Starting to settle in.

Well after months of planning and anticipation i am finally in Kiana for a few days before i travel back to Kotz for more "training".

What an experience already! Upon my arrival to the village i was picked up by the Stewarts and taken to my apartment. I am pleasantly surprised with my apartment it seems to be very well appointed and very livable! I have an apartment that is located in a complex where other teachers live as well. It will be nice to get to know my neighbors. You can see i have included pictures of the the complex, living room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom.



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Next order of business, see the school and hopefully retrieve all of my goods i sent out weeks earlier. I was escorted the school and given a set of keys with the directions "find out where these work". Ok, to the shop! Naturally i wanted to see my shop space where i would be spending a fair amount of time. My shop is located in a separate building than the school. It is a mess but hopefully will clean up easily. One side of the shop is for woodworking the other side is for mechanical working. After surveying my new shop and finding that some keys worked, i needed to find my stuff. The principal came and helped me track down my stuff. When he opened the storage connex box it came to my attention stuff was missing! I was really worried about stuff missing especially with nobody to talk to about the missing items. After talking it over with other teachers a wait and see approach was adopted. After that there was nothing else to do but go home and start unpacking. I have included pics of the school, shop, and post office.









I have to be honest, the gravity of my situation and location came crashing down on me my first day here. I called many family members and sent many texts to friends expressing my dismay at being so isolated in the Alaskan bush. What great family and friends i have to reassure me in my decisions. Those feelings soon passed with a great dinner hosted by the Stewart's, one of the families that live and teach in Kiana.
After a hearty dinner and much needed rest i was ready to start some work the next morning. I took a walk around town and went to one of our 3 stores and killed the morning fiddling around town. I went back to the school and explored the shop more and found a few more key holes to try. I then met many more staff members today and my spirits were lifted. Then to top off my day the "lost" totes were found at the post office! Now i am sitting in my classroom trying to find some curriculum to teach and posting to my blog. I hope you have enjoyed reading, it's dinner time and I'm hungry! As always thanks for reading.