First Day of School!

Today was the 1st day of school! 

Today we visited the elementary and got to see our kiddos! The school is prekindergarten- 5th grade and has a total of around 700 kids in the school. It is very beautiful school and large! Only about 5 teachers in the school have a SmartBoard, we are getting one in our room hopefully before the end of the school year. This weekend is a Piuraagiaqta festival and there are a lot of events that are going on. With festivals going on you really noticed attendance go down and students are very tired because of the amount of daylight we have here. The sun comes up at 5 am and goes down at 2 am. So kids go out and play all night and don't have as much structure so they come very tired to school. Today we sat in on our classroom and observed. I read a story to my class about the sun. Then we all ate lunch and left! Students were being released early today due to the festival. 

Then we went to a Fur store. The thing about Barrow is the fur store is not just the fur store. In fact the fur store was the dry cleaners, stationary, clothing, fabric store! When going to the milkshake store yesterday it was the milkshake place, clothing and flower shop all in one. 

Next we headed to a museum. This museum use to be a guys apartment where he lived but then turned it into a museum. He has sooo much stuff in this tiny place it is unbelievable! The guy has been in Barrow for over 30 years and is consider an elder because not that many people stay for that long. 

Tonight we are heading in to the festival to check out all the fun that my kiddos talked about! There is a book sale tonight which I plan to take full advantage of! We also are going to watch a duct tape dress contest. 

Today's temperature: -6 and a bit windy!  

Adventures from Thursday April 10

Dancing!

Yesterday we saw dancing, it was really amazing to watch kids and their elders dance to songs. All the songs have movements to them. Each movement or dance move along with words mean something! Each  dance was created by someone and it a personal story of experience that has happened to them. We also were lucky to learn a dance and some moves!

Next we went and got wonderful milkshakes from a local native!
It was the best milkshake ever! Yesterday it was cold but not to bad!


Last before going to bed our bus/van driver took us out to look for polar bears! People at the college are so generous and really welcome us here! So we drove around looking for a polar bear but didn't have any luck! Will try again this weekend!

One last thing! We meet a lady last night named Ruth. She belongs to a group who hunts whales. She took out whale for us last night and told us she was going to prepare it for us so we could try it. So we all are looking forward to that! Then I extended my offer to please come get us when they hunt whales because we want to see this experience. She said we could come harvest and help with the process so we have made a connection to one whaling family!

Photos along the flight

Here are some photos from our flight!

Inside an airplane!

This is for my kindergarten class some students havent seen the inside of an airplane!

Luggage time

Got my bags all ready to go and saying goodbye to my family now waiting to board!  Got my minnesota necklace to remind me of home when needed thanks to my kindergarten friend who got me it! Let the adventures begin!

10 Days including today til I leave

Reality hit hard this weekend when I packed up my college room into the vehicle and realized that I was leaving in a week and half for ALASKA for a little over five weeks! Excitement of all the new things that are going to be brought my way and along with the emotional side has set in as well of not seeing family, friends, loved ones and BUSTER for five weeks. (Those who see my Buster make sure you sent, post pictures of him for me to see.) Well thanks for following and look forward to more posting and I get ready for my adventure! 

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