43. Santa Fe.

A view of the sunset from my dorm room at St. John's College in Santa Fe, NM.
     This is my third summer with Bread Loaf- after this, two more to go (Ashville, NC then Oxford). I almost can't believe how I fell into my new carrier last summer. I never would have thought I'd like being a librarian as much as I do. I signed up for UW's Information Science program last winter. They have a good online program, though the 'online' business took a little getting used to.
     This summer is already beginning to end. How did I let nearly a year go by without blogging? Ketchikan is a pretty normal place... Tuntutuliak was something to blog about. When classes here get done, I head home to Philly for a month, then back Ketchikan for another year. Lucky to have made some good friends there.

42. Ketchikan.

Ketchikan is a nice town. Most of it is set on the face of a relatively steep, small mountain. It's on an island in the heart of the temperate rain forest that extends from Oregon way up to Kodiak Island. This is the view from Ketchikan High School.



Ketchikan is the southernmost city in Alaska, and the rainiest in the US.

People generally seem into preserving Ketchikan's dignity in the face of tourism. I sense it's a satiable goal. Elections are tomorrow. On my drive home from my new job as a librarian, the streets were flooded with kids from the local high school holding up signs supporting their favorite candidates. I've never seen anything like it.

In my last post, I said I had a story to tell. The story has gotten longer since then, so I'll spare the details. Long story short: I left my job teaching in Tuntutulaik this May, went to back to school at Bread Loaf for the summer(this time to the Vermont campus), then I moved to Ketchikan in SE Alaska and became a librarian at the high school. I'm very happy to be here.

41. Guess What?

I'm coming back to Alaska! I'm moving to Ketchikan in August and I have a story to tell. To Philly, From Alaska w/love lives on!

Right now, I'm at the Bread Loaf School of English Vermont campus. It's gorgeous here.

More later...

40. Long Nails

Once there lived a grandmother and her grandson. The grandmother warned her grandson not to go among the tall grass across the river. One morning the grandchild went berry picking at the other side of the river, despite his grandmother's warnings...

The sixth graders translated this story from Yup'ik to English for a group of Navajo kids during an exciting BreadNet Exchange. Follow the link to read it and hear it read, see the original and find some special footage.

I'm actively searching for a job teaching in Philly starting this September. Maybe you're looking for a teacher; here's my resume online. In four short weeks this all will become little more than a profound memory... and a sweet blog.

39. Roses are red.

Happy Valentine's Day. I love this door. Having one to my room this year made me notice them more and I began to really enjoy using them.

As odd as it sounds, doors made me smile... and they are everywhere. Just as the future started looking extra bright, I found myself taking them for granted again. That was around October.
~Now a door is mostly just a door- but this one still makes me smile.

38. Robotics Club Trip.

This weekend our robotics team went to Bethel and took home first place for programming and design! This is the fourth year I've coached the First Lego League robotics program (my first two years were back in Philly), but it's the first time my team's gotten an award. Way to go Tunt!

Going to Bethel with a school group is always an adventure. Everyone has to wear snow pants so that no one freezes in case the little plane makes an emergency landing. We were supposed to come back Saturday, but ice-fog kept the planes grounded, so that night we went out to for Chinese food. Other than their school trip to Seattle last spring, this was the first time some of the kids had been to a restaurant in years.

We got back today but were delayed a little longer, this time by the cold. It was around -25 F most of the weekend with windchills below -40. It's district policy not to allow school groups on the tiny planes when the windchill is less than -35. I guess snow pants don't work as well when the windchill is less than -35.