Pilgrim Hot Springs

We took an adventure on Saturday. We went on a road trip north to Pilgrim's Hot Springs with Caleb and his wife Sarah. It was about 60 miles away, but the last mlie or so was dotted with deep puddles that our truck couldn't get through (it would have been nice if the guy mentioned that to him when we called in the morning to ask if they were open). So we walked in the last mile.
The area looked like something out of a horror movie. We were joking that it would make the perfect setting, and that we kept getting "signs to turn around" but we were the stupid people in the movie who don't listen to the signs. Once we final found the hot springs, it was a hug bath tub that was dodgey at best. The tub was covered in algae and had boards falling down with rusted nails coming out of them. It was beautiful though with the mountatins in the background.

Today we went to the grocery store and had dinner at Malies. The real excitement of the day was when we tried to leave to go to the grocery store, we found out we had a flat tire. It took a long time to change it because the part needed to get the spare tire out from under the car was missing from the jack kit. Andrew and Caleb had to use some creativity to get a butter knife, pliers and wrench in there to get it out. We'll try to get it patched tomorrow or Tuesday. We'll spend tomorrow at school.

I saw the pictures from the lake and it looks like another great State Fair Night. The food sounded wonderful!

Andrew and I signed up to be the Junior Class sponsor this year. It is a 2 person job, and will give us some money to travel with this summer. We are in charge of planning the Halloween Carnival and the Prom. If nothing else, it will help us meet some people in the community.

No bathtub race for us tomorrow, we weren't able to get a bathtub that had wheels on it. I don't think either of us were dissapointed not to be pushing a bathtub up Front Street!

Happy Labor Day! Erin
Current Temp: 54

BBQ at Sullivans

We had a really fun BBQ tonight for all teachers/staff at our principal/wood shop teachers house. It was pot luck with really yummy food. Only down fall was that it was freezing. There were reports of snow today.
There was some drama in the Jr. high today. Three 7th graders went over to an 8th grader's house last night to beat up the 8th grader. The dad kicked the boys out, but they said that they would get him today. All teachers were on "fight watch" Luckily nothing happened, but there is always tomorrow!
Our friend Caleb's wife comes tomorrow, and hopefully we'll go camping this weekend.
Here are some pictures from the BBQ.
Erin
Current temp 44

First Days

We have finished our first two days of school...alive! It's 9:00 here and we are exhausted. Both days went great, the first week is a little chaotic because students are changing in and out of their classes. On top of that 20 some students showed up to school without being registered. We have to remind ourselves that many of our student's home lives are not what we are used to seeing.

We did our civic duty today and voted in the local primary. It was fun to see lines forming outside the church. We saw quite a few teachers there which is good to see. Erin, the social studies teacher, was giddy with civic pride!

We are going to a first week BBQ at our principals house tomorrow and are looking forward to seeing our coworkers outside of school.

Andrew
Current Temp 44

Salmon

I apologize for not writing more this week. We had inservice all week long, and by the time we got home, we were both exhausted.
We had a great week at inservice meeting and getting to know the rest of the staff in the school. Tuesday we went to a BBQ at a teacher from the charter schools house for the Nome Education Association. We got to meet some of the staff from the elementary school, and get to see the Berring Sea from his beautiful house.
Wednesday we went to a Rotary meeting. We were invited by our new superintendent, who informed us that oh by the way, you are also the speakers. It was nice, and very informal. Once people found out we were from Minnesota, they wanted to know if we were Vikings fans.
Friday afternoon, there was a Cross Country meet at the high school, with about four other teams there. The schools don't have alot of sports (2 per season) but they take the kids every where to compete. On Saturday the team was flying to Kotzubue to run in another race, and they fly somewhere else every other weekend in September.

We were given some wonderful food gifts this week. Caleb, another new teacher, has taken up salmon fishing and brought over 2 gigantic filets for us the other night. Krista Marvin, another teacher in the jr. high, brought over to my classroom on Friday a jar of pickled salmon, blueberry syrup (that she picked and made), and fire weed jelly (again which she picked and made). They are wonderful treats!

Monday school starts. We both went into school yesterday for a few hours and will probably go in again today after laundry.

Hope everyone is enjoying the last couple weeks of summer, and that Blake you have an excellent 6th birthday!

Erin
Current Temp. 50

Polar Bear Swim

We had our first day of "real" inservice today. All the employees from the Elemetnary and High school were at the high school today for inservice. It was alot of listening and sitting, but we learned alot.

At 6, all (most) of the new employees and some administration went for a dive into the Berring Sea. It wasn't as cold as I thought it would be, but it certainly wasn't warm, and not something I'd like to do very often!

Some people have been asking questions that we keep forgetting to answer:
1. The reindeer are owned by people and are supposed to keep them penned up, but usually don't.
2. Nome is very similar to Northern Exposure, except a little bit bigger.

3. Blake and Brady- we haven't seen Santa yet, however, we have heard that you can usually see him once the snow comes.

I think that's it. I should be getting pictures from Dan Sullivan who took pictures earlier this week. More later. Erin
Current temp: 59

Airport Pizza

Today was a fun and relatively relaxing day. We made our rounds to the three grocery stores in town to find the best deals we could. This week we took two other new teachers who don't yet have a car. We are excited to have made friends and made plans to go to dinner with them to a local restaurant called Airport Pizza. Airport Pizza is only a few years old and is a very clean and modern place. What's unique about Airport pizza is that they will deliver to you even if you live in a town that is not connected to Nome by a road; they will fly your pizza out for you! I, Andrew, had the Polynesian BBQ chicken pizza which was AMAZING. It had Hawaiian BBQ sauce, Banana Peppers, two different cheeses and bacon...mmmmm bacon. For the Gluten-free crowd, Erin had the onion burger. It was a burger with fried onions and side of steak fries. Erin said the the burger was very good and would recommend it to anyone, I tried the fries and was very impressed. Overall we would give Airport Pizza our seal of approval, whoever comes to visit us will have to stop there.

Tomorrow is our first day of "official" inservice. Afterwards the teachers all go down to the Bearing Sea and jump in! We have been told that it makes the front page of the Nome Nugget (the local news paper) every year so if you want to look at the Nome Nugget online you might see us. This next week may not be the most interesting but if nothing happens we'll just make something up for all you readers.

Andrew
Current Temp. 62 and sunny

Pictures from Teller

Dried fish in Teller



Andrew and I where we went fishing.



Mayle and I near the brook where you can drink the water out of.