Tuesday, September 16, 2008

A Typical Weekend with the Bethel JVs

Temperature in Bethel today: 37*F...will rise to 52*F (hopefully!)

Bethel has no bars, no bowling alleys, no movie theatres, no affordable (for a JV) restaurants, really no social anythings. Because of this, weekends in Bethel are pretty different from weekends in NJ or Baltimore. However, this doesn't mean they are any less fun. To give you a taste of what life is like outside of work, I've decided to chronicle a typical weekend for a Bethel JV. Here goes nothing.

Preview (or the short version for those of you who don't feel like reading what is sure to be a long post): This past weekend I ate black bear meat, went camping for a night, hung out with a four year old, played soccer, had a priest over to play cards, and had dinner with the Klejka's - a family of nine people, 25 dogs, 1 turtle, 2 rabbits, and assorted fish.

Bear Meat Eating
After work on Friday, I came home to find TONS of food spread out on our kitchen table. My roommate Fran works at the Senior Center and Fridays are "native food day." My roommate Erin works at BABS, an alternative high school here, and Fridays are "Give the leftovers to the JVs day." This, combined with the fact that Jon was given leftover pizza at a conference, made for a spread of cookies, pizza, agutak (Yupik"ice cream" made of berries, sugar, and CRISCO...sounds gross but is actually delicious!), corn on the cob, salmon soup, hot dogs, and BLACK BEAR MEAT! Obviously, I had to try it. It's actually really good and tastes a lot like roast beef. Finish it off with some pizza and agutak and you have a delicious, nutritionally awful meal.

Camping
Not that I've done a ton of camping in my life, but I'm pretty positive that our expedition into the tundra this past Friday night will go down as the most ridiculous camping trip of my life. After our very random dinner, my roommates and I were all sitting around in our back room with our friend Chris, a teacher at BABS. We were trying to think of something to do for the evening and Fran exclaims, "Let's go camping!" Within a half hour, we were changed, packed, and in the cars (Chris' Jeep and the church truck that Elyse had on loan for the weekend). Without having any real idea of where we were going we drove to the outskirts of town, near the river. We jumped out of the trucks, grabbed our gear, and started wandering. Literally.


We "hiked" upriver for a bit, sticking close to shore. Then, we found ourselves in the rock quarry. So we walked through there. Then, we went into the woods along the side of the river. We blazed a trail through there for a bit, and found a spot we thought was decent (AKA it wasn't on the shore of the river so we wouldn't find ourselves drowning in the morning when the tide came in). Then we decided that wasn't a good spot so we wandered up a little farther into the tundra. We found a lovely little clearing and set up camp. We made some mac 'n' cheese on Chris' camping stove, told some stories, and settled in for the night in our tents.

The most ridiculous part of this camping trip (besides the wandering aimlessly through the tundra) came when we were leaving in the morning. We had come to the spot from the direction of the river, but decided to leave through the tundra because we thought we might be closer to the road than we thought. "Closer to the road than we thought" is a definite understatement. We realized that we had somehow looped around and were essentially in the shipyard's backyard. After walking approximately 500 feet through the tundra we were in the shipyard; muddy, tired, teeth unbrushed, wandering past empty containers, lugging our camping gear with us. We stopped to gawk at the hovercraft that brings the mail to Bethel in the winter, and waved at the workers who were gawking (laughing, rightfully so) at us.


Hanging Out with a Four Year Old
Christian is easily our favorite neighbor. Christian is four years old. On Saturday morning, while my roommates and I were lying around being very lazy, we heard slow footsteps coming up our front stairs. Then, we heard someone struggling in the mudroom. As we (or maybe just I) started getting nervous, our door busted open and Christian came running in, ready to attack. He jumped on my roommate Mike, and then bounced around the room to each of us as he got bored. Turns out Christian's mom was at fish camp doing some of the last subsistence for the season and he didn't feel like staying down the street with his cousin, who was supposed to be watching him. So he escaped to our house. And stayed there all day. Seriously. However, there are no complaints because Christian is the funniest little 4 year old ever. He is a big fan of being thrown in the air by us, and also trying to beat the crap out of us. He also really likes Spiderman.

Soccer
Every Saturday at 4p I play soccer. I'm not really any good at soccer, nor do I like the sport all that much, but I do really like having friends. And soccer is my main social endeavor. Most of the young, fun, twentysomethings in town play, and it's usually a good time. Soccer's not really all that interesting, but I didn't guarantee that everything would be. Sidenote: this week during soccer I got a bloody nose. Risk of having a nose ring is that when you collide with someone, it may stab you on the inside of the nose, making you bleed all over and stopping the game. Unfortunately for all of you, I do not have pictures of this.


Having a Priest Over to Play Cards
Fr. Chuck is Bethel's lone Catholic priest and Elyse's boss at Immaculate Conception parish. He is a Jesuit, and has been one for 50 years. He's over 6 feet tall, with a white beard, glasses, and a big belly. He kind of looks (and laughs) like Santa Claus. Fr. Chuck is an avid cribbage player. So is my roommate Mike. (Because of whom, we are all becoming cribbage players.) Fr. Chuck loves a strong opponent, so every once in awhile he invites himself over to play cribbage and talk some trash. On Saturday, when a few of us went to check out the church rummage sale, we were told that Saturday night would be one of those nights. Fr. Chuck came over to beat Mike's butt in cribbage, share some stories of Bethel history, and offer us his thoughts on Sarah Palin. (FYI: He likes her and what she has done for Alaska, but knows the trooper fired in "Troopergate" personally and is concerned about that. And, like the rest of Alaska, he considers her completely underqualified for the job of VP and would like to see her stay in Alaska and continue to do good things here.) By the end of the night, he was reciting poetry by Alaska's poet laureate to us. A few of us went over to our friend Jeff's later that night, but I still hold that Fr. Chuck was the most entertaining friend of the night.

Dinner with the Klekja's (pronounced Klay-ka)
Eeeeeveryone in Bethel knows the Klejka's. Dad (Joe) is a family practice doctor at the hospital, and Mom (Jackie) runs the veterinary clinic in town. They have 7 kids, 6 between the ages of 10 and 18, and a two year old. (Surprise!) Jessica, Jenny, Jeremiah, Jesse, Josh, Joan, and Jordan. Yes, their names all start with "J." Not at all confusing. They also have 25 dogs, 2 bunnies, a turtle, and a bunch of fish. 24 of those 25 dogs are members of a sled team. Jessica Klejka won the Junior Iditarod last year. The 25th dog is a pregnant chihuaha named Jitters (note the "J" name).

The Klejka's are absolutely wonderful. They are a big, fun, busy, and very generous family. They always have very good relationships with the Bethel JVs. The JV house used to be the house right next door to theirs. Now, we are right down the street. Because the Klejka's are the nicest family in the world, they have extended an open invitation for us to come over for Sunday dinner each week. This is always a good time; besides the 9 Klejka's, the house is usually filled with other random friends...of Jackie, of Joe, or of any of the many kids. In return for their generosity we house/baby/dogsit whenever we are needed. However, I'm sure that however many hours of sitting we do this year, we will never really make it up to them.

Hopefully you enjoyed my incredibly long description of a Bethel weekend. If you are still reading, I commend you.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Tundra Sun and Games

Temperature in Bethel today: 52*F

The sunsets in Bethel are absolutely gorgeous. Often, when my roommates can see a good one coming on, we throw on our quaspuks (a traditional Yupik "hoodie"), fur hats, and boots (all to fend off the bugs) and run onto the tundra. As the giant sky deepens into different shades of orange, red, and purple, we run around trying to take it all in. Here are a few pictures of my favorite tundra night thus far.



This is what tundra looks like.
A sea plane heading in to land on the Kuskokwim.



Fran and I were inspired.

But Mike definitely went the farthest.


Mini tundra lake, complete with reflection of sunset.

Giving the earth a hug.



Erin, so contemplative right now. (And looking oh-so-Alaskan!)


Sneak attack!

Yay God.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

See For Yourselves!

Temperature in Bethel today: 52*F
Bethel, here we come!
Hey, look at the plane!

View of the mountains from the plane.


View of the tundra from the plane.

Home sweet home! (And Mike's back.)



Our front room.

The view from our back deck. (This picture was taken at 11:00p.)


Scoping Bethel from the jungle gym.