Getting the Hang of it

1 missed flight, 3 layovers, and short naps on each flight, we finally touched down in Anchorage at 6:30 PM. It was a long day to say the least. So far, I hadn't met any of the other interns yet so I was totally relying on finding Ted, the HR guy, or Jay, the Assistant Superintendent. I found Ted at the baggage claim, grabbed my things and loaded them into a truck. We were later joined in the truck by Eric and Hannah, two of the other interns from Wisconsin and Minnesota who were on the same Seattle flight as I was.We left the airport and headed for the Hotel we would be staying at while in Anchorage, and met up with most of the other interns, before heading out to dinner. Dinner was spent getting to know each other, and in my case, desperately trying to remember everyone's name (because I'm awful at remembering names). Because it such a long day of flying around we called it a night soon after dinner ended, in order to try to acclimate to the new timezone. 

The next day was spent shopping for food and supplies, and making sure that each of us was ready and prepared for our stay in each of our respective villages. Before breakfast, most of us met the principals of our schools (I didn't), as well as the Superintendent, different technology and education coordinators. I also found out that I would be joined in Brevig Mission by one of the other interns, Andrew from Spokane, which was interesting. I had always expected to be alone in my placement, so it would be interesting to see how two of us fared in the same location. After the meeting with the principals, we had breakfast and headed for Walmart for food.

I've never shopped for food so far in advance before, and we also understood that the food was going to be more expensive, and shipping it over would be another expense entirely. We decided to stock up on bare essentials to get by. Some of these include different varieties of oatmeal, a 20 pound bag of rice, 3 boxes of spaghetti, a couple containers of Ragu, tuna fish and chicken chunks for sandwiches, peanut butter, mayonnaise, jelly, and some other small things. We were told that meat could be purchased in town, as well as some other supplies in the local store (expensively, and maybe not always available). Our carts were dropped off in the back of the store and labeled for shipping to our respective villages, and we left the store for an outdoors store to supplement any gear we might have been lacking. At the sportsman's store we all were given ice trekkers, special spikes to put on our boots to keep us from slipping on ice. 

What's interesting about Alaska, or at least Anchorage, is the demographics of people who move into the state. On the one side, you have the people who come for the outdoors. There are mountains, lakes, beachfront and forests everywhere, with loads of animals to trap and hunt. There is a lot of outdoor life to be had here. On the other side, you have people who come because it's not like the lower 48 states, and its a place that's wide open and empty, and easy to get away from everything else. That's why after stopping at a sporting goods store for supplies and tools, we went to lunch at a organic/vegan friendly sandwich place called "The Middle Way". It wasn't bad food, but it was interesting to see that population of people there. After our lunch, I headed to a bookstore to see if there were any books that I might want to pick up. I was really looking for "The Book Thief", and was disappointed when they were sold out. I settled for an old classic "Call of the Wild" and "White Fang", by Jack London, as well as two other books for leisure reading. 

We headed back to the hotel and had about 2 hours to kill, before our principals picked us up for dinner and more introductions. We decided to hike around the area, and look at some of the different houses and shops. The mountains peak up over everything, so it was really cool to almost always be able to see them around. Our hike took us all around the area, and even through some potentially private property. I ended up getting one foot wet because of the adventure, but it was worth it to be able to get out and walk around after still being sore from flying so much. 

An hour or so after we finished our hike, Andrew and I met up with our principal 'Ginger'. We aren't sure why her name is Ginger, because she has brown hair, and her name is Diane. Either way, we went out to a nice restaurant and got to learn more about Brevig Mission, as well as our job responsibilities while we would be interning there. We learned that meat wouldn't be terribly hard to come by, but that our own local store might be strained to maintain its stock of most things. Brevig Mission also has some of the best water in the district, which was really great to hear, because that meant that we wouldn't need to worry about buying drinkable water. I also learned that night that this was the first time that BSSD has ever done an internship process, whereas I thought that they did this every year, and that it was a very common occurrence. While in Brevig, we will either be teachers aides, or potentially given small groups to work with on our own, which is very exciting. It will be very interesting to finally make it out to Brevig on Wednesday to see what our homes and school will be like. The rest of Sunday was spent repacking our gear in order to prepare for our flight the next morning to Unalakleet, where the district offices are. My next post will focus on the 2 days that we spend in Unalakleet. Till then!

Sean