Who Let The Dogs Out?

So I finally did some stuff this week. Besides teach. And let me tell you did I ever teach. I covered less than half of my lesson plans for the week. I don't know how much I can go into the individual stuff with confidentiality, but if I could I would probably be able to fill the blog with some pretty entertaining stuff. Let's just say I really have to thank Nate, Jen & the kids for the notepad and pens because I am documenting until my fingers fall off.

So... on with the week. Wednesday I went to a benefit concert for the Kuskokwim 300 (don't worry about pronouncing it, I am yelled at each day by my students for saying it wrong). The Kuskokwim is the main river and the reason Bethel is where it is at. It's the last place a mid size ocean barge can make it up the river before it will get stuck. So not only is Bethel the main hub for air travel, but anything that needs to go up the river to the upstream villages is transfered to small barges here. Anyways... back to the benefit concert. A former resident of Bethel and her husband came back to play some amazing folk music. The had some songs people had written over the years about dog sledding. I met all kinds of parents of some of my students and other people from the town. They also had this old native that played a few songs with them. He had a voice that sounded like Johnny Cash in his older years, but with a native accent. It was quite the concert.

And tonight- went to the big K300 starting event. They head up the river 150 miles and then back. People came from all over the state including a 16 year old girl from Nome, a burly mountain man from British Columbia and about everything in between. It is much more of a white person event. I would say about 2/3 of the people there were white, whereas when I went to a basketball tournament last night I was one of only a handful of white people there. I'll be heading back to see the finish tomorrow (of the smaller races) and then on Sunday for the big finish.

Claus (my Swedish roommate) and I came back, enjoyed a few beers (twice as many as I've had since I got here) and watched the fireworks from the kitchen table. Those two beers might be the reason for how long winded I may seem tonight. I think my tolerance is going down a bit...

So that's about it for now. I'll probably post again Sunday and let everyone know how the race turns out. Until then, enjoy some pics from the race. My new memory card should come soon so I will have some more memory. (Thanks Ma & Dad for the first of what sounds like many packages!) Have a great weekend.

Note: Look at the pics from bottom to top to get the full effect... the dogs were "skidding out" because they were so excited to catch up to the team ahead of them.