It's a four day weekend :)

Hey all you WI people!

So, I decided that Alaska is NOT that cold haha. We went out ice fishing this afternoon and although the temperature is -1 and it feels like -10 I personally did not feel all that cold. My toes and my fingers took the worst of it but I think maybe my snow pants and my jacket are pretty darn great.. I did not feel like it was that cold! Ok, so I want to give you a play by play of this adventure.

So first my co-worker Mark who is 52 and teaches science here in Elim loves to fish and asked me today if Rachel and I would like to tag along. It was a beautiful day, we had half a day of school so I figured.. hey why not? When else am I going to be able to enjoy this? Surely not when it is -40 ! We asked our other co-worker John to borrow his 4wheeler because Mark and his dog did not have the space needed on one 4wheeler for Rachel and I to just ride with them. So, Rachel drove us there. After ten miles at around 35 mph we passed through hills and flat spots bordered by the Bering Sea. The ice was beautiful. Some parts are like this bright blue that sparkles in the sunlight and others are dark blue. On the other side of us are the mountains and let me just tell you, a person could not beat that view! So, the ride up to Moses Point was not that bad. My toes were a little numb from the wind but then something happened that was hilarious! Rachel drove into a bush that was in the middle of the ice and we ended up being stuck. The ice was so slippery and had a dusting of snow on top so you can imagine my anxiety when I had to get off the 4wheeler and try to push the thing out of where we got it stuck. I was sliding all of the place. Finally, Rachel got up to and we  both just pushed the thing over to an area where it could get more traction. Mark of course was waiting around the corner already chipping away at his fishing hold and laughing at us as we came out of our miniature disaster.

We helped Mark chip out this hole and then strained out all of the ice from the hole. We were jigging for fish so I had no idea what I was doing obviously. The trout up here are small but what we actually caught was a LOT smaller then anything worth taking. Rachel caught a tiny trout and Mark basically caught a minnow straight through the belly. So .. after a few hours of freezing we decided to turn back. Rachel drove part way and I drove part way. Both of my water bottles were completely frozen over and my toes were about to fall off .. so had we got stuck... we would be SOL. We made it back without loosing any of our body parts.. and I am nice and warmed up now!

The past couple of weeks have been good, but boy am I glad to be getting a little break. I can't believe that tomorrow is Thanksgiving already. I do feel a little homesick ... it is afterall my first thanksgiving away from home. We will be having a Thanksgiving dinner up at the school tomorrow night with the village in our gymnasium and then again on Saturday at our principal's house with all of the teachers. I will be making green bean casserole and I'm pretty excited about that :)

The Bering Sea is almost completely frozen over .. I would say maybe a mile off of shore. There were kids way out there today jumping around and such. I don't know that I'd feel all that safe way out there but after chipping through 2 ft of ice on this stream today I feel pretty confident that the sea will be able to hold my weight. I guess I just didn't realize how cold it really is out there. And consistently at that.

Well, I have a lot of pictures to post...
I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and I will be seeing you four weeks from today! Can't wait to have a beer and some pizza from J.O's. I can't wait for Taco Bell and Burger King. And to think I used to take all of those things for granted hahah

Love you all
Sammy