Searching For The Aurora's

At 11:00 this evening Ming asked if I wanted to see if the Aurora's (Aurora Borealis) were active. We suited up and walked down to the beach. After spending a few minutes staring and cranking our necks at what we thought might be the spectacular lights, we realized it was nothing more than a reflection from the village lights. I gently and politely asked for the lights to make an appearance, but perhaps I should have danced as well...

However, my disappointment soon vanished when I looked at the beautiful scenery I was surrounded by. The stars looked bright against the black sky, the air was crisp and cool, and soft snowflakes were slowly falling down to the ground. When my gaze followed the flakes to their destination, I was mesmorized by the blanket of sparkling snow. It appeared as if the ground was a dancing bed of glitter.

Now I will check outside one more time before going to bed...

Diner Dinner

Jeni cooked a Diner Dinner Wednesday night. We had homemade onion rings and burgers on homemade bread --->




Sylvia and Sandy sliced cheese:








I cut the onions:








and Jeni tried to figure out what to do with the liquid eggs:
After dinner Jeni told the students at the door to "go away, come again another day"...










The last time I was in Koyuk Jeni and I made ice cream. As a joke, I said to Jeni, "So since this is a diner dinner shouldn't we be having root beer floats for dessert?" She gave me a shocked and surprised look, to which I immediately responded, "Just kidding!", in case I offended her. Then she looked at her guests, hands on hips, and said, "Who told her!" I seriously had no idea!

A Dose of Vitamin D

Thursday afternoon was gorgeous! Not nearly as warm as Tuesday, but very sunny. It is always a good sign when I can wear my sunglasses rather than my goggles.


Instead of skiing with the cross country team again, I decided to go snowshoeing with Jeni.


We headed out on the trail...

and then decided to hike to the top of Igurik (not sure of the exact spelling). It was incredible to watch the sun setting as we were on the top of the mountain.

Joining us were Berry, Juneau (Sarah's dog) and Spanky (Terry's dog). They had a great time rolling in the snow and chasing each other through the trees.
We were able to make a loop around the mountain which was great. Up one side and down the other!

Curry Soup With A Pinch of Korean

On Thursday night Mandy and Matt invited Mr. Lee and me over for curry soup. Since Mr. Lee is staying in Koyuk for the next 3 months to teach Tae Kwon Do, Mandy thought the soup might make him feel a little closer to home. For dessert Mr. Lee, with my assistance, made chocolate pudding and topped it with homemade whipped cream.



After dinner Mr. Lee did a good job at teaching us how to write and pronounce Korean vowels and consonants. The Korean language makes a little bit of sense now and does not seem quite as foreign!

A Winter Wonderland

On Friday morning I was all prepared for my 11:00 flight back to Unalakleet. While waiting for my flight I visited with students and at 11:00 I was informed that the plane was on weather hold in UNK. That didn't surprise me since the weather in Koyuk was turning very snowy and windy! At 1:00 I found out that the school in UNK closed due to the blizzard. At that point I was told I would most likely be staying in Koyuk because of the high winds in UNK. When it was confirmed that I would not be flying home until Saturday, I decided to make the best of my time and go out for one more snowshoe adventure. Mandy and Berry (Jeni's dog) were brave enough to venture out into the blizzard with me.

Surprise!

Tomorrow is Sandy's birthday. Since I am not going to be in Koyuk to celebrate with her, I decided to throw her a surprise party last night. After buying the ingredients for cheesecake and chocolate chip cookies I baked in Erika's apartment so that Sandy would not know what was going on.

It was an interesting task because not only did I have 2 desserts to bake, but also bread to go along with the onion soup Sandy made for dinner. I quickly made honey oatmeal bread, put it in the oven, went down the hall to Erika's apartment and made cheesecake, went back to Sandy's apartment and had dinner, went back to Erika's apartment to remove the cheesecake from the oven and put it in the refrigerator, went back to Sandy's, then back to Erika's to bake the cookie cake, then back to Sandy's, and back to Erika's to decorate the cookie cake, and finally back to Sandy's to practically beg her into going over to Erika's to play Wii.

Jeni had joined me and Sandy for dinner so she was hanging out until it was time for the party. Since Sandy had no idea what was going on, she really wanted to go to bed. She was a little confused as to why Jeni was not picking up hints such as dramatic yawns and bedtime preparations. Jeni and I convinced Sandy to just play 1 Wii game and then she could go to bed.

When we got to Erika's apartment Sandy looked a little confused upon seeing so many faces! At that point we broke into song and enjoyed the tasty treats. My plan worked- she was very surprised!