Summer is so close I can almost feel it!

Hello All,

I have decided that I am ready for summer! Who isn't? There is still a lot of snow here in Elim. It hasn't had a chance to melt except for when the sun is shining brightest during the day.. even then it doesn't melt much at all. I just can't get used to it being so light out here at night. I feel so tired when it comes to 8:00, decide its still too early to go to bed and end up staying up until 11:00 before I can go to sleep because I think it's earlier then it really is. Right now the sun is up sometime around 6 maybe earlier who knows... (i'm sleeping lol) and it goes down somewhere around 11 PM. It's very odd to go outside at 10:15 and see the sun still shining. Like I said, I don't think I could ever get used to this. I don't think the kids realize the time either. They play out until very late at night. Soon we will have a midnight sun and I will really be going crazy!

I talked to Dianna the other day about the sea ice. She mentioned that we still have sea ice out about 4 miles. I can slowly start to see the Bering Sea WAY OUT THERE! It will not break up until after I leave here. Pretty hard to believe. I'm still walking over the frozen creek every morning when I go to work, the only difference is that it's actually light out! A nice change from the pitch blackness that it was before.  Let me just say I am getting really tired of the cold and I can't wait to go home and see grass (hopefully) and trees and birds and ... smell rain. I miss thunderstorms and the sound of traffic. I miss taco bell and beer. (not together) I miss campfires, my friends and my family.  But, most of all I miss walking outside in a T-Shirt. It'll be here before I  know it, and then I will miss Elim. I just know that I will.

I read a quote the other day that made me laugh. It went something like
"I wish I was where I was when I said "I wish I was here".

Thought it fit perfectly because that''s just how our brains work. We are always wishing for something else... or to be somewhere else. I just feel blessed that I had the opportunity to live here for 10 months. I will never forget it. I hope that someday I can reconnect with the people that I met here. Especially all of the teachers that have spent so much time with. I never thought I'd say this but I will miss hearing Dianna singing in her shower on one side of the wall and John playing guitar and singing on the other side of the wall. hahahah I have made such great friendships here, I just know that I will keep them in my heart forever. I def. will miss Mark's smart ass remarks to me all the time... and I know he will miss mine as well :))) But, his home is WI so there is a chance that I will actually get to see him from time to time!

Anywhoo, here I am rambling on and on. Tomorrow is Friday, testing and parent teacher conferences are almost finished and all my lesson plans for the rest of the year will be done by Sunday. After that, I will soak in the last few weeks I have here and try to take in as much as possible.

Xoxox

Sammy