Baby It's Cold Outside!!!!

Hello Everyone. Taloofa! (Welcome in Samoan)

I have been out of service (computer crashed) UGH!! I don't deal well with no computer for over a week. So I have been delayed posting and I apologize for this mishap.

If any of you are keeping track of Alaska weather we have been hit with a cold spell. I mean the temperature is cold but it doesn't feel cold. This past week I woke up to sub-zero temps (minus 10) and we have been up to a high of 10 above zero! I know you don't understand but it isn't that cold (at least when the wind isn't blowing). Monday I actually wore a coat to school with gloves. I went out for bus duty today (10 above) and I didn't have my coat and it was fine. Several parents walked to pick up their little peep and the parents were wearing FLIP FLOPS!!! I kid you not. The coldest day (minus 5 as a high) Monday, I called David and as we spoke about noon my time, two Samoans crossed the street wearing shorts, flip flops, short sleeves. Nothing else. I wore a coat that day. The Alaskan natives don't feel the cold at all. So you want to know what the fashionable winter wear for women in Alaska is - Snow skirts! Debbie, our school nurse, models the snow skirt for your viewing. It is made in Sweden and it is a down skirt (not too many women wear snow pants) and it zips up and down on both sides, plus zip pockets. You wear it over pants, skirts, etc. It really keeps up warm. Some teachers wear them all day long. I would roast inside wearing a snow skirt. I do wear my snow skirt for bus duty in the mornings. Then I take it off for class. I will be wearing it for walking and I am sure I will wear it during the Iditarod. By the way, if you want one, you will have to order it from Anchorage, AK because only one store in all of the USA carries them. I can bring them home at Christmas if you place your order now!!

Is that sunset gorgeous?!!! That is my view out my classroom window. We are losing daylight every day. We have sunup at 9:30 am and sundown around 5:00 pm. We will lose about another hour and half of daylight and then we will start gaining back time after Dec 21. That pink is so relaxing and I can't help but stare out the window between classes. We may have cold and snow but we have the BEST sunsets I have ever seen.

So let me tell you about our cold weather experiences here. Since the outside temp is so cold and the inside of a car is also cold, windshields have a tendency to chip easily as rocks and stones fly into the windshields. Glass repair companies do really well up here. My windshield chip is small but I have been told it will probably spread as the cold weather continues. Oh well. Next, I have been told not to call a locksmith when you lock your keys in your car. In Anchorage and Wasilla, a smart person calls a Taxi Cab. Go figure. Why a taxi cab? They are equipped with a tool that unlocks a locked door (slides in through the window) and they only charge $25. I put a few taxi cab numbers on my cell just in case. If you remember, a locksmith cost me $100 in August when I locked myself out of my apartment.

So the other thing I find cute up here is the school bike rack. Before snow, the bike racks were filled with bicycles. We are a neighborhood school so a lot of them walk or ride to school. Now that there is snow on the ground the bike racks are loaded every day with SLEDS!!! Our PE department does an entire unit on sledding and snow building. The students are allowed to sled during recess time as well. By the way, recess occurs every day outside until the temperature gets minus 10 or colder. We cancelled recess once this week otherwise outside they go. They all wear boots, coats, gloves, mittens and a scarf to school. We call it the Susitna "5"! If they don't have their "5" they have to go to the nurse and check out the missing items. Our nurse is more than a nurse (model for snow skirt, clothing store, time out area, hall monitor, etc). So think about the time involved in our daily rituals. They show up in their Susitna "5" and have to take it off before school starts (they have snowsuit spaces in the hallways), then they have to put on the Susitna "5" before going out for recess, take it off to come in for lunch, and put it back on before going out for the bus at the end of the day. That is a lot of class instruction time that disappears when snow arrives.

I am sure you are wondering where my moose pictures are. I went this entire week and half without a moose encounter. I am disappointed. Our schools show moose safety and bear safety movies for the little peeps. I bet you are also wondering about our bears. Eagle River is very populated with bears. There are 630 in Anchorage and more in the Eagle River area. Most of them have selected their area for winter hibernation. During hibernation most female bears give birth. Think about that. They are in such a state of relaxation and semi-consciousness and they give birth. Gosh they are so much luckier than human females! Now what you probably don't know is that no all bears stay in hibernation all winter. Especially the Anchorage bears. Because it doesn't get that cold here, it is not uncommon to see bears throughout the winter looking for food. In the interior areas of Alaska like Fairbanks and upper slope area it gets to minus 45 degrees and lower (without wind chill) and those bears do stay in hibernation. So I will keep my eyes out for moose and bears as the winter settles in around me.

I am getting excited about my family arriving in a few days. David arrives on Saturday. Of course, it is suppose to snow on Saturday so his plane may be late. The kids arrive on Tuesday. We have a Fantasy Family Funcation planned for the week we are all together (snowmobiling, dog sledding, etc) I will share pictures on my next blog. So until then, Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. Count your blessings not your crosses; count your gains instead of your losses; count your joys instead of your woes; count your friends instead of your foes; count your smiles instead of your tears; and count your health instead of your wealth. Hugs to all of you.

Sheryl the Nanook of the North

Eklutna Lake - first snow fall

Hello to You All
I hope you are enjoying your sunny weather - finally. David told me Memphis has gone several days without rain! Yahoo for you. I lost my snow fall lottery. I woke up on Saturday and we had 1 inch or less of snow on the ground. I tried to tell my group of teachers that it really wasn't snow it was "Termination Dust Part 2". Remember, I have November 15 for the snow fall pool. I still lost. Monday I woke up to 5 inches of snow and 5 more today. Tomorrow we are expecting another 6 inches of the white stuff. It was beautiful. It was so white and fluffy. I am sure you are getting tired of hearing it but it was gorgeous.
So November is Inter-tribal Multicultural Month. Every day and each weekend Anchorage hosts a wonderful event. If you watched TV last week, President Obama addressed the National Native American conference. One Native gentleman stood up and told President Obama if he needed to take a break and really get a feel for the "real Native" he needed to come to Alaska. Consequently, the President has agreed to visit Alaska but only in the summer. The gentleman that invited the President to Alaska is a parent of one of my students. He is a Tribal Leader of one of the largest Athabascan tribes. He speaks very good english but when he comes to school he speaks very thick accented Yup'ik. I thought I was on a roll with my Samoan, Yup'ik and Inupiaq words. So I welcomed my class last week and one of the Samoans said, "Ms Sheryl, we are the Samoan class not Yup'ik." My students are continually teaching me things. By the way, Wasilla means "breath of fresh air" in Yup'ik
It is still Native Cultural month and I attended the Lakota Sioux Dancers. They were fabulous. I can't imagine doing some of these dances in the summer's heat. Their regalia (not costumes - that is an insult) was exceptionally vivid. Yellows, reds, pinks, and many shade of pink. I wasn't allowed to take pictures, so you won't see a picture attached. The female is held in the highest honor because they give back to Mother Earth. David and I have traveled parts of the Trails of Tears but it didn't have the impact on me until these Natives sat and talked with us. They have two names - their tribal name and their government name. Here are the names of the people who talked to the audience before the dance retcital - Lillian Good Eagle; Annamae One Star Pusetonequa, Buck Spotted Tail, Gerimiah Holy Bull. I don't remember their government names but they referred to each other by their Tribal names. The regalia was so amazing. Did you know that the Government forbid Native dancing when they sent the Natives to the reservations and sent children to boarding school so they could "kill the Indian and safe the man." Eagle feathers are used in their ceremonial dances so they have to request Eagle feathers from the National Eagle Feather Respository in Colorado. The paper work is about 40 pages in length and it may take up to eight months to get approval to receive Eagle feathers. John Wolf Dancer told us about the eagle feather bustle. One of the main dancers had two Eagle feather bustles (one on the lower back area and one on the back of the head). Spectacular. John did mention that we can find Eagle feathers all over Alaska which is a way to get around this heavy paperwork request. If you remember, Seward is on the Kenai Penninsula where most Eagles make their homes.

Then in my graduate class we had an Aleut speaker. He survived the Native Alaskan interrment from the government during WWII. The Aleutian Islands stretch 1200 miles south west from Anchorage. Until recently (15 years ago), the people of the Aleutian Islands received their mail and packages by boat. Most of the news was 3 - 4 weeks old by the time the mail was delivered. He told about how the Natives were treated during the war and how the Aleuts came to settle in the Juneau area.

I went hiking at Eklunta Lake with some friends. Eklutna Lake is a glacier fed lake which provides 80% of the water supply to Anchorage. It is estimated that the people of Anchorage use approximately 135 gallons of water per person per day. You will notice the greenish blue color of the water. This is due to the glacier melt and it varies depending on where the sun is shining. We started our 8 mile hike and it was 42 degrees. When we finished it was 26 and started snowing. You know what you get when a group of teachers are hiking together? A lot of talking and laughing. So how do we explain the teen moose that came out to us. We can't. We were not quiet by any means. My friends make fun of my "camera necklace" but they were envious because they couldn't get their cameras out fast enough for a picture. You will notice teen moose was about 3 feet from me and you can see the hair on his back standing straight up. That is a sign that it is irritated and will probably charge. No it did not charge but we saw Mom moose coming and she was big. We all hid behind the nearest tree until the teen moose and Mom moved along. We are not sure why the teen moose was tagged but it looked very uncomfortable to wear that big tag. Perhaps that is why it approached us to take the tag off his neck.
On our way home we stopped by St. Nickolas Orthodox Church and cemetary. Those are not dog houses (David's guess) but those are burial plots. They bury their loved ones above the perma frost and in family colors. Very interesting!
I am tardy with my blog this week because we are doing H1N1 flu clinics at school, my prinicpal is observing my teaching lesson, and I have several other obligations this week. I will try to get back on schedule. Enjoy your week. I am on my family count down until they arrive in Alaska for the week of Thanksgiving. Have a great week.
Sheryl the Nanook of the North