It's been awhile!

Hey everyone!

Sorry it has been awhile since the last update. A lot of crazy things have happened in the past month or so.

Let's start with Christmas break. Well, it was quite the adventure to get home. Let's put it that way.
We were due to fly out of Saint Paul on December 19th. The plane cancelled due to bad weather. Apparently we had a tsunami warning early that day. Who knew? So we had to call the airlines and reschedule our flights; not just from Saint Paul, but we would also have to reschedule our flights from Anchorage because now we would miss those too. Well, after about 2 hours on the phone with the airlines we learned that we could not be guaranteed a seat until the 25th or later. They said it was best to go on standby from Anchorage on. We were rescheduled to fly out of Saint Paul the next day, but of course that flight also cancelled. So it was back to the phones to call the airlines. One of the other teachers went to the airport here the next day, the 21st to see if we could fly out on the cargo plane that morning, but they didn't have seats. So, that was a no-go. We finally got out of Saint Paul in the afternoon of the 21st. Once we arrived in Anchorage, Nikki, Steve, Mel, and I got on the standby list. At 9:45p.m. they said they had one extra seat. None of the other three wanted to travel alone, so they sent me off. From there I flew to Minneapolis. I waited on 3 or 4 standby flights at that airport. I was there for 14 hours trying to get on flights home. Then, the flights to Houghton started to cancel due to bad weather there! The ticket people said it was a fat chance of flying home before Christmas! Finally at like 6:30 the night of the 22nd Nikki and Mel made it to Minneapolis. So, we booked a hotel and decided to wait for Steve to fly in, who had now been stuck in Anchorage for 2 days, then we would rent a car and drive the rest of the way. Only problem was, there were no rental cars in the whole airport!!! Flights to Iowa, Michigan, and Wisconsin were cancelling, so everyone else had the same idea we did! We asked at the ticket counters about a bus, since there were a lot of Michigan people stranded there. They told us that the airport had no bus drivers left, since there had been so many cancelled flights! We figured we might as well go to the hotel and try and relax, get sleep and wait for Steve. We did however have a free hotel shuttle to the Mall of America, which was awesome! Finally Steve came in the next morning at 5 a.m. and we happened to snag a rental car online. We went to pick our Jeep Commander and we headed towards Michigan. Only problem was that there was a blizzard and the plows had been pulled. For more than 2 hours of the trip the highway wasn't even plowed! You could hear the snow hitting the bottom of the car! It was nuts. What should have been a 6-6 and 1/2 hour drive home took 9 and 1/2 hours! Let just say we were very thankful to make it home! We even got there before Christmas Eve. What about our luggage? Well, that's a whole other story!

Once we got home, break was good. Did a lot of relaxing and family time. I even got to see my friend Lora from high school which was awesome. Some friends from college were supposed to come to visit, but they also ran into weather problems and couldn't make it. :( I also did LOTS of shopping! You have no idea how much I missed going to stores. So, when i finally could, I went hog wild! It was great to chill out and spent time with my wonderful family. I had missed them so much.

Coming back to Saint Paul was no sweat. We had few difficulties with our flights home. It was good to see the staff at the airport and to catch up with them. We have no been back for a just over a week. I must say, I actually missed me students! It was good to get back in the swing of things and my students have been really good and are refreshed again and ready to learn. Who knows how long that will last! :)

Sickness has also swept the island. When a few people get sick, it spreads fast here, considering there are not that many people and everyone is related. We have just over 100 students and over 20 were absent today alone. We also have had many teachers get sick, including myself. But we are short on subs, so it is hard to take a sick day! I have been taking Vitamin C drops like they are going out of style and drinking so much water it isn't funny.

Other than that life is going swell! We are half way done with this school year!