Day 1 at Hopson Middle School

I'll start with last night.  We landed in Barrow around 7pm Barrow time (10pm CST) after 16 hours of travel.  We landed in a 30 mph tailwind at 0 degrees Fahrenheit.  As a sidebar, this was the first airport we landed in where we were appropriately dressed in our winter boots and parkas, it was over 40 degrees in both Anchorage and Fairbanks.  Greeted at the airport by Steve Culbertson- our host while in Barrow, we gathered our bags and were driven to Ilisagvik College- our home for the next 6 weeks.  The three of us met a few of the other students living in the dorm and then promptly went to bed- at 8:30..... 

The morning started early with a hearty breakfast made by Steve, the nice man who runs foodservice here at Ilisagvik.  Let me tell you a bit about Steve: in the 8 minutes we spoke with Steve last night he gave us more important information about our stay in Barrow than we received from any one person thus far (where to get food, what the van phone number was, and how the internet works among other things).  Then we headed off to Hopson Middle School.  We were greeted again by a Steve (Culbertson this time...seems like everybody in Barrow is named Steve......) and he introduced us to our teachers.  

I'm very excited to be working with Deb Greene.  She has more science stuff in her classroom than I could ever imagine!  The subtitle of her syllabus for the year is "where science ROCKS and Inquiry is ACTION!!"  I'm exited to work with another science teacher who believes science is best learned through questioning and doing! We also spent a good amount of time talking about going skiing, I think we'll be a great team.  

Going back to middle school was a bit of a shock to the system, but once I got the hang of the difference in maturity level, it was smooth(ish) sailing.  I also learned this: kids are kids, whether they live north of the arctic circle or in rural southern Minnesota they all smile, laugh, bug each other, and don't laugh at my bad jokes.

All in all a great day, looking forward to tomorrow!

Peace out,

Peter

p.s. HOW IS A FELLA SUPPOSED TO EAT LUNCH IN 13 MINUTES!!!!!!!! but more on that later.....