I have almost arrived!

I wish I could take a picture of my face. It would really show how nervous I am. Even Nate, a guy who will be at the same site and is working at the airport this summer ( I think just to get his 15 minutes of fame on Flying Wild Alaska ) asked if I was nervous. All I remember thinking was, "Did you lose a piece of my luggage?" as he asked if my name was Jill. My response was, "Uhhh... did you lose it? I mean, my luggage, is it lost? Wait a minute, you look familiar! Are you Derek, Nate, Eric!!!??? Never mind, I see it!"

At that point I apologized, slowed down, shook his hand, and THEN ran after my luggage.

But to back it up a little. The flight to Bethel. It took one hour 6 minutes. I knew we had almost arrived when I heard the landing gear drop. Then I looked over and saw thick fog. Then I heard from the stewardess, "Is he really doing this?" and I looked over again and saw fog. Then I heard a child say, "I see it!" and another say, "I saw it!" and felt the plane drop fairly quickly only to pick up speed even more quickly and take off again. The pilot then announced, "Uhh.. folks, the advertised weather is way off, and we are going to try one more time and if it doesn't work, we are heading back to Anchorage."

My heart dropped. I wanted to be in Bethel so badly, even though Starbucks and nachos were in Anchorage. I wanted to meet the teachers, see the tundra that is my home and feel how cold it really is.

So we circled and finally landed. Now, b/c of the fog...no pics:( & it was raining, I am not going to chance it with this camera. After I walked off the plane, I headed into the airport to see a gentleman surrounded by new teachers holding a LKSD sign. The airport is indeed small, so we were all squished waiting for our luggage to come off. As the luggage came around on the belt, I was saying hello to other teachers, trying not to size people up, but you know, sizing people up. Everyone was either from Ohio, Oregon, or Ohio...many from Ohio. I chose to say Idaho for fear of being ridiculed if I said California- I wanted to sound like I knew what I was getting into.

As my luggage was coming off, we started heading outside. There were two suburbans waiting- def. not enough space for us all ( we all packed 3 bags) so I stayed back with a few other teachers and waited to get on the next ride out. It only took 30 minutes.

We arrived to a dorm like setup. We unloaded. We were picked up again. We were taken the LKSD's office. There I signed up with the union, got a cell phone, a new Mac, pizza, ice-cream, paperwork, (somewhere in b/t I chatted) and then back to the dorms where I chatted some more. There are MANY like-minded, very cool, down to earth individuals. I once again am blown away by God's goodness. I was ministered to like no other. I am still sad, scared, confused, and who knows what else...but so is everyone else.

Would you like to know the quote of the day?

A guy who looks like he is 30 steps into the office where there are a few of us talking to some teaching specialists. He stops, and a lady asks if he needs help. He responds with, "Ummm.. I need a contract. I never signed one. Do they know I am coming?"

I just bent over and laughed. Who in the world gets on a place for 13 hours without really knowing if he/she has a job in a very REMOTE area? Apparently this guy-lol.

So here are the pics:)

The gentleman that so kindly picked us all up.


















This is the mud that never ends.



































































































Very excited about this gal! She just signed on with Nunap. two weeks ago!