I don't want to do this

Sea Lions getting destroyed by waves near North Inian Passage

F! I am really struggling with this move. I know that there are two things going on here. One is just my attachment to Thorne Bay…I was ready to go back to something that I was comfortable and familiar with: kids, staff, town, etc. My decision to sign a contract last spring was a tough one. Eventually I ended up signing it because I was comfortable and I didn’t have time to look for a new job with the requirements of my current job and attempting to finish my teaching program. My decision pretty much came down to the fact that I was offered a full-time position in Thorne Bay, primarily teaching social studies. Not an easy position to secure. I also took into consideration the fact that I have friends and a sense of community in Thorne Bay. While my living situation was not perfect, I was comfortable and could not stand the idea of looking for a new job or worse, not teaching this year. After I signed my contract in April I was relieved that I had done so. I knew that it was the right decision.

Now, I’m just angry. It’s been a lot harder to get over this situation than I was anticipating. The reality is that I don’t want to be teaching or living in Coffman Cove. I don’t really see how this is going to prepare me for the future. I’m a secondary social studies teacher. I don't have any interest in teaching elementary or running a school. I’m not looking forward to all the bullshit that comes with being at such a small site. Fundraising and PTA’s make me sick. Not to mention the people out here are so crazy. This is not at all what I thought I was signing up for and I’m really sad and very angry. To add insult to injury, I can’t find a place to live. So I’m currently commuting from Thorne Bay. I’m seriously considering quitting. I don't know if I can get over this. 

My last 9 month on Prince of Wales Island

Elfin Cove Thrift Shop

Ask me what I'm doing right now. Getting ready for the school? Planning lessons? Collaborating with teachers in Thorne Bay? WRONG! Currently I'm getting ready to drive out to Coffman Cove. Why you ask? Oh, to look for a place to live. Why? Because I am being involuntary transferred to Coffman Cove for the school year. Yes, Coffman is the place that I first taught when I got here. Check the archives for stories. 

I'm f-ing outraged.

It's a really long story but about a week ago (two weeks before school starts) I got an email from my Superintendent informing me that the teacher they had lined up for Coffman this year has lost his license to teach, and that after a lot of deliberation, I was the chosen one. You can imagine my surprise/terror. Don't worry, he says, I'll let you out of your contract if you don't want to move/teach out there. Thanks, two weeks before school start, while I'm living in a place with almost no internets (seriously slower than dial up). I threatened to quit and they didn't seem convinced...my options were pretty limited: teach in Coffman or not teach this school year. I chose the former because I need to be teaching, for a lot of reasons. So I'm not happy about it, but I'm going to try to make the best of it and now I'm living my life likes it my last year on POW because it def is! 

I have a lot of adventure that I missed out on in the last two years. Not again! 

"There is no way to Peace, Peace is the way."

Now, that's a send off!!

Holy smokes! Have I ever mentioned how I'm really blessed? Like, seriously, have a great life. If you need proof, think about my day yesterday: got up two hours before my last trip of the season (sad) and packed all of my stuff (by myself). Then I headed out for my trip. A Whales trip to Pt. Adolphus. I had the pleasure of taking out some Californians, my homegirl Lauren and her Mom, visiting from Bellingham. We started the day with flat-calm water and an excellent whale show: breaching, fluke slapping, breathing, you name it these whales were doing it. And so many of them! Whales everywhere. After hours of whale watching, we paddled east towards the point at which point the fog had burned off, the sun was shining and we could see the Fairweathers! And and it was warm!!!! After lunch, we swam in Icy Straits, well I did and so did one of the Californians. It was awesome!!!! Now, you're thinking...wow life can't get any better. Wrong!!! Right after I dropped my people off, I got on my friend Zach's boat and we boated to Juneau. Wine and snacks were flowing. Did I mention that it was sunny and warm!?! Once I arrived in Juneau town, I met up with my homie Kenny who let me stay at his amazing house and drove me to the airport early this AM.  Lucky!

Now I'm headed to Ketchikan, where I'm going to ferry to Hollis    Where my homegirl Amy is going to pick me up and take me back to Thorne Bay. Damn, it takes work to travel around AK. Totally worth it!

Fellow Spirit Walkers at the Commune

The Umiak

The Umiak

Oh man, so many things I could have named this post, including: Drinking and Boating, It will be easy, 1 to 1, no problem. You'll see why. This long story starts with my homegirl, Karen. We guided together last year for Spirit Walker. Any who, she came back from a trip to the Hubbard Glacier (LUCKY) and wanted to go on a trip with our other friend, Jeffie on his boat, The Umiak. A little background on the Umiak is this: 

The umiak, umialak, umiaq, umiac, oomiac or oomiak is a type of boat used by Eskimo people, both Yupik and Inuit, and was originally found in all coastal areas from Siberia to Greenland.^[1] First arising in Thule times, it has traditionally been used in summer to move people and possessions to seasonal hunting grounds and for hunting whales and walrus.^[1][2] Although the umiak was usually propelled by oars (women) or paddles (men), sails, sometimes made from seal intestines, were also used, and in the 20th century, outboard motors. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umiak)

Okay, I'll try to make this short, but basically I didn't want to go, because I was tired. I had been working since I got here and we had a week long Teacher's Trip leaving in a couple of days. Karen convinced me that this trip would be "easy" and that they really NEEDED me to go because you can't paddle the boat with only two people. I realized that I didn't really have a good reason not to go and that this was kind of a once-in-a-life-time opportunity and this boat was BAD ASS. So reluctantly, I agreed. 

Fast forward to the trip, it's kind of tricky. We were headed up into Glacier Bay into the Beardslee Islands and to get up there you have to "make the cut." Which means that you have to make it through this narrow passage at high tide OR there won't be enough water. In a kayak you might be able to portage but not in this boat. When Karen was trying to convince me to go in the first place she explained that high tide was at 1 on Sunday and 1:30 on Monday so we should be back to the commune by 2:30, latest. 

Okay, so on Sunday, we load up the boat, which was ridiculously heavy, but totally awesome and we get on the water by 1 or so, plenty of time to make the cut. Whew, so about an hour after we get on the water (after making the cut), we decide to break for lunch and drink some wine and then we started paddling/rowing again. Did I mention that I was tired? I end of falling asleep while paddling, at which point, Karen is like, "Hey, maybe we should all take a nap." And Jeffi and I were like, "yeah" and then we were all sleeping (in the boat)  within like 45 seconds of her making the suggestion. Who knows how long we were asleep/drifting, maybe a half an hour maybe 45 minutes, any one's guess. At some point we wake up, reorient ourselves on our map and continue paddling. To our surprise, we found Secret Bay much sooner/closer than we were expecting, and we decide to camp for the night. Okay, everything is great. We sleep for like 10 hours Sunday night. Awesome

Wake up the next morning around 10 or so feeling rested, in plenty of time to make the cut back to Bartlett Cove. We have a nice leisurely breakfast with coffee and then we load up the Umiak and start heading back to exit  Secret Bay. Once were on the water, we are all a little confused as to where exactly we are. I mean, we knew where we were, but the map just didn't correlate. At any rate we paddle for about two hours toward home...it should be noted that while this boat is badass (it's made with ballistic nylon) it is not fast. In fact, it takes quite a bit of strength to paddle, we probably should have had a fourth person in the boat. Any who, after a couple hours of paddling we realize that we don't know where we are, LUCKILY we happened to see two Park Service Kayak Rangers (BEST JOB TITLE, EVER). We flag them down and they informed us that we were in a completely different part of the islands and that we were in fact paddling in the wrong direction of the cut. F! By this time it's about 2, almost high tide. So we hightail it, backtracking to right where we came from, only to get to the cut by 5 O'clock....three hours after high tide, with less than 9 feet of water in the channel and NOT enough water for the Umiak to make it through. At this point, I can literally see Bartlett Cove Dock where we launched the boat. FRUSTRATED! Mind you, we didn't pack food or water for an additional day, but what eves, we're out there, and waiting for the tide, about six hours. We decide to just stay up and try to make the cut at 1:30 am, which is exactly what we did. Luckily it was a full moon so we had plenty of light. Oh yeah, at one point I started to drift off to sleep, only to be awaken by Jeffi, screaming, "Hey Guys, there's a bear in camp!!!" So then I jumped up and we scared off some bears....this included Jeffi chasing them. This was actually pretty funny.

The moral? DON'T DRINK AND BOAT...you're likely to end up lost. But not all was lost, I actually had a great time and am glad that I went. Another moral? Don't trust Karen, nothing is ever fast or easy with this chick. 

 

"The Cut" and Bartlett Cove Pilings in the back ground

So...apparently I'm golfing now

Yep, you heard it here first folks. Can I just tell you about my first day in Gustavus? Well, it started with a tumultuous pack sesh before I left Tacoma where I lost my watch. Lets just say my Mom and tears were involved. Some might say I was struggling with leaving Tacoma and those people would be correct . I had an amazing visit to Tacoma that reminded me of everything I love about that city and ultimately why I need to mo ve home....but that is Not why I'm blogging, no, I want to tell you about beautiful Gustavus, Alaksa.

I arrived in the afternoon after two flights... Really tired with lots of stuff. It took no time to move into my new digs...the wall tent as all I did was dump my bag out iN the middle of the tent...problem solved. Anywho, I wasn't here two hours before one of the new guides asked me I wanted to go to the driving range. It was sunny and warm and they had beer, so this was a no brainer. I can't remember if I told you about the driving range and golf course last year but its a quintessential Gustavus activity I that its paid by honor system, you borrow shitty clubs and shag your own balls. So yeah we went and I'm thinking, life is bliss. Then, just when I think life can't get any better we go to shag our balls and to my surprise its already strawberry season!!!! So the we grazed for about an hour. It was AMAZING! And the course is beautiful!!! More pics to follow. 

W.T.F.

I'm terrible at blogging. I'm not even going to make excuses, by this time, you should know that I've just been busy..with school. 

Speaking of, check out the Wolf Task Force that a couple of my students started. They think they're so funny. I kind of think it's funny too, although I think trapping is weird, and am especially bothered by trapping wolves. I'm starting to come to terms with the fact that there are a lot of things in life that I'm just never going to understand. At any rate, the wolves of Prince of Wales Island are being brought to justice by the high schoolers. 

So it's been a surprise to no one, except me, that living and teaching in an incredibly conservative state is hard for somebody from WA. I've been thinking a lot lately about what the future is going to hold for Miss Em (me). As we all know, I'm technically done with my teaching program in June, and by no means am obligated to teach in Alaska. Yes, if everything goes as planned, I should have a Professional Teaching Certificate in June. 

It was this time last year that I was informed that I probably would not have a job next year and that I should start looking for a new job. There has been no suggestion that this will happen to me this year, but really nobody knows, because the bullshit and bureaucracy that working for the state entails. I do know this, that if I do leave here, I will miss it. I work at a really awesome school, with great kids. I will miss them. And sometimes when I dream about living in a place more tolerant, I'm quickly reminded how lackadaisical teaching in rural Alaska can be. This is not suggest it's easy, I have to believe that it's actually harder. Let me give you an example from last week:

To celebrate the end of the semester and the end of a unit, in my geography class we had an "Oceania" party, which basically just consisted of eating Australian food, watching Flight of the Concords, and listening to music from Downunder. Oh yeah, an also in honor of the Maoi people of New Zealand we gave each other henna warrior tattoos (henna is not from New Zealand but I didn't think real tattoos were feasible). Any who, half way through this party where we are dancing, eating food and getting tattooed once my students who is getting a "tramp stamp" says, "My mom is going to kill me." And for the first time since I hatched this plan,  I was like, shit, maybe I should have sent a note home or something, you know, before I let their children apply 3 week tattoos to various parts of their body.

As of yet, I haven't heard of any reprecussions, and I don't really expect to. I use this as an example of how cool my students are and how chill my school is, I don't even think the administration noticed that I was having a party until after school when I literally had like all of the high school in my classroom wanting tattoos. The point is that things are more relaxed here then they are other places and I think that would be an adjustment for me or not, I don't know.

Also, I can't imagine finding a place more entertaining to live.

Well, off to plan for second semester!

"The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education." ~ MLK Jr

 
 

"Ms. Moody is actually pretty good at basketball"

Dreaming of longer and warmer days, already.

Student 1: What'd you guys do during PE today?

Student 2: We played 3 on 3 basketball. Ms. Moody is actually pretty good at basketball.

This quote is funny for two reasons:

1.     I’m not even “kind of” good at basketball. In fact, I don’t think that I’ve even played basketball since my days at Elk Plain Elementary.  This is the glory of working with middle school age children… I discovered this a long time ago: I’m better at doing almost everything than a 12 year old. Seriously, with only a few exceptions, I can do most things better than they can. And they occasionally notice, and think that I have some type of super power. It's a makes up for all the other stuff you have to put up with working with these little shit heads.

2.     They way this kid said it, was like he was absolutely amazed that I could possibly be good at anything…like (this is what he was thinking) here’s this woman, mean, smells bad, terrible at teaching, but actually, pretty good at basketball….. totally astonished.

I personally thought it was hilarious.

Oh man, it’s been a month since I blogged, terrible, no excuse, just busy I guess. Happs include single handedly putting on a Geography Bee for the entire school, students against teachers, the high school student team won. I was pretty jazzed. Considering I hate trivia, I actually really enjoying geography challenges.

Another less exciting thing but significant none the less, I put traction tires on my car and have been forcing myself to drive in the snow. This may not seem significant, but I have sincere anxiety about driving in the snow which is a real hindrance to my outdoor adventures considering it’s snowy here for several months out of the year. So yeah, that’s it, I’m a  little bit proud that I’m overcoming a fear and learning a super practical life skill.

I’m coming home on December 15^th for three weeks. I don’t have much planned except a 253 Christmas party with all my old Rosewood homies, dinner and drinks with my home girl/cousin Marian, drinking coffee, drinking beer, practicing yoga and eating delicious food, other than that no plans. Holler at your girl to get on the schedule.

Okay, start drinking water now!