Friday, August 04, 2006
Week One
Well, my first week in the Arctic Circle is drawing to a close.
It has truly been a very busy week.
Five days of in-service hell.
Five days of sitting through lectures.
Five days of feigning consciousness.
Five days of free food.
In less than an hour the last meeting of the last day will end.
This last hours is taking days.
But, at least they gave us computers to play on.
Brand new black Macbooks. So shiny.
There are a few things that have happened in the past several days that merit being passed on.
I watched, and almost participated in, a polar bear plunge. A handful of highly educated educators stripped down and submerged themselves in the ice filled Arctic Ocean. I chickened out before I could sign up… and I almost regret it.
Barrow High School, the most northern and most isolated high school in the country has, as of last month, a football team. The first game will take place on the 19th against Delta Greely. (a school several hundred miles away).
ESPN plans on broadcasting one of the games.
The “bleachers” will be buses lining the field, blocking the wind, keeping sports enthusiasts a little warmer.
Yesterday I watched, and smelled, the slaughter of a seal. It was great. They quickly scraped the skin from the fat, carefully removed and cleaned the fat, and efficiently cut up the meat to dry.
The meat is very dark, almost black.
The fat is pale and looks nothing cottage cheese.
All in all, it has been a good week.
For the record, I now have a phone number, but am still lacking a dial tone.
For those of you interested in calling me, shoot me an email and I will give you the number.
It has truly been a very busy week.
Five days of in-service hell.
Five days of sitting through lectures.
Five days of feigning consciousness.
Five days of free food.
In less than an hour the last meeting of the last day will end.
This last hours is taking days.
But, at least they gave us computers to play on.
Brand new black Macbooks. So shiny.
There are a few things that have happened in the past several days that merit being passed on.
I watched, and almost participated in, a polar bear plunge. A handful of highly educated educators stripped down and submerged themselves in the ice filled Arctic Ocean. I chickened out before I could sign up… and I almost regret it.
Barrow High School, the most northern and most isolated high school in the country has, as of last month, a football team. The first game will take place on the 19th against Delta Greely. (a school several hundred miles away).
ESPN plans on broadcasting one of the games.
The “bleachers” will be buses lining the field, blocking the wind, keeping sports enthusiasts a little warmer.
Yesterday I watched, and smelled, the slaughter of a seal. It was great. They quickly scraped the skin from the fat, carefully removed and cleaned the fat, and efficiently cut up the meat to dry.
The meat is very dark, almost black.
The fat is pale and looks nothing cottage cheese.
All in all, it has been a good week.
For the record, I now have a phone number, but am still lacking a dial tone.
For those of you interested in calling me, shoot me an email and I will give you the number.
posted by Jody @ 6:07 PM 
