Gambell!

I made it, I finally made it! First day in Gambell and the weather is absolutely dream-like. Here's a rundown of the day:

Frontier decided the weather was great for flying today, so I hopped on my little plane early this morning bound for Gambell. I sat in the back with the mail (someday, I'm hoping for a co-pilot seat!). It was about an hour's flight over the Bering Sea from Nome to Gambell, and it was one of the smoothest flights I've ever had. My flight into London in December of 2006 was way more nerve-wracking than my landing in Gambell. This time, anyway.






(That blue cooler is the meat I bought at CostCo. There is a tub in that pile I mailed from the post office in Anchorage about a week earlier that caught up with me in Nome somehow, and took the same plane I did. Ah, life in the bush.)


(This was my first meal at home. Welcome to the Alaskan Bush! Canned pineapple, a leatherman, and some skyping ability is all you really need to survive.)


Once I got there, a school employee was waiting with a Honda (four wheeler) and a trailer. He took me to my housing and left me there to figure it out. :-) Luckily my roomie was there to greet me, and I sorted through tubs for a little while. Teacher housing in Gambell consists of a few 50-year old buildings separated into apartment-like situations. The 6plex (where I live) is actually the old elementary school. Our 'apartments' are really rehabbed classrooms which open to the school's old hallways. It's an interesting setup, for sure. We work in a school, and live in a school (on opposite sides of the village, of course).








One of the teachers here has a Honda and was going to the school, so I jumped at the chance of a free ride. I found my classroom and everything had been piled in the middle of the room. My cabinets were full of unorganized stuff (as best I can tell), and to be honest it was far too overwhelming to deal with after just landing on an island in the middle of the Bering Sea. I sat on my counter for a good while just staring at the ridiculous amount of work ahead of me.





It was a gorgeous day outside . . . and since I know that this will be a rare occurance soon enough, I decided to make the walk to the Bering Sea. Call it avoidance behavior, but I needed out of that classroom. The gravel really IS crazy here; I totally underestimated it and I would like to formally apologize to everybody that tried to tell me the truth of it. It's like walking in quicksand . . . there is hardly any solid ground in the village. Four steps on solid ground equals one step on this gravel as far as energy needed goes. I'll have leg muscles of steel by the time Christmas comes. Good thing I bought some good hiking boots at Fred Meyer in Achorage. Those plus my on-sale wool socks from REI (thanks Welcome Wagon!) made the walk much easier and more comfortable.








More teachers are coming within the next day or so, but for now it feels pretty empty. I'm looking forward to exploring the area as much as I am allowed to in the next few days. Inservice is still a week away, so I've got some time to work with!

-Meg