Basketball season!

We resumed school last week, and it seems to be going very smoothly so far.

It's a busy time of year, though, since basketball season has started (first game last night, another game this morning), and that's the most exciting part of the school year for most of the community.  As I did in Texas, I'm running the clock for the games.  I enjoy it, but I worry a lot about getting it right.  After a few games, I hope to be more comfortable and less worried!

Because of basketball, though, I'm likely not to be posting again until late February--with one exception I'll explain below.  Before I sign off, though, I'm going to upload a few random pictures that I took last semester but didn't get uploaded.

This and the next few pictures were taken from the top of the hill to the west of the village, which separates the village from the dump.  Taken at the end of September, and intended to provide a 360° view from that vantage point.

This one is facing north, more or less: the school is in the middle ground, and Whale Island is in the background.

The shadows are either me or Perry; the pipe in some of the pictures is our water/ sewer system.

Facing west (ish), overlooking "downtown" St. Michael.  My house isn't visible here, but would be just behind one of the light blue buildings.

Facing northwest (?) (Have I told you that St. Michael isn't oriented north-south, so directions are hard to estimate?)  The school is in the middle ground on the left this time.  The large white "wall" is the material for repaving the roads.  About half of that wall is still there (1/12/13), waiting for summer.

Looking towards the southwest.  The post office and the road to Stebbins are there somewhere--or at least in that direction.

Perry enjoying our outing

This one out of order chronologically--the beach in late October.  If you look carefully, you can see a ship on the beach that has been there since the late 1800s.

Perry enjoying our September walk again.

My mom at Christmas wearing the qaspeq (summer parka) that was her Christmas present.  In St. Michael, qaspeq are used as formal dress (for women) in the winter as well as in the summer.  This one was not locally crafted, but is similar to those the Yup'ik women of St. Michael would wear.