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Six days off the island, 350+ miles on my jeep, good times with some great friends (thanks for the food and hospitality, jason and heidi and carl and janet and dorothy johnson!). It was great and it’s wonderful to be back on the island, albeit two days late. We got to fly direct from nome, which means an absolutely beautiful hourlong low altitude helicopter flight, complete with extremely low mountaintop fly-bys and swooping and banking through arctic valleys.

And not a moment after I step off the chopper one of our super energetic 3rd graders nails me with a flying bear hug. Life is good.

..and tonight? Hours of lesson planning and organizing? Kinda miserable.

but part of the deal, and it’s a good deal.

Life is good.

other, photography

When you walk out on the sea ice, a walking stick is crucial. The tip is used for testing for good ice to step on. What’s good ice and what’s bad ice is pretty simle–good ice is thick enough to walk on. You walk with the stick horizontal–if you fall, the stick provides something to hold onto, to pull yourself out with, and (very important!) it keeps you from falling all the way in. Falling all the way in, aside of the obvious unpleasantness of submersion in very, very very cold water, is a dangerous thing because of the current. I’ve heard of several folks’ lives being saved by their stick.

Ed took me out with him for a little ice fishing, let me borrow one of his walking sticks.

So what’d I spend my afternoon doing? Working on a walking stick :-)

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other

And sometimes after days of getting by one day at a time half broken and dog tired a beautiful moment happens in the blink of the eye so quick that it’s long gone before I realize I almost cried and one of those moments is enough to get by on for a while. Like this one moment that came along today.

other

And sometimes after a day that breaks me the next day is just a bit better, enough to get by on for one more day.

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In a teaching world that revolves entirely around standards it shouldn’t be so surprising to me how powerfully a ‘not met’ mark, or rather a number of them, works into my head and heart.

tryin hard here to remember ardentheartedness.

the northern lights are out right now.

funny, other

*see the post below before you read this one

Provisional Teaching Certificate: 200+ hours of study, work, homework up to date, and two more years of study

Moving to the bush: $1000 of food at Costco + $300 shipping

Teaching science: many, many hours of lesson planning

Coil of magnesium ribbon: $27 + $15 s&h

Combustion pre-lab and lab lesson planning: 6 hours

Setting off the school fire alarm with my middle schoolers despite doing our lab right next to an open window: priceless

other

It looks something like this:

-explain oxidation / combustion

-explain what’s needed for combustion

-light a nail (fail)

-light a candle
+what’s happening?
+cover, remove oxygen–>stop combustion by removing an essential part

-why can’t you light metal?

-light a magnesium strip w/clip (let it burn out)

-re-explain what is combustion? why does magnesium combust?

-kids hypothesize: can magnesium burn w/o oxygen?

-explain why you need to polish the magnesium

-light magnesium, cover

-kids write conclusion

epilogue: light a bunch of magnesium and drop it in hot water (IMPORTANT: near open window)

other

What delicious snack did I just partake in?
a can of ravioli and a can of pineapple

Dinner last night:
ramen, canned beans, fried span, canned oysters, and canned peaches.
(that one was a little bit abnormal–sent my gut for a bit of a ride)

Breakfast when I have the day of lesson plans 100% ready (less common):
oatmeal with dried blueberries and coffee

Breakfast when I don’t (more common):
1 tin of vienna sausages and 1/2 a can of peach halves

Average dinner:
beans, scrambled eggs (from powder), and a biscuit

other, stories

I suppose there’s a good reason that the ‘great books’ are called great. East of Eden was incredible.

And I feel that a man is a very important thing–maybe more important than a star. This is not theology. I have no bent towards gods. But I have a new love for that glittering instrument, the human soul. It is a lovely and unique thing in the universe. It is always attacked and never destroyed–because ‘Thou mayest.’

-John Steinbeck

diomede, photography

halfway break
sea grass (or maybe sea flower?)
sky’s big when you’re up top (look hard, right in the middle of the sunbeam, those little bumps, that’s mainland Russia)
of course, once you’re up to the top of little diomede island, there’s a wall to climb.
it’s a long way to the top, if you wanna rock and roll. mr. moses knows how to rock and roll.
climb to top, climb the wall, enjoy the wind and the air clean as a whistle and the view of the USA and Russia, and the wild. and the microwave tower.
“I love smiles.” ~The Dalai Lama. I think ‘ol Dalai and Catherine would get along.
lets go home