Isn't it really dark? Are you sad? 

• Yes it is dark, but it's really not bad at all. Since we've arrived, the amount of daylight has already increased by about 35 minutes. It increases. about 5 minutes every day so it will just keep getting lighter. It's dark in the morning so it can be a little difficult to wake. The sun sets at the same time as it does at home, so nothing changes there. ​

• Once spring started, the sun was out so much more than when I first got to Alaska. By the time I left in late April, the sun was not completely going away until almost midnight and it would start rising at 7 am. I love it!!! 

Are you liking it? 

• Yes, we are having such a great time! It's going to be sad to leave quarantine because we will not be with everyone at our sites. We have definitely built a bond as a group and we are really hoping we get to visit each other at some point in the nest four months. ​

Is it like, super cold?

• Hahaha, yes it is. It very cold in the winter, but we have the right gear so we are getting used to it. A lot of what is different from home is just that we are having to adjust. We knew that life here would be different and we accepted that. So even though it's cold, we are learning every time we go out what works and what doesn't. Next time we get on snow machines, I will put hand warmers in my boots because my toes were cold. Masks are actually helping us stay warm, so we wear them whether or not we are seeing anyone. ​It's interesting because the warmer it is, the colder it feels. When it's warmer it's usually more humid out. This is the type of cold that really gets you inside instead of the dry cold that you can just cover up for.

• During quarantine, we make breakfast and lunch and members of the community are brining us dinner. We have the usual for breakfast and lunch; eggs, bagels, cereal, fruit, almond milk, coffee, etc. For the two week quarantine period, we have been brought so many good meals. We've had: salmon, enchiladas, taco bar, beef stroganoff, ​curry, meatloaf, chili, chicken Alfredo, and more.
• Once we get to our sites, food is up to us. In the middle of December, we ordered four months worth of food from Costco, Walmart, and Target. Our boss picked up the food in Anchorage and shipped it to Dillingham. We will bring it with us on our sea planes to our sites. We hopefully ordered enough food! I'll let you know soon. 

• Yes, we have an address. Let us know if you want our address. ​

• Now that we are all in our villages, we have our own apartments. Jenny and I share an apartment that is about 20 feet from the school. We can see the back door of the school from our kitchen table. I will do a virtual tour video when we are completely moved in! Our place is nice, we have a large kitchen, a living room, a laundry room, two bedrooms, and one bathroom. ​It is cozy and we are excited to make it feel like home. 

• We walk! In Dillingham we had a car for the two weeks of quarantine. That's how to got to Aleknagik and back. ​Now that we are in Koliganek we just walk if we need to go somewhere. The village is so tiny that you can walk the whole thing in probably 45 minutes or less. If anyone needs to leave for medical reasons, they have to fly to Dillingham (about a 35 minute flight) or to Anchorage. People who live here use their Snow Gos to get to New Stuyahok or another village or to go hunting, trapping, and fishing. 
• In our new village, we have a 4-wheeler that we can use to get to the village! We try to walk to school, but we will probably use it more once it gets cold or if we are late. 

• A common question people ask when they first meet someone is usually: "What do you do?" This is a question I wanted to ask when I first got to the village, and a question that people ask me about the village. If you ask this question, you may get the response, "I live here." Many people in the village do not have common jobs that you and I are used to hearing. There are people that work at the school, clinic, post office, store, and at the local council. Other than that, many people live in the village taking care of their kids, grandkids, parents, and grandparents. They also hunt, fish, and pick berries for subsistence and also commercial. Many villagers provide for their families by hunting and fishing with the seasons. Moose season is in the fall, salmon are in the spring and summer, berries are in the summer, birds are in the spring, etc. This means that sometimes at the beginning and end of the school years, students will be out of school to go hunting or fishing. ​

• This might be an uncomfortable topic for some people, but that is why I want to bring it up. Native Alaskans and people from the lower 48 look different. There are white people in Alaska, but there are many natives in the smaller villages where families have stayed over many generations. I was one of 5 white people living in the village. They all work at the school. One woman is married to a native so she has been there for a long time, the other three are teachers and the principal. They are all from the lower 48 and moved to Alaska to work in the school systems. ​
• It is one thing to be white living in rural Alaska, but it is another thing to have blond hair and blue eye living in rural Alaska. My students definitely talked about me being white a lot. Mostly they would ask me where my eyebrows are (they're there, they are just blond). They would also ask if I'm full white and how my eyes are blue. I thought they would get bored talking about it, but they asked about my skin and hair almost every single week. It didn't bother me, I thought it was hilarious. The kids weren't mean about it, they were just curious.