A New Year

(Sunrise in Nikolaevsk, around 10 am)

It's starting to get lighter now- the sun is rising around 10 am and lasting until around 4- we're gaining 4 minutes of sunlight a day, which is almost half an hour a week. The increase in sunlight has been really noticeable.

I was in Nikolaevsk again this week. I don't know how much longer I will be there this year; I've had some new schools assigned and my case load will be changing. I would be really sad not to have this school anymore, I've really loved it, but it's likely that this is one school that will be reassigned. Because I might not be there much more, I decided to walk though the village and get some pictures of the church. You have to get special permission to take pictures of it, so I got the ok from some villagers first. Here is the church:


I also walked over to one of the few businesses in town- the local tea house (although only locals go there):


The drive home was beautiful in the light. Mt. Illiamna was beautiful covered in snow, and these pictures would have been perfect if the clouds weren't in the way:



This is the lighthouse in Ninilchik, I like how the snow looks like light sand:


I made the mistake of feeding the neighbor's dog a treat once; now she comes and visits all the time, and she's very persistent. She can look through windows and knows when I'm home, and she'll scratch on the windows until I stop her. She has become a VERY exciting visitor for the boys- they touch noses between the window panes.


We've finally been getting more snow- for weeks now there's just been the ice crust from the warm weather and melting while I was gone in MN. People have been impatient for new snow, because all winter activities were put on hold until new fresh snow came. Now that the new snow is falling, people are so anxious to get out in it, they bring all their equipment to work with them to go straight to play after:

(Dog Sled in the school parking lot 8am, the small team is huddled in the car, and the lead dog is hanging out in the classroom)



The Tustumena 200 is coming up next Saturday- it's a pretty popular dogsled race, and is here on the peninsula (I understand that the 3 most popular sled races are the Copper River, the Tustemena and the Iditarod) . I'm hoping I'll get to see it.