It's a small world after all

On Thursday I am scheduled to leave Tununak with one other teacher and twelve junior and senior high school students.  We are coaches of the robotics team - an academic extracurricular activity involving Legos and computers that culminates in a competition in Bethel.  This trip marks the first time leaving Tununak since September 26th.  A month and a half in once place.  About 55 days.  And this place is small.

When thinking about moving here I tried to think about what life would be like.  I had thought that I would get incredibly bored and watch a lot of movies.  So far I haven't watched a ton of movies.  I thought I would get sick of the people I work with and with my students.  At this point I am no more sick of either as I probably would have been anywhere else.

I knew that I would miss everyone who reads this.  My family and friends.  And because I knew that I was able to prepare myself.  It doesn't cure the longing to see everyone, but it makes it bearable.  What surprises me the most are the things that I am missing that I hadn't predicted.  They are a strange collection of things.  And some of the following things are things I didn't even realize that I valued.

Things I miss...

Grocery shopping - being able to go into a store and look at fresh food and then being able to buy it and immediately eat it.  A two week plus delay in payment to food delivery is a constant aggravation.

Options to do things I wouldn't do anyway like whether or not to shop on Black Friday for example.  I enjoy not buying anything on Black Friday - anything I can do to prevent from trampling someone to death over a DVD player.  It doesn't have the same feeling protesting something when you know that you didn't have a choice anyway.

Ice cream.  Okay, this I probably could have predicted.  But how I miss it.  And Eskimo ice cream is not a substitution.  There is no cream and no ice.  Instead, with the main ingredient Crisco, it is little more than greased berries.

Meeting people my age.  I quickly met my peers (as in the other teachers) in the first week of residence.  Since then it's been slim pickings.  I'm afraid that I am going to get stuck in some hypnotic trance at the sight of the first attractive girl my age I've seen in months.

Talking for an hour without mentioning school or students.  When you live and socialize exclusively with the people you work with your professional life never leaves.  I have always enjoyed the chance to escape work.  Here it is an impossibility.

On Thursday I fly to Bethel, population 6000.  In my previous life, 6000 is a small town.  Very, very small.  But 6000 is nearly twenty times the population of Tununak.  And Bethel has two(!) grocery stores with frozen sections.  So while Bethel may not cure all my longings, I've never been able to complain while eating ice cream.