There's a 1st for Everything!

Since we have been here, we have tried, experienced, and done some things that I have never done in my life.
With that being said, we had our 1st snow here since my last post. Unfortunately, it did not stick and we still do not have any snow. Ok...Ok....let's address the elephant in the room. I know what you all are thinking......"Ugh, I hate snow. She can keep it, it's nasty and just outright terrible."

How close was I? Look, I get that none of you like snow, but to be honest, it's beautiful. The reason we all don't like snow so much is what comes along with it. The COLD! Don't get me wrong, driving in snow SUCKS BUTT(!), but it is still beautiful on the trees and when it shimmers.

Here is a picture of the sun coming up the first morning we had snow.

Take note, this was at about 11AM here. Sunrise usually happens between 10:30AM and 11AM now. Obviously, it will be even later than that as we move more into the winter. Additionally, the snow on the mountains doesn't seem to stay either. From what villagers say, it's because it is so windy that it doesn't even stick.

Other than that, we haven't really done much because it has been very chilly! OH OH OH, I take that back! We did drive out of the village at 1AM to check out the Aurora without the surrounding lights of the village! Here are some shots while in the village, and outside of it! I hope you enjoy them!

But to be honest, pictures does not do it justice at all! Though I see the Aurora more than once a week, when it is really strong, it is simply breathtaking and an amazing sight! I cannot wait for the time that we go out to see it and hear it crackle. Which I didn't know happens until another teacher in our village explained it to me. It's not often, but sometimes it can be heard!

So some of the things that I have noticed about living here!
1. It is truly and ridiculously expensive to fly out of here, even to another location in Alaska!
2. We are slowly losing light, and I just don't know what I'm going to do. I feel like I'm not going to be able to handle it!
3. Regardless of the cold, it will always be beautiful!

We took a trip to Nome the past weekend.

We got some much needed drinks! You really don't completely understand how easy it is to have everything within arms reach. Coming from a location where there are bars nearly everywhere to a place where there is nothing in the village. It's hard folks, hard!
Though it's hard to go without wine and a few beers, I still love it here!

So, while in Nome we sat on some rather cold rocks to listen to the ocean rolling in! Here is a picture from the rocks.
While there, we stayed at the hotel that is the finish line of the Iditarod! As you can see in the picture to the right, this is the sled type thing that they move to the corner of the road and cover in snow for the racers to cross!
We are hoping we get a chance to go to the Iditarod this year, but though it's in March, all the rooms are booked. Hopefully there will be an opening, or we will be booking for next year!
What is Nome like compared to Brevig?
Well, it's basically just like a small town anywhere in the Lower 48. They have cars, large grocery stores, etc. It reminded me a lot of Fulton, small, remote, but still functioning.
Here are the picture that I took from the flights!

 To the left, is Brevig!!


Despite that, I am still happy that we chose Brevig....because it gave us a different experience all together. It wasn't just moving to another village where everything is within reach. Moving to Brevig gave us the opportunity to experience the world in a different way. To see, in person, how Eskimo's live and use subsistence to survive! Being in Brevig gave me a sense of how much I took for granted while I was in the Lower 48. How easy it was to not be thankful for the ease of living while there. It's easy living here too, but sitting down and shopping for months at a time gets exhausting! And to not have access to small things like cheese, sour cream, etc. makes it so much harder to make dinner!


Here, you can see another reason why going to Nome is a good idea every once in awhile.

I call this photo "What it looks like to live in the Bush of Alaska!" Seem accurate enough?
So that's a butt ton of cheese, 8 lbs of burger, and sausage which is shared between Aaron and I as well as Lynn and Tony.

Well, the pups have been doing good. Actually, I have seen sides of them I have never seen before. I mentioned before that Destroyer the Lion had done his damage on Eve, but he has now taken to Tink! I must admit, I have never seen her play with toys, except on a few rare occasions! Now, she plays with Destroyer quite often. Watch below!

Anubis has taken to Bob the Beaver. Though he did rip his tail off, I have patched him back up and Anubis lays with him. Even tries to take him outside to go potty with him. Anubis has always been an independent dog, never really interacting with the others, and most certainly not playing with anything but cow hooves. But, I think the move, and the amount of trust that he had to put in us that everything would settle down, has changed him quite a bit. He now plays with Tink, obviously puts his ear up more, and even plays with Bob. His leg has even been feeling better!

Zver and Eve have been good little pups too! Eve goes on more walks that she has ever been on in her life, but she is happy! Happy enough that she comes home and goes straight for her ball! It's like she hasn't been on a two hour walk at all! That must be her addiction kicking in at that point!

Zver and Anubis have been in their glory with the cold weather. To the point where they don't want to come back inside, no matter how frozen their human may be!

All is well here in Brevig, and we are impatiently awaiting for the snow to stick! All we have is cold and wind, which is not fun!

And, we are truly blessed to receive a sight like this not only at night when the sun goes down, but also when the sun comes up when we are all at work!

Tata for now!

*Winter IS Here*

Beautiful Alaska

Well, I haven't really done much. As most of you know, I live a boring life, but regardless, I have taken pictures.
We went on a ride last week, and ventured up a mountain. Little did we know, we would end up at the top with a gorgeous view of the surrounding area! Take a look!

Aaron also flew out of the village when we got snow on our mountain, and got some really awesome pictures of the other mountains with snow.





Here are a few pictures around here in the village!

Recently, I was asking a couple of the villagers about when you can see the Aurora. Well, I was told that you could already start seeing it, which of course I took action immediately!

Before moving on to the exciting Aurora, I want to mention a few of my feelings that I have been thinking about lately.
I have always dreamed of going to Alaska to see the "Northern Lights," to capture the magnificent beauty in a photo. Not one of those dreams allowed me to realize that I would have that opportunity so soon in my life. I didn't know that within months of us moving to Alaska, that I would witness the sight. Obviously, I knew that it would be present, but I didn't know that it would be right in my backyard so soon! Something that I dreamed of seeing, wishing to see, is now right in my hands! I LOVE this about Alaska. So many dreams, wishes, and wants have come true in the little time that we have been here!
Anyway, back to the exciting Aurora and away from my boring feelings!

I downloaded a free app that would keep track of the Aurora, but at first I didn't know how it worked. After exploring the app and getting some much needed information from a fellow student teacher, I finally figured it out. So, it seems as though I get notification from the app, but it's not nearly loud enough to wake me up.
So, the new routine is setting an alarm at 3:30AM, which is 7:30 AM EST, in the morning, and checking the app to find out what the percentage of seeing the Aurora is. Over the past few weeks, there has been two occasions that the Aurora has been active.
The first night that I saw the Aurora, I hadn't had time to explore with night photography, but you quickly learn when Lady Aurora is doing her dance!
I still have some tweaking to do for my settings, but here are some photos of the Aurora!

Bright and early Thursday morning was likely the most epic dance yet. It was swirling, shooting, dancing in lines, basically.....ABSOLUTELY stunning! Actually, come to think of it, it was even active that morning at 8:30 AM, 12:30 PM EST.

Here are a few photos that Aaron was able to capture of the Aurora last night!

If you are wondering about how the light situation works here, we are dark from about 8:30 PM and it starts getting light about 9AM. As mentioned before, we lose about 7 minutes of daylight a day. So each morning, Aaron and I wake up it's still dark out, and occasionally.....you wake up to see the Aurora at 3:30 AM, go back to sleep, and wake up to see it again!

So, Aaron and I have also tried a few more Eskimo foods since my last revealing.
Here is a picture of the few things we have tried. Gross looking, I KNOW(!), but some of those were better than others.

So from Left to Right, we have:
Black Meat - basically dried meat just stored in seal oil, so it tasted like jerky.
Seal Intestines - tasted like Escargot, with a little more of a hint of fish.
Seal Blubber - not my cup of tea! It was very fatty and chewy. Those who know me well, know that I do not like fat or things that are super chewy.

Needless to say, a few Eskimo's have stated that Aaron and I are more Eskimo than them because we tried and ate these few things.

So onto the daily update on the pups.



Eve has an addiction to her ball, obsession with water, and a new obsession with Destroyer the Lion. As you can see from the pictures, she lays with it. And surprisingly, hasn't chewed him to shreds! Usually, she would attempt to destroy anything that was fluffy or filled with stuffing. She hasn't with Destroyer, which makes me think that he was the Destroyer of her evil ways!

Zver is his typical feisty self! Here is a video of him squeaking the ball at a million squeezes a second!

Tink is doing well, and of course is spoiled rotten! Here is a video of her being her prairie dog self! And a few pictures of her sleeping soundly!

Anubis puts his ear up more often than not now, which means our theory may be true!

These hooligans haven't gotten into anything recently, so they have been good pups!

It's getting colder by the day here, we had a high of 37 today. We are predicted to get a low of 20's at night this weekend, which makes me think that we will have our first snowfall shortly! I'm excited about this, but also dreading it as well!

Hope you enjoyed the quick pit-stop!

Cheers!

*Winter IS Coming!*