Settling in to the bush

I am approaching a month in Alaska, and life is starting to fall into a routine again. New teacher orientation and district trainings are over (for the moment) along with the flights to and from Bethel. School has begun, my boxes I shipped have arrived, and my food I ordered is now here. Life in Alaska has begun.

Up until the last moment my teaching schedule was in flux. But on that first day of school it looked like this:
Period 1 - HS Math
Period 2 - HS US History
Period 3 - HS Math
Period 4 - HS Writing
Period 5 - JH World History
Period 6 - JH Math
Period 7 - JH Art
My classes have between 9 students in the junior high and 15 in some of the high school classes. Almost all are from Tununak with a few from nearby villages (Newtok, Toksook Bay, etc.). Getting acquainted with the curriculum, materials, and routine has consumed nearly every minute of my previous two weeks. Each day my grasp on all of that has become a bit tighter. I hear by the tenth year it is quite a bit easier.

In postal news, all of my boxes (I mailed six) arrived. Cookware, clothes, books, bedding, alarm clock, and all my other things arrived over the course of two weeks. Of course none of them made the eleven day estimate (calendar or work days) that the post office made, at least they made it.


My food also arrived, again over the course of two weeks. I am becoming increasingly interested in being able to see the journey my packages make. For one, why would boxes shipped at the same time arrive days and, at times, weeks apart, looking anywhere from absolutely perfect to absolutely appalling. But it is all here, and I guess that is something. And I acquired some bonus products. One company (Span Alaska) accidentally shipped me a box with nine bottles of vegetable oil and a 25lb bag of white sugar - yippee I guess. Azure, the other company I ordered from, added a 5lb bag of muffin mix - a bit more exciting, especially with the prospect of picking some of the wild blueberries that are growing in the tundra.

Food items that invoked unexpected emotions are thus:
12 - 12oz bags of Ghiradelli chocolate chips (Extreme joy)
25lb bags of kidney beans, black beans, and dried corn (Um...that is a lot of small things)
4lbs of yeast to share with my neighbors (Hmmm, look at all those creatures)
the unexpected veggie oil under the 25lbs of sugar (Wait, there is no way I ordered this!? Or did I? Nope, definitely not.)

Other than school and unpacking boxes I spend quite a bit of time hanging out, eating, talking, and everything else with the other teachers. Walks up the hill to the stone people, or over the tundra to the cross, or along the beach in search of fossils also dot the weeks. I have been making a conscious effort not to think that it is cold or windy. Because from what I hear, this is not cold, and this is not wind. That will come. Until then, I am going to go fishing, and berry picking, and hiking, and save my comments on the weather for the times that actually deserve the observation
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