Where are you going? And Why?

More to come soon!

Why Alaska?

Alaska, the great outdoors, the last frontier, and now soon to be my new home.

I have started the countdown till my close to 24 hour plane trip to fly from the 86 degrees of South Carolina to the chilly 31 degrees of Atqasuk, Alaska. Only 8 days till I leave! Will I be ready? I have so much to do! I mean I have to set up utilities, get my cell phone turned on (yes i am going to a place where Verizon is not a provider.) So they can ask all they want if I can hear them now and I wont be able to. :) While moving is always hard I find that this one is especially hard. I am an experienced mover. Moving my freshman year of college to Rock Hill, then moving to Columbia into an apartment at Aspyre sophomore year,  then to the Woodlands in Columbia (apartment/townhouse living) my Jr year, then to a house my Sr year and finally to a apartment in downtown Savannah, Ga for my first teaching job. Each time I moved I got more clothes, furniture, and just general stuff and each time it got harder to move (not just because I had loads of stuff but because moving is SO hard financially and emotionally).  I do thank everybody who helped me move all of those times and for sticking with me through all the moves. (ie. My mom (the supervisor), my dad (the master packer), my brother (the mover) and all of the other people that came and showed their support) I really couldn't have done it without you. But there is a difference between moving just a state over and moving halfway across the world.  There is a since of excitement, sadness, anxiousness, and being overwhelmed by all that needs to be done. Excitement for all the adventures that are to come, the people I am going to meet and the way I am going to grow as a person. Sadness, for all the friends and family that will be across the country. (thank god for Skype, Facebook, and phones)  Anxious, for I truly know only what the internet has to tell me about my town, the people I am going to meet, and about the school I am going to be moving up to. And finally  overwhelmed by all the cardboard boxes I had to pack my life up into, the lists and lists of things I had to buy and still have to buy, and the logistics of moving, setting utilities up, plane tickets, and doctors appointments.

There is  really something something to putting everything you own into three piles. Pile one, anything and everything that is trash, you will never use it, or why did you buy that in the first place? I mean how many purses, frying pans, and old cellphone chargers does one need? I have a really bad habit of holding on to things because you never know when you are going to use it again but I am proud to say I am completely clutter free! (even though if you ask my mom she may disagree :) )
Pile two, stay at my mom's house. This is really a place to put stuff I feel like I wont need for the next year, shorts, tank tops, all my furniture (seeing that the house is furnished). This stuff will have to be things that I will not need or want seeing that I will be unable to get it because it will be truly across the country and almost unreachable (my mom can send me boxes but it is a lot of money to ship things to me seeing that all items have to go through the post office and fly in via airplane).
And finally the third pile everything I need to survive in Alaska. ,Let me say that again SURVIVE.  It is really funny to think that I am moving to a place that most people will think as a place where I will be roughing it or needing only to survive. Sure it will be cold. I mean like deathly cold sometimes, like if I don't have on the proper gear I can and will get frostbite and lose toes, fingers, and other appendages. If you have seen life bellow zero on the national geographic channel subtract about ten degrees.

There are no grocery stores, nail parlors, hair dressers or even a Starbucks in my town.  There is an airport, a health center, and a post office so if I get bored I can fly a plane, get sick or write people. Hooray! My town is also a dry county. That means that no alcoholic beverages are allowed. Which is a bag change from Savannah, Ga where you are welcome to walk down the street with an open container and they hold the second largest Saint Patrick's day festival in the United Stated where over 300, 000 people attend each year. 
 




Against common beliefs that have been brought up by many people I will not be living in an igloo. My house in Alaska has heat, running water and yes even a flushing toilet (which I have heard is a hot commodity in). It is a three bedroom, one bathroom house that I will be sharing with my friend Christine Cassidy who I taught with last year.  This house will even be better than my house in Savannah. I feel like I am going to be living in a fancy house. See my house in Savannah did not have heat, nor a toilet that always worked or even a washer and a dryer that always worked. I mean it was a cool house due to the fact that it was in downtown Savannah and was on a historical street but had its problems. I even SURVIVED a winter in Savannah without a heater which at the time seemed like a huge accomplishment but now when I'm moving to Alaska seems like child's play.  I look at it now as conditioning for Alaska. Truthfully I cant even wrap my head around what -60 degrees will feel like or even how to act in that temp (but I will keep you updated for sure).

 

 

Where in the world is Atqasuk?
Atqasuk is the name of the town that I am moving to. It lays 60 miles south of Barrow, Alaska (literally the top of the world). Population 228, 5% White and 95% Native Alaskan, there are 75 kids that are going to be going to my school, Meade River School. I will be in charge of teaching 1st and 2nd grade and I will have 9 children in my class. The town is a traditional Inupiat village and name  means "the place to dig the rock that burns" (aka coal). During WWII they mined bituminous coal from the land. The temperature ranges from 78 degrees to -56 degrees and it drops below freezing 300 days a year. The area has 39 sq miles of land and 4 miles of water.  The area is considered tundra. So I  had to buy some serious gear so I wont lose a toe or a ear (these things really happen). 

So why Alaska?
 I feel like I have been asked this question a billion times over the summer.

Short answer, why not. I mean there are many reasons why Alaska is a good opportunity for me to participate in. It offers me the supportive environment I want as a newer teacher, they are sending me back for my masters degree in special education, I get to help rewrite a curriculum, and I have a smaller class size. The adventure and the thrill of moving up there is also a huge factor. I have traveled most of my life and I have never been to Atqasuk or even that far north. I always enjoyed seeing the new countries, experiencing the cultures, and meeting and learning from all of the different people I have met through my travels. Every one is unique and every culture has something to learn from it and a different way of looking at things. I can't wait to experience the culture, terrain, and meet the people that live in Atqasuk. I fully intend on diving head first into the culture and learning as much as I possible can from these people that I am going to be living with. The "traditional" African proverb saying 'it takes a village to raise a child'  seems to be embodied in this community. With that being said I know very little (other than what is provide to me via internet) about this community, the people that live there and the adventures that await me.





 


I am very excited to make Alaska my new home. Alaska is a place that literally makes you feel like you are on the set of a movie. You have the mountains, tundra, the lakes, the forest and much of it is unaltered by human hands. People move up there for the beauty and the 'wild' of Alaska and truly take pride in it from keeping the environment clean, to admiring the abundance of wildlife, to providing a protective and friendly environment where people feel at home. From the second I stepped off the plane I truly felt like Alaska was meant to be my home and I have made this a reality.

 They say a picture says 1,000 words.