Sea Glass

I very much enjoy living on the beach and am sure it will never grow tiring.  I am always looking out the window at the beach to see where the tide is and note the changes that happen with each high tide.  I especially love walking along the beach enjoying the ocean breeze and sounds of the waves as they break on the beach and rock cliffs.  Now I have an extra excuse to venture out onto the beach - sea glass.  As the waves wash up on the beach their force jumbles all of the rocks up and their tumbling around, as we all know, eventually causes the stones to become smooth.  As those same rocks tumble around with pieces of glass they also smooth out all of the rough edges of the glass and give them an opaque appearance.   I can spend hours following the beach line searching for tiny treasures hiding out among the rocks and sand.  I may have found a new addiction.

Bears?

I've been re-writing another song for Mike.  Those of you who remember watching episodes of Hee Haw will remember the song "Where, Oh Where Are You Tonight?".

Bears, Bears, where have you gone?
Why am I here in these woods all alone?
I searched the moutainside
But still have not found you
Guess you're still sleeping
Hope you wake up real soon

With the warm temperatures we've been hoping the bears would be waking up and took a trip around the point to check out a beach where they're known to eat kelp and seaweed after coming out of hibernation.  We had lots of fun investigating new places, but it appears the bears are just beginning to venture out as we only found a few tracks.  Hopefully in a couple weeks they'll be out in full force and we'll be on our way to getting a bear rug.

Looking for Bears

This week has been our Spring Break and the weather has been beautiful.  We took advantage of the weather to do some bear scouting and see if any have come out of hibernation yet.  In a warm winter, they will venture out of their dens as early as February, but given our unusually colder temperatures this winter, they're taking a little more time to wake from their slumber.  Having seen last fall a good number of bears that will look very nice hanging on our wall or laying on our floor, Mike is well beyond ready for them to start wandering down from the mountain.  We would hike up the side of the mountain and look a little closer to their dens, but there is still at least 3 foot of snow still on the ground.  It's been melting in the sunshine, but it is still difficult to trek through - place foot on ground, make sure you have good traction before making any movement, shift weight to that foot, pause a moment while your weight causes that foot to sink through the snow, pause another moment to make sure you're finished sinking, find a place to plant the other foot and begin the process all over again.  So today we stuck to the trail between the village and the lakes everyone has been using to get firewood through the winter.  It's not as close to their dens, but it's packed down so we don't have to fight an ongoing battle with the snow.  We saw a few tracks so we know the bears are starting to wake up and venture out in search of food, but they're just getting started so Mike may have to wait a little while longer to get one in his sights.

Easter

Sunday was Easter in the village and Russian Easter has some pretty neat traditions.  They have a very strict lent for the 40 days before Easter restricting a lot of foods and many activities such as music.  The week before Easter, church is held every morning so we had several students who came into school around lunch time all last week and had almost no one on Good Friday.  Then they have church in the morning, break for lunch, and start back up in the afternoon.  For Easter day they start with church somewhere around 11:00pm on Saturday and it lasts until around 4:00am, which is pretty long when you realize they don't sit down at all during the service and I don't think they have chairs for anyone who might try to cheat.  When the service is over everyone walks around the church and says "Christ is Risen!" in three languages (I would specify what languages, but I don't know so I can't).

I already talked about making, blessing, and exchanging Easter bread, but they also dye Easter eggs which they have blessed and exchange as well.  The eggs they exchange are supposed to be red to represent the blood of Christ and they'll kiss the egg before they trade them.  To exchange an Easter egg with someone is to tell them that you would sacrifice your life for them like Christ did for us.  They usually play Aleut baseball on the runway on Easter day, but I didn't see them out there so I don't know if they did this year.  I don't know all of the specific details about Aleut baseball, but I don't think there are a set number of innings and I'm pretty sure they don't keep score and there are no outs so it can last a very long time.  Most of the kids really enjoy Easter because they get to ring the church bells throughout the day for three days.  Also for three days no one is allowed to knock before entering someone else's home - something else the kids really seem to enjoy.  It has something to do with Jesus knocking, but again the details were vague and I can't share what I do not know.  Yesterday was the last day for bell ringing and the no knocking rule so I'm assuming most of the Easter celebration is over.  I am sure, however, that many are still enjoying a lot of the tasty foods and fun activities they've not been allowed to have for the past several weeks.

Easter Bread

Russian Easter is this weekend and everyone in the village is preparing their Easter bread for the celebration, and I'm joining in on the tradition.  I'm not sure where the tradition comes from, but it seems to be a very important part of Easter in the village.  The Russian Orthodox church observes lent several times throughout the year, but the Easter lent is the most strict within observances and much more strict than any other denomination I'm aware of and Easter bread is loaded with all the eggs and butter and fruits and nuts they've not been allowed to enjoy.  Easter bread can be made anytime the week before Easter, but must be made with Holy water if made on Good Friday - part of why I'm making mine tonight rather than Friday night as I don't have any Holy water.  I assume most in the village will then take their bread to the church so Father can bless it, then they'll exchange it with friends and family and take it home to enjoy.  If the bread has been blessed it cannot be thrown away, but must instead be burned if there is any left uneaten.  I will confess that I was a bit unprepared for this culinary adventure as I didn't get a recipe until a few days ago and I can't exactly go to the grocery store for ingredients.  Thus after marking out everything that I don't have or Mike doesn't like (he hates pineapple and coconut, both of which are popular tidbits) I had to get a little inventive so mine will have nuts, oranges, and cherries.  I have a feeling I just may bring this Alaskan Easter tradition home with me.

Easter in a Box

I've said before that I feel like we end up missing all of the holidays by living in the village.  There is no special activity or get-together to signify the regular holidays from any other day of the week.  Then we get into the difference between the Russian Orthodox calendar and the rest of Christianity so we end up stuck in the "land of in-between and never there" to quote a children's story I've read.  I figured Easter would be no different as few here celebrated American Easter yesterday and Russian Easter is next Sunday.  So today I was delighted to receive Easter in a box.  Apparently my mom knew I would be feeling like I had missed out on what has always been one of my favorite holidays so she sent me a care package full of Easter tidbits (and more chocolate - yay!).

I think since Easter has come (or is coming depending on which calendar you use) spring has finally decided to mosey its way up this direction.  The eagles have been much more active in recent weeks, chirping happily in the trees.  We're also seeing a few boats being de-winterized and out on the lagoon.  The sun is rising at 7:00 in the morning and setting around 9:30 now and the temperatures are forecast to reach the lower 40s at the end of the week.  I am choosing to see the ever insistent snow from this weekend as the last few death kicks of winter as he fights to his last bit of energy is spent.  Spring is here!

Mission Impossible: Accomplished

The view from my porch!

My Journalism class accomplished the impossible this week.  In the early 1980s the village published a series of booklets documenting their culture and history.  These booklets have been cited in text books and used as primary resources for anthropologists studying the traditional Sugpiaq culture (we had to use them in our cultural class).  The school received a grant this year for an art project and decided they should make a new edition of this series.  The grant could have been used for any art project, but that detail was left out until it was too late to matter.  Between the beginning of the class (Journalism is only a semester course in this district) and the deadline our students had 3 months to review the first 3 editions, develop ideas for the new book, interview elders, organize the information, create articles that are ready for publishing and hold to the same standards of quality in cultural information as the first, design a layout, and put everything into the final document to be printed.  I have a whole new respect for magazine and newspaper editors.  Miraculously, we finished.  I would love to say with time to spare, but I was up to the very last minute.  Eric was waiting in his mud boots with his luggage to go catch the plane when I handed everything over, but it is finished and I am so very relieved.  Now, if I can get the yearbook finished, I'll be doing my little dance all my students have come to know and ridicule me for.  God gave me no rhythm or coordination.  I can admit it.

There is No In-Between

The sun has found his was from behind the mountain!

The days are getting quite long now and I caught myself gazing out the window as the sun was setting around a little before 9:00pm while fondly replaying memories of last summer.  The sky was just getting a hint of dark blue straight above fading into dark orange as I traced it down to the horizon.  Then as my gaze fell down below the horizon my eyes stopped and rested on . . . snow, bringing with it an abrupt end to my warm, fuzzy thoughts of summer.  That said, we have had beautiful weather for the past week helping to melt the snow and uncover 2 of our 5 lost steps so I'm thinking it's safe to say that spring is finally on its way.  The temperatures have even reached the upper 30s a few days which now feels like the upper 60s used to feel back home.  The sun is setting around 9:00 and rising with a mischievous little smile around 7:30 in the morning.  It knows I'm starting to remember that there might have been a reason why I was begging him to go away last summer but I don't dare say anything because I also remember how desperate I was to see him 2 short months ago.  I'm beginning to realize there is no middle ground in Alaska.  The sun is either hiding or refusing to leave, the weather is either beautiful or miserable, and prices are either high or higher.  That might be why people seem to either love it or hate it here.  I, for one, am enjoying it very much - but we may need to look into getting a dimmer switch for the sun.

The sun shining warmly over thigh deep snow.