Arctic Adventures

This weekend I took my middle school basketball team to Kotzebue for a couple of basketball games.    It was fun--the girls were SUPER excited.  In fact, we were picked up in a tiny little plane (called a Navajo) and all of our bags did not even fit!  They had to be sent on the next scheduled flight (the school charters planes for sporting events). We didn't do well in the actual games, losing by 20 or more, but the girls' spirits were still high all weekend.  Barrow high school was playing Kotzebue high school and they were quite good.  The girls kept saying, "They're ballers Man!"  Their coach came to visit for a little bit Saturday night, and he was telling me he could never do my job (haha-yeah right...he took his team to state the last four years or something).  Then, he was asking the girls what the most important thing was in basketball, and they replies, "TEAMWORK!" I was so proud, but that wasn't what he was looking for, "Yeah that'

Man, this week is BUSY!!!  I am taking the middle school girls to Kotzebue on Friday for basketball games.  Yes, we travel in a tiny little plane-9 seats, so I take 8 players and myself.  We will not return to Noatak until Sunday.  Also this week, our 5th and 6th graders have their District Battle of the Books Battle.  One night a week I stay after school to read from a list of books and quiz the kids about their books.  Then we call in for the "battle" via phone conference.  The host asks questions about a book and the kids have 30 seconds to reply with the book title and author.  Tomorrow we are dismissing school at 1:30 for technology training. The kids were excited about the census starting in Noorvik.  Noorvik is another village in the Northwest Arctic District, so many people have family members there.

Basketball is turning into a large commitment :) Imagine that.  Next weekend we are flying to Kotzebue to play.  We sponsored open gym this weekend on Friday and Saturday nights from 6:00-11:00.  The kids pay $1 to come in a watch/play and adults pay $2.  Most people were gone to the "Husky Shootout" a high school basketball tournament in Kotzebue, so the gym wasn't as packed as it usually is, but we did have enough for 4 games. In between one of the games, I was talking to one of the older ladies there from the school.  She told me, "You better start making babies as soon as you're married."   That threw me for a loop a little bit, "What?" "Yeah make babies.  If you don't want them, we will adopt them.  We've been waiting for a girl and we would love a blue-eyed one." haha!!! It must be on everyone's mind (it's such a big part of the culture) that even my students always ask, "How come you didn't make babies yet?

News from this week:  On Monday I was hired as the girls' middle school basketball coach.  In typical arctic fashion, we began practice on Tuesday, and had our first game on Friday.  Talk about a whirlwind!  We lost 36-6 on Friday to an outstanding team, so of course the girls were quite discouraged.  However they bounced back on Saturday--we still lost 34-24--but it was quite an improvement!   One thing that is pretty cool up here is that during the game the fans cheer (politely) for both teams.  Obviously, the home team cheering is much more enthusiastic, but they still cheer on the other team.  This happens in high school games as well.  It's fun!

Hello everyone!  I am back in the arctic getting settled in after all of the commotion of Christmas in the Ryynanen house.  The kids were very excited to have school back in session here--they were excited because there was "finally something to do."  They were all telling me how their "hours got mixed up" over break.  When the sun doesn't rise until 1, many people end up staying up all night and sleeping all day.  When I told them of my engagement they were ecstatic.  It was so cute, and they had many questions.  Of course one of their questions was, "Does this mean you will make babies next year?"  ...oh dear! The girls had home basketball games this weekend, so on Friday the preliminary game was the staff vs. community members. . . we lost by 1 :( The girls won both games against the Buckland Sisauni (Beluga Whales).  They won by playing man to man defense--I was so excited, because we usually only see zone around here. This morning I went to the sc