First Flight to the Bush

So I'm supposed to be in Atqasuk in my own home right now... I'm not. Instead I'm hanging out in a hotel in Barrow, which is the hub of the North Slope. Why you ask, am I hanging out in the Airport Inn instead of enjoying my new queen sized bed? Because flying in bush Alaska is an adventure.

I met Danielle at the Anchorage airport this morning around 5. The plane boarded at 5:30 and we hung out for a long time while they balanced the plane's cargo and everything. Then it was off to Fairbanks!

I've never been to Fairbanks before, but today I got to visit it. Twice. But my view was very limited, mostly because I couldn't leave my airplane seat. Why did I go to Fairbanks twice? This is where the fun really started.

The people who were staying in Fairbanks got off the plane and the rest of us who were carrying on to Prudhoe Bay or Barrow stayed on the plane. As we're sitting there, two guys get on the plane. Their carry-ons were boxes, which I thought was weird, but this is bush Alaska. I'm not really sure what's normal yet to be honest. Then, I saw there was a female police officer following them, and after that I realized that they were handcuffed together. What? Where are they going? Why are there prisoners getting on the plane? Clearly they aren't dangerous criminals or they'd have some sort of private flight, right? Like, not the one that's full of innocent bush teachers and oil pipeline workers.

We were under weather advisory for landing in Prudhoe Bay, so we sat on the tarmac for a long time waiting for clearance to take off. After what seemed like a long time, we took off and began the 1 hour and five minute flight to Prudhoe Bay.

It was a really pretty flight going over the mountains, but when we got a little further north the sun was so bright that I had to close the blind. My seat was right over the window, and the sun was at the perfect angle to reflect off the silver wing and into my eyes. I opened it again when we started our descent into Prudhoe Bay. The sky was clear, and then all of a sudden we were over a really thick fog bank. I was super impressed by the pilot descending and landing under these conditions. I remembered the joke that the guide at the Anchorage Museum told us, saying that bush pilots decided it was okay to take off as long as they could see their co-pilot.

We were dipping a little below the cloud bank, occasionally able to see the ground, but mostly not able to see anything. Then, all of a sudden, the pilot was gunning it and we were shooting back up into the sky. I figured we'd missed the landing strip and were going for try number two. You couldn't see through the fog, I wasn't going to blame the pilot. Except, then we hung a u-turn in the 737 and headed back to Fairbanks. What? A u-turn in a plane? I figured if we couldn't land, we'd at least circle until we could land, like they do back home during summer thunderstorms.

Another hour later and we're landing in Fairbanks. Again. And what did they decide to do at Fairbanks? Fuel us up and send us right back out. So we took off again and headed back to Prudhoe Bay, where most of the people on the plane got off to go work on the oil pipeline. Another group of guys got on after working their shift on the pipeline. And guess what? We had to re-balance the plane. Again. Which doesn't sound like it would take a long time, but it did. It really, really did.

Long story short, we ended up landing in Barrow around 2:30 when we were supposed to arrive closer to 10:30. A four hour plane trip turned into a seven hour plane trip, and I felt a little bit like I'd been sucked into Gilligan's Island. Our connecting flight to Atqasuk had left at 12:20, and we couldn't get on the one at 4:00. So we have to stay overnight in Barrow.

But, as with everything, there is a silver lining. The head of HR at the school district met us at the Barrow Airport and took us on an awesome tour of Barrow, Alaska. Barrow is the hub of the North Slope Borough, as well as being the furthest northern city in the United States. Their slogan is "the top of the world". We were taken to lunch and had a chance to review our personnel files, and the school district even paid to put us up in a hotel for the night. Even though none of the delay was their fault. It's great being in a school district where I'm confident that all my needs will be taken care of. They obviously go the extra mile where personnel is concerned.

So tomorrow I will be headed out to Atqasuk bright and early. Or cross your fingers that happens anyway. The fog thing apparently happens fairly often in the morning during the summer. But I did learn my lesson, things don't always happen in the bush the way you planned them to happen!

Anchorage with the Fam

So my parents and my younger brother, Joe, flew up with me as far as Anchorage. They're staying through Thursday night, while I fly out to Atqasuk for the first time tomorrow. It's been on my parents' bucket list to come to Alaska. You can cross that one off, Mom and Dad! Although you probably will want to come back and take a trip to Denali.... or you should want to anyway. Also to visit me.

I got to sit shotgun all week because this is my city. I've been here a grand total of once before this trip, but I've got a great memory and sense of direction. So I got to be navigator while Mom rode in the back with my brother Joe. Also, I am now officially a resident of Alaska.

Anyway, here's a little tidbit about what we've been doing and seeing in and around Anchorage.

Day One: Anchorage Museum

We landed in Anchorage around 2:30 am, so we headed to a hotel where we crashed for a few hours. Funny story, my mom was like, oh we arrive on Saturday and booked the hotel starting on Saturday. The catch? We arrived 2:30 Saturday morning, which is really Friday night in the hotel. By the time she realized this problem, the hotel we were staying in for the rest of the trip was full. So we stayed in a cheap hotel for the first night and then moved into a different one. Complicated.

When we were up and ready for the day, we tried to go to my favorite brunch place here in Anchorage, Snow City Cafe. Only it's super popular and the wait was long and my parents were starving, so we found a new awesome brunch place, The Solstice Cafe. It was delicious and I ate reindeer sausage and eggs, so I was pretty darn happy.

Then we walked down the street a long way to the Anchorage 5th Avenue Mall. This is not because I had a sudden desire to go shopping, but rather because I needed to get my cell phone and pick up one for my friend, Danielle, who is also moving to the village. Danielle is meeting me in the airport tomorrow to fly to Atqasuk; she didn't do a few days around Anchorage like I did. So I had to get her phone for her. It was complicated, but I walked away from the store with my brand new iPhone 5S (I am now #teamiphone and loving it) and promises that I could pick hers up from a different store.

The best part of the day was our visit to the Anchorage Museum. We caught an amazing tour where they talked about the different native cultures, and then a second tour where they talked about the history of Alaska. I learned a ton about the different cultures and the history of the state. For example, the Russians all left the state after the United States bought it, so any Russians that live here today came over much later. Also, a fun fact that I learned on my April visit, during the Great Depression the United States Government tried to transplant a lot of people to Alaska to farm. I don't know about you, but we kind of glossed over Alaska in U.S. history. My knowledge was pretty much summed up as it was the 49th state (because Hawaii Five-O) and there was a gold rush at some point.

The Anchorage Museum also has an awesome interactive section designed for kids. I got a bunch of awesome ideas for teaching things like topography in the classroom, as well as getting to make a giant bubble around myself. Plenty of adults were playing in this part of the museum, so I blended right in!

Day Two: South of Anchorage

First we drive into the town of Whittier, Alaska. This town is where a lot of the cruise ships leave, and it also has this really nifty one-way tunnel. They decided cars needed to be able to drive in and out of Whittier, so the train now shares its tunnel with the cars. At the top of the hour you can drive out of Whittier, and at the half hour you can drive into Whittier.

Whittier Tunnel

After Whittier, we headed to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, which is by far my favorite thing to do in Anchorage. They rescue a bunch of animals who have been injured or orphaned throughout the state. Most of the animals that you see when you visit were saved because they were found and brought to the Center before they could starve. It's a great place to see the Alaskan wildlife up close, more so than the zoo, but still not have to worry about being attacked by a moose or bear because they're on the other side of the fence.

Elk

Bald Eagle

Baby Moose! 

Joe Boxer the Brown Bear

These are just a few pictures. I may have gone a little overboard. We also went to church in this gorgeous chapel in Girdwood, which is a ski area south of Anchorage. Our Lady of the Snows has Catholic Mass on Sundays at 6pm and Church of Later Day Saints service at 9am. Pretty awesome.

Chapel of Our Lady of the Snows

Day Three: Zoo and North of Anchorage

So the Conservation Center wasn't enough animals for us, which meant we had to go to the zoo. Mostly to see the polar bears and wolves. It was a nice zoo, but not what you see in the lower 48 (what us Alaskans call the rest of the U.S.) These animals were all found in Alaska, with a few exceptions that live other places with similar climate. The polar bears napped the entire time, but the tigers got into some sort of dominance battle and the red foxes and porcupine had just been fed.

After the zoo we headed out north of Anchorage. I had been this way in April and wanted to show my parents Hatcher's Pass. It was gorgeous, but rainy, so our view of the Mat-Su valley was not as spectacular as I would have hoped. It was still gorgeous.

Little Su River

View of the Matanuska-Susitna Valley

Day Four: Heritage Center

Which brings us to today. I got my official Alaska temporary driver's license. You know, a paper one. They'll mail me my real one in a few weeks. Then, we headed to the Native Heritage Center. This is an awesome place to visit, so be sure to go if you're ever in the Anchorage area. They have presentations about native games, information about the native groups, dancing, tons of exhibits, and a loop that shows all of the traditional dwellings.

I don't pretend to know anything about native Alaskan culture yet, but that's a huge part of the reason that I decided to move here. I'm so excited to learn about the culture and to help my students learn to value it so that they pass it on to their children some day. Up in the North Slope where Atqasuk is located, are the Inupiaq people. One of the most impressive things we saw was a demonstration of traditional native games, ones that are now part of competitions. One game required the person to lean back on one hand while on the ground, balance, grab your opposite foot with one hand, and push up to kick a ball suspended over your head with the other foot. One of the demonstrators could launch himself into a full one-handed hand-stand and kick the ball that was suspended over his head while he was standing. It was absolutely amazing.

We also saw some sled dogs. They aren't pure-bred Husky like we usually picture. Sled dogs are mutts, but they were so excited to pull the cart. They all hopped up and started barking with excitement when they realized they were going to have a chance to run. They even had puppies that were only a few weeks old.

Lower Whale Jaw- Used to mark village sites on the flat tundra

Sled dog puppies and Mama taking a nap

Hooked up and ready to run!

I'm going to call this post finished. When you hear from me next, I'll be out in Atqasuk for the first time and you'll get to see some very different landscape in my pictures! Then, it's back to Anchorage for a few days for inservice training, back to the village for more training there, and then school starts! Hard to believe it's that time already!

On My Way

Today's the day.

I'm actually moving to Alaska. It's way too late to back out now, even if I wanted to do so. Which I definitely don't.

Instead, I'm sitting in the Chicago airport wondering how I even got this far. When did I first decide this was what I wanted to do? Why in the world did I decide to move to Alaska? It wasn't for the iPhone (which I'm getting very soon) or even for the playground and actual school building (though I am psyched about those things). There are actually a lot of reasons, ones that I have shared with other people and some that I haven't told anyone just yet.

Yes, my pay and benefits are going to be so much better than they were in South Carolina. I'll be the first to admit, that isn't a deterrent. With a little luck I'll be able to save some money over the next little bit to be able to fund grad school, something I definitely want to invest in once I've really decided what I want to be when I grow up. It's a plus, something that I noted in my mental pros and cons list, but obviously that didn't make the decision for me.

It all boils down to a few things. First, that I have always wanted to teach somewhere I was needed. If the North Slope of Alaska doesn't need some good, adventurous teachers I don't know where does. The students in my hometown of Fort Mill would be awesome, great and eager learners, but the thing is that if I'm not teaching them, they will have a teacher who is equally as qualified and great in their classroom. I spent last year at a school where my students needed me. I was teacher, parent, big sister, mentor, to many of these students. Someone who would sit and talk with them about concerns in their lives, someone it was safe to share details of their lives with. Now that I've experienced that bond with those students, I can't go back to a place where the students don't depend on me for more than just acquisition of knowledge. Simply put, I need to be needed, not just wanted. When you've turned a student's life around from believing they cannot do something because that's what they've been told their entire life, to knowing that they can do whatever they put their mind to, you can't just go back to those students who are told by their parents they can be whatever they want. I don't want to just be a teacher, I want to be a member of their family.

Second, I've always wanted to go on an adventure. I love going to new places. I grin like an idiot whenever the plane lands in someplace new. In college, I would have loved to study abroad, but I told myself it wasn't possible because of my major. I said goodbye and hello to most of my friends on either side of their semesters and summers abroad, and I was jealous of every minute they got to spend on their adventure. I wanted to be there, doing all those amazing life changing things with them. One of my best friends from college joined the Peace Corps and is currently living in Guatemala. Another of my friends is living in Germany and spending time seeing Europe. Why can't I take my own adventure? So here I am, moving to Alaska on my own adventure, and my friends are telling me they're proud of me. Proud and excited that I would finally take my own chance to go see the world and do something exciting, learn something new.

Thanks for the Advice

As my Alaskan adventure gets closer and closer, I sometimes feel like I've been having the exact same conversation for the past several months. People you haven't talked to in years want to hear all the details about the village, and everyone is wondering why in the world you picked to teach in Alaska. The thing is, I can't really put into words why I chose to move to Alaska, so I usually just end up explaining some of the things I know people will understand. I get paid more, I want an adventure, I want a challenge.

The real reason is a combination of all these things and more. When I landed in Anchorage the first time, I looked out the window of the plane and was stunned by how breathtakingly gorgeous the landscape was. My pictures on facebook that my friends and family have been completely floored by do not even come close to doing justice to the real thing. I had this feeling of awe, and wondered why, when presented with the option to wake up every morning in a place that was so awe-inspiring, everyone didn't choose to come live here. Granted, the village will be a different kind of landscape than the mountains around Anchorage, but I've always loved the rugged look of places that refuse to be spoiled by humans.

The second thing that everyone wants to know immediately is how long I have to stay. I think everyone must be concerned that I've signed away my soul in some unbreakable ten year contract and will have to become a fugitive to break it. Not the case, guys. Sorry to disappoint you. I signed a one-year contract to teach third and fourth grade at Meade River School in Atqasuk. After that first year, I can choose to stay for longer, and I hope I do. I hope that I fall in love with bush Alaska and want to teach there for several years. Eventually, I know I won't want to stay out in the bush and will likely want to move back to the road system, or the lower 48. The thing is, living in bush Alaska is so vastly different than anywhere else I've lived that I really have no idea how I will feel about it. Yes, it's going to be cold. Yes, it's going to be dark. But I feel like you can't truly know how this will affect you until you've lived through an Alaskan winter.

Which brings me to the third thing that everyone wants to know, am I ready? Honestly, I have no idea. No, I haven't packed my final suitcase or sent my final boxes of belongings. I still am working on doing all of that. But what I really think people are curious about is if I'm prepared mentally. I don't know. How does someone who lived in South Carolina for the past twelve years mentally prepare for life above the arctic circle? I'm not sure it's possible. It's not like I have been blacking out my apartment and practicing for what life will be like in the dark. Or turning the thermostat down as far as it can go to simulate the winter temperatures. (Can an apartment thermostat even get cold enough to simulate -70? Probably not.) In my opinion, life above the arctic circle isn't something you can be ready for before you actually go there and live it. You can do all you want, and it's good to think about ways to keep yourself busy and active, but how do you really know what it will be like and how you will react until you live it? You can't. So how about you ask me again in a year if I'm prepared for life in bush Alaska. I should be able to accurately let you know then. Though you'll probably be able to tell based on my decision to stay another year or run back to the lower 48.

If you want some friendly (or completely unwanted) advice, just tell your friends, family, and sometimes random policemen and strangers that you are moving to Alaska. Everyone has some nugget of wisdom to share, even those people who have never been to Alaska.

Here are my top ten nuggets of wisdom:

1. It's cold; you know that, right?
2. Don't come back married
3. Try not to be eaten by a polar bear
4. Get some "happy lights"
5. Eat vegetables and fruits; you don't want scurvy
6. You should learn to shoot a crossbow
7. If you try Eskimo ice cream, don't start with a large bite (Eskimo ice cream is whale blubber and fruit.)
8. Make sure you DO come back
9. All you're going to be able to do is pray. You're going to be really close to God.
10. I'm going to need snapchats of you putting on each layer of your arctic gear every day. Because they'll be funny.

Countdown to leaving: 10 days