To Barrow We Will Go

I spent a *short* day in Atqasuk, and then NSBSD yanked me out of the village.  I had just enough time to figure out what I needed to do . . . but not enough time to do any of it.

Now I'm in Barrow for a TEN DAY New Hire Inservice.  They better have something thrilling and groundbreaking to present; ten days is an awful long time!  Luckily, they are paying us per diem so I should earn a little over $2000 for this trip to Barrow.  I'll take it.

A little Caravan bush plane came to pick a few of us up in Atqasuk, and we flew a whole 20 minutes back to Barrow.

(Actually, none of the seats in this plane are from the original caravan.  They have cannibalized a couple of older planes to outfit the inside of this one.   This card is essentially useless.)

(Our friendly Era pilot.  No co-pilot is assigned to a bush plane this small.)

(Usually, they throw in 5-6 seats and use the back area for mail/cargo.  Nothing to go out of ATQ this time, though.)

 The district is putting us up in a hotel, can you believe it?  BSSD would have us on classroom floors and showering together in public locker rooms.  No lie.  NSBSD is paying for us to stay at The Top of the World hotel for 9 days.  Are you curious how much that costs?  I took a picture of the receipt.  

No, you're not reading that wrong.  It cost NSBSD over $2000 in lodging just for me during this inservice.  Plus the $2000 they are paying me to work during this time.  Plus all the food expenses.  You can start breathing again.  I know. I know.  (Multiply that times 50 new teachers . . . repeat after me: oil money.)

Mercifully, there was nothing planned for us today.  Shannon and I went the fur shop to see what they had in stock . . . and got sucked in to a few major purchases.  :-)  I was wanting a new ruff for my parka anyway, and they had some gorgeous furs in their store!!  I bought an entire arctic fox fur pelt for my red parka.  The face is even still attached, whiskers and all!  It is mostly white with some black tipping (the season was probably changing when it was caught).  Shannon bought two chocolate arctic fox pelts since she is having a traditional parka made in the village for her . . . I won't even tell you how much that cost.  It's more than you think.  

(It's so SOFT!  I couldn't wait to try it out!)

We dropped the furs off at our hotel room, and then walked 20 feet to the northernmost Mexican restaurant in the world.  :)  Dinner at Pepe's North of the Border Restaurant is too good a bragging right to pass up!

(Yes, that is an Eskimo in traditional Mexican dress.)

If I didn't know any better, I would have thought I was back in Oklahoma!  Well, except that my Dr. Pepper cost $3 and was brought out in a can.  No refills here, I guess.  In summation: the food was good, the prices were insane, and the experience was priceless.  

Inservice starts tomorrow, bright and early.  I have no idea what to expect, except that this inservice will be WAY different than my Arkansas inservice would have been!