Kristin goes to Hollywood

After getting settled (for the most part), I still had time before I start work (tomorrow) so I decided it was time to do some sightseeing. First, I went to Hollywood. I saw the Walk of Fame, the Chinese Theater  (now called the TCL Chinese Theater rather than Grauman's Chinese Theater) and of course the iconic Hollywood sign. It was funny, but when I got there there were all these tourists and they all seemed to know what they wanted to do and where they wanted to go. I stood there for a minute wondering why I was so different, when it hit me. These people had all planned this trip, contemplated where they wanted to go, what they wanted to see. I had driven to a metro station and gone to Hollywood on a whim!

While I was on Hollywood Boulevard I saw a sign for free tickets to Jimmy Kimmel (I tried to get tickets, but failed) and this got me thinking about two other things I'd like to do - tour studios and attend be a part of a studio audience. So I found tvtickets.com and signed up for a couple of tapings and researched studio tours.

In the end, I chose Sony Picture studios. I chose them for a couple of reasons. First, and most importantly, they were the cheapest, second they were the closest and third it was a walking tour. The other tours were in golf carts and I liked the idea of walking a lot better than spending two hours in a golf cart.

"Main Street" They change the facades to be anywhere they want.

Unlike other studios, Sony doesn't have a big back lot.
Therefore, their facades are in front of real (studio) offices.

Sony pictures is on the lot that was once MGM (where the Wizard
of Oz filmed). They built this recently as part of an art in public spaces thing.
Supposedly you can see it from anywhere in Culver City.

 As part of the tour, you get to go on one of the sound stages. Usually, it is either for Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy. Wheel of Fortune was filming while we were there so we couldn't go on that stage (the red light came on while we were outside of the studio, but that was part of the tour where we weren't able to take pictures (another part was when we saw the actual Oscar statues that Sony Pictures has won for best picture). We did get to go on the Jeopardy sound stage though.

The stage was being cleaned and reset for the new season.

Too bad it's not for real!

They used this stage for Sports Jeopardy and were getting it ready for the next season of the original Jeopardy. Everything was on the stage except for Alex Trebek's podium.

The Emmys won by Jeopardy

They had vehicles from Breaking Bad too, but those didn't mean
anything to me.

While that's all I have pictures of, that's not all of my trip to "Hollywood" (most of this isn't actually in Hollywood). On Tuesday (the day before yesterday), I attended a live taping of the Tim Allen sitcom Last Man Standing. It was so much fun! I arrived at the parking garage (some studios have free parking for audiences and some do not) and had to first check in there with my ID to get into the garage. I followed the directions for parking and the going to audience check in. When I got to audience check in there was a woman (she'll be important much later in the story, don't forget her) who asked me about what kind of ticket I had and then directed me on where to go. I checked in (they say to print out your ticket, but you don't actually have to - everyone else had, but I hadn't). I got number 83 and waited in line. After a very short while (not everyone there had gotten to check in yet at this point) they started leading us through the studio lot to the sound stage. The set was too main parts - one was the house and the other was part of the Outdoor Man Store. Since there is more that is regularly in the show they must have another set somewhere else. There were some scenes that had already be recorded and were shown to us as playback (these were mostly filmed elsewhere).

After about 30 minutes they had all of the audience speaker and the warm-up, Allan Murray, introduced himself and the DJ (Clark somebody). He explained how he had prizes to give away and performed some comedy, explained about laughing and showed us how he had a deck of cards that he would give away for laughing a participating. These cards would be used to give away the prizes (that included everything from an autographed script, to $50 Target Card to an iPod shuffle). Next, we viewed an episode from last season and then it was about time to begin.

There was some sort of delay on the making of the announcements. During this, and all the pauses between scenes, Allan Murray would perform different sketches and incorporate the audience into a separate show from the one they were filming. I sometimes wondered if it wasn't distracting to the crew, several times I saw crew members watching the audience show (hopefully they were just people who were waiting and not people who were supposed to be doing something at that time).

They announced the producers, directors, writer of this episode and then the cast. Tim Allen took a few minutes and spoke to the audience and then they began filming. They filmed each scene more than once with small changes, including sometimes changing the jokes. Sometimes, they didn't film the whole scene again, but just a part of it. Of course sometimes the actors messed up too. That was funny in itself.

The show was film was filmed in order, except for scenes that they had filmed before and played back to the audience to score the laughter.

While the whole thing was a lot of fun (and even included a bottle of water and pizza) there were several really interesting events. One was when they called for a scene and there was a ringing sound. You could tell the warm-up and the DJ were at first worried it was coming from the audience (I think the DJ was the first to notice it), but it was quickly clear it wasn't coming from the audience, but the crew couldn't find the ringing. They were looking all over the set, it was really quite funny. If I heard right it was an alarm because the gas was on (I guess on the stove - a little scary if you ask me).

Another funny moment was toward the end there was a pause and Tim Allen was joking about being Santa Claus with some of the kids who were extras in one of the scenes.

All in all it was so much fun that I not only went to see what other filmings I could fit into my schedule (and that had tickets available), but also added a couple more episodes of Last Man Standing. I don't know though if I'll actually be able to make those because that (and Instant Mom and Baby Daddy which I have tickets for) films at 6 pm and I have to work until 4 pm.

Today, I did something else quite interesting (and still on this Kristin goes to Hollywood theme), I attended a rehearsal for America's Funniest Home Videos (AFV). Saturday begins the taping for the 26th season of AFV and they have a new set and a new host. The new host is Alfonso Robiero (Carlton on Fresh Prince of Bel air). With a new host and a new set they needed a rehearsal to determine where things need to be placed, how to film their shots and even for Alfonso to have a chance to practice his marks, lines etc. For this they needed a small audience (at least 15, there were 19 of us). They had us stand an sit in many different places as they practiced the shots. They used a stand-in for Alfonso named Buddha and we were the stand-in audience. Then after about an hour Alfonso himself came and practiced. In between things he chatted with the crew and with us. It was a lot of fun. We talked with him about his children (he has 3: 12, 21 months and 3.5 months) and he told us a story about his worst fan stalking incident (I don't think it's my place to share online, but it was crazy! I couldn't believe someone would cross the line that far). I also chatted with some of the crew and they had people still working on the sets as we were there. It was cool.

My ticket had said to arrive 60 minutes early and listed the time as 10 am. So I arrived at the studio (which is very close to my new school) about 15 minutes before 9. Apparently, I was early enough that security didn't know what to do with me. The studio information said that if you were going to a filming on the weekend to park in the studio parking garage, but for a weekday filming to park in the Marriott garage and there was a gate right beside the garage. Yesterday, however, I received an email telling me to park in the garage. When I got to security and they didn't know what to do with me, I of course got nervous. They made me do a U-turn and wait outside the gate while they checked. Then they motioned me back in line and I was given a pass into the garage and told someone would meet me on the first floor. After parking I got to the first floor and found Tomeka, the audience coordinator. I spent a long time talking to her (the others came in a group of 14 and a group of 4) and discovered she's the boss of the people in charge of the audience for several things including Last Man Standing (she was the woman at the table I spoke to), Instant Mom and Baby Daddy. When I expressed my concern about not making it to the Instant Mom filming on time next week because of work she said if I told her I was coming for sure she'd mark my name and make sure I could get in. I didn't have a chance to tell her that I would do that, but I hope to have a chance to speak to her about it on Saturday. Now you're thinking, "Saturday? What is she talking about now?" Well, Saturday is the filming of the AFV that we rehearsed today. Tameka said she was in charge of seating the audience and told me if I really dressed up she could hook me up with a good seat. Hopefully that'll work out. I've picked out my outfit and I think the likelihood of that occurring is high because not only did she say that, but she asked the others if they were coming (they aren't) and confirmed which one I was coming to (there's 2 filmings on Saturday) and said that the stage manager (a woman named Geri) was asking. 

So there you have it, not everything I've done (kind of hard to believe after all that, isn't it?), but Kristin's adventures in Hollywood. Tomorrow I start my first day of work with New Teacher Orientation...

The first seven days

Sometimes it's hard to believe that I arrived in Los Angeles just last Thursday, and other times it's difficult to believe that it's already been seven days. I have accomplished so many things in seven days, but I still have so much to do that it feels overwhelming at times.
I landed about 8:30 am on Thursday morning. I took the Avis shuttle to their rental area, rented a car and was at a bank in Redondo Beach by 10:30 am to open a bank account. Opening an account (and having the funds ready right away to pay cash for a car) was more difficult than I thought it would be. It also didn't help that I was so tired I sometimes had trouble seeing straight. I ended up spending about 2.5 hours at the bank on Thursday morning, plus going back briefly on Friday morning to finish things up and Friday afternoon to get the cashier's check. Each time I went back the security guard remembered me an remarked about my being back.
After ensuring that the funds would be transferring from my credit union in Alaska, I went car shopping. I bought a 2013 Ford Focus (picture below) with lots of really cool electronics. It's rather neat to have all these new-fangled gadgets. My newest car before this was a 2003 so I upgraded by 10 years. At the dealer I got my most expensive free meal ever (they have a cool cafe there and they gave me a coupon to eat there).
I couldn't drive two cars at once so I left the rental car at the dealer and drove my new car to the home where I was staying. The lady I was staying with had had to work on Friday (and on Saturday), but I was hoping she'd be able to go back with me to return the rental car. Unfortunately she was out and when she got back she was waiting for a friend to deliver a desk she'd just bought. She offered to squeeze it in anyway, but I told her the dealer wasn't far from the airport so I would just return the car and take the public bus back to the dealer. We ended up having a really fun evening talking with her friend and her friend's son. It was nice to just hang out with people.
Saturday I returned the rental car. I was hoping to get money back because the rental contract was until Monday morning, but I was concerned that I wouldn't get any back because it was already Saturday afternoon (car was due back about 9 am on Monday) and there hadn't been a price difference between a Sunday morning return and a Monday morning return. I was excited that I got a little over 45% of my rental price back!
While I was waiting in line at Avis there was a German family that came in. One of their little boys commented (in German) that the line wasn't long, there was only one woman in front of me. Me being me I couldn't resist playing with the kid, so I turned around and said to the kid (in German), "I'm not one woman, I'm three woman. Don't you see them?"A moment later I turned back and told the kid I was kidding of course. After I finished returning the car I asked the woman at the counter about the best way to get to a bus stop. She spoke to the shuttle driver for me and he told me to sit near the front of the bus and he'd let me off at the city bus station. As I was waiting the German family came on the bus and sat next to me. The mother said (in English), "Are you American?" "Yes." "We thought you were German, but you can speak German?" "Yes." After that she switched to German and said, "So we can speak German?" I had a fun, but brief conversation with the family (it didn't take long to get to the bus station). I do wonder though what changed their mind from thinking I was German to asking if I was American. I guess they probably overheard some of my conversation at the counter...
After I picked my car back up, I went to the beach. I had a nice relaxing time at the beach (if you're going to live only a few miles from the beach you have to go there after all). I put sunscreen on, but unfortunately while I was laying on the beach either my shirt rode up or my pants rode down, but the strip of sunburn on my stomach made it clear I had unknown separation there - oops!
Sunday, I went to the same church I had gone to when I was apartment hunting. I spent half an hour after church speaking with the pastor. I really feel God is leading me to this church.
Sunday afternoon the woman I was staying with and I went to an El Salvadoran street festival in downtown. My new friend's air conditioning wasn't working so I drove. I had thought I would avoid driving into downtown LA (take the metro), but what did I do, but drive in my first weekend! I got to try some tasty food and had a great time. Afterwards we drove out Pallos Verdes Peninsula.
Monday I began my A.P. Chemistry workshop (it runs Monday through Thursday) and signed my lease and "moved" into my new apartment. I put moved in quotation marks because I only have (currently) the things I brought with me on the plane.
I've spent the last few days getting necessary items like soap, shampoo, sponges, paper towels, cleaning equipment etc.
Today I also added Internet. My Internet here is more than 16X the speed of my Internet in Nome with unlimited usage (I got 15 GB per month in Nome) and it costs about 45% less than I paid in Nome. This means that as I've been typing this my iPad has been streaming videos next to me.
Overall, things have gone well so far, but there is still much to learn, do and just get used to (including my new job, which I haven't started yet).

I thought the clouds as we descended into LAX were really cool looking so I took a picture.

My new car!

From the Palos Verdes Peninsula

Me on the cliffs

Just over a week!

I can't believe that I am moving to Los Angeles one week from tomorrow! I went down to California a couple of weeks ago to go apartment hunting. It was unlike any other apartment hunt I had ever done. The housing market (at least for places I can afford) is very tight. I looked at several places that I thought I would be interested in, but the neighborhood made me nervous. Considering I am unfamiliar with the are I feel it is important to go with my feelings. Then I looked at an apartment in North Redondo Beach. I really liked the neighborhood and so I called to see about touring the place. When I called I was told to come to the office to check out the keys. Since I had no idea what things were like I thought, "Okay, I'll go eat lunch and then go the property management office." The place had just come on the market that day, but there was apparently great interest in it. My experience with the property management company left me a little nervous and so I held off applying. I decided, "well it doesn't hurt to apply," and so I went to the management office first thing in the morning. When I tried to submit the application, I learned that they had received so many qualified applications (in 1 day!) that they were no longer accepting applications.
After that I continued to look for places. I was growing very frustrated. Some of them were no longer available, others no one answered (or returned) my call. The app I was using showed one more place in the area, but the address was on street I had visited the day before. The street had high-voltage power lines running right down it and I felt I couldn't live on a street with those lines. I was so frustrated with my apartment search that I put the address into my phone a went there anyway. When I got there I was pleasantly surprised! This was a different part of the street. I was quieter and didn't have the high voltage power lines. It was a nice street and the building looked really nice from the street. I called to see about touring the place and the on-site manager answered the phone. He said he was showing the place until 1. Could I make it? I laughed and let him know that I was just outside the building.
The building has gate with an intercom system, and an subterranean garage with each tenet getting a remote. You enter into a courtyard and then the apartments are all around the courtyard, closing it in. The apartment was nice. The walls had just been painted and they were putting in new carpet on Monday (the 13th). I immediately asked to apply and the manager was like, "don't you want to see the rest of facilities?" Oops. He showed me the garage which comes with a storage locker in front of each space, the laundry room (amazingly clean), the pool (not big enough for lap swimming) and the community room which has a pool table in it. I filled out the application and the manager said he would call me either way. I was under the impression that I would hear from him on Monday. Regardless, he told me he would call me either way.
After that I couldn't find anything else that I wanted to even view, except for one place that was having an open house on Sunday afternoon. I considered going to Culver City (I had been looking in Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach and had elimination Hawthorne when I checked out places there on Thursday), but it just seemed too far away from work. I don't want to spend all day commuting (LA traffic is notoriously bad and I'm moving there from Nome, a place that doesn't even have a stoplight). So I went to the beach (Hermosa Beach in the afternoon and Dockweiler State Park Beach in the evening).
Sunday morning I went to church near the apartment I had applied to (it was actually even closer to the one that was having the open house on Sunday afternoon). The church was smaller than I expected, but super friendly. I really felt that God was telling me that was the church he wanted me in. This made me confident that I would be approved for the place for which I had applied.
In the afternoon I went to the open house. There was another prospective tenant there as well as the owner and her son. I really enjoyed talking with all three of them, but unfortunately, the other prospective tenant had come before and was now back and the owner made it clear that she had made the decision to rent it to him.
Now, I have only one option in the works and nothing else in the area I'm looking at. I don't really know what else to do. So guess what? I went to the beach. This time I went to El Segundo beach (There was more that went into the decision, but that's unimportant).
Monday I ran some errands and returned my rental car, but didn't hear about the apartment, nor did any of the other people I'd left messages for return my call. Before I knew it, it was time to go to the airport. Thus, I left California without an apartment lined up.  Needless to say, I was frustrated. I felt I had learned a lot about neighborhoods and orienting myself, but I really wanted to have a home for when I came back (although I was still hoping to hear from that one place).
I was going to call and follow up on Tuesday, but I got too nervous. Tuesday night I tried to look up the listing again and it had been taken down. The automated texting system said the place had been rented. Now I'm crushed!
 I got asked to go to LaVerne Griffin Camp (where I have lifeguarded this summer and last summer) on Wednesday and Thursday to lifeguard for one of the camps that had rented out the facility. I loved seeing everyone who works at the camp again, but I hated telling them that I hadn't been successful at getting an apartment.
Wednesday afternoon while I was at the lake lifeguarding, my phone rang. I saw that it was an LA area code and immediately became hopeful that it was the apartment I had applied to (which is kind of funny since I had left messages with a bunch of people). I went ahead and answered the phone, and it was! It was the manager and he wanted to know if I was still interested in the apartment. I told him I was and he said he was still waiting for approval from the owner, but should know by the next day. Suddenly I was excited again!
After lifeguarding I forgot my phone in my cabin when I changed clothes and so I didn't check my email until about 7:30. When I did I found an email from the manager. I had been approved, but they had in fact rented out the apartment I looked at to someone who could move in sooner, but they wanted to offer me another apartment. The other apartment is supposedly in better condition. It is the same size, but a different layout. It's also on the other side of the building and supposedly has a city view. The manager sent me some pictures (I'm going to include them here, but the previous tenants haven't moved out yet and so their stuff is still in the apartment) to help me get an idea of the layout and I have sent in the deposit and gotten a copy of my receipt. Unfortunately, the tenants aren't moving out until the 31st and then they are painting (they paint after every tenant) and cleaning the carpets. Therefore, I can't move in until the 4th of August (I arrive on the 30th of July). Nonetheless, I am excited. It's starting to get very real. I am in fact moving to Redondo Beach, California.

This is the view of the apartment I looked at. My future apartment is on the other side of the building.

Come on in to my new home (of course I don't currently own any furniture)

The bedroom is through a bathroom area. The sink is here and I believe the shower and tub are in a separate room to the right.

Another view of the living room and part of the kitchen.

The dining area and kitchen.

New Blog Title and an Announcement

So I have decided to change the blog title from Kristin's Kapers in Kobuk to just Kristin's Kapers because 1) I have lots of travels all over the world that I'd like to be able to share and 2) I haven't lived in Kobuk for nearly three years. I left Kobuk in May of 2012 and moved to Nome, Alaska in August 2012. I have been teaching a variety of science classes in Nome, but and here's the big announcement... I'm moving to the South Bay area of Los Angeles! We have 16 days of school left and it's bittersweet. I'm excited about my new upcoming adventure, but I'm also sad about leaving everyone here.

Here are a couple of pictures that show the contrast in where I'm leaving and where I'm going. I'm excited about the fun and the sun, but also nervous about missing winter...

Nome, AK - March 2015

Manhattan Beach, CA - March 2015

More of the happenings in Kobuk

Things have been so busy that I haven't really gotten around to posting much, for that I apologize.  I must admit though that during our recent spring break (2 days long) I could have come to school and posted then, but I spent much of the time just relaxing.  It was so nice to just sit back and read and so forth.  I realized on Sunday afternoon that I had ready 7 books on my Kindle!
Today was the first day of spring.  Iw as talking to my parents this afternoon and it was 80 degrees there.  We had a high of 1 degree Fahrenheit here.  As cold as that my sound that is actually in some respects a warming.  We have had warmer weather just over spring break even.  On Thursday we reached about 14 degrees above and two teachers from Shungnak walked to Kobuk.  Katie and I walked about 1.5 miles or so back with one of them (the other got a ride back on a snow machine) and then turned around and walked that far back to Kobuk.  To give you an idea of how I have acclimated, I was plenty comfortable on our walk wearing only a sweatshirt and tennis shoes.  The walk was on the Kobuk river and by this point the snow is so hard packed that I could just walk on top of it and thus how I could wear tennis shoes.
Anyway, as to some of the happenings here in Kobuk.  Several weeks ago no I had the joy of traveling 15 miles outside of Kobuk to the camp of a copule that live literally out in the middle of nowhere all year.  It was quite a fun trip. I road in a basket sled that Erin pulled behind her snow machine on the way there and in Corrine's dog sled on the way back.  The couple who have the camp have a really interesting set up.  They have electricity via solar panels.  I asked Erin, but never had a chance to askt hem about how much electricity they are able to generate in the darkest parts of the winter (after all in December the sun never fully).   They also have a satellite dish for television and one for Internet.  They don't have any running water (they use a honey bucket in the bathroom), but they do have drains and stuff in the sink.  It was really quite an interesting set up.  Quite nice too.  During the trip we also so saw so many caribou.  It was awesome.
Another neat thing that has been going on is my middle school students created a video demonstrating a video they designed to be played in space.  It was very challenging figuring out a way to demonstrate, on Earth, a game that is truly designed to be played in space.  One of my students had the fantastic idea to string things up from the ceiling.  Still, it was hilarious watching the students try to pretend they were swimming through space.  The students loved the video so much that they wanted to keep watching and watching it.  The top three games will be played on the International Space Station.  I would be so amazed if we won!  The winning team is supposed to receive a school-wide NASA party.  I don't know what that would entail, but it would be really cool to win.  I do have to wonder though because the rules specifically say that only US-based teams can win the party.  we are, of course, in the US, but we are harder to get to than most countries!  After all it takes two planes just to get to Anchorage!
Right now, as a I write I am sitting in the school "gym" (we don't really have a gym) watching videos from the National Park Service.  We have a really neat opportunity this week, we have three rangers from the National Park Service visiting us.  There is one ranger based out of Kotzebue who regularly travels to the villages in our region doing special guest classes, but we got two more: Another out of Kotzebue and one out of Fairbanks.  My high schoolers started a lesson today on medical plants and will finish tomorrow.  They are making ointments out of local plants (picked back before freeze-up and dried).  Then on Thursday they will do a neat GPS lesson as well.  I have one GPS units for the kids to use, but she was able to bring enough for each of them.  The middle schoolers had a lesson on the gold rush today and are study the auroras tomorrow and caribou on Thursday.  Additionally, they brought some films from the collection that are usually shown in Kotzebue.  The neat thing though is that Darren, who organizes the films brought us 4 films, three of which have not yet been shown in Kotzebue.  The significance of that statement might be missed by many, but you have to remember we don't usually get things first here.
Finally, now that we have past the vernal equinox we now have more daylight than anyone south of us (which of couse is most people). Already the sun doesn't set until nearly 9.  Sunrise today was at 8:23 am and sunset will be at 8:43 pm.  Add to that the fact that we have an extended twilight and we are already quite light.  In April we will gain 3 hours and 45 minutes of daylight and in May over 5 hours!

I leave you with some more pictures from around here.  Enjoy!

Me on a snow go

In the dog sled.  That's actually Rob behind it, but when we left it was Corrine driving.

You can't really see me, but I'm in the sled.

On the way home.

The surprisingly warm February (but boy was it busy!)

So it is now March first!  I can't believe it is already March first.  After an incredibly long time with cold weather that was just hovering around -50 to -60 degrees Fahrenheit sometime in February we warmed up dramatically.  We had a temperature increase of almost 90 degrees in about 24 hours!  That of course was from -60 to +30.  I don't think there are too many places where the temperature can increase by 90 degrees and still be below freezing! The warm up was so dramatic that we were all expecting the temperature to drop spectacularly again at any moment, but it held for weeks!  It was amazing.  Unfortunately, I think it also unconditioned us a bit.  As it has gotten colder it feels colder than it did before.  As I left my house this evening to come back to school it was -12 and falling.  Since midnight we have gon from -39 to +18 and are working our way back down again.
On a related but somewhat different note, the sun is definitely back.  We're approaching the equinox, something I am looking forward to because after the equinox we will have MORE daylight than most everyone else (except the few people who in fact live further north) rather than less.
So now to give a brief synopsis of all that occurred in the brief (albeit one day longer than 3/4 of the months of February) month of February.  I traveled to Kiana with my middle school basketball team for four very long and tiring days.  We were scheduled to leave Kobuk at 12:20, but left around 1:50.  That meant a lot of waiting around.  Matter of fact it started with a rush because we were in my room and heard a plane land at the airport.  The kids went hurrying out only to learn that rather than being our charter flight, it was a cargo plane (not a big Everret's one, but a smaller one from Ryan Air - these are the two companies that fly cargo out to Kobuk).  We waited outside for a while, then left our stuff at the airport and went back into the school until I talked to the Bering Air Agent and learned our plane was 14 minutes out.  At that point we went out and stayed out until the plane arrived.  We got to Kiana and had to chill in the school library because there was still about an hour left to the school day.  After that we got our room assignments (for things like this you sleep in the classrooms, usually two schools in one room with the boys on one hall and the girls on another).  The nice thing in Kiana, was they had beds for the coaches and chaperones - either chairs that folded out into beds -what I had - or air mattresses).  I always take an air mat that actually fits into my sleeping bag, but the chair/bed was much better so I let one of my players use it instead.  That afternoon at 4 the games began.  We had our first game against Kiana at 6 and it was a slaughter!  These kids were bigger, faster and just totally out-gunned my students (it didn't help that we lost three of our players in the last week before the tournament for behavior issues).  We lost 67-8!  The kids were okay out it though.
The next day we had to wait around all day while the Kiana kids were in school.  I had brought math work and we also got permission to use their computer lab so the kids did math and keyboarding in the morning.  We challenged the Selawik team to a math competition and were crushing them (my students really were the better math students), but the last question was a wager question and my students got it wrong and Selawik managed to pull out a win.  It was so sad!  In the afternoon we went around town and having seen how outclassed we were I bought some ice cream at the store for my students for after the tournament ended to cheer them up.
In the afternoon we teamed up with the Selawik kids to play an exhibition game against the Kiana girls team (the was the co-ed league tournament and neither the Selawik coach nor I wanted our kids too worn out from an exhibition game).  We lost (somewhere in the neighborhood of 38-20), but the kids had a fantastic time and really loved teaming up.  It worked well too because both schools jerseys were blue and white so we just meshed them together.  Heather (the Selawik coach and also a friend from new teacher orientation) and I also worked well together.
That evening we played Kivalina.  That was a shocking game.  Remember, this is middle school basketball.  They had girls on the team who had to be taller than me and at LEAST 50 pounds heavier than me, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that it was more.  They crushed us.  The final score was 90-6.  One of my players got injured in the game and I had to put my sub into the game.  She was 10 and in fifth grade.  She also had started playing basketball on Wednesday (remember it is Friday).  She was trying so hard, but the player she was playing defense against could simply shoot straight over her outstretched arms like she wasn't even there!  I'm afraid that defeat hurt me more than the kids.
By this point it was obvious that the two worst teams at this event were Kobuk and Selawik.  The tournament was scheduled as a round-robin followed by the top 4 (of 5) teams playing in the championship round.  I knew that the next morning's game between Kobuk and Selawik would determine which team played and which team was out.  I went to Heather and suggested that we team up for that game.  Whichever team won the Kobuk-Selawik game that coach would get to coach, but we would play both sets of players.  She agreed.  We spoke to the head of the tournament and he spoke to the Kivalina coach (because they were clearly going to be in first and first would play 4th).  I hyped up the Selawik game because I knew this was the one game that even if we lost it would be a close game and I wanted the kids to be really into it (and I wanted to win).  It was a great game.  Much more along the lines of what I was expecting for middle school basketball.  We won 24-19 and the kids were so psyched.  The game had been at 9 am with breakfast not being served until after the game, so at breakfast we call our principal and put him on speaker phone.  He went tot he school and made an announcement on the radio.  The kids all called their parents.  It was great.
Around noon we played Deering and they were great.  My team was very much outclassed, but Deering let them play.  They lost, but they came out feeling good.
At 4 the championship round began.  Heather and I told the kids there was no way they would win (if they did Kivalina would have been mad, but we all new it was impossible) and to go out and have fun.  They tried there three-pointers and any moves they wanted.  We were crushed, but they had fun and that's what counts.  After it was all over we had our ice cream and I think the kids had a very positive experience.
Since getting back there have been many other things going on as well.   Last week when we still had some warmer weather and so on Monday I road in Corrine's dog sled and on Tuesday we played Muk Ball out on the lake.  It was so much fun!  Muk ball is kind of like soccer.  Everyone is supposed to wear mukluks, but a lot of people don't have them so many people (including myself) played in boots.  The problem with that is bruised shins.  There were goals set up on either end and everyone from young children to elders played.  The game starts (and after each goal) with one person from each team holding onto each other and picking the ball up and kicking off.  Then the teams run from near their goals and start trying to kick the ball into the other goal.  There are no out-of-bounds nor any fouls.  Pretty much anything goes.  People slip (the ice was covered in many feet of snow), especially where the snow is looser and fall.  They also kick each other.  I fell at one point near the end of the game and hit my head REALLY hard!  I ended up with a headache for about 36 hours and I think I had a mild concussion, but nonetheless after sitting out for a short while I got back into the game at the last point and kicked the winning goal!  It was so much fun.
Well. my battery is about dead.  I have many other stories including some that I can post the pictures of (you may remember I don't post any pictures that have student in them), and I will try to post again soon.

Trip to the Doctor and the Practically Desperate Attempts to Prevent Freeze-up at 60 Below

NOTE: This was written Saturday January 29th even though I'm just getting it posted on March 1st.

This winter has been much colder than any winter in a long time.  I was in the school office the other morning getting things ready for class and I was listening to the VHF radio there (the communities communicate within in the communities and to a degree between communities via VHF radio.  In Kobuk we can talk with Shungnak and Shungnak can talk to both Kobuk and Ambler).  While I was listening to the radio, the friends pastor in Shungnak was doing his morning talk and prayer and he was mentioning how it was cold like it used to be in the old days, but hadn’t been so cold in a long time.  This cold has made it tough. In addition to that, everyone is so on top of each other in the winter that illnesses just spread like wildfire and so many people have been sick.  And thus, we get to the stories I’m going to tell in today’s blog.

About 3 weeks ago, I got quite sick.  I took a day off and then I felt a little better and came back to school.  I really shouldn’t have.  That afternoon, I left school early to get to the clinic before they stopped seeing patients.  Unfortunately, there was such a back-up that I didn’t get seen until 5 pm.  My ears were full of fluid, the throat was inflamed and my lungs were congested.  I was supposed to go to Shungnak that weekend, but didn’t because I was too sick.  The next week, I felt better, but my breathing became worse and worse.  Early in the week, I tried to play with my students while I was coaching them in basketball and after about 30 seconds I was having an asthma attack and my students were wondering if they needed to call the clinic.  Later in the week, I was having a meeting with the principal, a student and a parent and I couldn’t breathe.  Rob sent me to the clinic (which was bad timing because Katie was out sick and we couldn’t find a sub so I was teaching all the students 6-12.  When Rob sent me to the clinic he had to take on all of my students and was then teaching grades 3-12!).  At the clinic the health aide said my lungs hadn’t improved at all.  They sounded just like they had 5 days earlier.  She wanted to get me breathing meds, but the nurse practitioner in Kotzebue (who has never actually seen me) simply prescribed the same antibiotic that I had just finished taking that day.  The next day, Rob and I had a conversation where we had both thought, separately, that I should fly to Anchorage to see a doctor.  I began making arrangements. 

Unfortunately, with it being Thursday morning it wasn’t very practical for me to make it all the way to Anchorage in time to see a doctor before the weekend.  So I left Kobuk Friday afternoon, spent the night with friends in Kotz and flew to Anchorage Saturday morning.  The weather was bad in Nome so the plane didn’t land in Nome, but if it had, it would have taken me 6 take-offs and landings to get to Anchorage.  My bush flight flew to Shungnak then came to Kobuk to pick me and another man up.  Next, we went to Ambler.  From Ambler to Kiana, Kiana to Norvik, Norvik to Kotzebue.  The jet was supposed to go from Kotzebue to Nome, Nome to Anchorage.  We circled east of Kotzebue until we were out of fuel for that purpose, but the weather in Nome didn’t clear and so the passengers who were flying to Nome ended up back in Anchorage and were put on the next flight (which was boarding when we landed) to try getting to Nome again.

Before, I made it to Anchorage though I had two more breathing episodes.  Thursday afternoon while I was teaching I had another.  One of my students asked me a math question and when I went to answer I suddenly couldn’t breathe.  I sat down and put my head between my knees.  One of my students got really worried and tried calling the office.  He tried and tried, but couldn’t get through.  When he couldn’t get an answer he decided he was running to the main building to get the principal (who also teaches).  A few minutes later, I heard Rob come pounding up the stairs.  I was okay by that point and talking again.  Rob came in and said that the student had run in and said, “Cannon’s on the floor dying.” I had already decided to make the trip to Anchorage, but that was confirmation to both Rob and myself that it was warranted.  The second, episode occurred while I was in Kotz at my friends’ house.  They worried that maybe they should take me to the emergency room, but I really didn’t want to go and recovered okay,

At the doctor’s office several things were discovered including that despite taking vitamin D I was vitamin deficient.  Also, my asthma had apparently been far worse than I realized for months.  My blood tests showed that I haven’t been getting enough oxygen for over 2 months.  My guess is since I was diagnosed in the fall with bronchitis.  I was diagnosed with having both a virus, which was made worse by several vitamin deficiencies and bronchitis.  I’m doing better, but my breathing still has a long way to go (I was, however, able to run and play with my students at practice this afternoon).

My return on Wednesday almost stalled.  It was +5F in Anchorage.  We got to Kotzebue where it was -18F, but while I was waiting in Kotz for my flight the pilot came out to talk to the Kobuk bound passengers.  At that point Kobuk was only a few degrees above the minimums for the plane to land (the problem being that if it is too cold the plane’s engines won’t re-start after landing).  She warned us that that morning the plane had had to abort landing in Kobuk and that if we chose to go we may very well end up back in Kotzebue. The other Kobuk passenger was a young lady who lives in Kobuk and we both wanted to try it (after all, we could either try going to Kobuk and risk getting stuck in Kotz or not try and for sure end up stuck in Kotz).  About 30 minutes later, we were ready to depart.  For Bush flights the pilot comes out to the terminal announces which villages he/she is flying to and the passengers get up and follow the pilot out to the plane.  There is no security check.  When our flight was announced we got up (along with passengers bound for Shungnak and Ambler), and walked over near the door to gather.  The pilot asked the other Kobuk bound and me if someone was meeting us at the airport.  We were like “no, we can walk.”  It quickly became apparent that she didn’t know we lived in Kobuk.  We reassured her that we would be fine.  She had told us at -40 she had had a couple of passengers who got to a village and no one was there to pick them up and they didn’t know where they were going (Kobuk is fortunate.  The airstrip is right adjacent to town, but in many villages the airport can be as far as 2-3 miles outside of town).  She explained how she couldn’t just leave them (when the weather is warm I think they in fact do just leave passengers even if there is no one there to meet them).  She didn’t explain what happened in the end though and I wish now that I had asked.

Thursday was warm enough that the planes came, but yesterday and today there have been no flights because it has been too cold.  Additionally, there is a thermometer, set up by a hydrologist, at the greenhouse that we built that broadcast the temperature to the Internet (http://www.cosmoshydro.org/stations/Greenhouse/current.shtml), but we have learned this week that it won’t broadcast when the temperature drops below -59 F. It will still record the temperature and when it returns to -59 F or above it puts up all the data.  We have been below that threshold for large portions of the last few days. 

It is at these temperatures that my heat went out.  Friday I came home for lunch to find my heat out and the temperature had already dropped significantly.  We found the school maintenance man and he got it working again.  However, about 12 hours later (around 1 am) it went out again.  I woke up to an alarm and a rapidly cooling house.  I couldn’t get it re-started and so I plugged in some electric space heaters (which won’t do much, but was the best I had) and left for the school.  We have what we call the VIP room, which is a small bedroom like bed with a nice bed in it.  It is right off of the school office where the staff bathroom is, which has a shower, and the staff kitchen.  We usually use this room for people visiting (counselors, mentors, district office people etc.), but it comes in handy for teachers who suddenly find themselves without any heat.

In the morning I called Rob who called the maintenance man and the head of maintenance at the district.  By this point our school maintenance man had already cleaned the ignition (he did that a couple of weeks ago when my heat went out) and changed the filter (yesterday) and of course checked the flue.  He may have also done some other things, but those are the ones I know of. When Rob called the head of maintenance he was not happy to learn that it was only 44 degrees in my house because he said inside the walls are usually a good 10 degrees colder and that was too close to the freezing point for comfort.  At this point, we had the water running in both sinks and the tub and the space heaters in the kitchen and the bathroom.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t much the district could do because there are no planes flying because its too cold (great time to have the heat go out, isn’t it?)!  Rob and our school maintenance man then went to my house to talk with the district plumber, who knows the set-up in Kobuk better than anyone else, to try to get things working.  I actually have two oil monitors.  The first one went out a while ago and the district sent a new one, but then Katie’s heat went out and since her place only has one (mine is the only one with two) it was installed in her place instead.  They managed to jimmy-rig both oil monitors and get them working for the time being.  In the last few hours, the one in the bedroom has gone out a few times, but is currently still restarting.  The other one is still running and I pray it continues through tonight (I will post this tomorrow.  I am typing from home and I don’t have Internet at home) and until the planes start flying again (the district has sent one to Bering Air and it’ll come out as soon as the planes can fly again).  For now though, thanks to an incredible effort by several people, I have heat and my water is frozen.

Not freezing the pipes is a really critical issue and why the district is so concerned with the heat in my house not working.  I of course am fine staying in the school.  It is quite comfortable and a nice fall-back (my own home is of course preferred, but still it’s good to have a comfortable fall-back option), but if my pipes freeze up too badly then there is no unfreezing them until spring (think May).  Also, Rob and I both live in the old clinic which was converted into essentially a duplex.  The water and sewer both enter and exit from my side.  If I lose water and Sewer, so does Rob.  During today’s fun my tub drain did freeze-up.  This however, is not a big freeze-up and by opening up the venting under the tub (it’s built on platform) and blowing one of the electric heaters right into we were able to thaw it out (especially important because it was full of water because the water had been running to try to prevent it from freezing – up).

I’m attaching some photos taken at the Alaska Airlines Terminal in Kotzebue on my most recent trip to Anchorage.  They are scarily relevant to today’s blog post.  Enjoy!

 This photo was the Alaska Terminal in Kotzebue on my way to Anchorage on Saturday January 21st.

This was on the way back the following Wednesday.  They had gotten the lines defrosted and running again...