Sunday, August 14, 2011

Alaska at last

After a long and boring flight we landed in Anchorage, July 31.  We spent two days in the city shopping, sight seeing, and completing other mundane tasks.  We thought that the mountains surrounding Anchorage were beautiful along with the flowers and evergreen trees.  We even saw a moose cross the street.  I had no idea how big they were.  We took our Alaska drivers license test in Anchorage as well.  Sadly for me I did not pass, but John did, even though, I am the better driver:)


We flew out of Anchorage on August 2 and spent the day in Nome before flying to Brevig Mission.  While in Nome we saw the spot where the Iditarod ends, visited a really neat museum, shopped for groceries...oh and I retook my drivers test and drum roll please...I PASSED!!  We both are official Alaska residents.  We flew in a small plane that sat 6 into our village.  When we landed we were picked up from the airport in one of maybe two vehicles in town.  Our principal, Hannibal Anderson and John Lycan the science teacher met us and took us to our new home. 



Our new home is a trailer across the street from the school.  This makes a great commute and we have the least amount of yards to walk in the snow than any other teacher at the school.  We spent the next several days cleaning and unpacking.  We now feel like this is home and we are pretty comfortable here.  We were both impressed by the school.  It is probably one of the nicest schools in which I have taught.  I have a smart board in my room which is far more than what I had in Georgia.  We were also both issued Mac books by the school system. 

On August 9 we flew to the school district office in Unalakleet.  If you have watched Flying Wild Alaska on the Discovery Channel, this is where it is filmed.  We spent three days at new teacher orientation.  We were welcomed into the home of the superintendent.  He and his wife have two boys close in age to our girls.  Our girls played with their boys while we attended classes.  We were both amazed at how much of a family the district office feels.  Everyone knew our names!!

Brevig Mission has been super at making us feel welcome.  The people here are nice and friendly.  Our kids have made several friends as have we.  The teachers here have also been fabulous!!