Skippin' rocks in the Arctic Ocean

It's been about two weeks since we've posted. Since then we flew up to Nuiqsut and started getting settled in, flew to Barrow for a week of new teacher training, and came back to Nui to finish settling in and start school. Today is our third day at school; we have a few days of workdays and in-service, and school starts next Monday, the 14th.

While in Barrow, I actually skipped rocks in the Arctic Ocean. I'm not sure it was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream or anything like that, but it was definitely cool.

The principal has had to do some shuffling of personnel, since some people ended up not coming, so several of us didn't know for sure what we would be teaching until we came to school Tuesday morning. I was one of the lucky ones: I will be teaching what they said I would [but the computer network is experiencing some glitches, so I can't use the programs in order to become familiar with them]. Janet wasn't so lucky: she got bumped from fifth grade to special ed ["Once a special ed teacher, always a special ed teacher."]

The school facility is great, and we think it will be a good experience working with the other teachers here. We had a great time in Barrow with the other new teachers, and this week we are meeting the teachers who are coming back.