USA UK Blog Susie/AnnMarie Channel 4's 121

Other Sites

2008-04-18T16:22:00.005+01:00

If you're interested in learning more about this unique piece of America, check out these blogs.

The Brevig Mission School Blog

and

The Rudstrom Family Blog

--AnnMarie

Spring in Brevig

2007-05-17T21:39:00.000+01:00

Well, it's spring. The last day of school was on Tuesday and on Wednesday the weather warmed up and the sun is shining. It feels so good after a long winter. Just a few short days ago it was still below freezing and the cold north wind was blowing.
Spring means a few things to the people here in Brevig. It's time to start spring hunting and go to spring camp. People are hunting the birds that are migrating back and the sea mammals. They go out to the edge of the ice (about 10 miles out), put in their boats and go walrus and seal hunting. The walrus hunting has been poor for the past few years but this year is going really well. It means the local folks will have a lot of meat stored away for the next year and ivory available for carving. The skin of the animals is used for hand crafts and even organs are considered good eating. So far people have shared a little "oogruk" (bearded seal) and walrus meat with us. It's actually very good. The oogruk was very tender and didn't have an unusual taste at all. Many people cut the meat into strips and hang it on posts outside to dry, it's then eaten like jerky and dipped in seal oil. Seal oil is used like ketchup is used by so many Americans. Just put it on any food to enhance the flavor. I can handle eating a little of it but too much of it is not good for my stomach.
We will be leaving on Sunday for the rest of the summer. It's too bad we always leave at the most beautiful time of the year. But, our friends and family from our former life are calling and we've missed them very much over the past 9 months. Not long now and we'll be in the swing of mainstream America where people are eating hamburgers and french fries instead of walrus blubber and seal oil.

Holiday time

2007-04-05T19:12:00.000+01:00

Finally- a break! This is the first holiday I have had since I started back in January, bar a Monday off in Feburary, and it's awesome. The sun is shining and it finally feels like summer is here.

When I go back to work in April, it's only two weeks and then the exams start, so I'll only have 3 classes, as the rest of my kids will be on study leave...boo hoo...only kidding. I can't wait. Only 10 weeks until summer holidays...bliss.

Saguaro and Students

2007-03-26T00:15:00.000+01:00

Well, we’ve been back from Arizona for a month already, but we had a great time. It was nice to see my girlfriend Mollie, her house, her dog, her grandparents etc. (Here she is with a taco bowl on her head, it was such a pretty color.) The weather was warm and the sun was shining. Currently it is 25 degrees below zero Fahrenheit and the wind is blowing. It doesn’t warm up here until at least May. But back to Arizona . . . I had never seen cacti in the wild before, so it was fun to see the “forests” of saguaro cacti around the city. I brought back a small cactus to add to our classroom plant and animal collection. On one of our outings we also saw some javalinas. To be honest I had never heard of these wild pigs before. We also spent one day in Mexico. We drove down to the boarder town of Nogales. I bought a bunch of cheap junk for the students in my class and Mollie bought them some Mexican candy. It was basically suckers coated in chili powder. The kids are still talking about how awful it was.

The end of the school year is quickly approaching, the daylight is back and prom, graduation, next year’s schedule and the new staff are at the forefront of our minds as teachers. Some good news is that I feel like by kindergarteners are prepared for first grade. I continue to push them to learn a few more things before May, but over all they’re really doing wonderfully. Most of them are reading well, can count and write numbers to 100, listen attentively to stories and can follow directions. I’m very pleased with their progress this year. As for the daylight, I’m really feeling the effects of it all. It is still light at 10:30 at night and I just don’t feel sleepy. Neither do the students apparently because we are all yawning our way through class. Hopefully we’ll get used to sleeping in the light in the next week or so.

Sick in Scotland!

2007-02-21T22:28:00.000Z

It must be the time of year- out of a staff of about 80 teachers, we had 16 off today. That's a lot for our school...people tend not to phone in sick unless their foot's hanging off because schools in Scotland are so short staffed. Not exactly feeling great myself at the moment- I feel really run down and sick. Yuck. If only I could have a day or two to myself to just relax and get my energy levels back up again, then I'd be fighting fit and ready to kick some ass!

This week's been tough. To highlight, within the first two hours of today I'd been told to, "f**k off," and had a paper aeroplane thrown at my face. Ah, the joys of teaching in a secondary school! Easter can't come soon enough...

Sick

2007-02-15T06:52:00.000Z

This horrible cold thing has just gone through Brevig. Everyone is sick! Everyone got sick within a matter of a couple days. It's so strange. We tried to have school on Monday despite the fact that most of the staff was the walking dead. Only 22 students out of 100 showed up. It was so bad we got out of school early and had the next two days cancelled. It was a wise move by the administration. My husband and I have been miserable the whole time. People haven't been showing up to work all around town. I've never seen so many people get sick at once.

But at last we are recovering. In fact, we are also taking a little time off. C.O. and I are going to Tucson, Arizona to see my friend. We leave on the first plane after school tomorrow. We fly all night, have a 12 hour lay over in Salt Lake City, then arrive in Tucson late Friday night. We're looking forward to the warm weather, eating out, fresh fruits and veggies. Yummy, yummy. I think I'll eat at least one salad every day. We so rarely see fresh produce up here and some times I just crave it.

Relax...

2007-02-12T17:48:00.000Z

Ah- it's half term; two extra days to myself and them only 5 weeks till Easter. The last few weeks have been so hectic and exhausting, this holiday really couldn't have come at a better time. Off to London this weekend with my man for a Valentine's break...I'm looking forward to it, but I'm a bit apprehansive as the last time I was in London was when the bombs went off. Still, I guess you can't live your life like that. Back to work on Wednesday...but I think I can handle a three day week!

The School Gymnasium

2007-02-05T04:50:00.000Z

Our School Gym is the largest single room in the village. So it gets used for a variety of events. Traditionally during the holidays, the village wide feast is held in the gym. Tables and chairs are set up and a majority of the people who live in Brevig gather in the gym for the feast. Sadly, a couple weeks ago an elder passed away. The church isn’t big enough to hold all the people who attended her funeral, so school is released early and the funeral is held at the school building. Earlier this week, the school district flew in the school board members and a public school board meeting was held. And just this weekend we had a couple of basketball games. The gymnasium has been the sight of health fairs, volleyball games, races, church conferences, Christmas programs, public meetings, craft fairs, rummage sales, craft nights, game nights, weddings and shooting contests. It is truly a multipurpose room.

2007-01-22T20:24:00.000Z

Paris was so wonderful and romantic- I didn't want to leave. In fact it seems so far away now- the only holiday I have to look forward to is in summer which is a long way away (unlike my boyfriend who gets to go to Texas and New York in March with his band...jealous??!! Moi??). Anyway school is fairly normal; the playground was covered in ice this morning and one of my S1 pupils fell over because he was messing about, despite the fact that I had warned him to get a move on when I was walking by him. Is it cruel that it brought a smile to my face when he turned up late to class with scabby, cold hands?! Probably a bit, but I don't care!

Like you previously, I teach outwith the main school building in delapidated huts! Still, I quite like the anonymity and the fact that you're outside the chaos of the main building, which can get very hot, very crowded and extremely hectic at times. It's our own microcosim of school life; the English Department against the world. We have the government inspectors in just now so it's pretty tense, but to be honest I'm not fussed; I'll just keep doing what I do and hopefully that will suffice. Still, it's another hectic and exhausting day over...and one day closer to the Easter holidays! I'm off to watch 'ER' and relax...

Parkas

2007-01-18T06:00:00.000Z

Here's a photo of my husband and I in our parkas. My husbands is lined with Musk Ox and trimmed out with red fox. Mine is lined with sheep skin and trimmed with Arctic Fox. I am also wearing seal skin mittens and a beaver hat. We don't have a car in Brevig but you can see our transportation in the background.

Our New School

2007-01-18T05:55:00.001Z

The first day back to school was very exciting for my students and me. A year and a half ago we got an addition on the school. The addition was a new junior high and high school wing. It basically doubled the size of our school. It was a much needed addition, the older and younger students were always on top of each other. Anyway, we also had money available for a remodel of the elementary wing. The work for that has been going on all school year and it was finally completed after the Christmas break. We had crammed the elementary in with the older students or in out buildings. I had actually been teaching in a building separate from the main school. So every time my students had lunch or activities in the school we had to get our winter gear on and trudge outside. But not anymore, we are in the school, we have a big beautiful new classroom and a gymnasium to play it. My poor little kids have not run around for any part of the day until now. I think it’s terrible to be 5 years old and just sit all day. I think kids need to be kids and run free at times.

Since my husband and I were not out of town during the holidays, we ended up working on moving classrooms and supplies into the new school. We both put in many hours during our “holiday” so that the school would not be a disaster when the other teachers came back. Since we haven’t had time off since August, we decided to take a week off in February. I have 6 personal days available for me to use this school year so we are going to go to the desert, Tucson, Arizona. My girlfriend lives there so we’ll get to catch up with her, and I have never seen the desert so it’ll be a new experience for me. It’s also going to be warm! Yeah! I think it’ll make the rest of the cold, dark winter more bearable. How was your trip to Paris?

That’s great that you’re going out on a limb and pursuing a new career path. Too many people are afraid to take chances like that. But I say, go for it, what’s the worse that could happen? I feel like I have a great work situation. I don’t teach up here because I love it more than anything (though, don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy it). But it does allow me to do things that I really am passionate about. 1) Spend a lot of time with my husband. 2) Travel. We get over 2 months off each summer and can spend that time experiencing new parts of the world and catching up with family. It’s perfect. Anyway, life is too short to just think about doing what you really love.

One day down, 24 to go!

2007-01-08T21:52:00.000Z

I am totally and utterly exhausted! Today was the first day back after the Christmas holidays...I awoke after the most sleepless night I think I have ever had (I spent all night worrying about how my S4 class would react when I told them they were moving seats) to a dark, stormy and damp morning. Despite my doom and gloom, I didn't get caught in any traffic jams on the way to work and the kids were, on the whole, not that bad...well apart from my S2 class who took 20 minutes (that's right, 20 minutes!) to calm down at the end of the day and get some bloody work done! Everyone seemed really bummed about being back at school- pupils and teachers alike- and to be frank, most of my lessons were utterly shambolic; I think I was too tired to focus on anything other than keeping the wee ones in their seats!

Still, it's a new year and I've made the bold decision to take a break from my high flying educational career and concentrate on something I'm actually really passionate about (writing stuff and having fun) once this academic year is over, so fingers crossed my plan comes to fruition by the end of the summer holidays in August or else I'm really screwed!!

So, like I said...day one of being a teacher in 2007 is down...only till June to go!

Random

2006-12-22T04:42:00.000Z

I went over to a friend's house tonight to borrow a DVD. I walked past a house where someone was cutting something with a chain saw. I walked a little closer, what was he cutting? Blubber off of a frozen seal of course.

Almost there!

2006-12-20T20:36:00.000Z

I am literally sleeping on my feet these days. While it's the end of term on Friday, it's hectic in school because we just found out that the government inspectors are coming to visit us in January. That means an endless stream of paperwork, sorting out classrooms, sorting out pupil profiles, organising pupils' work- and don't even mention the two weeks worth of amazing lessons we all have to plan so that they'll be dazzled when they appear at the door of our classroom. I really feel that I can't relax- I ache all over and I haven't been sleeping well because I feel so anxious. I'm terrified that my crazy kids will kick off when the inspectors appear...and that really doesn't bear thinking about. Still, tomorrow is the church service and hopefully singing Christmas carols will put me in more of a festive mood, because right now I feel like Ebeneezer Scrooge on a bad day!!

Short Days

2006-12-17T22:36:00.000Z

Well, we're almost to the shortest day of the year. Right now the sun rises at about 12:40 p.m. and sets about 3:40 p.m.. A lot of people ask if the lack of sunlight bothers me. It really doesn't, I find it forces me to relax and enjoy the day at a slow pace. Actually, what drives me crazy is when the sunlight returns and it's light almost 24 hours per day. Then I find myself still active at 11:00 p.m. and not realizing it's time to go to bed.
We had an interesting day last week. It was our first big storm of the year, snow with 50 mile per hour winds gusting to 70 mph. It’s tough to walk in wind like that and even more difficult to open doors if they are facing the wrong way. Right now the elementary part of the school is being remodeled, so each class is crammed into the high school end. My class wouldn’t even fit in the high school so I am teaching my students in another building. So, I have to get the 5 and 6 year olds bundled up to go over for lunch. After walking to school last Wednesday I was pretty nervous about trying to get my students over to the main school building. I couldn’t open the north-facing door by myself. Another student had to help me. But as it turned out none of the parents thought it was safe to send their children to school so I had a day to myself.
This week is promising to be a busy one. Tuesday night I am having the 5th grade students over to our home for dinner. I am their academic advisor and like to do special activities with them to build a good relationship. We are getting ready for the Christmas program on Wednesday night. My class is singing Jingle Bells, Up on the Housetop and Zippety-Do-Da. (I always like to have the kids sing something not Christmasy to keep things intersting.) Thursday I am taking my students caroling at some of the elders’ homes. Today I am working on getting our class Christmas quilt completed. I had each of the students use fabric paint and paint two quilt squares with a winter / Christmas picture and their name on it. On Wednesday, at the Christmas program, we’ll have a drawing and give it away to one of the students in my class. I’ve done this for the past 3 years and it’s been a lot of fun.
Quite a few teenage girls lately have been wanting to learn how to crochet. They’ve been coming to my house in the evenings and making hats and scarves etc. It’s funny to see them all sitting and crocheting like little old ladies. The house is dead quite as if we were doing very serious business. They are doing really well and catching on quickly.
We are fortunate here to have the opportunities to form relationships with students on a personal level. I believe it can make us more effective as educators. It’s too bad that the way the world is going, that we can’t even touch kids to give them a hug or whatever. I think people tend to panic over just a few weirdoes. My personal belief is that most people are good people and very few are “bad guys”. However, the media hypes up certain incidents and makes us think that bad things are happening all the time, when really the good things far out number the bad. Then all of the hype trickles down slowly until it’s considered taboo, for instance, to hug a student.

Christmas countdown.

2006-12-11T21:10:00.000Z

I had a really stressful sleep last night- it's pathetic, but I was really anxious about my S4 pupils returning after exam leave. As it happens, only a few of them showed up, but they were being their usual un-motivatable selves which utterly frustrates me. Today was, all in all, really tough. I don't know if it's the same in Brevig Mission, but kids here really don't respect anybody in any position of authority; our relationships with our pupils are purely a business arrangement, which is sad I guess, but there has been so many incidents that you can't really forge any sort of real bond with a child any more- hell, you can't even give them a hug if they're crying about something!!

Me and all of my colleagues are totally wiped out. The term from October to Christmas is the longest here in Scotland, and by God am I feeling it. I'm becoming as lazy as the kids, yet I still have a massive pile of marking to do when all I can think about is Christmas time. It sucks. Plus, I had to sit in traffic for over an hour on my way home...and them some idiot woman nearly crashed into the side of me. Stressed, moi???!! I tell you, teaching somewhere outside the city is sounding increasingly more appealing as the days go by!

Lists

2006-12-10T17:26:00.000Z

Paris sounds like a lovely trip. I studied in England for just one term and it was very handy how close everything was. It was no big deal to go to France or Spain or Italy for a long weekend. Here, everything is soooooo far away! And it’s an ordeal to travel. This past summer my husband and I spent some time in the U.K. We crossed 11 time zones to be there. It took quite a while to get our sleep back to normal.

About school . . . Hopefully I’m not giving a false impression of what teaching here is like. When I say here I don’t mean the U.S. Brevig Mission really is not like the rest of the United States so anything I describe shouldn’t be applied to the rest of the country. (So you may still want to consider moving somewhere in the U.S. to teach) =)

How is Brevig Mission different than most of the rest of America?
1) The population is primarily Inupiat Eskimos. (Teachers are about the only non-native folks living here.)
2) It wasn’t until the 70’s that there was a K -12 school.
3) People drive snow machines and ATVs, not cars.
4) There are no roads, we fly bush planes in and out.
5) There is only one store with basic supplies.
6) People eat seals, whales, and walrus.
7) About 350 people live in Brevig.
8) People had running water in their homes for the first time in 2002.
9) Alcohol is illegal to possess by local ordinance.

Why do I love living here?
1) It’s a small village where you can know just about everyone and feel like a part of a community.
2) My students come to my house to visit on a regular basis.
3) It only takes me 5 minutes to walk to work. No commute!
4) I am learning how to do new things, skin sewing for example.
5) I am learning first hand about another culture that is far different from what I grew up with.
6) When employees attend district wide in-services or meetings the school district plane picks us up.
7) No hustle and bustle. Life just moves a little slower here.
8) Like you, my students really are wonderful little people.

Sure we have our problems but what place in the world doesn’t have problems?

I'm amazed!

2006-12-04T20:20:00.000Z

Wow- I'm astonished about what you said about your school and the kids in it! I had this totally skewed notion that your school would be some kind of utopia where kids respect you and don't cause you any hassle. There goes my idea of moving to the country for an easy life!

Basically my school is a real melting pot- you have kids rolling up to school in their parent's BMWs, wearing all the best clothes...and then you have kids literally turning up without decent school shoes on. It's tough, but a nice place to beon the whole, because despite their flaws most of my kids are nice deep down- the hard part is getting them to expose that part of their emotions. Everyone is really run-down at the moment though because the term from October to December is the longest- ten weeks and not one holiday to perk you up. We're all running on empty trying desperately to finish off essays and stuff before we stop for Christmas...I literally cannot wait. Plus, me and my boyfriend are going to Paris for a couple of days between Christmas and New Year- just shows that this teaching lark has it's perks!!

Not So Different

2006-12-02T22:17:00.000Z

Hi Susie,
Well, I hope your week at school finished off better than it started. I’m sure you’re right in that things are very different in Glasgow than in Brevig, but I bet we have a lot of similarities. It is not uncommon for a student to blow up in class at either a teacher or another student. Even in kindergarten I have students who are so angry when things don’t go exactly their way that they push tables, throw over chairs and kick other students for no reason. Where does all the anger come from? I have my theories, but who really knows? I think many teachers come here and think that this will be a quiet, little, quaint village with children who behave like angels. It’s quite a shock for them to realize that it’s not always that way. Behavior management and teaching are actually very difficult. I don’t want to sound negative, there are many things to love here. The children really are endearing and the people are friendly and all around neat people, but no doubt there are many difficulties as well.
What kind of a background do your students come from? What are some of the primary sources of income?
Hope you’re enjoying your weekend and not thinking about school too much. I have had to work very hard to keep my work in perspective. Teachers do a lot of things together here and since we all work together we tend to talk on and on about school issues. I make sure and have other friends besides teachers and hobbies that don’t involve being at the school to help keep life balanced. It helps that my husband is not a teacher, he’s an engineer who is always planning to fix or make something interesting.
I got the seal skin slippers I was working on done, hopefully one of these days I'll have time to learn how to post pictures and show what they look like.
Oh, and it was a windy week here too, finally cleared up today and we can see again.

The wind,the wind!

2006-11-30T19:43:00.000Z

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!

Today

2006-11-27T20:43:00.000Z

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.

Thanksgiving Weekend

2006-11-27T00:22:00.000Z

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.

Numero Uno...

2006-11-24T17:35:00.000Z

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...