 |
| Taken by a friend, I had another chance to see the northern lights before the storms rolled in! |
So began another session with only 14 students! We started the week with a total enrollment of 21, however a few students called in, cancelling at the last minute. It’s a very busy time of year, and there seems to be a direct relationship between the increasingly bleak weather and the increase in school activities; right now basketball is king, with wrestling and volleyball as close contenders. For others, it wasn’t until we were waiting at the airport for students that hadn’t made their flights that we realized they wouldn’t be attending. Unfortunately, NACTEC soaks up the cost of the unused plane fares, which can be outrageously expensive. A trip to Nome can cost upwards of $300, despite the short travel distance. All of these changes contributed to a frantic first day, with last minute scrambling to recruit substitutions to fill a cancelled student’s slot, changing room assignments, room name tags, and chore lists (which I ended up re-doing on 4 separate occasions all in one day).
 |
| Session 7 group |
 |
| Teaching the kids about a sternum rub! |
After all was said and done, my enrollment for Culinary Arts went from a high of 10 students, to a low of just 5. This is the very first time this course is being offered for college credit, so as an adjunct I am tied to the syllabus and standards of the University of Alaska. The course is very math intensive, and I must cover all fourteen chapters of a culinary math textbook during our two weeks together. To accomplish this I have instituted “Math Mornings”, where our first hour of class time is spent solely on math; using ratios and proportions to alter recipe yields, calculating profit margins of menu items, determining food turn-over and stocking inventory, and balancing all of a restaurant’s operating costs. Needless to say, it’s not easy, and I experienced my first instance of legitimate student resistance. I’m learning to take student feedback with a grain of salt.
 |
| Learning different chef knife cuts |
Fortunately, the hard work of our mornings is more than balanced out by our experiential afternoons. Four hours of direct instruction daily is intense and exhausting, but it allows for some incredible educational possibilities. Our first big project involved researching a famous chef, renowned for a specific type of cuisine. The culmination of this project was choosing one of the chef’s signature recipes, and preparing it for the class. To do this, we went shopping at Nome Traders to purchase our ingredients and comparison shop. One student’s recipe called for buttermilk, and he mistakenly grabbed a box of buttermilk pancake mix thinking it was one and the same. Students had no idea what a pomegranate or fresh parsley looked like, and kept pointing to items saying “what’s that?!”. It was fun to watch them look in awe at all of the selection and prices. I can’t even imagine what would happen if I took them to Wal*Mart!
 |
| Making chicken fried chicken! |
Another highlight of our class was visiting Airport Pizza, a local restaurant, to interview employees and tour the facility. The owner discussed the nitty gritty truth about running a business and working in a restaurant. I had no idea that in order to cover all of the operating costs he must take in at least $100,000 in sales each and every month! That’s $1.2 million dollars a year! On our tour we visited the kitchen to watch line cooks in action, and I couldn’t believe their speed and synchronization; no wonder they earn upwards of $20/hour. We also watched as a barista prepared a vanilla chai latte as a surprise treat for me, in under 60 seconds flat. The students also got a generous reward; after sampling the freshly baked homemade bread, the owner had his head cook prepare a large pepperoni pizza with extra cheese from start to finish for us to take back!
 |
| Making our pizza |
 |
| Order up! |
This week was my first time swimming with students, and for some it was their first time being in a pool. Basic swimming skills are especially important for this population as there are many drowning related deaths each year, most often occurring when boats tip over. It’s a commonly held belief that you don’t have to know how to swim, because the water is so cold that if you get dunked, you’re dead anyway. This class reinforces that this isn’t necessarily true, and gives them the skills they need for a fighting chance. That being said, it’s a little surprising how many are strong swimmers. A few of the students told me stories of swimming in the ocean and chilly rivers at home. Some villages even have triathlons, polar bear swimming events, and diving competitions into deep swimming holes to see who can make the biggest and smallest splash. They told me the skinnier the diver, the bigger the splash!
 |
| Students do their own laundry after swimming - they need some pointers |
Many students got hit with homesickness, which is more common during sessions with fewer students. Because of this, I got to share my own feelings about going home for the first time in 4 months. Many wanted to know all about NY, and how in the world I wound up in Nome. The most pressing question was whether or not I was coming back; it’s all too common that teachers use winter break as a time to bail. In talking with a veteran teacher, she told me about a teacher from her school that was so desperate to leave, he up and left all his belongings, including a half-eaten bowl of cereal to board a plane and never return. Growing up I was used to knowing who my teachers were going to be years in advance, with anecdotal stories of their reputation, demeanor, and yearly projects (Mrs. Kerner’s one-room schoolhouse, Mr. Bouchard’s school-wide forensic investigation, and the middle school pushcart fair). These students don’t even know if their teachers will last the year. So much of their lives is dubious and changes dramatically on a whim. No wonder they tend to act on impulse, live in the moment, and are so very resilient.
 |
| Playing in the blizzard - check out those polar bear mitts! |
In Nome news, I’m in for an expensive winter. Three of the four scheduled fuel barges were prevented from delivering 1.6 million gallons of gasoline to Nome due to thick sea ice that moved in early as a result of the polar cyclone. Town officials are manically working to convince the Coast Guard to use their ice breaker to help lead the barge in, and on having fuel flown in non-stop (as the quantity of gas that will fit on a bush plane is limited), which will likely cause gas prices to rise to $9-$10 per gallon. And worse case scenario, if we cannot obtain more fuel, Nome could be completely dry within 3 months. I’m learning to roll with the punches, but the thought of my hard earned dollars burning off with each of the 15 minutes I must let my vehicle warm up does inflict a cringe or two. I’m cursing the 12mpg of my truck, now that I have the 4-wheel drive engaged at all times. No Price Chopper Fuel Advantage in Nome, that’s for sure!
 |
| Frozen sunset |
 |
| No more waves |
On a more positive note, I heard my first radio spot on KNOM this week. I have three blurbs in rotation, and I have to admit, it’s pretty fun to hear my voice with background music to boot! I also survived my second Alaskan blizzard to hit Nome. Wind gusted to over 40mph, but was blowing in a direction that counteracted the flooding that was so treacherous during the last storm. The driving conditions however, were insane. Blowing snow lead to complete whiteouts (luckily only lasting a moment), and huge snow drifts in the middle of the road. Thank goodness for 4-wheel drive, as it seemed the best strategy was just to barrel through the walls of snow, crossing your fingers that you’d make it through to the other side. I did have to shovel my truck out a few times, but it was quite impressive what it could handle, allowing me to get home instead of being stranded at work again. The blizzard didn’t stop the locals either; the annual Fireman’s Carnival went off as planned with so many attendees I’m fairly certain that we broke a few fire codes ourselves.
 |
| The KNOM star, and a wayward raven! |
 |
| Eating at Milano's, our Italian/Japanese Restaurant |
 |
| The wacky menu! |
 |
| The even wackier decor! Yes that's winnie the pooh |
 |
| Fireman's Carnival at the Rec Center |
 |
| B-I-N-G-O! It's seriously a big deal in Alaska... |
On the downside, it seems that with each storm there is a string of missing people. The day after the storm our community’s email list (nome-announce) was full of requests attempting to locate folks. One man was found after three days of a search and rescue, about 50 miles away from Nome on a closed road. He had survived with nothing but a few frozen beers. So far everyone has been found, but it’s definitely something I’m not accustomed to. Now for something happy – what was the very best part of the storm? It got up to 20 degrees above freezing! Yes, 20 degrees!!! After weeks of twenty below temperatures with an even more disturbing wind chill, it felt like a heat wave. And I can deal with the wild weather, just as long as Mother Nature gets her storming out of her system now. Come December 14th I need miles of visibility and little to no wind to send me home.
