What weather! The rain is lashing and there is a gale roaring outside- time to cosy up inside and stay warm. Today was fine but tiring, because I couldn't sleep last night coz my head was buzzing. I find that now that I'm a teacher, I have imaginary conversations with pupils I don't like and sit and fret about what I'm going to do the next day...or what I haven't done...which makes my head feel like it is going to burst, even when I'm trying to relax. Still, tomorrow is Friday and I can relax for another two days...can't wait!

Another day, another hard one. One of my pupils has been excluded for the next two weeks for attacking another pupil...it's heartbreaking to see what is essentially a good kid make life even harder for themself. It makes you feel really powerless, even though I'm doing all that I can feasibly do to make life in my classroom comfortable for them. School life in Glasgow and school life in Brevig Mission are literally at polar opposites by the sound of things!

Still, Christamas is just around the corner- time to dig out those moth eaten copies of 'A Christmas Carol' and teach the kids some proper literature, methinks. And don't even mention the Christmas shopping...I have a pile of exam scripts waiting to be corrected before I can even think of that.

I feel fortunate to have had a long weekend. It’s the Thanksgiving holiday so we did not have school on Thursday or Friday. It’s been wonderful! I teach kindergarten in Brevig Mission, Alaska. Brevig is a small Eskimo village located on the Bering Straits just south of the Arctic Circle and 100 miles east of Russia. There are about 350 people here and no roads in or out, however, we have about five bush planes arrive each day.

The wind is howling here too, gusting up to 60 mph. No rain this time of year, just snow.

My brother came to visit for the weekend. He teaches in another village about 130 miles from Brevig. It was nice to show him around the Brevig countryside. He had the chance to get up close to musk oxen for the first time.

I’ve been relaxing, keeping the fire going and learning to sew my first pair of seal skin slippers. I started learning the art of skin sewing from the local ladies last year.

Thank God- Friday has arrived! The wind is howling and the rain is pouring but no matter- tonight the vodka is out and the suits are laid to rest for another weekend. Teaching really takes it out of you (I'm an English teacher in a secondary school just outside Glasgow). My voice is hoarse from shouting at my S4 class, who are totally unmoved by the fact that they have an exam on Monday, and I'm loaded with the cold, doped to the hilt on paracetamol. I'm now just waiting on my boyfriend to arrive. Hopefully I won't fall asleep beofre he gets here...