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!

          A "Philadelphia Sandwich"

 Apparently my clover finding isn't isolated to PA

 Tropicana...was listed as $19.99 at the other grocery. Food is very expensive here. 

 It's like we're back at KU :)

The plane ride home:

 It's called a Piper :)

 Twin Hills!

Our First Few Days in Twin Hills

Our second day in Twin Hills was spent unpacking totes. I didn't want to unpack too much because we are just going to have to pack it back up when the new housing comes. Meghan had us over for dinner again. She made ptarmigan stew. Ptarmigan is a type of bird Andy hunts out here and it was delicious! They said I've had salmon and ptarmigan so I'm officially broken in! Piper is doing well with Ash and Meghan's Piper. She want to play with her new friends but they aren't so sure yet. The playground is right outside my window and the kids are almost always out there. They ask me a lot of questions and want to see Piper but she's been barking at them. Everyone here seems very nice!
The next day Meghan and Andy took me out to the Bering Sea. Maggie ran with the ATV the whole way, she was very happy! Maggie is a village dog who lives at the school. She is very nice and Piper likes her a lot. When we got to the Bering Sea Maggie ran right in. We walked along the beach some and Meghan showed me different berries in the tundra, which is very squishy. I tried the blackberries which I didn't get a good taste of but Meghan said they were bitter. The blueberries were very good! I ate several of them. Meghan said after inservice we'll come out berry picking so I'm excited to do that. It was fun going out on the ATV and getting to see more. Meghan then left that afternoon for inservice. She'll be back tomorrow as I'm leaving.
The past couple of days Piper and I have been hanging out inside. We are both going a bit stir crazy. We are used to being outside, taking walks, going to the creek, playing at the farm, going to doggie day camp, etc. I want to go out and explore but I don't want to go alone. Every time I take Piper outside she tries to play with the dogs and run around, but she's on the leash so she can't. When I go to bring her in she sits down and won't move. I have to push her in the door. I feel bad and she looks sad. When mom and dad FaceTime me she hears them on the computer and runs around looking for them. There is a hall in the house and she loves to run back and forth and play fetch there and seems happier. She's still being very protective and was up almost every hour last night barking at little noises. She isn't going to like me leaving for a week for inservice in Dillingham. I'll be gone the 7th to the 14th. Andy will watch her and I hope she behaves for him. I'm going to miss her a lot. Marisa will arrive in Dillingham on Friday so I'm excited to see her. She'll go exploring with me! :)

Getting to Twin Hills

This post is going to be long because a lot happened in the past few days so I apologize in advance for that. Piper and I have been safe and sound in Twin Hills since Friday! Getting here was quite an adventure in itself. Saying "see you later" in Philly to my family was not fun. I'm going to miss them all everyday. Fortunately we can see each other with Facetime and Skype. Finally when I got to my gate I saw that my flight was delayed two hours! I felt awful because Piper was sitting in her crate down in baggage for four hours. When we finally boarded we had a crazy guy on the plane who had to be pulled off, so that was interesting! I slept most of the way to Seattle. It was a very nice and new plane with comfy seats.When we got there we went right to our flight to Anchorage. This plane was...interesting. We boarded in the back and it was very old looking inside. I slept pretty much this whole ride because I was exhausted. We landed in Anchorage at 2:35am and I finally got my Piper back! After fourteen hours in her crate and two plane rides she didn't have any accidents and looked great! Alaska Airlines is wonderful. Each plane they gave me a little sticker from her crate that said she was on board too. They watched my stuff for me while I took her right out to pee. We then hung out in the airport until our next flight at 8am. She was being very protective of me and barking at EVERYONE. It was embarrassing. I checked her crate in with PennAir at 6am and she was able to wait at the gate with me until boarding. There was NO security here...no full body scanner, mental detector, nothing. It was very strange because I could walk in and out of the airport until boarding time. This plane was even scarier then the last. I've gone down in size with each plane. This one had two seats on one side and one seat on the other. Meghan told me to relax and enjoy the view. So I did just that, until the pilot got on the intercom and said we had to go back to Anchorage due to a mechanical error! At that point I cried the entire time until we landed. When we parked all I saw them do was put gas in the plane so I don't know what was wrong. We were off again and landed safe in Dillingham. I got into the airport and Robin, the special education director, was waiting for us. I was so overwhelmed I cried when she hugged me and couldn't stop. Everyone was very helpful and helped me lift Piper's crate and took it out to the van for us. Robin drove me around Dillingham and gave me a tour. She told me the fishing was bad this year so a lot of families are going to have a rough winter finacially. She took me to the district office where I met a lot of people. I looked a mess after over 24 hours of traveling at this point and it was a big blur, but everyone seemed very nice! She then took me to the store to buy cold goods. I had sent about 6 totes of dry goods but didn't have anything cold. I knew everything was going to be expensive so it wasn't too shocking. I just didn't look at the prices because it is what it is. I was very excited to get my Tropicana orange juice though! She then took me to Alaska Island Air to get my air taxi. At this point I cried again because I was scared to get on that little plane. They loaded my dog and my stuff up, I said bye to Robin, and got on the little plane with the pilot. I noticed the petals of the plane said piper and I learned the plane is called a piper which is where Meghan and Andy got the name for their dog. The view from the plane was beautiful. I was still scared and didn't like when the plane dropped down in the air pockets but it helped being able to see the pilot and how relaxed he was. It was about a half hour plane ride and Meghan and Andy were there with the ATV to pick us up. The new housing is prebuilt housing they brought in from Seattle. Right now it is sitting in Dilligham. The water has been too low so the barge can't make it here with the housing. Until then I'm staying in the old housing. Meghan and Andy helped me bring all of my totes to the house. One of my totes looked like it was run over by something but I knew they all wouldn't make it unharmed. Meghan then made Velveeta for lunch and shared with me which was very nice. After lunch I unpacked some and showered. Piper and I were exhausted and we fell asleep. I woke up when Andy knocked on the door for dinner. Meghan made salmon and broccoli which was delicious! They are both very nice and helpful and I'm so thankful to be here with them. That night when we went to bed Piper was still being protective. She curled herself around me and slept with her head on me all night. Then around four she started pacing and panting and I knew she had to pee. I hoped she could hold out until the sun came up but I caved and let her out around 4:40. I stepped onto the first step and told her this is it! She squatted and peed right there for a long time. Around the corner came a village dog names Maggie and scared me! At least it was only her. I pulled Piper back inside and we went back to bed. I'll right about the next couple days tomorrow, I think this post was long enough!