpsons?  It was like, that, not kidding, times twenty.  It was awful!!!  I heard him while I was showering, then he relocated to right outside my bedroom.  I thought I was going to shoot something.  I seriously considered shouting out the window to inform him of how annoying his laugh is, but I didn’t think it would be very productive.

I woke up before my alarm, mostly probably because I was so anxious to get out of there.  I am very very very ready to get back to Alaska.  So I have about an hour and a half left in Canada, though I am technically on State side in the airport now.  All I want is to be welcomed home by a big hug from my girl JoyceLyn, go for a run in my favorite city, eat some sushi with my Anchorage crew, and sleep in a real bed.  Tomorrow, I’ll be in Juneau hanging out with Shon and Amy.  BONUS: Shon is housesitting all week, so guess who gets to stay with him!  Plans are being made – not that I rock at that sort of thing, or always follow them – and I am looking forward to having Amy for a triathlon training buddy the last two weeks before the big day, as well as some quality Shon time.

This is me in a good mood!!!