It is nice to be back home in St. Mike.  I traded the yards high of stacked snow in Valdez (140 inches in December alone), for the far below freezing temperatures here in the Bering Straits.  In the golden daylight the chill has ranged between -20 to -28, and at night falling below -30.  Right now, as I lay curled up on my couch beneath a quilt, the report reads -31 degrees F.  Our apartment is disturbingly the chilliest apartment in the building.  Quite a quandary since Sara and I moved to this apartment two years ago because it seemed so much warmer than our old apartment!  It isn’t so bad, really, resting at 58 degrees though set to 85.  Just means we have a legitimate excuse to drink hot chocolate multiple times a day.

Yesterday I plucked up some spunk and dared myself to go for a run.  Who else runs outside at 25 below? No one in Saint Michael.  I layered up in smart wool long johns, a second base-layer pair of pants, wool socks, under armor t-shirt, a long-sleeved spandex shirt, fleece vest, a wind resistant jacket, ear band, fleece gloves and face mask.  Overall experience: positive.  I ran probably between two and two and a half miles: from my house, up dump hill, past the dump, down to the ocean and back the same path.  I wanted to run the ocean coast to the school and around home but the wind was much more significant down on the ocean ice and I just wasn’t prepared for the blow. My only two complaints are these: 1) to use a face mask you have to commit to it the entire time or else suffer the consequences of the condensation from your breath quickly freezing when away from your warm mouth and making an ice wall out of the fleece, which is not nearly as comfortable against your face or as warm, and 2) about halfway through the jog my i-pod gave up.  When I came home and pulled it out from my pocket it was a frosty hunk of metal.  Next time I will let it cuddle up closer to my core and see how far we get that way.  All and all a fun adventure and manageable, though Pauline Richardson practically shook her finger at me and said I could have frostbit my lungs in such cold air.  Today exercise was much less exciting in the confines of the school workout room.  There are not near as many distractions, like freezing to death, to take your mind off running.  I think I’ll give outside a try again next weekend when I can run in the mid-day daylight.

The holiday break was a delight!  I’ll throw some pictures up here shortly to share the fun.  Very nice to be back in my own home again.  The city put on a New Year’s Eve dinner at the old school gym.  It was nice to see everyone’s happy faces.  Afterwards I joined Megan, Nathan, Carolyn, and Brian over at Pam and Michael’s for snacks and games, and a view of the fireworks out their living room window.  Great to see part of the gang.  Charlee walked over last night in the cold with crafty Aaroe and we spent a fast evening catching up, leaving our planned movie forgotten on the tabletop.  It is the sign of a true friend that will walk a third of a mile in the dark at thirty below with her two-year-old son to come hang out.

Tomorrow has come fast!  It will be nice to be back at school, and even more fun to start up practice for ball again.  I am already feeling busy; we’ll just have to take it hour by hour :0)

I have an amazing group of kids to work with this year. They are creative and kind; they work hard and have great attitudes. Near the beginning of the year one of my students would call out, “I love learning! Who loves learning?!” and the rest of the group would throw their raised hands in the air and cry, “ME! ME!” It’s weird. I love it. I haven’t heard that for quite some time now, but I’ll never forget it. It is a small group: 7 boys, 1 girl.
I have started a Youth Group/ Bible study for middle school/ high school aged kids. It is a quiet beginning, but a beginning nonetheless. We meet on Wednesdays, sing a few songs, play some team-building game, read a chapter and discuss, and then generally end with ultimate spoons. Megan’s husband (Megan is our new headstart teacher) has been coming to help out. Mostly boys, surprisingly enough have been coming, so it is great to have Nathan around in the thick of it all.

Here is my handsome class of 2011-12.
For my birthday, Pam and Michael invited me and a few others over for an early dinner.  I was spoiled beyond belief.  Sara, Jill, and AP Tim joined for the celebration and then Mark and Sidney came over to share some fresh moose meat from their weekend journey across the channel: Sidney’s first catch!

A few weeks back now, I went out with Deidre and Priscella one evening to go berry picking.  We set off at 5:00 p.m. and came home as the sun was setting at a quarter to 11.  They took me south toward the channel to a rock hill 7 miles away.  It was a beautiful evening for a walk.  I collected 3/4 a gallon of black berries and cranberries.

This is Deidre flying.

My favorite recent adventure is this.  Last week Jessie and I decided to go out for a ride and have a tundra photo-shoot.  I planed to take her to “The Lake I’m Not Supposed to Know About.”  We were getting close to our destination when Jessie spotted the reindeer herd off to our right and we decided to off-road it for a better picture.  We bounded boldly forward, making our own path and accomplished our mission, capturing a few good-looking shots of our furry friends.  The trip back was where I was a little cocky and, upon finding a patch of sludgy mud in front of my path, rather than reverse and take a detour, I decided to just go really fast and make it through.  As you might expect, we did get stuck.  However this was not a problem we couldn’t handle!  After a second attempt, I positioned myself behind the rig pushing, Jessie pushed from the side and handled the throttle and, after I was thoroughly painted with mud and muck spit up from the wheels, our faithful vessel pulled through and we were on our merry way.

The last few shots are just some great pictures of Saint Michael in the fall.  Nice to get out and enjoy the scenery!

While in Tacoma I was able to arrange dates with friends to catch up for lost time.  Here are a few of the faces I was able to see and spend time with.  A few faces are missing from this collection like Aaron Hagen.

Kels and I met up for an evening in Seattle and then I spent the night at her place outside of the city.  She lives in a sweet little apartment close to the campus she works at as an academic adviser.  Same amazing sense of humor and driven spirit!

Well, I am unable to upload any more pictures right now, but there are many more I would like to include from the summer and this year.  Stay tuned!

Jill, Pam, and I went out for a ride on the last Wednesday before school let out.  We drove five miles out of town to Clear Lake and then checked out the seals at North Beach on the way home.  There was a slew of them sun bathing out on the ice in the distance.

The reindeer herd has returned home to the island within the past couple weeks.  In this picture they are right at the edge of town.  I found them while driving over to Stebbins for a Friday night slumber party with a few of the teachers.  In the next picture they were racing along the road while I was racing on my 4-wheeler.

Tonight Mom, Rudy, and I went for an evening picnic up at Solomon Gulch.  Beneath all that ice in the background is Valdez’ water reservoir. Look at all that blue sky!  What a nice place to call home!

Last weekend I met Justin Steve and some other fun-loving troops out on the ice on the south side of town for some ice fishing.  Unlike the tropical temperatures from the past few days, a brisk breeze nipped at cold, wet fingers holding onto jig sticks.  The sunshine and blue sky were misleading.  I found the crew lined up at a crack in the ice, hook dropped in a few shallow feet below the surface, an impressive pile of tom cod frozen stiff at the base of their feet.  I was the smart one who thought to bring some yard gloves.  These became a shared commodity, passed from one set of chilled hands to the next.  A thin layer of ice crept its way up the fishing lines during our time out on the water.

We were excited to be out, and frankly I was excited the kids were being so successful.  Every year Justin and I go out “munucking” — in the fall and spring– and we have never had any luck.  They had big plans for who the fish would go to.  Many of them had decided to give a small bagful to a grandmother or grandfather.  I would guess between the lot of them, about 40-50   tom cod were claimed.

Here is a majority of the group: Ryleigh, Pretty (Chelsea), Alby (Albert), Mikey, Justin, and Keyshawn.

I was encouraging Albert to kiss this lucky fish and carry on my family tradition, but he engaged it in a staring contest instead.

Two weekends ago I was chosen to be a chaperon for a student broadcast team (6 students from 3 different villages in our district) in Anchorage at Native Youth Olympics (NYO).  This has ranked its way into one of my favorite experiences.

The student broadcast program in and of itself is a genius student driven force.  The purpose is to provide live streaming for families and friends of the athletes as the compete at the regional and state level.  It is extremely expensive to travel around this state, or even within our district, and this offers families a chance to support their kids from home.  The students involved with the broadcast team, in addition to managing the video cameras, also interview participants to the event.  I would like to bring elements of a broadcast team back to St. Mike and my classroom.

The part of the experience that really pumped me up was watching some of these amazing athletes break records doing incredible events.  (This is where I should recap a history of NYO and the correlation of these skills to Eskimo culture and tradition. For now I will only include the impressive pictures and leave your imagination to wonder.)

Alaskan High Kick

This is one of our students from Unalakleet.

The athlete starts from a sitting position with one foot held by the opposite hand and then propels their body up.  They must hit the suspended ball with their foot and land steady on the same foot.

Amazing.

One Hand Reach

While maintaining control of his body, the athlete must balance on one hand (elbow wedged into the stomach, hip area serving as a fulcrum) and with the other hand reach above his head and touch the suspended ball.  Once contact has been made the athlete can retract her hand,  but must keep all limbs from touching the floor until the judge has approved that she kept control of the move.  (They had to hold it for a certain number of seconds after contact.)  In this picture Bernard Clark broke a world record for this event, reaching 69 inches.

One Foot High Kick

For this event the athlete jumps off both feet, kicks the ball with one foot and then must land with that same foot (again maintaining balance until the judge is certain they have control).  It is wicked tricky! This kid captured the love of the audience making a jump almost twice his height.

Alice Strike is another record holder and breaker from this years NYO competition.  For this event she tied her last year record of 91 inches.  Earlier in the week she made a new record in the Two Foot High Kick.

Wrist Carry

This event takes a team effort.  Two team members carry the stick between them while running around the limits of the gym.  The third teammate holds his/her body off the floor, carrying their weight on their wrist curved over the stick.

Another event that impressed me is the Seal Hop, unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures to help explain this skill.  Basically the athlete starts in push-up position (arms extended for girls and elbows locked at the side for boys) and they hop across the floor maintaining that position, pushing themselves forward with their feet on the hop.  It is fun!  Give it a try.

This year’s Iditarod winner, John Baker, was one of the speakers to kick off this year’s competition in Anchorage for NYO.  The message he gave to the athletes was that you don’t come in first in life overnight.  It takes hard work and a lot of failing along the way. This year he pulled into Nome after: 8 Days 18 Hours 46 Minutes 39 Seconds of being on the trail with his team, coming from Anchorage, a little over 1,100 miles southeast.

Hmm, well I only meant to write a short little blurb about the weather and how great it feels to have summer at our fingertips.  Today, we had 6 students graduate for 2011.  It was a great ceremony.  Four more days in school and then off for the summer.  I’m looking forward to reuniting with friends in Washington, Oregon, and California.  I’m looking forward to playing outside.  I am looking forward to horseback riding in Montana and hiking through Glacier Park and Yellowstone.  I am excited to go to church and to see my parents on both ends of the summer in beautiful Valdez, Alaska.

Mark invited a few of us for an evening of silver fishing out at Pikmiktolik.  Couldn’t have asked for a more picturesque event.  In the picture below I am carrying on a Bryson family tradition of kissing your first catch to insure future good luck.

At the beginning of the school year we always hold a community picnic to welcome parents and kids back for the new year and to introduce new teachers.  This year we met down on “glass beach” behind the school.  Mark collected drift wood for four different fires and we set up a plywood table with the makings for the best hot dogs.

The next couple of pictures are from a school celebration we had near the beginning of the year.  The celebration was meant to honor the students for their great success over the past two years (making AYP both years).  At the event we shared the testing data with the community to show how much improvement our kids have accomplished in the past 5 years and also passed out a Storm Pride shirt to each student K-12. 

These are 7 of the kids in my homeroom class.  I started the year with 18 rowdy students.  At the beginning of 2nd quarter we shifted 6 of my students up into the 5th grade classroom to balance out the class sizes.

One of my favorite places to visit is Clear Lake, about 4 miles from town.  The lake was once used as the communities source of fresh water during the winter.  Now our water comes from a clear lake that is halfway between Saint Michael and Stebbins.  On this adventure Jill and I saw geese and caribou and glorious fall colors.

The reindeer herd seems to grace us with their presence in the fall and then again in the spring time.  During the winter months I think they wonder over to the main land in search of lichens and reindeer moss.  Interesting fact about reindeer: they have a 4-chambered stomach like a cow.

In the above picture I am standing on one-peaked corning of Saint Michael Mountain.  Saint Michael Mountain is the tallest point on Saint Michael Island.  It is the remains of a dormant volcano and at its center is a dug-out crater bowl.  On the horizon many similar crater mountains can be seen providing a visual reminder of the natural history and geography in our part of Norton Sound.

This is my second year coaching Jr. High basketball.  There are some pretty significant differences playing sports in the bush in Alaska compared to on the road-system in AK and even more compared to playing for teams in the lower 48.  The biggest difference is in travel.  For our team to have any playing time we have to travel by plane, usually a cessna caravan 9 passenger plane, allowing only 8 players and one coach.

This year, I had twelve solid players coming to practice.  They came regularly, worked hard, and showed great improvement from last year.  We were able to play against Stebbins twice, a benefit we have with a road connecting our villages.  Apart from that we had only one tournament to attend.  This group did better than I could ever have imagined.  They really worked as a team.  I was so proud.

These last few pictures are of the latest adventure.  With Dan leaving our staff next year, Mark invited our group out to join him for a spring picnic at his family’s camp.  Jodi, Sara, Julie and I drove the 17 miles across the channel and east down the coastline (but inland over the tundra) the night before for the first annual girls retreat.  My honda did get stuck more than once on the rumble over, but nothing we couldn’t dig out and push our way through.

Mark was so great to share this place with us.  It was perfect for everyone to get away from town, play around outside, enjoy the fresh air and good memories.  This was one of my favorite times of the year.  This picture really gives a feel for how crowed we were packed into Mark’s cabin.  Lots of bumping shoulders and squirming to make room.

This last picture is from a weekend camping expedition to Pikmiktolik with Charlee and her brother Floyd.  We extended the voyage on the last day by boating further west to Point Romanoff.  We pretended to tan out on the smooth, flat rocks, and found beuhaulks hidden in tall grass.

]]> http://www.katiebryson.com/2011/04/16/flashes-from-the-year/feed/ 2 http://www.katiebryson.com/2011/03/19/aurora-borealis/ http://www.katiebryson.com/2011/03/19/aurora-borealis/#comments Sat, 19 Mar 2011 23:01:29 +0000 katie http://www.katiebryson.com/?p=199 Continue reading →]]> Wednesday, March 9th Memory

Tonight, on my 1:30 am walk home, God dazzled me with a stream of Northern Lights that rippled gently overhead beneath an ocean of deep sky and glittering stars.  They were a soft white film, not arrogant or ambitious in color, but wide and long — stretching from the bright, crescent moon on the far west horizon over Saint Michael village, past the canal and beyond to the high hills across the frozen channel.  I stood below, small, watching them part in streaks like rays being filtered through fingers dancing in the sun.

Kayaking off Kodiak Island (Tiger Cove on Raspberry Island) with the Adventure Babes.

Valdez Endeavors

Full Bloom

More pictures to come.

Mom: Ms. Adventurous

We like to live it up.

Saving the best for last!

It’s hard to work on classes with all this fun going on around!  Geesh, thank goodness for the rain today!