Good, Wonderful

Yesterday I had gone to youth group. We had watched a movie called Pilgrim’s something. Sorry I’m bad at remembering movies. Well, it was a good movie. It was about a man who wanted to be saved. So he goes on this journey to get to Heaven’s gate. He had people come up to him and he had taken their advice to go onto another passage way, which made his path difficult to face while trying to go to the Promised Land. First, he started all alone, then on his way he had help, a follower. They had faced many challenges, but they had got through them all; Not only by themselves, but with help from people. One part that I know is to fear not.  Psalm 23:4 “Thou I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; Thy rod and they staff, they comfort me.” The man says that quote while he walks through a dangerous path, but he says that quote and he fears no evil, for he knows he will be safe.

                That movie is true, well, true in a way that the Christian life is not easy. There are many things that try turn you down from the Christian life. But we got to know is to keep moving on and go through the stuff that try to turn us down. Also, encourage others to follow the Lord.

                I am so grateful to be part of the Youth Group and Young Warriors. Though, I should be going to them more often, especially Church. My boyfriend and I are going to start going to Church. He has inspired, I shall say, me to going Church, the both of us. So, my weekly plans are to go Church on Sundays, and to help out with Junior Church or go to Friday Night Church. (which is just singing, most of the time)

                The death of my Uncle Hultman, known as Ike, has changed peoples’ lives. For me, I am going to start going to Church and start reading the Bible. My friend’s dad is going to try not going to by snow machine by himself, when he goes to some place. My friend’s auntie and uncle want to stop drinking, and her boyfriend is ready to forgive his mother. God works in mysterious ways.

Well that is what I wanted to talk about, well half of what I wanted to talk about.

Last night, my boyfriend and I went riding, and It was so beautiful. The sky, the stars. I finally saw a shooting star. But it was so beautiful, I can’t even explain how beautiful it was. You just had to be there to believe how it was. Other than that, I got cold and my parts were starting to get wet. I thought we were just going downtown, but then I had been wrong. We had went riding in the powdered snow. (powdered snow is fun to go riding in, except at times, well for me.) But getting cold and getting partly wet was worth it. : )

Well, this is it for now. Plus, my internet wasn’t working at home. Just to let you know.

RIP

Does things happen for a particular reason, or do they just come out of the bloom?

Why can't most of us believe it but we know its true, but to some they just can't take it that his gone....
The world seems to stop once it was real. All I thougth about was his family. What would they do?
But to know, his wife, she knew exactly what he wanted and she knew he was there.
For he couldn't wait to meet his Heavenly Father as I was told. He talked about it enough to know he was going there for sure. Every morning he would read the Bible, as my Auntie told me.
We all know his in a better place, living a happier life without no sins, just love praise happiness no tears no fear nothing but pure love. The place where he always have dreamed of.
In loving memory of Ike Kiokun.
We all miss you very much!

Wonderful

Sorry I have not been writing. The internet has been down and all.

Well today was romantic. My boyfriend and I went for a ride around the village. First, we went to where they go hunting, well just a hunting spot, and just stayed there looked at the view. The view was beautiful. You could see the village and the stars and the moon, beach and the frozen ocean. It was wounderful. Next, we went to Daniel's Mountain, wich is about 15 minutes out of the village. We went all the way to to top, by snow machine. It was wonderful and beautiful also. We were up there for a few minutes. We saw the small village. It was a some what cold on our way there. I didn't know exactly where we were until I saw the mountain, because it was dark outside.

Well, it was so much fun, I enjoyed it alot. : )

For the past few nights, its been clear skies and you can see the starts and the moon. But, during the day it has been cloudy and what not.

I'm finally going to do laundry. My mother has been doing it for the past how many times. I like doing laundry. Its fun for me in some weird odd way. But I enjoy it. Except for waiting but still I find it somewhat fun each time I do laundry.

Well, I guess this is it.

Telling Them

Right now I am having troubles with which way my carrer is going. I know that I want to stay here in Mekoryuk and live here. Except the challenging part is jobs. There arn't many jobs here in Mekoryuk. Another hard part is to tell my parents I want to stay here in Mekoryuk and live here.
I can't see myself living in Anchorage or Bethel, plus I don't want to live in those places.
I had plans to become a nurse, but then I wouldn't want to work at a place I don't want to live in. So my mind has changed...
I have told my parents and my teacher and my principal what I wanted to become and they seemed so proud of my decision. The hard part for me of telling them. I guess I'm afraid of seeing their reaction or I don't know. Its just all a process of a little bit of everything. And I don't know exactly what I mean by that...
I have to tell my parents soon. But I'm being a wimp about it.... I guess I'm scared to tell them because they had shown a lot of impressing of happiness or like 'thats a great goal for you in life' expression in their faces when I had told them what I wanted to become.  But I'm losing time to tell them. With all the applications I would be doing and everything. Just its so stessing and a bit confusing.
A lot is on my mind about it. I think about it every day in school at night. I just don't know what to do. I don't want to tell them last minute.... I just can't tell them now, but I really want to tell them. But I guess my feelings on how they would come about is what is stopping me.....

Librarian

Well, I've been working in the school library for OJT for my first and second period, and just started with my fourth period as well. It's been alright, very busy for me. We, the principal and I have been working, oh and also Allen, have been working in there since last monday. We are re-arranging it and making it look like an actual library. You should have seen in before, a total MESS. The books were EVERYWHERE. And last year me and other students had put all the 100's through 900's in alphabetical order alone with there duey decimal, and this summer the construction workers had messed them up! which sucks, but then at least our libraby with be put together.
And I do most of the work! whenever I look at my helper, I should say, his always looking at a book, while I'm doing most of the work!
Plus it is dusty, which makes my hands white and gross feeling. Well, with the work I put in, I say its somewhat quite worth it, in a busy way.
I'm starting to put the books on the shelves. I can't wait till its all done! Well, this is it for now I guess. : )

Good Times

I miss all the good times when my best friends, Hazel and Dallas, would always be together. I miss all the sleepovers we used to have. Why does good things change so quickly?

All the times when just the three of us would sleep over at my house playing game most of the night, taking pictures and having a great time. We would always sleep either at my house or at Hazels house. The times when either just Hazel slept over or Dallas slept over at my house. Now things are very different.
The most I remember was just playing game all night and just talking. When Hazel helped bleach half of my bottom hair. That night we were trying to stay up all night, but I fell asleep around 9 and Hazel fell asleep around 930. We were just playing game, guitar hero, and just talking and having fun and everything. When Dallas sept over, when it was just her my sister and me, we were drawing and we played hide and go seek in the dark, only using our phones for light. That was fun. But now, we bairly sleep at eachothers houses. Now, my best friend is blessed with a baby girl. She is so adorable and beautiful.

We used to do just about everything together. In the summer, we'd hang out, go walking, sleep at eachothers houses, go to bon fires, just have a wonderful time outside. In the winter, we would go riding all around town, hang out, sleep at eachothers houses, and just play in the snow.

Man, and the fiddle dances! I wish we still had those. Those were the best, well sort of the best. But they were so much fun! There was this one time when our teacher, Mr. Iverson, when he was here, he played in the band, it was awesome. : ] He sang one of Johnny Cash's songs. It was The Ring of Fire. He sort of sounded like him when he was singing it, sort of, in my opinion. That was the best year when he was teaching here. The year when him and Mr. Barnett was teacher here, which was last year.

There are more wonderful fun times with me and my best friends. But things are slowly changing. But thats the way life goes, people go others come into peoples lives. But sure as hell I'm not going to forget all the good times Hazel, Dallas and I had with all those years. Today, our friendship is still going. By the way, we still don't know how we became best friends, but I'm happy that we are.

Busy

Well, the weather is total weird this winter year! Yesterday, it was warm out, and it melted some of the snow and snow drifts from two days ago's storm. But today, it is cold, not too cold, but cold. It's WEIRD. Although, I am happy we didn't have a brown Christmas, unlike Bethels, brown-ness town, this Christmas.

Anyways, I have a research paper that I have been doing, just today, started after school, which was around 4:30 that I got home and I got to work just about right away. I'm still working on it right now, except I took a dinner break, and I'm, taking a break right now. It is due on Friday, the last day of our first semester. It is weird, because we are ending our semester on the 11th, and not at the end of our last week for break to come up. Anyways, I was procrastinating on doing my homework for my research paper, we had a bunch of time working on it, and I'm finally getting to it. I need to work on that, I got to learn how to do things more earlier, instead of doing things last minute. Thats the way I'll have more stuff to do and have more free time. BUT, I have Cup'ig homework to do too, which I have no idea doing. I have to write sentences, which sucks. ( I wish I knew my native language, how to speak undersand and write in my native language, well I guess thats why I'm taking it. It is required to take Cup'ig here. Which sort of sucks.)

Oh, and we have Native Arts week, thats when we just have different events that have to do with Native crafts and other stuff along that line, and we are supposed to have it once every month, but then we got a new Cup'ig teacher, and EVERYTHING changed, we only do it once in a while, which makes me sad, because there are so much things to learn in our traditional ways and cultural crafts we can learn to make. We also have it just for one hour. We used to start having Native Arts week right after lunch and go on until school gets out. Now, its just a BUMMER that we only have it for an hour.

I have a bunch of school stuff I NEED to get done before Friday, so I'm thinking of taking a day off from everything ( going out to hang out, going riding, watching a movie, etc) and just focus on my school work, so I can have less stuff to worry about next semester, I'm excited for next semester! Well, I just wanted to write a little and take a break from my research paper, so I'm going. Oh, and I will get them done soon Mr. Iverson. : ] Just to let you know and I'm almost done with my reading and I have a couple more writing indicators to do. : ]

Take care everyone.

[[ Don't look back, something may be catching up to you. Look to the future.... There's always a new day tomorrow that will keep you laughing and cheerful. - Satchel Paige ]]

Snow Snow Snow

Today's weather is blizzardy[ish]. There are lots of snow comming down and wind blowing. I just got done shoveling not to long ago. Along with the help of Jason and my sister shara. So, we have more snow! Which means, more snow to go snow machining. : ] Fun, oh and plus snow drifting with 4 wheeler! FUN.

Well, school starts tomorrow, joy. Well on the bright side, I'm continuing my education and plus, I'll be doing stuff, rather then doing nothing all day and what not. If school starts, I'll probably won't post as much blogs, but I'll try to every day. Well, I should be, because my schedule should be easier, since I'm going to only have to worry about my reading and writing phases. : ]

My goals for 2010: To Graduate, Go UAA with my sister, Learn, Help others, Do good at state speech, There is wayy more, but I just can't think of them at this moment.

Oh and State Speech is on March 4-6, so I have to start memorizing my speech if I want to do good. Oh man, I'm going to be so nervous. [ I don't do so well at talking in front of a crowd, especially if I don't know the people, but I tend to do good enough to make it to state speech, so yeah. Speaking in front of crowds isn't my best, its more towards my weakness side.] I have to add some stuff and move stuff around and man, it seems like alot right now, but I know it won't be, but yeah. I just have to keep a positive attitude on it. : ]

[[Success in life is the result of focusing your energies and efforts in a specific direction and using yoru capabilities to their fullest. And take time to help those less fortunate; it will fill your heart with joy.-Michael DeBakey]]

ICE FISHING

Here is my mom ice fishing for tom cod.

Here is my dad and I looking down at the fish. That was when we were fishing for trout. It isn't that deep, mostly saw little trout. : ] It was so much fun.

Theres me, fishing for trout. I didn't get any fish that day.

New Year!

Well, its a new year! Class of 2010! Graduating from Nuniwarmiut High School, Home of the Herders.
On new years, I went riding all night and hung out with everyone who was out. It was crazy fun night. I went riding with Jason, my boyfriend. His ride was kick ass. We went maybe 100 or less mph. I don't know what his snogo he was using, but it sure was a great ride. : ) Well, I went home at 5:30 am, as well as my sister. But things were getting pretty crazy in the village, well doesn't it usually on new years? Well you should know that... [which is pretty not good, a big no no]

[[ Remember that you can accomplish just about anything in life that you want to accomplish if you focus enough of your energies in that direction... Hard work will always be the key to success. -Tony Dorsett ]]

The weather has been cold lately, it got cold on the first. The wind has made the weather colder, but it's just like all of a sudden it was getting cold out. I noticed it was getting cold maybe 30 minutes before I went home on new years day... But, thats how it usually is. The thing is, is that there is barily any snow this year, like I said, last year it was crazy! We couldn't even get trucks or 4-wheelers out up to the airport, we had to use snow machines to get there. But when we were able to use trucks, only the roads would be clear, and there was tall snow walls, so it was hard for a person on a 4-wheeler to pass by the truck. Well, that was last year, if you want to hear more about it, you can tell me or whatever.

Today, my family and I went for a ride up the hill just outside of our village. It took maybe more then half an hour to get there. It was beautiful, almost unbelievable to believe how beautiful it is. We were able to see Nelson Island from up there, well we are able to see it from the village, but we were able to see it more clearly, and it looked big. Although it was cold up there. But the sun was bright, not very high, and the cold wind breeze. It was worth the trip. While we were heading back to the village, we spotted some ptarmigan. When I saw them, I wanted to go ptarmigan hunging, but I never went hunting for how many years now.

Well, I'm not in the mood for typing right now, so I'm going to stop here.

Last day of 2009

Some Ups for 2009:
Got a summer job, doing beach clean up
Taught my cousin to ride a bike, well start off himself
Being a senior
My sister being here in my senior year
Cut lots of fish this year
My hairs growing
Picking Berries!
Learned how to knit
Almost done with my reading and writing phase
Joined sports
Got second place in district speech meet
Going state speech
Setting new goals
Reaching goals
Traveling for school
Re-arranged my room
Fishing, both Ice and Net fishing
Meeting new people
ETC.


Some Downs for 2009:
Me and my best friend not talking for a while
The weird winters weather
Getting bad in Native Youth Olympics
Cutting my hair
Not helping as much as I should with my Gram
Not being with my other Gram as much
Not beading as much anymore
procrastinating with school
Theres some more, but it's hard to think of all of them right now.

Well there hasn't been a plane for a two days, due to the weather. right now its sort of foggy, up towards the airport. But, yesterday we got more snow, which is good, because it is new years eve! and theres more snow for snow machining for tonight! :)

Every new years eve, there are games for a few hours. Most of the people attend the games. After the games there is church servious from 11 to 12. After that people ride around hang out and just have a good time. Two years ago, I was out till 5 am. Last year, it was boring, went home around 2 or 3. But this year, I believe its going to be fun. :)

I hope you enjoyed todays blog.

Happy New Years! Keep it safe.

Loads of snow

Hello, my day was wonderful and fun, well my night out. We went pull sleding again, which makes my days funer and funer. While we were pull sleding, I was sitting up front, cause two people sit in the sled, and I started to laugh and then we were going through soft snow and a whole bunch of snow went into my mouth, which made me laugh more then more snow ended up in my mouth. Even snow stuck on my face. :) We started around 8 or 8:20 and we got done before 10. When we go, we usually go out the door a little after 7, but then we had to wait for a few people. But it was loads of fun.


Heres a picture of yesterdays sliding. This was when I done a jump, the one I was talking about in my previous post. :)

Well, I don't have much to say, so I'm stopping here. I'll come up with a more interesting post some other time. :)

Fun Fun Fun

Hey everyone. Our internet wasn't working for a few days, well the whole villages internet, now its back on:). Well I've been having fun this week. I went pull sleding yesterday and today, which was alot of fun. We went all around the village, even up towards the airport, which is three miles out of our village, and around the loop, which is an old road that goes from the village to the dump and its just a big oval. Well, I went pull sleding with my sister, Dallas (Pani [pronounced bunny]) Aaron, and Jon yesterday, and today, with my sister, Aaron, my Beautiful, and Mel. It was a Blast! it was the highlight of my week! Well, today we, my beautiful and I, fell off the sled maybe three times. Whenever we fall off we start to laugh really hard, cause its so funny and fun. Oh and today my sister and I went sliding on the dunes. It was a whole lot of fun! It was funny also, cause when I tried to go down from the top, I done a little jump and went down and crashed, you just had to be there to see it. And when I went down one part, I went all the way to the other dune across (by the way, the dunes aren't that far apart there right next to eachother, and theres a space in between) and went up a little ways on it and started to slide backwards. It was so much fun, I never went sliding in forever! Well this blog post is going from one to another about my day, so sorry about this, I'm just having fun remembering my fun days. :)

Anyways, I can't wait till my boyfriend comes back, we never seen eachother since the 14th, so I can't wait. :) I just had to put that in. But yeah, my plans for tomorrow is go sliding and pull sleding and just have a great time!
ok i'm going to stop here. :) Hope you enjoyed todays blog post.

My Speech "Wrangell Institution"

Can you imagine 5 year olds being taken away to get the education they need, and their parents do not have any authority to overcome it? In the early 1900’s boarding schools were built in Alaska that were operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, or BIA. Many Alaska Natives were sent away to these boarding schools. Students who attended boarding schools have unforgettable memories of negative and positive outcomes.
Boarding schools caused trauma among many Alaska Native people. In the National Resources Center for American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian Elders, it states: boarding schools are the second leading cause of trauma to Alaska Natives. The distress is still felt today by many former boarding school students. The suffering caused by boarding schools began when students got taken away from their parents and communities. Those who were orphans were especially affected, because of the previous trauma they went through during the epidemics like the Great Death. For those of you who do not know what the Great Death is, it is a tragic event that occurred when deadly diseases and illnesses killed many family and communities in Alaska.
Boarding schools were created by some of the orphanages and the schools that were run by the government to be controlled by BIA. This was when they started building boarding schools around Alaska in the early 1900’s. At this time the Alaska Native people’s lives were extremely affected.
I would like to tell you about a boarding school that was built in 1932. This boarding school was known as the Wrangell Institute. It was located about five miles out of Wrangell in southeast Alaska. Wrangell Institute was a boarding school for elementary students from grades one through eight. There were boys and girls as young as five years old attending that institute. BIA first separated the children from their parents and authorities told their parents they had to receive proper education. If their parents disagreed to release their children, they were threatened with being sent to jail. Many of the children did not understand why they were being taken away. Some communities were left with no school age children because they were taken away to boarding school.
Alaska Native students who went to Wrangell Institute had to go through several steps before they were settled into the boarding school. The first step was to place the children in dorms. They were separated into boys and girls groups. All the students had to be stripped down and get their haircut. All the boys got their head shaved and cropped “G.I.” style. All the girls’ haircuts were shortened slightly above their shoulders. After they go their haircuts, the children had to bathe. Some of the employees scrubbed the students cruelly to where the children wailed with pain. The children who witnessed the violent scrubbing did their best to wash themselves. Then, they dressed them, with identical shirts, pants, socks, and shoes. Students with poor eyesight were given eyeglasses. Lastly, they were issued a number like prisoners are today. The children had to memorize their numbers, and if they forgot their numbers, they were strictly disciplined. The children were referred to by their numbers, instead of their names, by some of the employees and their teachers.
For many years the students had experienced or witnessed emotional, psychological, physical, or sexual abuse. They had suffered from the punishment and abuse that occurred every day. An Inupiaq man tells his story about the punishment he had when a Yup’ik boy and him got caught wrestling. Their punishment was to go into the shower, undressed, while and employee sprayed them with a fire hose. The water was cold, just barely above freezing level. Their skin peeled off from the full force of the water. While they screamed with pain, the employees laughed to see them yell with grief. He also talked about the sexual abuse that occurred at the Institute. After lights went out, the teachers, administrators, or employees would pick out a student and molest them. There were many other abuses and punishment Alaskan students suffered through in boarding school.
After many years of attending Wrangell Institute, Alaska Natives were ashamed to be associated with their language and culture. They had problems integrating back into their families and communities. Those were the main negative outcomes of attending boarding school.
On the other hand, the positive outcomes include: having life-long relationships with people from other Alaskan communities, opportunities to learn about the outside world, and gaining independence and discipline for productive adult lives. For instance, student who continued their education went to Mt. Edgecumbe High School after their eight- grade year.
Today, many Alaska Natives won’t tell their stories of attending Wrangell Institute. Those who have shared their stories took many years to tell what occurred at boarding school. It took much courage to voice their stories, especially the horrifying days of violence and abuse. Sadly, the painful visions they experience are as clear as if it had happened yesterday. The experience of going boarding schools taught them the western world of living. Which meant, they were able to live in either worlds, the Western and Native, and still be successful in life.


I hope none of you don't think wrong about what I was writing about in my paper.

Sunday

My Christmas was wonderful! Also my Christmas Eve's church, it was wounderful. I just love it. On Christmas day, the family went out for a snow machine ride up past the airport towards west. We went to go get wood, it was alot of fun.

I can't believe its going to be a new year. The year I'm going to graduate! I'm excited, but I am going to miss highschool very much! Well yeah, I'm going to be sad when I go college, leaving family and friends. But I will have my other family and friends. But, I'm sort of scared of going college, how different it will be and how it will work out and everything. I'm not sure if I want to become a nurse practitioner anymore... After I gradeuate from college, I want to come back here, to Mekoryuk and live here. I would want to become a health aide. But I'm still young. My mind is going all directions on what I want to do. First of all I wanted to live out in Anchorage and become a nurse, but then my minds going into another direction and making me want to come back here and live here. But the thing is that there are a few jobs here. So I really don't know what to do anymore...

The weather is weird, compaired to last year. Last year there was a whole bunch of snow! It was unbelieveable! There was so much snow, trucks couldnt make it out to the airport, and out airport is 3 miles out of the village. This year there isn't much snow, we can still see some of the tundra. I wish there were more snow. Well at least we have some snow. Unlike Bethel, they have none. Unless they got some. Because when I went there, there was none.

I don't really know what to write right now, so I'm going to stop here.

my blog

I am deciding to keep on writing in my blog as much as I can, instead of ignoring it. I am a senior of Nuniwarmiut High School over at Mekoryuk, Alaska. Mekoryuk is located on Nunivak Island in western Alaska, for those of you who do not know where Nunivak Island is. Here is a little about Nunivak Island: theres only one village on Nunivak Isand, which is Mekoryuk, the population is a little less or a little over 200 people, we don't have that much students in out school, we are the home of the Herders, our language is Cup'ig, it's beautiful here, we have musk-ox and reindeer that are big game, and so on.

This year we don't have much snow as last year, acutally very much less then last year. Last year we were packed with snow! It's crazy, the weather. People from the community were reindeer hearding, putting them in the slaughter place, sorry I forgot what it was called. Until the snow started to melt due to rain and warm weather, so I don't think we are able to get reindeer this winter, as we usually do, but I'm not sure.

In March I am going to state speech! I'm excited! I will post my speech on a different post. At speech meet, that was held in Bethel, I thought I was going to get third place, but I thought wrong. I got second place. There were 11 participants in my catorgy, which was Expository. It was about Wrangell Institution. I was nervous while I was saying my speech. But my classmates were supporting me, as well as I was supporting them. My classmates that went to speech meet were Alyssa, Dawn and Erin. We all did well. All of us went to the final round except for Alyssa. Dawn got fifth place, Erin got third place, and I got second place. We are all winners and we all done well. All of the students who went to speech.

Christmas is comming up soon! I'm excited for that. Tomorrow were going to church for the Christmas program. Just about every year people from the community go Christmas caroling at 5 am, singing songs by every house. It all depending on the weather. I am happy for all those who came here for Christmas, so they can be with family.

Well, I don't have much to say in this blog, so I'm going to stop here. Happy Holidays to everyone!

Today's Writing

Sorry for not writing on here for a while..

Well, here in Mekoryuk, it has been freakin' cold! and its March, soon going to be April! Just not to long ago, it was snowing lightly, but not for a long time. It suppose to be warm, not freaking below zero. Well I don't know how the weather is right now, I never went out, besides this morning to take my dog out, but that doesn't really count.

My grandma is suppose to come here. So exciting, I'm so happy. She's going to be here for two weeks. She's here for the Island Jubliee. Island Jubliee is when people go to the church and sing and talk. People come from different villages, not much though, in my opinion. But I like it, because I love the songs they sing, and how they play the music. It's so cute when the younger kids sing in Cup'ig.

Well, I found out that I will be able to graduate in December yesterday! I'm not sure if I want to yet, I'm still thinking. It's a big thing right now. But next school year, I have two options, weather to have me schedule easy and being able to rest lots, or working hard to graduate in December. But next school year, I have to have four classes so I can graduate. They are: Reading, Writing, and two Social Studies classes. I'm almost done with reading and writing right now. I have one more phase in both of those classes. (:




I love old stories from the past in my culture. Some are so interesting. There are stories about little people, which are people that live out in the tundra and there very very small. They say they can turn into anything. I do believe in them. Because this one time when I was younger, I was at my fish camp in Bethel, and my cousin, my sister and I were playing hide and go seek, and me and my sister was hiding next to each other, and there was this huge black bird we saw, the wings were very long, I don't know how long they were, but the bird was huge! and it went into the trees, and we got scared and we ran and told our uppa and grandma. Also, there's this other time, my grandma and uppa went to the fish camp, and my uppa went to go back to Bethel to get the other people, I think, and she went and she was unlocking the door, and she went in and she said that there was a little person standing on the table. There are other stories as well, I'll tell you the ones I know.
This one I heard in school: Back in the old time, people used to go cliff hanging. They went cliff hanging wherever there is cliffs and birds. They went cliff hanging for birds and their eggs. They used to use seal intestine for the string. The rich men used to go cliff hanging, and there was this poor man who was very poor. He was walking along the beach, and he saw a walrus, so he went and started to cut it. and he went to the place where they went cliff hanging. Oh, and you have to know that the seal intestine would break and people would fall and die, and when someone falls the birds would know that someone died, and the birds would all get quiet. And the cliffs, the birds are so loud. Well, he went and when he went down the cliff, his walrus rope never broke, and then on, everyone started to use walrus rope.
Back then, people used to walk to get from one place to another. They even would walk from the north of the island to the south of the island. Well there was this one time, someone was walking and they heard some loud noise, like a gunshot, and it started to get louder and louder, and he was getting closer and closer, and when he got upon to that point, he saw a man and little kids running away from him and he was farting in the face.


Well I'll write more stories later on.

dumb

The weather is so dumb right now! It's getting me mad. I have nothing to do, the weather sucks ass!! Freaking blowing snow and now it's wet snow, which is even worse! Tomorrow Friday the 13th. I don't believe that's a bad luck day or anything like that. I think that's BS. I'm stopping right here... I'm just being mad. Sorry. I'll write more later on maybe tomorrow.

School and Sport

This school year is going by so fast! It's already February. We get out of school in May. I need to start working on my writing more at school and home. I'm thinking of staying after school to work on my writing, but I'm not sure. Maybe I will at some days. Right now I'm working on my Newspaper Article. Well in writing, we have Sandra come in and 'teach' us stuff about the 8 parts of speech, which takes couple of minutes off of our writing, which I don't like. Well I guess it should be good and all, but I don't like it. Anyways, I just have a phase and a half left to do, and I'll be done with writing! I'm happy. I'm all done with math, which is great. My reading teacher, which is also my teacher in all my classes except for 2 classes, said that we are going to try finish two indicators in reading, I really hope we do. If we do, then I'll be done with reading! Also, I'll be done with PE and Health this year.
School Sports, Native Youth Olympics. I love NYO. My goal for One Foot High Kick is go to 83 inches. At Toksook Bay, I kicked 78 inches, they said I past 79 inches. I really believe I can achieve my goal. I just want to get into shape and stretch out. Well, we have PE and we work out and stretch, but not for so long, but it's still stretching and working out, right? I'm also hoping I get better in Alaska High Kick, I really don't know what my goal is for that event, because I don't know how hi I really can kick, all I know is that its past 60 inches. I'm guessing that I can kick 64 or higher. I'm getting better at Wrist Carry. I think that event is becoming my third favorite event. My first is One Foot, Alaskan, and either Wrist Carry or Kneel Jump. I'm also in Seal Hop and Indian Stick Pull.

Reindeer

Today my dad and I went up past the airport where they butcher reindeer. I had fun, but I got cold now and then. When they butcher reindeer, the people who are in charge shoots the reindeer and one person ties a string onto their hooves and brings them back to the people who has a receipt. They tie two reindeer's at a time. They first started with the elders then went down the list. My dad was number 10, I'm glad he wasn't like number 52 or anything like that. We went there around 1:00 PM. When we came back it was around 4:30 PM. Well, one reindeer was still alive, it was my grandmas friend, shes my relative in some way but I don't know what she is to me, perhaps my auntie. Well when there still alive, they poke them on the head with a knife, there is a certain place to poke them, she it will poke the brain, I think. Well they had to do that with one that I knew of, because it was still alive and breathing. Also that reindeer had blood squirting out of it's side, where the person shot it.
When we got our reindeer, I felt funny, because I didn't know how and there was people there who knew how, and I didn't know how. I can't explain how I felt or anything. Just that I really wish that my parents were more hard on me and that they would tell me to help them and everything. I'm in a village where everybody helps everybody. We live in a village with the population less then 200. Everybody knows everybody here. Well, as I said, I really don't know how to explain how I felt, it was just... I don't know.
Anyways, I had fun over there. The ride back was a saying in mind that I couldn't wait to come back. Because I had to use the bathroom, and it was hard because of all the bumps we hit. Well that's all I'm writing.

Getting Stuck

Today I went riding around with my best friend, Pani [pronounced bunny], but I call her baby, because shes my baby sister. Well we went out riding around the village just being bored but having fun. We were doing small jumps and going around in circles. We went up towards the airport way and I let her drive for a while. After we went riding, we started to play pool. We played cut-throat. We played with our best friend, Hazel, but we call her autie. Well I won the game, and baby lost. Well after the game, me and baby went for a ride again and we were going around the school and I decided to go to a different place. Well, I saw this little hill and I was going to go on it and I stopped and I was going to back up, and then we got stuck. The snow was soft and we kept trying to get out. We started to laugh until it got harder to take out. It was funny, and it still is now looking back. We were pulling and pushing and it still was stuck. Until we tried to move it the other direction, where the snow wasn't so soft. Then we got out. It was funny and lots of hard work. It was our first time getting stuck and our first time being able to get it unstuck. It was fun. :D Well that's my story for today.

Hawaii Trip

November 20th my grandma, auntie, sister and two baby cousins went to Honolulu Hawaii. it was amazing there! it was great, I love it there! Well anyways, when we got there, it was around 10, i think. Well, when we got there the air was so moist and hot. It had a weird smell. It smelt funny, I don't know how to explain it. We went to rent a car and we had to wait for a long time because they needed something. Then we got to our hotel. The first day, my baby cousins woke me up sometime around 7 am. They wanted to go swimming, so we went swimming and we went to the beach. We went swimming every day when we were there. We went around the whole island! it was amazing! We went to shopping, walking, the beach, sight seeing, snorkeling, and driving around. Snorkeling was the best and it was so much fun! There is much more to say about Hawaii. Just some day I'll go back to Hawaii, maybe someplace else. I love Hawaii! I want to go with my best friend, Dallas, and my family.

Some Child Memories

My mom told me about when I was younger. I used to do naught stuff and think funny things.

Well one of them is silly and funny. It goes like this. When I was living in Bethel, my sister and I were helping my mom pluck birds. I can't remember when this was. Well after we were done helping my mom pluck birds, she told us to go wash our hands, so we went. My mom said that we were being loud in the bathroom then we got quiet. She said she was wondering what we were doing, so she went to go check on us. Well when she got there, she saw that I shaved one of my eyebrows. She asked why I shaved my eyebrow and I answered, "because there was little feathers on it." So silly of me. Then, the next day she went to go bring me to my grandma's house and she asked my grandma if she knew something different about me. She didn't know, then my mom told her.

My best friend, Jessica Konig, came over to my house one day. She asked me if I wanted to play baseball, and I said yes. When she came over, she was using long socks, just like baseball players do. Well, when I saw that she was using long socks, I told her that I was gonna get ready. I came out with long socks too, over my pants just like Jessica and the baseball players. My mom told me that her and my dad were watching us play and laughing because it was just too cute.

My mom told me when I was younger, that every time there wasn't a full moon, I'd ask for a spoon. She asked me how come I wanted a spoon. I said "to feed the moon so it can be full."

When I was small I couldn't say ing, I was say in instead of ing. And when we were at fish camp, I wanted to swing, so I asked my uppa if he can make me a swing. He thought I was saying I wanted to swim. He said no, and I got sad. My mom asked me why I was sad and I told her that my uppa wouldn't make me a swing. Then she told him that I wanted him to make me a swing and not swim.
Plus my sister, Shara, used to try teach my how to say ing instead of in. I never got it when she tried to teach me, she kept saying it over and over again until she got mad and stopped.

Well that's it for today's blog.

The Winter Times

Yesterday was a blizzard. It sucked so much! All the "fun" walking through the deep snow that went up past your knees. Since there was a blizzard, that meant snow drifts. Well, last night the snow drift got hard, but not too hard, and the tractor cleared up the road so whatever vehicles would be able to pass bye. Now there is just a pile of snow in front of my house. Our 4 wheeler got covered in snow, almost the whole thing, except for the handle bars and part of the front and back part of the top of the 4 wheeler. Well my dad got it out today. I wanted to help him, but then after dinner I fell asleep and I woke up to the sound of a wheeler. It was starting to annoy me, so I decided to check who it was, then I saw it was my dad. After I saw it was him, I felt bad because he dug that out by himself.
Lots of snow like that reminds me of when I was younger. When I used to play out with my best friend, Jessica Konig and my sister, Shara Davis, we'd go out and just explore the snow. We'd try to make igloos, make a snow caves, just anything we can think of. I remember one day, there was no school because of the blizzard. Me and Jessica went to go play out, and we make a snow cave outside my house. That was when my cousins came to visit us from someplace out of alaska. Well, the day they were going to leave Bethel, my two cousins, Aaron and Bryan broke Jessica's and my snow cave, and we got mad at them. We saw that they built one too, and so we broke there's too, but they didn't mind, because they were leaving that day. Well that's enough for now.

Late Night Blog

Well, I'm going to try write on my blog occasionally. [if I have things to say.]

Well, for a start. I should be taking a college class this semester. Its something like Medical Technology, something along those lines. If I take that class then I would be taking it from 5:10 to 6:40 every Thursdays. Next year, I can be taking college classes also, to get the freshman credits out of the way, or however it goes. Thats if everything turns out well. So, I'm excited for those.

School
This school year is going by fast! We already have four months till school is out! School is going good, I'm finished with math, so I'm happy I got that out of my way. I also past the HSGQE, which is High School Graduation Qualifying Exam, so thats off my chest. I should be done with reading this school year, if everything turns out good and if I pass the tests for reading. For writing I'll be done next school year. My teachers say that my schedule for next school year should be easy and everything, I think so also, well if I do my work well. And I will be graduating next school year. Class of 2010!

Family
My sister is going to college over at Anchorage at UAA. My mom is the Health Aid over here in Mekoryuk, along with my friends sister. My dad is working as something, I don't know what he does. Anyways, there great and I love them! My grandma lives in Anchorage for the winter with my Auntie and she lives here for the summer. So, I can't wait to see her! I really would love if my baby cousins came here for the summer time, that'd be nice. My other grandma, I don't see often, because she lives in Bethel. I only get to see her when I go over there. I miss her, and everyone else in my family. Also, I'd really love to meet my other family members that live in different villages. My mom said that I have a lot of relatives in Akula, also in other villages. I don't even know them or how were related. I know we have relatives in Akula, Toksook, Tununak, Napakiak, Napas, and I don't know the rest. Someday I'd meet them.

Friends
I love my friends! My two best friends over her in Mekoryuk are Hazel Peterson and Dallas Williams. We have nicknames for each other that we always call each other by. We don't say our real names. Its a long story from a couple years back. Thats how we got them. Well, I'm going out with Allen, which is great and I'm happy with him! He makes me happy and at times, I get the butterflies when I'm with him. Its such a great feeling. Well, my other friends that lives far way, I love them also. I miss them a lot too. My best friend, Jessica Konig, we've been best friends since she was 5 years old and I was 4 years old. We lived right next to each other most of our lives. Since Kindergarten through part of our 9th grade year. My other friends that I meet about a year ago, there fun to be with and trying to get to know them more and more. But its hard because they live in different places like Toksook, Tununak, Akula. I meet them during Native Youth Olympics. I love to meet new people. I meet a lot of people, but I don't know their names because they're just too much that I've meet, and still I'm willing to meet more people.

Enjoyable Things
I went ice fishing today, which was loads of fun. We went to catch Tom Cods. I love to go ice fishing, I've been going ice fishing ever since I was younger.
I like take walks on the beach. Watch sunsets. Take pictures. Go camping, fishing, boating. I LOVE to travel, esp. to places I've never been to.
and just many more things.

Well thats it for right now.

Times

I miss those days back then when everything was easy. I miss my best friends, when we all got alone and were always with eachother. Now that I live here I'm still best friends with my best friends that live in Bethel, it's just that everything is different now. It's because the distance away from eachother and not being able to be around them as much, just only the times when I'm in town or wherever we are. I just thought everything would be fine, I mean that things won't change this much in them.[If you know what I'm talking about, you may thing one thing when it's really a different thing.] The sayings,"Best Friends Forever" can be true to some people. I mean, I've said that to my best friend and we've been friends ever since she was 5 and I was 4. We still are, but just everything feels different between us, we still feel best friends, well to me it feels like it. Lots of things are going through my mind I forgot what I was going to write next. Sorry. I'll write some other time or some other subject.

things

Sorry I haven't been writing in my blog. I've been just hanging out with my family and my sister, since shes going to collage in Anchorage. I've been just spending my time with her when I can.
Anyways.
I'd love to go Australia some day. I'd just have to wait and see what will happen. I've been wanting to go Australia for quite a while. My friend lives in Toowoombia. I'd love to go visit there and Sidney. I'd like to go visit some other places to. Like Rome and places in Europe. I love to travel and meet new people.
I get to meet new people when I travel for school sports. Well only Native Youth Olympics(NYO).
I've only been to a few villages here in Alaska. The best NYO trip I went on was Toksook Bay, Tununak, and Akula, oh and Nome. Those places were fun.
I have a great chance to go state NYO over in Anchorage in April. Well, thats only if i'm elegible in School and if I get first place in One Foot High Kick.
I beat my record while we were in Toksook, which was 78 inches! They said I past 79 inches! My goal for One Foot High Kick is going maybe 82 inches! I know I can reach it if I work hard and have a positive mind.
Well I dont know what else to write on this so I'm going to stop.

*sigh*

I keep wishing we would have a dance group here out in Nunivak Island. But when we have our after school programs, about only up to 12 or less students would go. We can't use the gym very often because of the light bill, so we use a class room. Last year we were able to use the gym and ever Wed. we would have dance practice in there. I dont know how long we had dance practice last year, but we tried to have one but we stopped because no one would go. It disappointed me. I really wish that our people had spirit of Eskimo dancing. The question, "What happened to the people and their spirit of Eskimo dancing?" pops up in my mind everytime I think of it.
I've always wanted to Eskimo dance for a few years now, but I didn't know where or what to do when I lived in Bethel. Then we moved to Anchorage and I really didn't know what to do and where to go. A few months of living in Anchorage and then my mom told me we were going to move out here, in Mekoryuk. I got excited because I was going to be able to Eskimo dance, well thats what I thought. Then my first year of living here and we were going to have dance practice, I was excited and when I got there, there was bairly anybody there. Just about maybe 15 or more or less people. I continued to go and there were still the same amount of people. Then a few weeks had past and we stopped having dance practice. It made me sad.
I think that people stopped going because of we do the same old songs. But who knows? I want there to be new songs. There was new songs, but no body knows how they go and the moves to the songs. Maybe the person who make up the songs, but I'm not sure...