I'm baaaack! I will take a few moments to fill in the details of February in Shishmaref....as promised! Shoot....now I have to go back to that posting to see what I said I needed to write about! Well, wait....since I claim to have an uncanny memory....let's see what I can remember.
In early February, I was scheduled to fly off to San Antonio, Texas for a reading conference ("Success For All"). Remember my post entitled "Hurry Up and Wait or...Hurry Up!"? Here's what happened at the start of that trip (there's always a story with me)....
We were scheduled to fly out on Friday, February 3. Our SFA facilitator from Shishmaref was attending, too, which was so fortunate for me as you will see. The way travel is planned up here means some wait time between flights until you can get down to the Lower 48 where it's a little more flexible. We were to fly from SHH (airport code for Shishmaref...and often used in communications) to OME (Nome) to ANC (Anchorage)....with some wait time in between where when you live in the bush....you try to figure out if you can get to Walmart to place a "bush order" for grocery items and such that can be sent back to the village.
So....Thursday rolls around and my students had gone home. I was jotting down last minute classroom plans for the following week for the sub. I just happened to check my school email around 3:00 and my eyes popped out. Oh, gosh....I was even sitting in Colleen's high school classroom when I did this and I jumped up and blurted out, "Oh, no! We're being told to get out tonight!" I ran down and barged into Denise's room (SFA facilitator) and said, "Denise, did you see the email? They want us out tonight! A storm is coming in!" Well, Denise had NOT gotten the email because...as we discovered a bit later....her name was spelled incorrectly on the email addresses. Upon further verification, we found out that the District Office folks were telling anyone in the bush to get out that night if possible because bad weather was moving in and if we didn't get out, we might not get out at all for the conference.
See...."hurry up and wait....or HURRY UP!" I'm not kidding and you would think I would have been ready knowing that already. Nope! I was not yet packed because I thought I had Thursday night after work to leisurely figure out how I was going to pack and leave room in my suitcase for my heavy winter clothing that I would be peeling off layer by layer as I made my way down through the Lower 48. Fortunately, I had left my major sub plans so I was able to scrambled out of the ECE building and zip home to pack in order to catch the last flight out of Dodge...well, SHH....at 6:00 p.m. Whew! We made it to the airstrip with room on the plane for us. On the way, we landed in Brevig Mission to pick up more passengers...a couple of them being more bush educators flying to Texas with us. We landed in OME and now here's where I am soooo glad I was with Denise. Besides the fact that I'm still getting used to understanding how all this airport stuff works...especially with carrying laptops and heavy winter boots and being a member of Club 49 (AK residents...two free bags)....Denise says, as we land, we're going on to ANC tonight if we can get on the plane. Ok, Denise...whatever you say....I'm with you all the way, Lady! Upon arriving in OME via ERA, we drag our suitcases over to the Alaska Air terminal through the already drifted parking lots. Yup, for sure....weather was making its way into the region. Here's where I must tell you that two of the other educators on the first leg of the trip had decided to wait in Nome instead for our originally scheduled flight going out the next morning. We parted ways as they headed off to a hotel in Nome to spend the night. I won't keep you in suspense....they didn't make it out the next morning. They weren't able to get to the conference until Monday afternoon. There was one other educator who never even made it out of her village at all. The weather up here moves in fast and furiously.
Ok....so now we're over at Alaska Air and there we meet up with even more of our BSSD folks also heading out to warmer weather...and the conference. We all checked in and sat down to wait. Waiting in an airport in Alaska is an experience in itself. I love to "people watch" and up here, it's so much fun! I'm sure we all were quite a sight, too. When you are with a group of folks you know, the conversation can get loud and crazy....and it did at times. But in OME, we were entertained by a gentleman playing a small stringed musical instrument. Not sure I'd call it a ukulele but it might have been. It wasn't but a few minutes later and in walked an interesting looking man who also pulled out a musical instrument much like the first guy and they started playing "island tunes". The t-shirt logos proved it! How nice to have entertainment....because it was announced that our plane was delayed in Kotzebue because of mechanical problems. Alas! We were eventually able to get out....as we all trudged across a windswept and snowy tarmac out to board the delayed (but, hopefully safe) plane.
We arrived well after midnight in ANC
The next morning, we had time to just ease back before our next flight was to leave. We were booked on "red-eye flights" from ANC to Chicago (can't remember the airport code....and don't even ask me why we had to fly to Chicago to get to Texas but I didn't book the flights) and then onto San Antonio the next morning. Keep in mind the time zone changes, too. I took advantage of the time we had and booked it down the street to the Army/Navy store I had visited when I first arrived in Anchorage back during the first few days of August. I have had this dilemma with my winter jacket up here. When I first arrived in AK and started shopping for the crucial jacket...I didn't have much luck. It was too early for anyone to stock the really heavy clothing needed to survive in frigid temperatures. Once I reached the village, I had folks giving me all sorts of advice and I ordered my "first" jacket. When it arrived, I knew right away that it wouldn't work. The sleeves hung to my knees....too big! I gave it away to a friend. The next jacket I ordered was...ok...but maybe a little too snug for my Reese's enhanced abdomen. It's still in a box in my bedroom. This time...I marched into the store and said, "I need a good winter jacket that will keep me warm and I live just below the Arctic Circle where I just left temps of -40 with a windchill of -60." A clerk led me back to the rack that I recognized from my August trip, pulled off a jacket and handed it to me. I tried it on, looked in the mirror and said, "Sold...can it be mailed up to Shishmaref because I'm headed to Texas right now and won't need it there!" Can you believe that? The first and only jacket I tried on....right then and there! Ha...rereading my jacket story sounds like the story of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears"....but they didn't have jackets in that story, did they? Lucky them.
Before leaving Anchorage, I did have some time to do some "tourist shopping" and I also bought another raven print for my daughter. I also purchased an ulu...an Alaskan knife which I've wanted from the minute I read about them way back when...and had that sent back to SHH. Now it's on my shelf in my bedroom...above the box with the second jacket!
Later that evening, we head to the airport where we met up with even more BSSD folks headed out to Texas. It was getting to be quite a rowdy bunch! We definitely were having a good time....or maybe by then we were just getting so tired that we thought we were having a good time. We took off around 11:00 p.m. and headed to Chicago....and around 8:30 a.m. or so we were on another plane headed to San Antonio.
Now the excitement mounts for me....because as tired as I was....I knew I was within an hour or so of seeing my kids. My son, Dan, is currently in Austin adding to his own adventures. My daughter, Jessica, flew to Austin (we were in the air and landing at just about the same time....different airlines) and met up with Dan and the two of them came to San Antonio to stay with me. I would have been ok with not seeing them until I arrived home in May but once this opportunity came up....I was so glad and very excited. As it turned out, Dan has decided to walk the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine this summer. He'll leave in April before I get back from SHH and get back to Michigan in October after I have already gone back to SHH. Thus, had we not seen each other in Texas, I would not see him again until the summer of 2013.
One thing I started noticing rather quickly while in Texas was a dizziness that wouldn't stop. I am sure it was a combination of the flights and being tired and excited. I'd get off the elevator in the hotel (my room was on the 34th floor with an awesome view) and my body felt like it was still moving....yuck! It continued like that for most of the stay. Now I do have to tell you....I was about a week from taking my last of 40 penicillin pills for strep....so maybe I wasn't totally up to par yet. THEN...I developed a crazy cough while in Texas and ended up at a walk-in clinic where I was told I had a respiratory infection (easy way of saying they didn't really know what was wrong but here's some more pills...now go away). The coughing drove me nuts as it probably did all the people I had to be around at the conference and on the plane and the people in the room right next to ours. My kids were either oblivious or nice about not complaining! I never popped so many cough drops in all my life.
The conference itself....interesting....! Ok...enough said about that.
The kids and I visited the Alamo and walked the Riverwalk. We ate out....and ate out some more....and some more. We found a Red Lobster where I had to explicitly ask for UNSWEETENED iced tea...and still had to send it back. I might have been in the South but you can't make me drink sweet tea! While in Walgreen's picking up my latest prescription, I had to buy Valentine's cards for folks back home because their orders hadn't arrived. As a last minute thought, I bought four extra boxes just in case someone else needed them back in SHH. I sure wish I had had more room in my suitcase because as it turned out, people would have wanted them back "home". You have to think of those things when you're out and about, you know!
One other "fun" thing about being in Texas was the weather. It was about 40 degrees when we were there and people were complaining about it being so cold. We Alaskan folks laughed....as we walked outside in lightweight jackets and hoodies and sneakers and called it good. When you go from -40 to 40....you call it a heat wave and love every minute of it.
The conference ended on Wednesday, February 8. I said my farewells to my kids and we parted company. The BSSD group gathered once again to make our trek back to the frozen North. We arrived in ANC and checked into our hotel (Dimond Hotel...another nice spot) well after 3:00 a.m. BUT....did I go to bed for the badly needed sleep before having to leave for the airport around 7:00 a.m.? Of course not...not when you are within walking distance of Walmart and being able to make a bush order....which I did....with my head still spinning dizzily. I did not crawl into bed until 5:15 a.m. and had to be up at 7:00 as I mentioned. We did make it back to Shishmaref although there was some concern about the weather and the trip was pretty bumpy at times. I met up with some other SHH folks at the airport so I wasn't alone. Reminds me of when I first flew in on Aug. 3 and met one of my students. This trip, I sat behind another one of my students. I'm getting the hang of this bush flying and living bit!
This is it for now....even though that was just the beginning of my February adventures. There's a basketball game starting at the school in a little over an hour. St. Michael's...and it's the last regular game before the hoopla begins next week. The Conference Tournament is now taking place in Shishmaref which means a whole lot of teams are coming in starting on Wednesday. Teams will stay in each of the rooms in the school and the even will last through Saturday. It's a HUGE deal for Shishmaref with all hands needed on deck. Oh, I can explain one more of my posts from the "promised list" in this paragraph....the plane "mishap" out on the runway. The reason the tournament was moved to Shishmaref is because the District plane snapped off a tire upon landing (our high school girls' basketball team was on it and the Gambell boys' basketball team was out there waiting to board it) and did a couple of 360s on the runway before coming to a halt. The propeller was damaged. Everyone was ok....thank goodness. The boys had to spend another night at the school until a different plane could come in for them the next day. Anyway, it's a domino effect and the loss of the District plane caused the tournament location to be changed. It's a boost for Shishmaref but it will definitely be a crazy week here. Our ECE lunches, for example, will be delivered as sack lunches to our building for two days since our cafeteria is also our gym and games will be held during the day.
Thanks for following my blog. It's fun to write. I will add more on the other adventures of February a little bit later.
No comments:
Post a Comment