Abbiegat0r's blog: "Alaska"

Seriously, Alaska is absolutely beautiful. My instagram is abbiegat0r if you're interested in seeing some amazing pictures. I can't get over it! So far the weather isn't too bad. Of course it's always going to be windy when we're this close to the ocean but it's been completely tolerable so far with my current gear. Rain and wind together..whew you bettuh bundle up, or if you're going out on a four-wheeler (Honda as they call it). 

I've had the opportunity to watch two Inupiaq women make Akutaq which is Eskimo ice cream. One of them used crisco and some sugar as the base, then added freshly yet lightly baked silver salmon and wild blueberries. The other woman had a slightly different recipe and I wish I paid better attention because it was better, haha! But the difference really was that I think the first one (with crisco) had a lil bit too much salmon for my liking. The fish overpowered everything else. We also got a chance to ride up the North River in Unalakleet (shout out to Nick Hanson!) Again, pictures on insta. This all happened at new teacher training, which was stressful and fun all at the same time. Glad I got to meet my roommate and have some really good bonding time, along with some other girls from different sites.

Here in Shaktoolik I got to use a gun for the first time in my life. Just went out far on the beach, set up some sticks in front of the ocean and took a few practice shots with a .22. Not going to do any good if I encounter a bear in the wild, but at least I've been exposed to the experience. Grateful that my very welcoming principal allowed me to invite my friend the civil engineer and roommate as well. Speaking of the civil engineer, what a lucky girl! She lives in Anchorage, but gets to travel to a lot of the different villages to help work on projects. I is envious.

I have also been berry picking multiple times. I never could have imagined how colorful and diverse the tundra could be. Blueberries a plenty when you find the right spot and they taste so good frozen or in the lemon flavored muffins we made :) Also had some salmon berries which I like even better, but unfortunately those are more of a summer thing and they're mostly overripe or gone for the season.

Went fishing on two different occasions. Rules are very different here in a town of 250. Fish and Game rarely present, and no form of state troopers. On our first day we just took the school truck to what they call second bend (everything is a very literal name and I love it.. old truck is an old truck. wash out road is a washed out road..) but anyway, we didn't catch anything but grass and sticks. On Saturday a Native and relative to the school district invited us out on his boat and took us up river. Between our group of 5 we caught 50 HUGE silver salmon. We finished about 2:30 or 3 and returned from the river to help clean the blood out of the boat.. and didn't finish cutting and bagging up the fish until 9pm. Now we all (us teachers) understand why the kids sometimes come to school so dang exhausted! I have 16 bags of salmon though so I think I'm good for a while on that :)

We are 2 days into school and I feel like I am slowly getting the hang of it. Day 1 was super stressful as we weren't totally prepared, and I guess that's to be expected. I took that all in, had a long Monday evening and was ready for when Tuesday rolled around. As a first year special education teacher I'm not only trying to learn the ropes for myself, but also having to help guide 3 special education paraprofessionals. Luckily 2 of them have been there for many years, and the last has at least one year of experience. Unfortunately she works full-time with an intensive needs student and that really puts a toll on you. I wish there was a way to spread out the amount of time she has to spend with him, but let's get the school year rolling a little bit further before we make any big moves like that.

More adventures and updates to follow. Please see previous blog posts if you'd like to send me things in Alaska. Will also accept priority mail packages. Message me for further details. And again, I am also out of space on fu (plus I don't have data to send pics) so I am adding pictures to my Instagram @ Abbiegat0r