perspicacious.org

I survived my first day of work. The kids are 3 to 6 years old — the 6 year olds know more than I do, and the 3 year olds wet their pants and spill things. Nobody can tie their own shoes except Zoe, and I have to watch her do it every time because she's so proud of herself (it takes about 5 minutes per shoe). The teacher I'm working with is a little intimidating. She gave me very little instruction about how to do things. I think she's awfully lucky that I'm a quick study and that I know how to handle large groups of children by myself. I'm not sure if she gives everyone the same lack of training, or if she could see that I am not a moron and just let me handle it as best I could. (Actually, I think she's one of those people who are so smart they don't know how to slow things down for people of less than genius level IQ. She's actually quite a good teacher because she thinks fast and can do many things at once. It's also what makes her intimidating.)

I think I did OK. I didn't get much feedback, but I did dive in and handle the pants wetting and juice pouring and paint cleanup. Thank goodness I have a degree. Oh, I'm kidding. Yesterday was a bit of a struggle, but I think it will get easier, and I really do like the school environment a lot.

Move in is shceduled for Saturday, though I've not heard from my landlord about picking up the keys. I have a lot to squeeze in this weekend– what with moving in, the state fair, and my camp friends leaving town. Then I'll be well and truly on my own. I'm half excited and half terrified.

Everything has happened in, like, the last 24 hours. I found a cabin yesterday. Yes, without water, but there is a shared shower house/laundry room about 20 feet away. The cabin is just darling– 20 by 20 with a half loft. The loft is accessible by a ladder and covers the back half of the cabin. There is a full kitchen, including a sink, though it drains into a bucket that I have to dump. I also have to tow my own trash, but everyone does that here. I'll move in this weekend. It's unfurnished, but Michelle found me a bed and an easy chair. I'll look at yard sales for a desk and some shelves. That's about all I really need. I'm not too worried about doing this so quickly– my lease is month to month and I paid for 2 months and a deposit. So, if it turns out I can't handle the lack of plumbing I only have to stay there through the end of September.

Also, the director at the Montessori school called this morning. I inverviewed with her this afternoon, and I start tomorrow. For the next 2 weeks I'll be an aide for a summer school classroom. Following that is a week of training, and following that I'll work in the bilingual immersion class. I'm stoked about this, it sounds really fun. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow, since I'm really getting thrown in. I'll have to fake it a bit.

So, I'm still living like a vagabond, but the potential for me to really settle and have a home and a job and a…life is slowly emerging. I knew it would. Oh, and there's a sign on the road to my new house that says "Caution! This road is used by children, dog teams and planes." I love Alaska.

Hi there! I'm still alive. I'm finished with camp and am working on housing and employment and all of that fun stuff. The last week of camp was alright, but I'm glad it's over. The girls in my unit never really cooperated, the 11 year olds were too cool for everything and the 9 year olds too confused and needy. And the kids were seriously in my personal space, I'm not sure why that is. So, I'm not sad that camp is over, but I will miss my two bunk mates a lot– they were wonderful. That's the kind of thing that makes me wish I could do camp all of the time and forget all of this real world BS. There need to be more places in my life where I can surround myself with people who are genuine and caring and OK with being silly.

I have a lead (and that's all it is, so I'm trying really hard not to get my hopes up too much) on a job at a Montessori school. The position is as a classroom assistant in a bilingual immersion class with kids 3-6 years old. The school principal wasn't in when I went by, but the office manager gave me a full tour and talked with me for a long time. I think that if she could have hired me right then she would have, she was that enthusiastic. I hope to hear from the principal in the next couple of days so please, please keep your fingers crossed for me. (If you're keeping up: I didn't get the job with Early Head Start, though I wasn't really expecting to.)

I'm also looking at apartments and cabins. I have 2 options– a tiny efficiency in a mediocre area, or a relatively nice cabin, but without runing water. It's really common for people to live without water here. The permafrost makes it difficult to lay pipe, and the pipes freeze and burst in the winter. Most schools and businesses have showers, and there are places in town where you can fill big jugs of water. I am not certain that this is something I'm capable of, but I'm considering it. I have this fantasy of a log cabin with a loft and a woodstove, and I can romanticize that all day long, but I can't romanticize shoveling a path in the snow to my outhouse at 40 below. I'll keep you posted on this. (I haven't gone off the deep end, not really. Not yet.)

So, that's about it from the far north. It's in the 50's and raining, but I have it on good authority that this is unusual weather for July. Last week we had some fabulous days with full sunshine and temps in the 70's and 80's. Hopefully that weather will return in a couple of days. I'm staying with my friend Michelle again, at least until I find a cabin with a outhouse path to shovel.

I hope you're all well. I miss keeping up with everyone. If I owe you a letter/email/phone call I'm really sorry, and will try to get to it today or tomorrow, K?

Am back in Fairbanks for my 24 hours. We went last night to the Eskimo Olympics. Saw some dancing, the blanket toss, and the 4 man carry. Some of my friends were pullers for the blanket toss. It takes 50 people to pull one little guy into the air. (The fliers can go 20 or 30 feet up). The 4 man carry is just what it sounds like– four 150lb men sort of cling togather around the shoulders of one guy, and he staggers across the floor as far as he can.

My birthday was fun. The staff threw a little party for me with a cake and streamers and balloons. My parents send nerd presents– dictionary and language translator modules for my palm. The sunset was unbelieveable, and I took my picture at midnight holding a sign that said, "It's midnight on my birthday."

It rained pretty much constantly from Sunday through Wednesday, with the temperature in the 40's and 50's. We did a lot of indoor stuff. One more day of rain and we would probably have run out of indoor stuff to do. It started to clear on Thursday and has been totally clear and warm (75 or so) since then. I was wearing a wool sweater and long underwear one day, and swimming and wearing shorts the next.

It's pretty flat here by Alaska standards, just rolling hills with the Alaska and Wrangell-St. Elias mountain ranges in the distance, and when it's clear and sunny the sky is a huge dome overhead. It's possibly even bigger than the sky in New Mexico– and there's nothing but sky in New Mexico.

I'm off until tomorrow at 1:00. This week was insane. First training and planning and cleaning up camp, then a mad rush of tiny Brownines (6 to 8 years old), then more cleaning and planning. The camp staff structure is different from last summer, where there were "specialists" in charge of a particular area (I was the nature director). This year there are 4 fewer people, and no specialists to fill in. That means a lot more work. Like, 7:00AM to 11:00PM kind of work. I'm tired. However, I think I can hack it for 2 more weeks.

I used my 2 hours off yesterday to drive into Fairbanks and interview with Early Head Start. The position available is for a classroom of 8 kids ages 2 months to 3 years. (There are 3 adults per room, so it's a pretty manageable number). The interview was fine, but I'll be pretty surprised if I get the job. I don't think I'm what they're looking for. Some of the interview questions were pretty easy to answer. Others, like, "How do you know a baby is bored?" were beyond my knowledge of child development. Or were trick questions. Anyway, I should hear from them in a week or so.

Next week we have older kids, but there are more of them, so the work level will probably be about the same. My birthday is Friday! I'll be 25. A quarter century, not bad.