Parent Teacher Afternoon & Rainy Days

We had more Parent Teacher conferences on Friday afternoon from 2:15 - 4:00pm. I tried to convince more parents to come, but about six showed up - which is still good, that's almost half of the class that came (18 students). A few of the parents that I wanted to talk to did not show up, even though I asked them to. When I speak to them at the end of the day about their child's inability to keep their hands to themselves, or to sit still in the chair without falling over backwards - it doesn't really sink in. Although, I don't know how much it would change if they were sitting across from me and I repeated the same thing, haha. I had one woman yesterday who just looked at me the entire time I spoke. I motioned to papers on the table in front of me, a drawing her granddaughter had done that day, and things on the wall I wanted to show her. But there was no unlocking her gaze. I guess she comes from a different generation - the younger parents were more talkative and responsive to what I had to say. Two of the fathers that came in had been in the Army, and are doing pretty well for themselves. It seems that the only successful way to really get out of Kipnuk is to join the Army. There's a National Guard building next to the Post Office, but I've never seen anyone go in or out of it. What I thought was funny, is the fact that even though they were in the Army and went to the Lower 48 and beyond, they came back to Kipnuk. It's comparable to a third world country here in some ways, the teachers are the only people with running water and flush toilets. Everyone else needs to gather their water and dump their honey buckets. I suppose if it's what you're used to it wouldn't be a problem coming back to it. One teacher here is originally from Massachusetts, but she has been here for over 20 years - she married a local and raised her family here. Her Boston accent comes out from time to time, but it's now mixed in with her laid-back speech which came about from living here. She and her husband are absolutely adorable though, and she couldn't be happier to live here - so good for her! I already have a couple favorite parents - and I don't want to do that! The one's that were the best were those who spoke back to me and we had an actual conversation. It's extremely uncomfortable to talk for minutes at a time with no response, not even the slightest change in facial features from the person who's sitting in front of you! My aide (Agnes) and her husband (Noah) are friends with Mark (another teacher here) and they have asked me a couple days in a row about my background in chorus, and if I had ever been in one. Yesterday, Agnes told me that if I just sit in the alto section I will be able to learn more, etc. Noah chimed in and said that it's just like singing along to any music that I listen to - like Country (I think he's heard my Pandora.com playlists after school when he cleans, haha, which is why he mentioned Country music). Needless to say, I will be going to chorus practice at the Moravian church on Mondays and Thursdays. It's nice to be invited to join something - and it'll be something other than school. It will help to learn the guttural sounds of the Yup'ik language. I'm picking up some words, but only one's that are useful to me - like sit down (acum lutin), come here and listen (diluten), stop (doi), hurry up (kiki or umpi) - those are all spelled phonetically because if I write the real words you will have no idea what they should sound like, haha. I attempted to upload a video, but it didn't work - I'll try it again in a little while! I took this the other day when it was raining and ferociously windy. We get the wind off the Bering Sea - which is why it is so intense. I can't wait to have the wind and snow combination. I hope my otter hat is made soon to keep my noggin nice and warm.