Megan's Alaskan Adventure: Inservice in Dillingham

I was gone last Wednesday until this past Thursday in Dillingham for teacher inservice. I was very sad to leave Piper for that long (nine days!!!) but I'm glad Andy could watch her instead of her staying at "Happy Tails" in Dillingham. I flew out on Wednesday in the late afternoon. It was very windy so I was not thrilled with the plane ride to say the least. Once I got to Dillingham, Alaska Island Air took me to the district office to stay in the bunk house. It was nice to meet a lot of new teachers. We went out to dinner at "The Muddy Rudder" and I got a delicious, but expensive, salad.
Thursday was the special education inservice. My brain was quickly piled with more information than I knew what to do with. I'm nervous to be in charge of the IEPs for my school. I'm nervous for the first few but after that it'll be easier. After inservice I went back to the bunk house and Marisa was there! It was nice to see someone I knew.

Friday and Saturday were new teacher inservice days. Friday was a lot more information and then Saturday was all about the Yup'ik culture. They set a net and we went out to see if there were any salmon. They caught quite a few!

We went back and had the opportunity to fillet them if we wanted. Marisa and I were all over that! We used a knife called an ulu.

First you cut off the head which was the hardest part for me. That bone was tough to get through!

Then you slice down the belly...

and eventually start slowly slicing your way in...

and wa-la! You have a fillet!

Same for the other side :)

Then we ate them for dinner!

We had Sunday off which we spent exploring Dillingham. It isn't very big but it is a city compared to Twin Hills. We got lucky with good weather on Sunday which we soaked up all day. Monday-Wednesday were all staff inservices. It was nice to meet the other teachers. My brain is on information overload but I learned a lot. Marisa and I spent the majority of out time in the bunk house with five other teachers, making seven of us total, and four of us were in one room. Two bathrooms + seven women = fighting for bathroom time in the morning! Monday Marisa and I got moved to our own room at the Bristol Inn which was very nice and we were closer to Meghan. We were supposed to leave Wednesday night but it was too foggy so out flight was canceled. Meghan and I slept at Robin, the special ed director's house. In the morning we saw our houses sitting on the dock so hopefully they're coming soon! We eventually got out in the afternoon on Thursday. It was the best bush flight I've had! Meghan slept the whole time so she obviously doesn't mind them. I took a lot of pictures on the way home. Piper was thrilled to see me and I was just as happy to see her! The past few days I've been working in my classroom. It's coming together but I feel like I still have a lot to do before the kids come on Monday!

Here are a bunch of pictures from Dillingham and the flight home!